Quotes about Transformation

So where does one begin? With self-crucifixion. In effect, we go to our own funeral and bury the self-will so that God's will can reign supremely in our hearts. Our will has no power to do God's will until it first dies to its own desires and the Holy Spirit brings a fresh power within.

When God brings us to salvation, the most remarkable thing we see is that he transforms our hungers. He changes not just what we do but what we want to do. This is the work of the Holy Spirit within us — "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).

The radically changed behavior of the disciples after the resurrection is the best evidence of the resurrection," declares Thomas C. Oden of Drew University. "Some hypothesis is necessary to make plausible the transformation of the disciples from grieving followers of a crucified messiah to those whose resurrection preaching turned the world upside down. That change could not have happened, according to the church's testimony, without the risen Lord.

Herein lies the cardinal difference between the moralizing religions and Jesus' offer to us: Jesus does not offer to make bad people good but to make dead people alive.

Capturing the beauty of the conversion of the water into wine, the poet Alexander Pope said, "The conscious water saw its Master and blushed.

God's grace is beyond description. He lifted all of us over the walls of our own imprisonment.

Teaching at best beckons us to morality, but it is not in itself efficacious. Teaching is like a mirror. It can show you if your face is dirty, but the mirror will not wash your face.

We became less than what we were meant to be.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; I woke — the dungeon flamed with light! My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Christ in you," said the apostle Paul, is "the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).

All of this is a reassuring reminder that in spite of our mistakes and failures, our heavenly Father is still able to bring something lasting and beautiful from our lives.

Jesus worked by changing the heart, not by legislating. Legislation can only force compliance. It can never produce the love necessary to change an attitude. Jesus