Conversion:
From Middle English via Old French from Latin conversio(n-), 'turned around'
• Complete change in character, form, or function.
• A thoroughgoing turnaround of attitude, emotion, or viewpoint from one of indifference, disbelief, or antagonism to one of acceptance, faith, or enthusiastic support.
Conversion:
From Middle English via Old French from Latin conversio(n-), 'turned around'
• Complete change in character, form, or function.
• A thoroughgoing turnaround of attitude, emotion, or viewpoint from one of indifference, disbelief, or antagonism to one of acceptance, faith, or enthusiastic support.
This week we will talk about an experience Christians have called "conversion". When we do, we usually talk about how our lives were once headed in one direction, usually directed by our own selves or by the expectations of others, to turning around completely and following Jesus by obeying his teaching and his ways. The Apostle Paul stated it as clearly as anyone ever has. In 2 Corinthians 5:15 he said that, when we place our faith in Jesus, "we no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and rose again."
Of course, there still are a number of people who believe we cannot change. Ever since Sigmund Freud said that personality is fixed at the age of six, people have argued that human beings establish traits and directions of life that are intractable. And, most of us know that we do not change our ways all that easily. I've always liked the way Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, "Human nature changes not much faster than the geological formations of the earth." I've lived long enough to know that he was generally correct in that assessment.
All this brings us to one of the main reasons I continue to be an enthusiastic Jesus-follower. The heart of the Christian message is that the one through whom the geological formations of the earth were made entered his own fallen and imperfect creation in order to re-create. According to the Bible, tomorrow does not have to be the same as yesterday because Jesus is ready to forgive our pasts, enter our lives, and begin his beautiful work of remaking us. The Apostle Paul, who considered himself to be the worst of all sinners, declared that he had found hope – indeed, that all people have hope -- for a better future, because, as he wrote in 2 Cor 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come!"
In Acts 9, we see how Paul's personal life was turned around. It was a rather eye-opening experience. Paul's transformation was so thoroughgoing and radical that his story is told at least five times in the New Testament. It was a conversion. And, Paul was not the only one who experienced conversion. Millions of similar stories have been told. (My own life is one of those stories.)
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor