A MOST UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS GIFT
By
Ada Brownell
Do you like who you are?
An old guy I knew well told me one day before he died
he’d like to live his life over—as somebody else. I was astounded. I thought he
had an inflated ego, and viewed himself as better than others. I was wrong.
While
they were small children, our granddaughters used to play dress up. I don’t
remember if they were pretending to be someone famous, or themselves as adults,
but it somebody else. Yet they did grow up to be beautiful young ladies.
God,
who designed us in the beginning, has a special feature he added to humans,
that can only occur supernaturally. We can be changed into a new person!
People
who repented and accepted Jesus as Savior after living a life of sin are most
noticeable when the change occurs.
“Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new”
(2 Corinthians 5:17).
Jesus discussed supernatural changes
when he talked to Nicodemus (John 3) who I’ll call Nick. Jesus told Nick,
“Unless one is born again (changed), he cannot see the kingdom of God.
I
imagine Nick’s eye’s bulged when he said, “How can a man be born when he is
old?”
Jesus
explained at first we are born “in the flesh,” but we can be changed when we
are born again by the Holy Spirit. And a few moments later He said, “For God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but
have everlasting life.”
Faith
in Jesus changes everything about a person when he repents and accepts Him as
Savior. I’ve seen the drunkard set free, the wicked changed in a moment, different
inside out. Those filled with hate,
fear, bitterness and greed find it all washed away with the rivers of living
water, joy unspeakable and full of glory. A black heart can be washed white by
the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Then the love, joy, peace and other fruits
of the Holy Spirit flow in.
When
I was a child, my aunt screamed, “I’m lost!” in the middle of the pastor’s
sermon and ran to the altar crying out for God’s mercy. She was changed from
that day, dancing for joy—and loved on people until she died in her 90s.
I
know she liked the new person she became.
Some
people have said all they want for Christmas is their two front teeth, but God
made it possible for us to become a totally new person because Jesus came to
earth to be our Redeemer.
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