This Sunday, we were excited to welcome the newest member of our pastoral team, Sean Palmer, to enter the scriptures and teach on transformation; our resistance to being truly transformed, how we submit to God in the ways he wants us to change, and its nature as a continual process unfolding over a lifetime.
Text
2 Corinthians 3: 18
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way the hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of –throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself....
.... If we let Him –for we can prevent Him, if we choose –He well make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.
C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity
Reflection
Sean suggested that the first step toward joining the work of God in the ways he wants to transform you begins with "signing off on the next thing". What is that next thing in your life and how can you:
- Make a determination (setting incremental goals)
- Stick to the practices (commitment to prayer, fasting, silence, etc... in ways that create space for you to be present to the work of God)
- Have patience and endurance, understanding that transformation takes time
- Embrace the fact that no one can transform for you
- Accept that if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. Are you ready to accept challenge?
Worship Set
Hail To The Lord's Anointed
Solid Rock
It Is Well
In Feast Or Fallow
Let This Heart Not Wander
May You Find A Light