Monday, January 3, 2011

Change is the Only Constant!

Change is an essential part of life. It has been said that the only constant in life is change. What a wonderful and beautiful idea that is. Truly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is centered completely around change. Through it, Heavenly Father takes raw materials and shapes them to become what He wants for them. Someone recently gave me a C.S. Lewis quote that changed the way I looked at myself.

C.S. Lewis is the man!
 “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

That's powerful! C.S. Lewis understood well what change through Jesus Christ is all about. He understands that as we leave our old selves behind, God will change us, and shape us into what He wants us to be. As children of God, our eventual goal is to become just like Him. There is a beautiful analogy made in the Bible, it says...

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a aglass the bglory of the Lord, are changed into the same cimage from dglory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18

I love the imagery of Paul! What a great gift, to give our will to the Lord, so that one day, we can stand in front of the mirror and see his image staring back. In fact the prophet Alma says this is a great way to tell if we are true disciples, followers of Him, when he says,

Christ being baptized
"And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye aspiritually been bborn of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty cchange in your hearts?" Alma 5:14

As a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to come unto Christ and be born of God, and experience this mighty change of heart spoken of by Alma. When we are reborn through Christ, or baptized, we become a new person. We promise to always repent, or change, to become more like Christ. I have personally witnessed that when you do, your countenance will change, and you will see yourself in a whole new light. You will begin to understand exactly who you are.

2 comments:

  1. “The only thing constant in life is change”-François de la Rochefoucauld. Change is always happening whether we accept it or not. The best way for us to change is to follow our Savior. Become like Christ. Amazing post Elder Vomocil!

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  2. There are so many great things we can recieve wehn we allow change into our life. When we choose Jesus Christ, we choose to change. That is the bset change we can ever make in our life!

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