Week One: Lord Change Me Recap

We are beginning our new study called Lord Change Me by Evelyn Christenson.

Following our opening prayer and prayer requests (see below), we started our discussion beginning in the introduction of the book "Lord Change Me".  She asked:

Who in the last week did you want to change?   One person, who did you want to change?

There was a lot of discussion about what we wanted to change in ourselves.  But our teacher highlighted, while the rest of us were looking for spiritual changes she merely wanted to loose weight!  :-)

How often, how hard, have we tried to change that person we wanted to change?  How is that "change management" plan working for you?  Some of us said 20 years or so - ever since child was born.  So we discover we really can't change anyone - even after all these years of working the change management plan.

Key Point:  It is about what God wants to change in us.

Who can we really change?  We need to look at ourselves, ask God to "change me", and commit to the change --- change who?  Lord, Change ME.

Last week, we watched a video by James McDonald on the Awesomeness of God based on Isaiah 40. Link to his website: http://www.walkintheword.com/.

God does want to meet with each of us - individually - to work on what we need.

Critical Success Factor:  Understand our Position - Who is on the Throne?

God is the Potter - He is creator -- not us!

I am the Clay - I am His creation.

We must constantly evaluate our "position" in everything we say and do.

As we continued to explore the introduction of “Lord Change Me”, we discovered the book was written in 1968; that is over 40 years ago.  But the message it brings is timeless.  We need the message it brings just as much today as women did in 1968.

If we examine our position, what does our comment about wanting to change that one person we earlier selected?  It says I am the Potter!  Yikes!!

In short, we are trying to do things we were never equipped to do.  Who made us?  God made us?  If we keep on changing our position from Clay to Potter, we are trying in vain to change others.

Our prayer should be “Lord, Change Me not the other person.  We discovered that Evelyn Christenson continued to pray this prayer every day for 14 month, she asked God “Lord change me not anybody else”. 

This prayer is intended to change us not for others to change it is for us to change our attitudes, actions and reactions.    Our words are extremely important.  How we say things, what we say, our intentions are all important.  The neat thing is that if my change brings about a spiritual change in others it is a blessing!!!

It’s A Prayer:  LORD, Change ME!

This is a lifelong change that we are embarking on when we pray Lord, change me!  It is about me, my changing for the rest of my life; being transformed into the image of Jesus.

Little did Evelyn realize what God was going to change in her.  She said in the introduction “The needed changes He has shown me have produced repentance, humility, and obedience – all exchanging my will for His perfect holy will.”

Secret Word:  ME

It’s all about me.   Jesus gives us each spiritual gifts.  These gifts are for His glory and equally as important for others, the church.  Gifts are given to share!!!

One gift we all can have is Wisdom, God freely gives His Wisdom.

Knowledge Vs. Wisdom:  Proverbs

Knowledge and wisdom are separate discussions but are intertwined.  Rosemary gave us an example out of Proverbs – man gives instruction of wisdom to his son. 

Knowledge:  Information, experience, facts, familiarity, awareness of good and evil.  A search online defines knowledge as cognition: the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning.

Wisdom:  Insight in knowing how to apply knowledge and experience you have acquired in life circumstances with common sense and spiritual insight.

We can have knowledge without being wise.  You can be all the book-smart you want, but if you not know how to apply the knowledge and experience you are void of wisdom.

Some indicated they had just heard a sermon by Charles Stanley – Principle or Preference

God’s work or my preference in each action, reaction or attitude I have.

Below are a few verses on instruction and wisdom from Biblegateway.com.

 

Proverbs 4:1 (NIV):  Get Wisdom at Any Cost

 ¹ Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. 

 

Proverbs 1:7-9 (NIV)

 ⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools^[a] despise wisdom and instruction.

Prologue: Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom

Warning Against the Invitation of Sinful Men

 ⁸ Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 
⁹ They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 1:7 The Hebrew words rendered fool in Proverbs, and often elsewhere in the Old Testament, denote a person who is morally deficient.

 

Handout:  Day One – 1/6/11

Romans 12:1

“I beseech you, therefore, bretheren, by mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

We read the verse and discussed what jumped out at us or where God had stopped each of us.

“I beseech (beg, urge) you, therefore, bretheren (Sisters), by mercies of God (in view of God’s mercies, only way we can do this is by His mercy), that you present (offer) your bodies a living sacrifice, holy (set apart, different), acceptable (pleasing) to God (Are we trying to please God or man?), which is your reasonable service.”

Up to this point, none of us had focused on “which is your reasonable service”.

. 

It is logical for us given everything that Christ has done for us on the cross, the price He paid for us, to do this – the least I can do;  reasonable (logicial, spiritual act of worship).

Here is the same verse in the Amplified Bible Version

Here is Romans 12:1 in the Amplified Bible Version: 

I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.

Have you given yourself wholly to God?

“Either Jesus is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.”

Wow, I never quite looked at things like this.  If I am captain of my soul,  my position is Lord of my own life. 

Let’s look again at the 1^st person who came to your mind that you wanted to change.  Pray for Lord change me and my thoughts toward this person today.

Homework: Week 2

-          ALL – read chapter 1.

-          Group 1:  Read Romans 8:29 and 1 John 3:22.  Answer the question:  What is the goal of change in our lives?

-          Group 2:  Read 1 Peter 3:1-2.  Answer the question: What principles from these verses did God give the author?

Prayer requests located in Prayer Section of Blog.