TRANSFORM US

Todd Postlethwaite, Westhills Worship Pastor

Exactly a decade ago I was winding my Toyota Tundra up the California coastline, riding the number 1 highway north from San Francisco. I slept in the back of my truck, subsisted on mostly beef jerky and Cheez-its, and basically just followed my bliss. Amid my mostly aimless wandering, the one place I knew I wanted to go was to see the coast redwoods. These towering behemoths are the largest trees on earth, stretching over 300 feet tall and 30 feet wide at the base. They soar up overhead like living skyscrapers. I walked alone through the hush of this otherworldly forest, fancying myself a tiny human among regular-sized trees.

The remarkable thing about redwoods is that something so gargantuan comes from a seed the size of an oat. One single seed, smaller than your fingernail, becomes a tree so vast you could drive a semi-truck through it. It’s quite the return on investment for mother nature! There is certainly nothing in the appearance of the little seed that would suggest its latent potential, nothing to indicate what it will become.

These days in To The Pointe we’re examining the Alliance Vision Prayer that we pray together every week at the close of our worship services. This week we come to the phrase “Come, transform us”. It’s a powerful prayer that hints at the center of what the gospel is all about.

The gospel is a seed planted in our hearts. At times growth may seem small, even imperceptible, but within this gospel seed is the explosive power that will, by God’s grace, transform us into great giants of faith. Isaiah 61:3 tells us the results of those who experience the ministry of Jesus, the Servant of God: “they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Read the whole chapter - God, through the gospel of his Son, is creating a new kind of person. He is turning weak and broken people into strong, glorious, living monuments to his life-giving power.

So, what’s our role then? Is this process inevitable? I leave that question to the theologians. But it seems from Scripture that we need to cooperate with God in the work he is doing. In nature, a seed is passive; if the conditions are right for it to grow, it grows. With us there is some choice in the matter. We can resist the transforming work of the Spirit, or we can invite it. That’s why it is so fitting that each time we gather as a church we pray this prayer: “Come, transform us”. We are admitting that we don’t have the power to change ourselves – we need Him. But, praise God! Transformation is what Jesus does.

Next time you see a particularly formidable-looking tree, take a moment to thank God for what he is doing in you. Already this gospel seed has been planted in the hearts of we who have received the gospel, and already it is germinating.