A New
Man
By Tracy Smith
“This means that
anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a
new life has begun!”
2
Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
Our
church has a feature called “Stories” - - videotaped testimonies that are
played during a sermon when it pertains to what the pastor is teaching about.
This
summer, a man shared during the “Stories of Grace” series. He told us of some
bad choices and unfortunate decisions he had made as a young man that resulted
in his being arrested. He spoke of how he can look back at his life and see how
he was pursued by God. He shared about his choice to follow Jesus and how his
life has changed by that decision and how he lives his life in a completely
different way now that he follows Jesus. [1]
Both
of my sons know this man since he works with our youth group. My husband and I
spoke to each boy about the video testimony and the first thing each of them
said was, “He’s the last person I
would ever think would have been arrested!” This comment allowed us to have an
awesome discussion with them about how God can change a person. We discussed
how a person can be living in a way that leads to bad decisions and heartbreak,
but once they allow God into their lives to do His work, all of that changes.
The video testimony showed this in such a beautiful way: As he talked, he was
very serious as he shared his journey, but then, just before the video fades out,
it shows him laughing and joyful.
The
Bible has many examples of people who change once they encounter Jesus. Matthew
went from a tax collector, who in the culture of the day was typically
deceitful, to one of his twelve disciples (Matthew
9:9-17). Zacchaeus, another tax
collector, gave money to the poor and paid back all those he cheated four times what he stole from them (Luke
19:1-10). Saul/Paul thought he was doing God’s work by persecuting
Christians, but after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he became one of the pillars of the
early Church (Acts
9:1-19).
Of
course, once we know Jesus we can still make decisions that are not in our best
interest, but at that point, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us
through those rough times. We have to remember that no matter where we’ve been
or what we’ve done, Jesus can make us new.
GOING DEEPER:
1. Read the stories of the individuals in
Scripture mentioned above. Is there something about one of their stories that
resonates with you?
FURTHER READING:
Along
with being a wife and mother to two boys, Tracy is a ministry assistant at
Oakwood, serves on the Women’s Ministry Special Events Team and works with a
great group of Junior High girls.
