I'VE FINISHED THE LAST OF THE SISTER/BROTHER QUILTS...as of late last night and now I must get reading. I'm preparing to lead a Bible study on Colossians in October and have a lot of prep work for that as well as infrastucture work for a women's ministry in our church to prepare for. I need to read a LOT to get ready for all the above. Today I read two more chapters in a book I have been working on titled How People Change by Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp. I went to a seminar they led a few months ago on the topic (great content!) and wanted the review. It will be a great enhancement to the Colossians study because they quoted heavily from Colossians. It is enough to make a person get excited about the practical outworking of our theological beliefs that are outlined in that book. Who is Jesus? How does being a christian affect my everyday ability to function in a fallen world? How do I deal with other christians? Some of them are hard to get along with.
Because these men are not "just" pastors, but counselors as well, they have had to deal with the nitty gritty of the answers to these and other questions. I find the book to be readable with some really helpful illustrations that I can hang my hat on. So far, I've just read the Biblical/theological foundations for the book including my relationship with Christ and what that consists of and why I need community/the church...and why they need me. This is not meant to be a thorough review of the book. If you have read it, you know it isn't. I'm trying not to give the good illustrations away because they flesh them out better than I could in a short review.
Having lived in a small community (for about three years) that is committed to NOT changing as well as a church that is also struggling in the same area, I think of myself as someone who wants to change. Of course, I have been forced into it more often than I can say. Looking back, I have found that change usually has resulted in my good in some way. The events that lead to it were not always pleasant ones, but depending on my attitude, it had a positive effect on me in new areas of my life. A premise of this book is that while we christians are here on earth, our lives are not meant to be happy or fun, necessarily. We may even lead lives that are quite difficult at times but God uses all the things He brings into our lives to change us to be more like Him. Our time on earth is the time for change...the kind of change God wants to make in our lives. It is rarely the kind of change we want at any given time because His perspective is on a much grander scale than ours is. When we get to heaven, change will not be necessary. It is so easy to confuse the time frame and get those time frames reversed. These two men give us a great reminder from scripture that the time for change is now and it will continue to be until Christ returns or we go to be with Him.
The great things about studying Colossians (that keep popping up in this book as well) are the many reminders of who Jesus Christ really was/is, what our resources for living a life "worthy of the Lord..."are, including the wealth and treasures of the gospel that has been given us, the fullness of Christ and the great grace He has shown us. As I write about this, I realize what a poor job I am doing of making this concrete and what a great job they did! I'd better stop writing so you will be thirsty for the book and not bored by my description of it.
As I close, I will tell you that as I read the book, I realized how self-righteous I have been since being here. I felt that if I could make a huge change (that has felt like an earthquake in my entire life!) by coming here, people here, whose lives aren't so altered could make a few changes. Of course, it doesn't work that way! Just as God is using these huge changes in my life to point out areas where I was trusting myself and not Him or loving things other than Him, He will have to use the things He brings into the lives of individuals here to change their attitudes. That usually happens one person at a time in response to prayer. It can't be rushed. I wish it could. Then I could move on down my to-do list to something else and I wouldn't have really changed a bit. I'm so glad that God is in charge and not me. He is so much wiser than I. he really doesn't care about most of the changes that other people see. What He cares about are the changes that most people don't see--my attitudes, my desires, my goals...my heart. What is happening there? That is where He wants to change me to most! That's usually where I am least interested in having Him work. How much I need His redeeming grace!