A Change Maker

I Corinthians 2:1-5

Have you ever met a change maker, not the person that gives back coins, but the one who gives light where one is heading on the road of life and has the understanding of roadblocks and the dead ends?  The apostle Paul was such a man; he was brilliant and a man of great learning and education, esteemed by his peers. 

So what is the focus of a change maker?   Is it to put all their energy into what really matters, to change the hearts of mankind to look to Jesus and not to self or the world for their direction?  Their goal is to reach as many people as possible, with the simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Change makers look at what the world calls impossible and know that in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.  Did I say Paul was a change maker, he was but he parked his gift of using words and status in the world, to let God’s power rest on him?  It was God’s Spirit removing what the world calls impossible, with the possible, first Jesus had to do the impossible in Saul’s life, for Saul was the enemy of any who followed Christ, his goal was to wipe them off the face of the earth.  But God used a bright light to blind Saul, and out of that experience God changed his name to Paul, but much greater, God changed his heart from religious hate and fear to believing in and trusting in the one he feared and hated.

By the time Paul came to Corinth, he no longer put his faith in his education or status in the world, in fact, the station and prestige of the religious guys who ran the place now had contempt for the one they once saw as Pharisee of the Pharisees.  Paul is looking to Jesus for he has experienced the Change Maker, and he no longer deems his life his own, for he is a servant of Christ.

As you read these verses questions must be asked: Does God want me to be a change maker, have I experienced the same Christ and has He given me a new heart, is He living in me?  If so why am I still holding on to things that keep His power from using me to be a change maker?

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”  (2 Corinthians 2:1-5)

Did you get it; Paul came not trying to wow them with his gift of speaking, but to enter into a relationship with them.  He listened to them, and he shared what Jesus Christ had done for him and what He would do for them, and he shared the gospel of the cross.  Paul shared in their pain, he was not some guy standing on a stage telling them how to live, he was sharing both in joy and sorrow, and letting God’s power flow from him, so they would see the power of God and follow Him.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice