Being Transformed

by Joey Davis

Shortly after the armistice of World War I, Dr. Donald Barnhouse visited the battlefields of Belgium.

In the first year of the war, the area around the city of Mons was the scene of the great British retreat. In the last year of the war it was the scene of the greater enemy escape. For miles west of the city, the roads were lined with artillery, tanks, trucks, and other war material that the enemy had abandoned in their hasty flight.

When Dr. Barnhouse was there, it was a lovely spring day. The sun was shining and not a breath of wind was blowing. As he walked along, examining the war materials that were left behind, he noticed that leaves were falling from the great' trees that arched along the road. He brushed at a leaf that had fallen against his breast. He pressed the leaf in his fingers, and it disintegrated. He looked up curiously and saw several other leaves falling from the trees. Remember, it was spring, not autumn. Nor was there wind to blow off the leaves. These leaves had already survived the winds of autumn and the frosts of winter. Yet they were falling that day, seemingly without cause.

Then Dr. Barnhouse realized why. The most potent force of all was causing them to fall. It was spring and the sap was beginning to run. The buds were beginning to push from within. From down beneath the dark earth, the roots were taking life and sending the life blood of the tree along trunk, branches, and twigs, until that new life expelled every bit of deadness that remained from the previous year. Life had overcome death through the expulsive power of new affection. . .

. . . Much like the tree observed by Dr. Barnhouse, our lives are transformed when real life is allowed to saturate our beings. Jesus stated in John 10:10 that He came so we could have life and have it to the full. His desire is for us to be filled with "real life." Why? Because this life is the only thing that can defeat the death of worldliness.

Romans 12 teaches us two things, be transformed by the renewing of our minds (v. 2), and overcome evil with good (v. 21).

Being transformed by the renewing of our minds only happens when we allow God and His word to saturate our thoughts. When the life of His word pushes out the death of vain thinking, transformation occurs. This transformation then makes it possible for us to overcome evil through the good life" in Jesus we now enjoy.

May all of our lives be an exercise in allowing God to transform us from death to life through knowing His Son!