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“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”   --Ezekiel 36:26 Jesus is in the business of changing your heart and mine. It’s absolutely true! Let me give you an amazing example. A couple of years ago, I asked Lee Strobel to share his testimony at our church. Lee of course is the bestselling author of The Case for Christ and former award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. You see, before Lee met Jesus, he was a skeptic of the highest order, a self-proclaimed atheist. But when his wife gave her life to Jesus, Lee was determined to use his Yale education and investigative skills to determine if Christianity’s claims were true. Well, after a two-year search, Lee said the evidence was so overwhelming that it would have required more faith to remain an atheist! And he gave his life to Jesus. In the months that followed, Jesus transformed Lee’s life. The “drunken, angry” skeptic was gone. And after seeing how God changed her daddy, his five-year-old daughter said, “Mommy, I want God to do for me what he’s done for daddy.” And she also became a follower of Jesus! Do you wish Jesus would change your life like this? He will! Jesus can work miracles in your life if you’ll surrender to his love. Let him give you a new heart and a new life today. JESUS CAN WORK MIRACLES IN YOUR LIFE IF YOU’LL SURRENDER TO HIS LOVE.

Grace Building Christians Up

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
Acts 20:29–32

There is no doubt that grace is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in all of Scripture. People have many different ideas, and often they conflict with what God actually said. Grace is not a license to live in any way we choose. Instead, it is a powerful teacher and tool that molds and shapes the decisions, choices, and actions that make up our lives. Grace is a builder—a power given to us by God to help us become more like Jesus.
Before the world was created, God had a purpose and plan for our lives. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The Lord could certainly have saved us and taken us to Heaven at the moment of our conversion. All of the things necessary for us to enter His presence are settled and accomplished the moment we trust Him.
But God has more in mind for us. Dr. Curtis Hutson had a sermon he often preached called “Salvation Is More than Being Saved.” The same grace that offers us entry into God’s family stays with us to accomplish our sanctification. Through the process of God’s grace being applied to our daily lives, we become more and more like His Son.
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Grace is never content to leave us where we are—it works to build us up into Christlikeness.