EXTREME MAKEOVER: HALLELUJAH, THE CHURCH IS IMPROVING!

What's changed? Church differences and man's conflicting traditions consume brotherhood papers and quarterlies. But what's changed about the people? Surely repentance and obedience has brought about profound modification. Right? I mean, since you were introduced to Jesus, what has been revolutionized about you? Are you the same person you always were with, now, additional and possibly burdening church things to do? Or, has God done an extreme makeover on you?

My life has encountered abrupt adjustment. The following are only a few things different these days:

• I want to read. Before conversion I would read only the Sports page...nothing else. Reading was a repulsive thought to me. All through grade school I lied to the teachers as I read very few of the books I said I did. Today, although I am a poorly-paced reader, I love to study. He has changed me to desire (hunger) to learn.
• I want to give my money. Before, I was as cautious as the next guy about my pennies. As a kid, my family was below middle-class in America but middle class in our region, I guess. Either way, we didn't spend. God has taken me the opposite direction.
• I moved from paranoidic pessimism to trusting optimism. Caution would again fit the former me. I thought positive thinking was a scam and that faith was a hoax. I regarded opportunity as always having a suspicious catch. Our God, however, can create something out of nothing and give life to the dead....and due to His call, I actually belief it.
• I have confidence. Before, I was a complete neurotic. I didn't believe anything good would happen for/with/or to me. The short straw was always assumed. Not so today.
• This will most likely be the biggest makeover for me: I learned to speak to people; I mean I learned to say Hello to everybody. Before, I couldn't. Those who know me today assume I was always an extrovert. Not! True, I've always been a friendly sort....among my friends. My range of friendliness had tall borders. I could not approach strangers with any confidence. Years after I graduated from the my little Dallas preaching school, a former deacon at White Rock (who supported me while I attended school) picked me up at DFW to be a guest speaker at an evangelism seminar for his congregation. He said something to me that I can still hear. Terry, I must tell you how happy and how proud I am of you. You are being used by God. To be honest Terry, I didn't think you would make it. When you were in school you were the most introverted person I ever met. An extreme makeover in me is, today, the ability to sit with total strangers, whether celebrity or pauper, and feel perfectly relaxed because of what I've learned from watching Jesus move about in his day.

What about you? What is a part of your testimony of transformation? The robust change going on in the church should be a wonderful witness that God is residing in the common people and making significant differences in our lives. Share with us where you've made adjustment (or He's made adjustment in you) as you witness His marvelous grace. Your tesitmony will inspire so many readers. Would you mind sharing a portion of your makeover?