Christ Takes The Slums Out Of People

TheDiscipleMD

I have heard many unusual voice recordings from answering machines over the years including one of my favorites, “You have reached the Wong number” which used to grace the answering machine of the Alex Wong home. However, a few months back, upon calling on one of my clients I was treated to this: “Hello, I am making some changes in my life so if you don’t get a call back, your one of them!”

For many of us, change can be very difficult! We develop habits, both good and bad. The best thing is to not develop bad habits from the beginning. However, since we all make mistakes and fall short, we first need to recognize bad and sinful habits and then tackle them. Can we change? Of course we can. When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed.

“No man,” said David O. McKay, “can sincerely resolve to apply in his daily life the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth without sensing a change in his own nature. The phrase ‘born again’ has a deeper significance than many people attach to it. This changed feeling may be indescribable, but it is real” (Conference Report, April 1962, p. 7).

Quoting from a talk printed in the October 1989 Liahona, entitled “Born of God”, Ezra T. Bensen said:

“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Again quoting David O. McKay:

“Human nature can be changed, here and now…You can change human nature. No man who has felt in him the Spirit of Christ even for half a minute can deny this truth. You do change human nature, your own human nature, if you surrender it to Christ. Human nature can be changed here and now. Human nature has been changed in the past. Human nature must be changed on an enormous scale in the future, unless the world is to be drowned in its own blood. And only Christ can change it.

“Twelve men did quite a lot to change the world [nineteen hundred] years ago. Twelve simple men” (Quoting Beverly Nichols, in Stepping Stones to an Abundant Life, compiled by Llewelyn R. McKay, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1971, page 23, 127). Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world.”

So if there is something amiss in our lives, change can come when we have both desire and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us that “a mighty change” can come about and I believe it to be true. Small changes can bring about large miracles!

 

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