Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt
Acts 26:16 & 18 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you… to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
One year for my birthday Renee gave me a great health and exercise book called Fit for Life. In this book, they have an entire picture section of people who have been through the program this book offers. You see all the before and after pictures of these people. I love looking at before and after pictures of people who have purposed to change their life for the better.
They are so inspiring! In three to six months these people look completely different and so much better.
I have been thinking about the newness of life that God offers us. He empowers us by His Holy Spirit to live it out. His Word says we are to be transformed. As I was looking at these powerful images of people who had transformed their looks, I had this thought. Every one of us is working toward one of those two pictures. We are either presently creating a before picture or an after picture of our current life. Have you ever thought which picture you are presently creating?
In the book of the Acts of the Apostle in chapter 26, the Apostle Paul is giving his testimony while on trial. He is verbally painting the before picture of his life and then the after picture after Jesus got a hold of him. It became his testimony. Everyone that changes from a before to and after has a testimony. How powerful it is when our testimony is about what the Lord has done in us and our life!
In some ways, I am living in my after picture. I say that because if anyone saw me now compared to thirty-four years ago before I knew the Lord, they’d tell you I was a completely different person. I praise God for that. At the same time, internally I feel like I am in a before picture compared to what I believe the Lord still wants to do within me and through my life. I realize that’s good. Otherwise I would be sitting in pride of how great I think I am and I would probably look and act like a Pharisee.
The after picture is our ongoing goal that we see in our hearts that God helps us paint. It is the shaping of our thoughts and desires to conform to His Word, His Will, and His purpose for our lives. It’s a path and a process in which we will continue to be changed as we pray and seek Him and purpose to live according to what He speaks to us through His Word.
Today’s Fresh Manna verse is the central focus for all of us as we walk out what God wants for our lives. Like the Apostle Paul, we become transformed and then we become the Lord’s witness of what Jesus has done and will do in our lives. Then we will be used to help others experience God’s life-changing and transforming power – “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus.”
Your life is not to be random. God has a plan for you. An aimless and purposeless life outside of the Lord will always result in a before picture. Pressing toward God’s will for your life will help create after-pictures. An after-picture is not the end of all. It is actually only a step to the next after-picture. What does your next after picture look like?
Romans 12:2 (MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
Published by Pastor Tim Burt
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