Human Mutation

Talking with a friend yesterday. He was saying that Christians ought to convert people. A whole lot more business went through in that conversation, and I still need to go back and ask him what he meant. In my years, so far, as one of the redeemed, I have seen people be converted, and I’ve seen them baptised, of course, and I have seen what happens when the the Holy Spirit fills their hearts, and I have seen more than a few direct miracles; But I have never converted anyone, and will say flat-footed that such a thing is not possible.

Real conversion is a work of God on the same scale as, well, turning water into wine. Jesus did that one time, without so much as touching the big jars holding the water. Whatever happened happened inside the jars, and nobody knew until they tasted the wine. All it took was for somebody to trust Jesus to “do something!” The Bible says that if we “confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead,” we will be converted.” Yes, we need to be baptised, and we need to be in the Church for our own growth and survival in that new life. If your car needs a new engine, a car wash might make it shine a little, and a guarded parking lot will keep it a lot safer from thieves and vandals, but the engine is still old and smoky. Conversion is an “inside job.” We open the door from the inside, and God begins doing things that only show when we’re “poured out” to Him and to other people.

Now, this can be a controversial topic. Some want to say that any real change is optional, and others that the inner experience is reserved for the mystics and saints of years gone past. If the first is true, then God must have provided two books: a Holy Bible for holy folks, and a pew-tater’s manual for the rest of us. I don’t have a pew-tater’s manual at my place, do you?

My Holy Bible says some interesting stuff about real conversion- It says those that believe Jesus are “in” Jesus, and if anybody is in Jesus they’re a new creature- a whole new species of being. Now, the change happens on the inside and, while it might not make us any prettier on the outside, what goes on on the inside can’t be hidden any more than the invisible wind can blow without being “seen.” Now, a weak little puff of wind is not God’s plan for any of us, but a continuing flow of love and power. He wants us to really mutate into something really awesome, not just to putate into a "pew tater." Like that Holy Bible also says, “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Check out the rest of it in 2^nd Corinthians, chapter 3, and be a Mutator!