We are all in process of becoming. Each day we have the free choice to remain as we have always been, the comfortable, ordinary person that is settled in our accustomed way — or to be transformed into a new  extraordinary being of radiant light. This remarkable review of “Mere Christianity” a book written by the once ashiest CS Lewis was carefully penned with intelligent arguments dismantled with logic and reason. “If you are always looking down, you can not see what is above you.” It ends with great encouragement about the grace within the process. It highlights what all Christians have in common.

“The Most Reluctant Convert” An Irishman born in 1898 denied God existed after his mom died when he was age 10. Bitter at life’s cruelty, he claimed atheism. He was a Lieutenant in the army and wounded at age 19. Later, CS LEWIS taught at Oxford and Cambridge. Need to get free from a rut? Read on!

These are my musings about being a mere Christian. In our own strength, using our own understanding most folks either stop efforting to be good enough for God’s glory, or else people resort to living the life others expect of us, but always in a funk, in absolute discontent while grumbling about how bad the world God created is. The transformed Christian way is different. Christ says ‘SURRENDER ALL’. Our Father does NOT want our obligated time, money, or work: Our Father wants to transform us into His begotten child.  Jesus came to conquer our natural self, to bring us to our knees. We lay down our striving and just receive His best. He gave us His all so that we could be partakers of God’s all. We therefore choose to give it all, our entire natural self, to His forming hands. He is the Potter. We are His clay. We are born again and reformed in our spirit by His Spirit. God gave you Himself: His own will  becomes yours.’  You are His chosen host on planet earth in order to effect change in others.

Being weird, being set apart, being different is FUN. Our bucket list for the day begins with listening to the voice within. Ask the Holy Spirit “what is Your plan for my day?” Get quiet, listen … take note of His nudge. Allow His quiet voice to flood your mind. All day we resist the temptation to worry, fuss and fret. We catch those dreadful thoughts coming in, and we kick them out. JUST IMAGINE: A gigantic bucket of yellow paint. The idea comes to mind to add red paint to the bucket, we stir it up, and the red soaks into the yellow. God’s Spirit is like a giant bucket of yellow paint, our spirit is like a pint of red paint that soaks into His Spirit. WHALA that is soaking in His Spirit. ‘Be a perfect blend of Him.” AMEN

It takes perseverance to break an eggshell without a beak. Our Father meant for us to fully surrender to the plan He has for us. To fly like an eagle, takes His full transformation treatment. At first it is hard; He made the process of an egg turning into a bird — take transformation time.  What was inside had to be moved, to grow, twist, work, and peck to breakthrough. Once transformed into a bird wobbling on a branch, it was still even harder for it to learn to fly. As newly transformed eggs, our loving Father will NOT allow us to remain stuck and live on indefinitely being just an ordinary, divinely created egg. It takes time to hatch what is ordinary into what is most striking and set-apart extraordinary.

We must never imagine that our own unassisted efforts can be relied on to carry us even through the next 24 hours. If He does not support us, not one of us can effect change.  There is a zero possibility of us becoming holy without our constant state of surrender and awareness of His Omnipresent Spirit.  Our Father is determined to reduce who we once were — into something so transformed — that who we were — is like foreign speaking stranger to all. His job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death. Be NOT afraid of change. We were once confined to an egg, and now we are busting out. 

Wisely, we draw close to our Creator and listen with the intention to obey His whisper. We are new fledglings that may appear fully feathered and ready for an overseas mission, but our old habit of questioning why me and our sour complaining resurfaces suddenly. The newly released bird feels justified that it would be justice if their flight continued without turbulence. When a storm comes along—sickness, empty pockets,  temptations —the new bird gets obstinate and disappointed. “I’ve been good, I read the manual. What does God expect me to do when lightning strikes?” Our Father forces us to rely on Him, to choose to fly forward, to press on without fear. In total faith, we must trust that His eye is upon us, that we are not alone. Ahhh, then we begin to soar at a higher level: His strength and courage move us along, braver, more patient, more assured than ever before. His tremendous plan unfolds before us, and we rejoice in what He has done.

In His human nature as Jesus, God the Father experienced weakness, wept, slept, was in need of rest. His way is not ours, His thoughts rise higher than my own can grasp. From our human point of view, we get a glimpse, a TIME in the history of our world (from the year A.D. until His Crucifixion, and Resurrection). We IMAGINE it as a TIME in the history of God’s existence. God has no history, He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Creator of all things, the Author and Perfector of our faith.

TRANSFORMED: The ONLY way to happiness for which we were made is through persistent breakthroughs. All the good stuff of life, as well as the bad stuff, are caught by a sort of infection. You know like a headcold. We get infected by the laughter of others and by a virus they pass along. If we desire to get WARM, we must stand near a fire to be infected by it’s flame: if we want to be WET, we must get into the water and be infected by it’s drenching capacity. If we want ETERNAL JOY, POWER, AND PEACE, we must get into, and become infected by the LIFE offered that has come to BEGOTTEN us. The truth is that the Son of God was begotten not made. Being BORN AGAIN into a NEW “BEGOTTEN OF GOD LIFE” is what the Father offers everyone.

The gift of Christmas is that our salvation comes at a price. It is the same price that Jesus paid. We must die to ourselves to become a great fountain of energy and refreshing beauty that bubbles up out of the center of our very being. If anyone gets close to those who said YES to God’s offer, their spray will wet you: if you avoid them, you will remain dry and subject to be brittle, judgemental, and break. A person united to God has accepted the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as their newborn BEGOTTEN identity. They become eternal beings that spread God’s love and light. When a person chooses to separate themselves from God, they sink into a dark pit, feed on lies, echo despair, preach pride, wither and waste away in eternal misery without hope. To become a child of God, we submit to the Supreme Plan of the Father, and get transformed from a CREATED thing into a BEGOTTEN thing. We pass over from the temporary biological life into TIMELESS ‘spiritual’ life, which He marvelously has done for us. Humanity is already ‘saved’ in principle. We individuals have to APPROPRIATE that SALVATION. But the really tough work—the bit we could NOT have done for ourselves—has BEEN DONE for us.

BEFORE the beginning of TIME as we measure history, our Father knew His plan for us and He is very determined to carry it out. We may be content to remain what we call ‘ordinary people’: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility: it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit; it is obedience. We have free will, and if we choose, we can push Jesus away. If we do NOT PUSH JESUS away, understand that GOD WILL see HIS PLAN COMPLETED. Whatever suffering it may cost US in OUR earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost US after death, whatever it costs JESUS, will be worth the sacrifice. Our Father says without reservation that He is well pleased with you, but not as you have always been.

“Before I became a Christian one of my objections was as follows: Christians said that the eternal God who is everywhere and keeps the whole universe going, once became a human being. I asked how did the whole universe keep going while He was a baby? How could He at the same TIME be God who knows everything and also a man asking his disciples ‘Who touched me?’ In other words I was assuming that Christ’s life as God was in TIME, and that His life as the man Jesus in Palestine was a period taken out of that TIME —just as my service in the army was a short period taken out of my total life. Perhaps most of us tend to think about a God INSIDE our timeline. You cannot fit Christ’s earthly life in Palestine into any TIME-RELATIONS with His life as God beyond all SPACE and TIME. I suggest, a TIMELESS TRUTH about God.”

Do you face giants today? Trust God Giants Among Us