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How the Average Christian Can Change the World


Man, can you believe some of the stories we hear on the news? It’s crazy to believe that these are true stories that are happening on our home turf. My heart is saddened by the way people are treated. It’s not only in the planned attacks against our police, the LGBT community, Christians, and our government officials, but also on social media, over the phone or the grocery store parking lot. Sure, acts of kindness are shown too. We have the “pay it forward” movement at the coffee shop, a chivalrous young man holding the door open for a woman, the kind stranger helping to find a lost item and so on. However, it’s the acts of hatred that rest heavy on my heart and the hearts of the rest of God’s people.


Across the nation, God’s people are coming together as one and sharing His vision of transformation. It is a transformation accomplished through the power of His love. He wants to start a movement that transplants the hearts of wicked with a new and pure heart that beats with love, peace and joy. The transformation will one day find its full affect nationwide but today it grows in the backwoods, backwaters, and back alleys of small towns. It is stirring within the hearts of Holy Spirit filled people that live with an awareness to this call. The Spirit affects the people that affect the towns that affect every living thing around. The love of God will spread like a virus from one willing host to the next. Our question was: how do we impact our city by being two normal people that follow God the best we can?

1)      We were chosen.

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5 – We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave your full assurance that what we said was true.


By the power of the Holy Spirit, you felt the pull towards trusting in Jesus as your savior and said yes to his proposal to be his. He chose you and you said yes. You said yes because you know in your heart that Jesus is real and that you couldn’t walk away from the offer of eternal life with him.


2)      Just be.

1 Thessalonians 1:6,7 – So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you have become an example to all believers….



The Holy Spirit living within you and by the power of your Lord Jesus in Heaven, you have the privilege to walk in his love and be who he created you to be – operating in your gifting and allowing the Holy Spirit to be a living water within your and flowing from you.


3)      God is our reputation.

1 Thessalonians 1:8, 9 – And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever you go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it, for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God.



We are, and live among, people of peace. These people carry the character of God and the fragrance of the Holy Spirit with them. When they walk up, they don’t even have to talk about Jesus for you to know whom they serve. The words they speak and the essence of their being speaks of God’s love and they spread it to those around them. People of peace don’t “spout scriptures” (although the Word is a living part of their lives), they don’t bop you on the head with a Bible or shame you for doing something wrong. People of peace leave you with the Joy of the Lord and flood your spirit with the substance of heaven: love and joy. God’s reputation precedes them and follows them as they walk out their naturally supernatural lives with the Holy Spirit.



THIS, I believe, is one way our nation will be transformed. We, the people of peace, will spread love and joy sourced by the one true God to EVERYONE around us. The fragrance of hope and peace will be left in our wake as we live our daily lives with His guidance and power.
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