A Transformed Heart Can Change the World

Too many of us are camping at the Cross of Jesus Christ!  We have pitched our tent there and are happy to sit back on our Salvation, not willing to start our journey through the narrow gate, instead choosing the wide road (the easy road) to travel on

Source: PInterest

The change that God works in the heart of a believer through faith in Christ is truly amazing. Salvation is the beginning of our journey and the Kingdom is the destination!! Note however that God’s Word is unambiguous in the fact that unless a person is born again he will not see the kingdom, we must first be born again; John 3:3 ‘Jesus replied, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again’.

Too many of us are camping at the Cross of Jesus Christ!  We have pitched our tent there and are happy to sit back on our Salvation, not willing to start our journey through the narrow gate, instead choosing the wide road (the easy road) to travel on. Many people are deceived into believing because they prayed the sinners’ prayer once followed by a baptism that they are going to heaven. This is one of the greatest heresies taught in the Western Church. People then look around at others who profess to know Christ and see people just as worldly as the world and by doing this they are comparing themselves by themselves. Nothing troubles or challenges their heart, they depend on words they hear in Christian music instead of studying the scriptures. Billy Graham once said that he truly believed that out of the many thousands of people who came forward at his meetings, only about five per cent of them would eventually make it into heaven. Salvation is by faith alone and demonstrating that faith by living for Jesus Christ and doing His will. Keeping ourselves from the standards of this world is the only way to secure our salvation; Matthew 7:13-14 ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it’.

Source: PInterest

John Wesley (1703-1791) is one example of a transformed heart who became born again through faith in Jesus Christ. God Transformed his heart and through him was able to reach many thousands of people with the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. John Wesley started by preaching in the established churches but soon found that he was not welcome in these churches because he preached the Word of God without compromising bible truths!! This was something unheard of at that time as many Pastors preached sermons void of any spiritual meaning because they did not have the spirit of God in them. On one occasion John Wesley was preaching to pious and religious church goers and this is what he preached (these are John Wesley’s words not mine): ‘For all have fallen short of the glory of God; how often have we heard this comment from Paul and ignored its true meaning?  A woman dead drunk on gin, we may hold to be worthless, but I am of no more worth and neither are you! We have all fallen short of the glory of God, but at least a woman who is dead drunk on gin is not a hypocrite! Christ preached mercy for all and all were equal in God’s sight, God is no respecter of persons’. He was severely reprimanded for offending the congregation but replied; ‘Perhaps they were in need of offending’; 1 Corinthians 1:18 ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’.

John Wesley then left the pulpits behind and started preaching in the open air to poor and needy souls. He spent many years travelling the length and breadth of Great Britain on horseback preaching in fields and market places, in the same way His Lord and Saviour did. Thousands came to hear him preach, gin shops closed, magistrate’s courts and offices emptied as these people were desperate for the Gospel. These people were not wanted in churches so they started the Methodist movement where places were built for these poor people to meet and worship.

John Wesley along with his brother Charles and other God fearing men started Christian Charities giving food to the poor and visiting those in prison, they also built a number of Charity Schools. Matthew 28:19-20 ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’. The words that follow are again John Wesley’s words not mine: ‘How may a sinner be justified before God the Lord and Judge of all? You must look to Jesus, there is the Lamb of God who takes away your sins, and you who feel as fit for hell are just as fit to advance to His Glory, the Glory of His free Grace. Come quickly, believe in the Lord Jesus and now, even now be reconciled to God. Now who shall open their hearts to the Lord today?’ Many walked forward and some even ran!  With his transformed heart he stepped into his calling and God’s Holy Spirit working through him to set Britain on fire with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 52:7 ‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns!’

We all need to honour God with our lives by providing a way for others to know him, allowing the Lord to shine through us and people will see Jesus in us. God’s goodness never ends and whatever happened yesterday is washed away and transformed by God’s abounding love for us. When we have a transformed heart and live for Jesus Christ alone, our lives will never be the same again.

The video below is an inspiring rendition of an old revered hymn written in 1738 by Charles Wesley (brother of John). This great Celtic hymn and others like it are not sung or heard very often nowadays and could so easily be lost to the new generation forever.

Author: Eileen Greaves

May God bless and enrich your life

Please feel free to share this article and other articles on this site with friends, family and others