Changed

Yes, hello, changed.
For things to change, you have to change.

A lot of people understand that we live in a time of trouble right now, the world is going downhill, you might say. We call good, bad, bad good, we no longer know where we are going, when we listen to the news or when we read the newspapers, it's lies upon lies.
Nothing is going right anymore, and there are people who think that there will be a revival and that the world will change for the better. But is it true?

In my opinion if there is a change, it will only be ephemeral. The world will only really change for the better the day Jesus Christ, one of whose names is "the prince of peace", returns to establish peace on earth. It is written in Psalm 2 and in Revelation 19:2 that he will come to rule the nations with a rod of iron. And the prophet wrote, the prophet Isaiah, sorry.

"He will be the judge of the nations, The arbiter of many peoples. Of their swords they will forge plowshares, (that is to say, hollies), And of their spears billhooks : A nation will not will no longer draw sword against sword, and war will no longer be learned.
Without the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, the prince of peace, there will never be lasting peace.

But before that, the world must pass through a period of distress, in any case it is what Jesus said, in Matthew 24, when he spoke about the end of time, he said:

"For then, the distress will be so great that there will not be There has been none like this from the beginning of the world until now, and that there never will be.

We are not yet in that time of trouble, but it will arrive as Jesus said.
And for that the world could change, men would have had to want to change, because if the heart of man does not change, nothing can change. And the majority of men do not want to change.

Jesus said in Mathieu 15:17:
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slander. These are the things that defile a man.

He also said, to say that men did not want to change:
"And this judgment is that, the light having come into the world, men preferred darkness to light, because their works were bad".
So they prefer to remain in their evil works.
The light that came into this world is Jesus Christ, of course, and the majority of men don't want him.
Some men want to change their heart, or change their habits, but they don't want Jesus Christ, the light of the world, Or they do want a Jesus, but a Jesus they have made for themselves, step of the Jesus described in the bible.

They're trying to get better with all their might, but they're not doing it the right way, because they don't want the light, Jesus Christ, and they never will never get there.
It is impossible that we can change ourselves. Despite all the efforts we might make to change ourselves for the better, we may succeed, a little bit, but inevitably, one day or another, the wickedness of our hearts will reappear. It's like wanting to contain water boiling in a pressure cooker on the fire, the pressure in the pressure cooker increases and sooner or later the water

vapor escapes. It's also like wanting to get out of a swamp of quicksand, pulling yourself by your hair, it's impossible, It takes a force outside of man to get us out of this swamp. Even another man, who would be son of the first Adam, another man like all men, could not, either, get us out of the swamp, because all men are in the same swamp and all men sink into it. This is why God sent the light of the world, his only son Jesus-Christ, into the world. He came to get us out of this swamp. But do we still have to believe him and want him and want to trust him?

Jesus is not a man like the others.
Jesus, in the Bible, he is called the last Adam, in 1 Corinthians 15; 45, because he is another Adam or another man, he did not descend from the first Adam, he descended from heaven (John 6:38) without any sin in him (John 8:46). Jesus made himself like men, but not identical, for he was never in the swamp, or sin.
Although he had never been in sin, Jesus agreed to die as a simple man, to bear the condemnation that weighed on all men, this condemnation was and is: death. A man who sinks into the quicksand of a swamp, if he is not helped, ends up dying.
the wages of sin is death. the apostle Paul writes to us in Romans 6; 23.
Jesus Christ, who was never in the swamp, could not sink there and die, he did not deserve death, despite this he agreed to die, for love of us, an atrocious death, hanged on a cross, taking our sin upon himself. After staying three days and three nights in the tomb, he rose again, death could not hold him. Alleluia, (Actes 2; 24) Today, all men who believe in Jesus Christ, and who trust in him, repent of their sin, agree to deny themselves, and agree to identify themselves with Jesus Christ, in his death, they die, once for all, with Him and in Him on the Cross, by faith, (Romans 6:6) and they are resurrected with Him and in Him, by faith, (Colossians 2:12), they are born again as a new creature, out of the swamp or sin. They become brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, of the same nature as Him, when he was on earth, And therefore, even if their body were to deteriorate and die, they will not know the death, they will enjoy eternal life, or rather they already enjoy eternal life.
A child of the first Adam, that is to say every man of the world is, for God, considered as dead by his trespasses and by his sins (Ephesians 2:1). He is in darkness. Romans 3:23 : "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
The apostle Paul, writing to the members of the church of Ephesus, said to them:
"Once you were darkness, and now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8)
. it used to be when they lived in the world, without being dead in Christ Jesus. A few verses earlier the apostle Paul wrote to them:

"But you, it is not thus that you have learned Christ, if at least you have heard him, and if, according to the truth which is in Jesus, it is in him that you were instructed to put off yourselves, in regard to your past life, of the old man which is corrupted by deceitful lusts, to be renewed in the spirit of your intelligence, and to put on the new man, created according to God in righteousness and holiness produced by the truth”(Ephesians 4, verses 20 to 24)

In these four verses that I have just quoted: We find the Gospel whose very essence is the preaching of the cross. to the truth which is in Jesus they were instructed (written in the past tense) to skin themselves, this was part of the rudiments of instruction among the first disciples.

Skin: means, removed the skin of an animal. Younger I learned how to skin a rabbit, it's not complicated and it's done quite quickly Indeed, I'm not going to explain it to you here, the

disciples at that time must have understood very well how to put off the old man and they had done it. for the most part. It is not something that we can live intellectually. It is the Spirit of God who reveals to us, first, the imperative necessity, if we seek it with all our heart. (Luke 11;13). And at the same time, secondly, he gives us the capacities to do it, it is a question of faith and he is the author of faith, Hebrews, chapter 12 verse 2 God never asks us for a few things in the beyond our strength. To put off the old man is to renounce oneself, by accepting to die, once and for all, by faith, with and in Jesus-Christ on the Cross. That is the only way we have to put off the old man and put on the new man who is created according to God in righteousness and holiness, which means without sin in him, which produces the truth.

There is no new man without the death of the old man.

Without putting off the old man once and for all, by faith, it is impossible to be renewed and to put on the new man, there is no new man, I repeat, without the death of the old man. Jesus said: “new wine is put into new wineskins” (Mat 9:17). Jesus then answered the Pharisees who asked Jesus why the Pharisees were fasting while the disciples of Jesus were not fasting.

I summarize a little what Jesus answered them, He said to them: that his disciples would fast, the day when he, Jesus, would leave. Then he says in verse 16:
No one puts a new piece of cloth on an old coat; for it would take away part of the coat, and the tearing would be worse. and then he spoke of new skins, saying : “Neither do they put new wine into old skins; otherwise, the skins break, the wine spills, and the skins are lost; but the new wine is put into new skins, and the wine and the skins are preserved”. So new wine is put into new skins and the wine, and the skins are preserved.

At that time, Jesus had not yet passed through death and resurrection, therefore his disciples and the Pharisees, could not have passed through death and resurrection in Him either, they were still in their old man . . Through these allegories of the old coat and the new skins, Jesus tells them something that they do not yet understand, they will understand later. Jesus clearly tells them that fasting without having gone through a complete regeneration is of no use, it is like putting a new piece of cloth on an old coat or putting new wine in old wineskins which are about to burst. You must first have passed through death and resurrection with Jesus Christ, and thus have put on the new man.

In our Christian denominations, we tend to put aside the power of the message of the cross it is a scandal for the religious, tells us the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:23.
Yet if we have not gone through this death and this resurrection, in Jesus Christ, we remain in darkness, as the apostle Paul says to the Ephesians: "Once upon a time you were darkness.” And we live in an illusion of communion with God, If the Ephesians had come from darkness to light (Ephesians 5:8) it was because they had learned to put off the old man and put on the new man, and they had done it. They lived the message of the cross.

The apostle John writes in his first epistle in 1 John 1 6:

“If we say that we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth.”
A lot of Christians, today, have not been instructed to put off the old man. They think that only the spirit is renewed, and they will do die their old man, little by little, but that is nonsense, it is impossible and it is not the good news of the Gospel, which is the preaching of The Cross, therefore they cannot have put on the new man. They walk in their old man, that is to say: in

darkness, in the world, they cannot be in communion with God, the verse of 1 John 1:6 which I have just quoted, applies to them . This is the reason why the majority of Christians confess to having sin in them, as it is written in 1 John 1, 8. The Holy Spirit who is with them, but not yet in them, convicts them of sin. Indeed, the Holy Spirit was sent to convict the world, those who are in darkness, concerning sin, because they do not believe in Jesus, (John 16:8). These Christians partially believe in Jesus, since They do not believe the very essence of the good news of the preaching of the cross. Until we die by faith in the death of Jesus Christ and as a result God raises us up in and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ into a new man in righteousness and holiness, that is to say: without sin, we are in darkness and we cannot claim to be in communion with God, that would be lying. Certainly we know the Holy Spirit who is with us, but he is not in us. (John 14;17) The apostle Paul writes in Romans 6;8: "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,"

And he also writes in 2 Timothy 2;11: "This word is sure: If we died with him, we will also live with him;" This word is CERTAIN, I start again: if we died with him, we will also live with him. Or in Colossians 3, verse 1 and 2: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” and in verse 3: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

In other words: If you rose with Him, you, your old man is dead. There is no resurrection with Him without passing through the definitive death of the old man. It is the ABCs of the Gospel. Jesus said: “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his wife will keep it.” (Luke 17:33)

How then to change?

The first thing to do, above all, is to repent, as Jesus said: Jesus said: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

The kingdom of God was at hand because when Jesus was going to die and rise again, it was the open door of the kingdom of God for all his children, for all the disciples who wanted to live with him and in him, in his death and resurrection.
So ask God for forgiveness for your sins and he will forgive you and cleanse you from all your sins, as written in 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all iniquity”.

And in Isaiah 1, verse 18: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. though your sins? are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; If they are red like crimson,, they shall become like wool."
So we must first recognize that we are sinners, Ask God to help us to recognize ourselves as sinners, "it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance "(Romans 2, 4) if we do not recognize ourselves as sinners, we make God a liar, as the apostle John writes to us in John 1; 10, not 1 John 1, 10. All people who say or think they are in communion with God without having one day recognized themselves as sinners, having repented of their sins and without having accepted the good news, that God had purified them from all sin, or from all iniquity, once and for all, make God a liar and do not are not in communion with Him. When we repent, we must believe the good news that Jesus Christ told us, which is the preaching of the Cross, which amounts to believing, everything that is written by the apostle John, in 1 John 1 9 quoted above: “He is faithful and just to forgive us, (sins) , this is the first part of the verse, but you must also believe the second part, there is a coordinating conjunction, and, between the two parts. If I say to lose weight you have to eat well and do exercises, that means that there are two things to do, if you only do exercises, you will not lose weight. If you believe that you are forgiven, that is already good, but if you continue to remain a sinner, you are

missing something, you have not had the opportunity to believe the second part of the verse: “and to purify us from all iniquity”.
When we are cleansed of all iniquity, there is no more iniquity in us, it is the good news, announced by Jesus, who said: repent and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15). He also said: "If therefore the Son sets you free, you will be truly free". (Free from sin)

The good news of the cross has been pushed aside in many of our evangelical circles. We seek to live experiences: beautiful messages, beautiful praises, miracles, healings, speaking in tongues, prophecies, casting out demons, etc. And we leave out the good news of the message of the cross which is far superior to all of these things.

When you live the experiences that I mentioned above, you live a situation that makes you feel good, and you ardently desire to live and live again the same things to find this atmosphere that you lived during these experiences.

But when you live the good news of the Gospel, it remains with you forever, it accompanies you all the days of your life, it is not something you live once and forget, no. once you receive it, you cannot forget it, as long as you stay in the faith. It is the reserve of oil of the wise virgins, of Matthew 25:10, which guarantees you to enter the kingdom of God, the day when Jesus will come to seek you. You abide in Jesus, and He abides in you (John 15, verses 4 to 7). Every day you can give thanks to the father who enabled you to share the inheritance of the saints in the light, who delivered you from the power of darkness therefore he delivered you from the power of darkness and who transported into the kingdom of the son of his love. We must have no illusions, God does not transport sinners into the kingdom of the son of his love. (col 1, 12) (1Corinthians 6 verse 9)

In the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 10, from verse 1 to 3, the apostle explains to us that in the old covenant, the Hebrews had their sins forgiven with animal sacrifices, but they still remained sinners. If you only believe the first part of the verse in 1 John 1:9, you remain in the old covenant. In the continuation of the passage of the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 10, from verse 8 to 10, the apostle explains to us that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin, so Jesus came voluntarily to take away the sin. We must understand that sin, in the singular, is the body of sin or our heart of stone of Ezekiel 36:26, as it is written in Romans 6:6:

" We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ";
It is by taking away sin that Jesus cleanses us from all sin or iniquity. Jesus does not sweep in front of us every day, to erase our sins, he does it once and for all, and we must believe him. By dying on the cross he takes sin with him in his death, so all who die by faith with him in his death die to their bodies of sin, and by his resurrection God makes them his children, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, holy and sinless new creatures. This is the good news of the gospel. The child born of God was once in sin, as he was once in darkness. (Romans 7:5), but he was sanctified, delivered from sin, (Revelation 1:5 and 6) Hebrews 10:10).

To say that there would still be sin in a child born of God would have considered the blood of the covenant by which we were sanctified to be profane. (Hebrews 10;29).
Jesus Christ is seated forever at the right hand of God in heavenly places, likewise, A child of God is seated in heavenly places with Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:6) There are not and there never will be sinners in the heavenly places in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Some will say, but I am a justified sinner I answer: When justice is done to a sinner, he is no longer a sinner, if he remains a sinner, it is because he continues to sin, he is in darkness.

It is not by pride that a child of God can recognize himself without sin. It is simply because one day he recognized himself as a sinner, he repented, he asked God for forgiveness and he tried with all his might and with all his heart to follow the spiritual law of God, but because of the sin that was still in Him, he understood that it was impossible. And it is here, unfortunately, that the road stops for many Christians who make up their minds by considering that it is normal for a Christian to be a sinner. But the path does not end there. Before the promised land, only Joshua and Caleb believed and they are the only ones of their generation to have been able to enter the land of promise. Jesus said in John 8:36: If therefore the son sets you free, you will be truly free. Other Christians, persevering because they would rather die than live in sin, God reveals to them when they are unable to follow him in their own strength. They recognize before God that this is impossible for them, that they are only miserable sinners, and they abandon themselves completely to God who then reveals to them his

Gospel, the message of the Cross, they then receive the truth of the word of God :
" We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:6)
God gives them revelation, assurance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1. So he gives them the revelation, that they are crucified and resurrected. Raised in an entirely new and holy nature like that of their elder brother Jesus Christ. it is now this is now, the life with a big L begins, this is where the word “change” takes on its full meaning, one truly becomes a child born of God out of the swamp or sin, this is where all the demons can no longer dwell in us, the devil can still tempt us, as he tempted Jesus, but not beyond our strength and when we resist him, he flees far from us, it is also there that we purify ourselves like himself is pure, this is his purity, in us, which purifies us, as one purifies oneself by breathing pure air in the high mountains. The child born of God has recognized his inability to follow him, by himself, and he completely surrendered himself to God, crying out to Him to help him. And God gave him faith in what it is written: "
“And in him also you were circuncised with a circumcision made whitout hands. by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead..” Glory to God, (Colossians 2, 11 and 12
We can cry out, we can really cry out: It is finished,
“And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet ” Romans 16; 20. Amen.
Glory to God, Glory to Jesus Christ.
May the Lord bless you Amen.