In this season when one hears the
expression, “There is a change in the air,” thoughts almost immediately turn to
the changing of the seasons. The air becomes a bit cooler in the evening. The
leaves begin their colorful blushing transforming them from a productive
food factory to a collection of discarded dried leaves raked into piles for
mulching. The pace often changes, too. In some cases the commotion of summer
assumes a new rhythm. Vacations wind down and other pursuits resume in life’s
agendas. The sports focus begins to change as well from the gentile game of
baseball to the bruising tackles of football. Even the appetites reflect a
change as cooling treats of iced drinks and refreshing frozen desserts are
moving toward a different menu featuring mulled cider, pumpkin treats, and
other goodies of the “warmer variety.”
However, I am not
thinking of seasonal changes that are rather fleeting. I am thinking about life
changes that mark a new chapter in one’s existence. Our western culture is in
the midst of Titanic changes that are remodeling the way people think and act
in life. Depending upon your world view, these changes reflect a moral cancer
or a welcomed shift that has been needed for years. In view of the fruit of the
change and the dehumanizing of the culture, I’d be more inclined to see the
shift more as a bane than a blessing. The western world is not becoming a
better place in which to thrive as God has intended. It has become a place
where vast majorities of people have shifted into a survival mode. When the
fruit of change is social dysfunction, a cynical and critical outlook, and an
emotional paralysis, it would seem that the change is questionable at best and
needs at least to be critically evaluated. People, it seems, are ready to
hunker down and hold on to life for all they are worth. Instead they should enjoy the world which God has made
for them, see His handiwork, and bring glory to the Creator of it all.
Recently I was in a
place where there was definitely a “change in the air.” While speaking at a
Bible Conference at America’s Keswick, I encountered men and women who were in
the midst of change. Associated with this conference ministry, which is tucked
into the pine barrens of southern New Jersey, is a ministry called the Colony
of Mercy. Their biblical approach to change has transformed men enslaved by
various addictions. Often these individuals have wanted to change for years and
had sought out treatment through various social agencies to no avail. However,
when they came to Keswick they discovered that their lives could be changed and
the addictions that held them could be broken. Before I spoke, men testified of
the change that had taken place in them because of the transformation that occurred
because Christ had worked in their broken lives. On several occasions I was so
moved I felt like saying, “We just heard what the Word of God and the power of
Jesus can do. Nothing more needs to be said. Let’s pray and ask God to do the
same work in our lives.”
The change in the air
at Keswick was taking place from the inside out. The words of the Apostle Paul
kept coming to mind as I heard these men describe how they had become new men –
some of them after enduring decades of addictions and experiencing unproductive
treatments. Paul wrote, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old
things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). These
word were penned by a man who knew all about being addicted to sin. He
testified he was religious, zealous, and fighting against God’s ways and will
(see Acts 22:3-21; 26:2-22). In those same testimonies he also related how he
had met Jesus Christ and became a new man from the inside out.
This is how real
lasting change occurs. One man told his story at Keswick. Before he spoke he
read a passage relating to the words of Jesus about change that does not
transform. Jesus taught in Matthew 12:43-45 that a temporary fix can actually
make things worse. Then he said something like this, “I kept trying to get my
addiction out of my life, but I did not replace it with what I really needed.”
Talking to him later, I discovered he now has Jesus in his life and as he put
it, “I am not just reformed. I am reborn with a new life.” That is how lasting
change occurs, from the inside out. An old preacher once said, “To keep a pig
out of the mud puddles you need to do more than clean him up, put perfume on
him, and a bow around his neck. With all of that he will still head to the mud
puddle as soon as he can. To change a pig so he says out of mud puddles you
need to change his nature.” The change in the air that I saw at Keswick is one that is astounding in human terms. However, change can take place in places other than in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. They may occur wherever a person responds to the grace of God and allows Jesus to make a change from the inside out.
