A young woman, looking as if she had lost all hope, sat down by the old man in church one Sunday morning. The old man, feeling concerned, asked if there was something bothering her? She looked at the old man with tears in her eyes and said, “I just don’t understand why? I got saved but nothing has really changed! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong?”
The old man thought for a moment, and then said, “Ya know, I went out the other day and bought me of those brand new cell phone, with a of lights and little pictures on the screen. And I was told it was going to change my life and make it so much easier. The people that sold it to me even set it up for me, what ever that means, and told me to push this picture if I wanted to talk and that picture if I wanted to text and so on, and it sounded great until I got home and then, I want to tell you, I was confused! I couldn’t even figure out how to get the pictures on screen, all that came up was a bunch of numbers. Now it had a book that came with it, but for me, it was written in a foreign language. I telling you, I had to get an interpreter if I was going to be able to use this thing! Now I did find one and I worried him over and over until I was able to operate this phone.
Sometimes that’s the way it is when we give our hearts to the lord. The stands upon that platform and makes salvation sound great, and believe me it is! And we take that step and it feels really great because something has happened in our hearts! We get excited and want to jump up and down, and then when we get home, we pray and expect something spectacular to keep happening everyday, but all of a sudden, things feel like they did before!
That’s why the Lord gave us this book of instruction, the Bible, and it’s there to help us understand what God excepts and how He wants bless us, but get me wrong, sometimes that book seems like it is written in a foreign language! But God took care of that too. He gave us an interpreter to help us read and understand that book of instructions!
In that book we can read in John 14:26, where it says “ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom He will send in my name, He will teach all things and bring into remembrance all things I have said unto you.” He’s called the Holy Spirit and you may not realize it, but He has setup camp in your heart. Jesus called Him the comforter because He knew if you were going to succeed and do all the things He wants you to do, you’re going to need a lot of help!
Being a Christian is a learning experience. It’s like starting kindergarten and growing in knowledge, but not in knowledge alone. It’s learning to live what we learn and that’s when all those spectacular things start happening in our lives.
I read II Corinthians 5:21, in this book of instructions that if I had given my heart to God through Jesus, then I am the righteous of God in Christ! Wow, can you imagine that, we are righteous! That means I can stand upright before my Lord and I don’t have to feel guilty about nothing! Then in II Corinthians 5:17, it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things passed away, behold, all things have become new.” Well, I can certainly tell you a few things about old things, being one but says we are new creations. God sees us as something new, perfect in His eyes because all those bad things we did in the past, they just don’t exist anymore!
Now I’ll just tell you about a couple more scripture verses like 2 Peter 1:4, “ By which has been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these we may be partakes of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in this world through lust”. We are His sons and daughters, we have His divine nature and His promise to live with Him forever! Romans 4:8, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Do you see, the Lord only wants to bless us and keep His joy in our hearts but we have to learn who we are first in order to appreciate what we have become.
The the old man said to the young woman, “so young lady, don’t be discouraged, just ask for some help. Holy Spirit is in you and He guide you in understanding and lead you to other young people, Christians who will walk with you in this journey!
The young woman, still in tears except now tears of joy reached over and hugged the old man and left the church that day happy and with a renewed spirit and a plan. She found and joined a group of young Christians and soon felt a call on her life in foreign mission where she is still serving today,
Just a story, a thought or is it? Just saying!
By Jim Kennedy