Back in August of 2018, I posted a blog entitled “So, You Wanna Be Transformed?” the inspiration for that post came from my grandson Lucas. Since writing that post, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in a church leadership conference where the theme was Transforming Ministries. I’d like to follow that up by asking this simple question, “What Does It Mean to be Transformed?”
That word Transformed comes from the Greek word “metamorphóō,” which translates into our English word “metamorphosis.” It means to “change after being with,” “To reproduce the same image.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon describes Romans 12:2 as, “change of moral character for the better.”
In Romans 8:29, the Apostle Paul gives us God’s purpose for our lives, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” God’s desire for my life and for your life is simply this, when He looks at us, He wants to see Jesus in us; He wants our lives to be a reflection of His Son. If our community is going to be transformed, then our churches need to be transformed, and in order for our churches to be transformed, then we individually have to be transformed.
How do we accomplish God’s purpose? I think Romans 8:28 gives us the answer. ” “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” God is using our life experiences to shape us into the image of His Son. It is not through a plan, it is through a process. It is accomplished by doing what St. Augustine referred to as “Soluitur Ambulando,” which means “It is solved by walking.” Simply put, that means to “Keep taking the next step.” In order for you and I to “move from where we are to where God wants us to be, what is the next step that God wants you to take individually, and what is the next step He wants us to take as a church collectively? And once we understand that process, according to Romans 12:2, we then begin the process of transformation.
For me, my transformation process began in the summer of 1969 when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I John 3:1, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: . . .” Verse 2 goes on to say, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Let me translate that into Mooreology, “Now that I’m a child of God, I don’t know exactly what I look like at the moment (I don’t look like I used to look, but I don’t quite look like Him yet), because I am in the process of being transformed. What I do know, is that through this process, if I continue to take the next steps in my life, I will look less like ME every day, and more like Him every day. And when He returns, I’m going to look like Him.”
If we want to effect change in your community and in your church – that change, that transformation, will have to begin in each of our lives individually. And it is individually that we become a “member,” a “partner” with the church of Jesus Christ. You see, according to Matthew 16:18, Christ is not building His church in some building somewhere – He is building His church in the hearts of His true followers. And collectively, we make up the Church. It is through our local community of believers that we meet and minister to people spiritually, physically, emotionally or socially, and that we are able to demonstrate the reality of God’s grace, mercy and compassion. We do this for the purpose of reproducing our lives in the lives of others. This is where we begin to see others as they begin to take the “next step” in their transformation process.
If my life is going to be transformed into the image of Christ, I have to understand why He came. Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” As I write this, it is with the realization that there are millions of people, all over the world, who are waiting:
- They are waiting to see if you and I understand that their souls are just as precious to God as ours;
- They are waiting on us to obey a command;
- They are waiting for us to tell them how they can know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior;
They are waiting on God – and they are waiting for us. And while the are waiting (and dying), too many churches are content to rely on their singing, on their preaching, on their programs to win the lost for Christ. While they are very busy building more and better programs, they are doing absolutely nothing to take the Gospel message into the highways and the hedges to reach the lost. We all know that Jesus gave His disciples, to His followers, a command in Matthew 28:19, 20 and Acts 1:8 to “Go and be witnesses.” That command did not specify a gender, or a color, or an age, or a position.
Can you imagine what our churches would be like if our people, who are commanded to go would simply obey that command? Folks, we are never going to impact the lives of the people around us with the Gospel Message, if we, individually and collectively will not take the “next step” in our transformating process.
Listen to me, the only way God’s plan is going to be accomplished is through YOU AND I. GOD NEEDS YOU! Our communities are waiting to see how much of a difference you and I can make for God! God wants us to “GO”. He wants us to “take the next step.” He said, “Go, and lo, I am with you, even until the ends of the earth.” “Take the next step, and Lo, I am with you. And it’s a good thing God goes with us and not for us. We spend so much time waiting on God, when the truth is God has been waiting for us. And while we’ve been waiting – the world is dying without God!
We sit at church fellowshipping with one another, and talking about all the good things God has done for us. We get burdened for the lost, and we say stuff like “They need the Lord.” We see how America is falling apart without God and we pray that God will do something about it. “Lord, want you do something in America?”
And God says, “You take the next step – I’ll Go with You.”
- “YOU GO – I GO”
- “Who You Speak with, I’ll speak with”
- “Who you invest in, I will invest in.”
“Father, as I’ve asked myself the question, ‘What does it mean to be transformed?’ I believe it means the process of daily looking less like me and looking more like Christ. Help me today to look less like Joe Moore and more like Jesus. Help me to help others to look less like themselves and more like Jesus. Don’t allow me to be comfortable in the safety of the local church while the world around me is dying without hope. Father help me to take this life transforming message to a lost and dying world. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”
Fighting for My Pea Patch 