I want to write a couple of blogs on transformation. I have friends who ask frequently: “Do we really see lives changed anymore?” Answer, “Yes we do…provided we’re intentional about it.”
My friend Robert was a professional bowler with a bad temper problem. I don’t know the details, but I know he did some time in county jails. That was then. This is now. Robert is 68. He got married just last November, and he and Heidi are happy as clams. As Robert reminded me:
He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 18.22, NKJV)
Robert and Heidi
How did Robert get from there to here? Here’s how he tells it in a recent FaceBook post:
When I said Bob and I are long time friends let me explain. We go back 17 years to when I was a member of Springs Rescue Mission’s faith based New Life Program of recovery which ministered to the addicted and broken hearted with the healing power of the Gospel of Christ. Part of our “programming” was a mandatory 6am. Bible study at 1st Presbyterian Church downtown in the Springs. Bob Ewell (retired USAF, and longtime member of The Navigators) was one of the men who led the Men on Target. These men came alongside us when we most needed it, modeling what a man’s Christian life looked like. Many of them became our “mentors” including my Mentor James M. McKelvey. These men helped change the trajectory our lives, from who we were, to lives transformed by becoming new creations in Christ. All those 4:30 am. wake ups were brutal, but I never left a Bible study without feeling great. I’m proud now to be a Springs Rescue Mission New Life Program Alumnus, with a brand new life.
Robert was in the Springs Rescue Mission’s 12-month residence program whose aim was transformation. One of the tools they were using back then was our Tuesday, 6am, Bible study, the goal of which also was transformation. Supervision, accountability, practical teaching, serious Bible study, modeling and mentoring all worked. I’m proud to be Robert’s friend.
I’ll share another story Monday about transformation in a more conventional environment. Stay tuned.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12.2, NIV)
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4.20 – 24, NIV)