Conversion

"You must be born again"

John 1:17

The first contact with Jesus always produces an initial conflict.  To be face to face with God's love in flesh and blood has always been like coming out of a darkened room into the blazing sun at noon. It hurts our spiritual eyes!  To be in the presence of Jesus and have Him looking at us for the first time is always a shock. 

Contact with Jesus calls our own existence and behavior into question. When our existence and behavior are called into question, it is normal for us to want to rush back into the dark and shut the door.  We may even want to attack the light which is hurting our own view of ourselves. 

Many people who call themselves Christians have never moved from contact and conflict with Jesus to conversion.  They shade their eyes and say they have given themselves to Christ yet at the center of their spiritual lives the room is still dark and their eyes remain closed.  Until Jesus has access to our center and we let His light in we, will never experience a new birth conversion.  We must invite Him into our darkened center.

 Jesus will only truly have us and we will only truly have Jesus when we meet Him in the light at the very center of our life.  Conversion is a new history lived in the light with Jesus at the center.  Half measures only make us miserable.  Jesus needs to be formed in us over time as we adjust to the light.

A cry from the center that says "Jesus is Lord!"  is a sign of conversion and Holy Spirit revelation.  Conversion belief is more than mental assent to ideas about Jesus.  Conversion belief is to commit to Jesus like one  saying  to the noon day sun, "Come on inside with me. I desperately need you at the center."

Give Him the center and you will be free.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Words

Jesus understood the power of His words. We often do not. He also understood that many who heard Him could not understand Him. Listen to how He describes those who could neither hear nor understand Him.

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.” John 8:42-43

Truly hearing the words of another person and understanding their words requires much more than ears that work.  It requires a relational and cultural connection to the one speaking. Communication requires a living history. Only relational and cultural connection allows  words spoken to be heard correctly.

The first part of us that needs to be “born again” is our hearing.  We need to learn like a newborn child learns to hear with understanding.  To abide in the words of Jesus is like learning a new language—the language of God. Jesus is the language of God. It takes time but the rewards of being able to hear and understand in a new language is worth the effort.  It is liberating.

Keep listening to Jesus and you will grow more and more aware of the liberating power of His words.  Disciples of Jesus abide in His words and become more and more aware of what God is saying and doing.  When they do they are see free to join in.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” João 8:31-32

Bud McCord

Abide International