I’ve undergone a change over the last few days. Due to a cold and severe throat ache, my normal dulcet tones are much deeper than usual. In fact, at the moment, I make James Earl Jones sound like a member of the Vienna Boys Choir. Barry White would be envious. I can’t think of anything particularly useful about this deeper voice, though it does scare the dog, which is moderately entertaining.
I’m hoping this is but a temporary change, otherwise I may have to seek a job in radio or movie advertising… “In a world, where one man’s voice could save a nation…”
As a Christian though, I am looking for more permanent changes. Let’s see what the Scriptures have to say about change (I’m going to use “transform*” also, as a synonym)
in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Philippians 3:20-21
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
To summarize: when Jesus returns, our bodies will be changed from the perishable to the imperishable, but for now, we are engaged in a process of change and transformation already: being transformed into his image, having a renewed mind… in short, looking more like Jesus every day.
Although the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) meme has become somewhat cheapened by its commercialization, the basic premise still stands, that a Christian could do a lot worse than ask, “What would Jesus do?” in any given situation. And each time we model that, we are one degree closer to properly representing the image of our Lord and Savior.