Jesus Clones

One day, a few years ago, I was talking about transformation again, and a woman reacted by saying, 'I'm fine the way I am.' From her reaction, I understood that I had not succeeded in getting my message across because it was not at all a question of knowing if she had reached perfection, (she certainly had not).

Rather, it was the fact that within all of us there are still things that are not in line with God's perspective and should be; which is perfectly normal, given that we live in a fallen world, and have internalized thought patterns, attitudes, and behaviors that run counter to God's thinking and ways.

This is because God has higher standards for our lives than we know, and He wants to do more in us than we currently allow Him to do. Does He love us despite everything? Certainly, otherwise the cross would not be an act of self-denial, but of masochism. Despite everything, God has in mind that we must change, and He is willing to make the change if we allow Him to.

Actually it's simple, we are Christians not by merit but by divine favor. We can hardly show off, there is no reason to; besides, if it depended only on us, while we are busy showing off, we would be heading straight for the humiliation of hell. He came to love us when we were not lovable, now He wants to make us lovable, in short, like Himself.

Thus, salvation is the beginning of a process of transformation through which a small child with a traumatic past of painful memories, irrational and erratic behavior is adopted into a loving family, is the object of all affection, gradually finds healing, restoration, health, learns good manners, is raised 'properly' and becomes the ray of sunshine for his parents. We are that child.

Our insecurity keeps us from recognizing it, we're afraid of feeling bad, of feeling condemned or insignificant if we were ever to discover things in ourselves that aren't so wonderful. But when God exposes something and sets us free from it, we don't come away diminished, on the contrary, we are purified, refreshed and equipped. We are happier, stronger, bigger inside and totally victorious. One weakness less, and then another, and another, and life takes on the most extraordinary tones and colors as the grayness of rebellion dissipates.

Otherwise, we go around in circles our entire lives, trying to bribe God into being nice to us in violation of His Word while pretending to enjoy a wonderful life in God. We waste the immense potential within us because we refuse to work on those things that drag us down. We refuse to cooperate with God's refining process, and so we continue to stink.

And when the stench becomes overwhelming and our air unbreathable, we do just like the skunk that attacks the river, accusing it of being polluted; we point fingers at others, we break up otherwise healthy relationships, we become backbiting and abusive, and we intensify the dreariness and stench; making others even less inclined to seek our company. It seems to me that God Himself must sometimes hold His breath.

Would it be unlikely that the more we resemble Him, the more He delights in our company? Think of the most annoying people you know, how much time do you want to spend with them? And how close do you allow them to get to you, even when you occupy the same physical space? For some, prayer is torture; could it be that our refusal to be transformed prevents us from fully experiencing the joys of His presence? After all, God, the Bible tells us, finds pride repellent.

It's no wonder He enjoyed Jesus' company so much while He was on earth. The Gospels show us that Jesus spent a lot of time with God and was very comfortable; to the point where twice God even spoke audibly about Him, saying, 'This is my Son,' and 'bragged about it.' I want to hear Him say, 'This is my little darling,' so I often pray a simple prayer, 'Lord, change me,' and when I really want to be deep, I go a little deeper and say, 'Lord, clean my life of all the filth,' and He does it, and again, and again.

And if you allow it, He will do it in you, and when people complain about you, you smile inside and say to yourself, 'If they had known me a few years ago, they would certainly have been overwhelmed by the stench, but today, glory to God, today,' and you sing a well-measured Pentecostal hallelujah, 'aaaalleeeluiiiiiaaaaaaa, I am on my way to becoming what I was made to be……..a clone of Jesus.
Shalom.