Transformers – Mega Transformer

November 5-11, 2007

 

Day One        Knowing the Ending

I have never seen the movie “Titanic.”  When it first came out I figured that I knew the ending and had no desire to sit through something knowing that the main point of the story was for the protagonist to die.  After it came out, and was hugely popular, I found out that one of the main characters did survive, but still knew that the other main star died and that the ship still sank.  So I remain a “Titanic” ignoramus.  This is fine with me; I have no desire to see movies where the main character dies in the end, especially if I go into the theater with this knowledge.

 

Years ago Andrea and I made plans to see a movie that was a coming attraction. Andrea decided to read the book prior to seeing the movie as it had been recommended by friends.   As she got into the book she found herself very entranced by the story line.  One evening she began to tell me what was going on in the story up to the point where she had read so far.  I, in a serious face, jokingly said, “You know, the guy dies in the end.”  I had no knowledge of the story and no clue how the book ended, but just thought I would be funny.  I thought Andrea knew that I was being funny as well, but as it turned out she took me seriously.

 

Later that evening she walked back into the room with a look of extreme disappointment on her face.  “You were right,” she said, “I am so disappointed, he does die.  I skipped over to the end of the book and found out.  I thought you were just kidding, but you were telling the truth.  How did you know?”

 

I then had to admit that I had just guessed.  She was not too happy with me.  But, in the end, we never saw the movie because we didn’t want to see the main character die.  We see that enough in real life, we have no desire to pay eight bucks to see it happen.

 

Death is a dismal element of this physical world, an element that we desire to avoid at almost any cost.

 

What does II Corinthians 3:7a say about death and what is it related to?

 

 

How do you think the written law (especially the ten commandments) brought death?

 

 

The fact that the law brought death is actually a fact that it revealed death.  Death and separation from God was a fact that many did not understand or realize. The law opened their eyes to their state of relationship with God.  How do you think they looked at their faith when it mainly revealed their own “deathful” state to them?

 

How do you compare that state of faith with your faith?

 

 

What is the difference?

 

 

 

Day Two       Fading Glory

The carpet at our church building has seen better days.  It has definitely served us and many others well.  I recently spoke with some of our children in the church who were able to point to various stains and identify what had caused them.  “That was me!” one little boy announced proudly as he pointed to a large stain.  I also remembered that particular stain as I had had the privilege of cleaning it up after he had eaten too much dinner and desserts at a Parent’s Night Out.  A couple of years ago I had a carpet cleaning service come in and clean the carpet in the entire building.  After the company left the carpets looked fantastic.  For the next couple of days it looked like we had put in completely new carpeting throughout the building.  That, however, did not last.  In less than a week the carpets looked old and soiled again.  We once again could see reminders of just about everything that had ever taken place in the building.  Apparently, over a decade of wear and tear on the carpets had so deeply stained the carpeting that even with cleaning the stains eventually would reappear.  There was no way to have the old carpeting look like new, unstained, unused carpeting.  It was an impossibility.

 

The reflection of the glory of God as seen through the Old Covenant is seen as this same type of reappearing stain.  Scripture describes the glory seen on the face of Moses as something that does not last is only a mere reflection of the true glory of God.  This is because it is a reflection seen through the state of the world, a world that still has many stains.  Since the Old Covenant does not remove these stains, only covers them up, they reappear.  Read II Corinthians 3:7-11 to see this description.  How does this passage compare the revealed glory with Moses to the glory we experience with Christ?

 

 

What is the main describing factor about the glory of Christ that we live in and under?

 

 

It is a glory that does not fade but lasts!  How does your faith walk reflect this glory that does not fade?

 

 

 

Day Three    Transformation

As I write this I am sitting in the office of our Orthodontist.  I am very acquainted with this office as I have spent many hours here.  At present, four of our five children have been through the orthodontic (I am not sure that is correct gramma,r but I figure with all the money spent on orthodontics that I have the right to make up words) process and it is looking like Isaiah’s teeth will soon be buying the doctor a new car (we have already bought him a new house and built him a new office building).  Each time we begin a new procedure, the doctors explain to us everything that will be taking place in the process.  They tell us how the devices and procedures will transform our child’s mouth and put the teeth into their proper places. I usually am somewhat incoherent during this explanation process until they get to the part where I have to sign to accept the amount of money I will be paying for the rest of my life.

 

As we have seen over this Transformation series, there is always a process through which the Transformation takes place. With each Biblical character, and with each of our own testimonies we have heard in our worship times, God uses specific processes to transform specific individuals. There is a specificity designed for each unique individual.  There is, however, a common element to all stories of Transformation.  Read about this common Transformation process in II Corinthians 3:12-18.  What do you see described in this passage?

 

 

What, in your own Transformation story, do you see in common with the description from this passage?

 

 

In what ways do you see this process still taking place?

 

 

 

Day Four       Transforming Proof

Last fall I took a trip to Colorado with my son Caleb for a Father/Son retreat.  My dad was kind enough to loan me the use of his vehicle for the trip. He used my van in place of his while I was gone.  Shortly into our trip I received a call from dad inquiring if I had noticed a shaking of my van.  I had been aware of this, but had been choosing to stick my head in the sand as opposed to admitting the shaking and taking the van to the garage.  Dad does not have my talent for ignoring the obvious and just minutes into our vehicle swap dad had figured out what a bad deal he had accepted.  He took the van to the shop to address the unaddressed shaking. It apparently was an issue that should not have been ignored and called for some pretty extensive repair.  When Caleb and I got back to Norman we arrived to a non-shaking and much safer van.  A couple of days later, dad asked if I had noticed the difference when I now drove the van.  The difference was more than obvious, the transformation was apparent.

 

Our Transformation process has the same obvious results.  What are some of the blatant evidences that others can or have seen in your life since Christ transformed you?

 

 

What are the obvious proofs of Transformation seen in II Corinthians 4:1-3?

 

 

How would you say that these evidences are visible to others today?

 

 

 

Day Five        What’s the Point?

On Christmas morning of 2004, I thought that we had the perfect set of gifts for our kids.  As each child opened their gifts, they verified my feeling that we had been successful gift buying parents.  That is until Isaiah opened his gifts.  He opened his first gift and had a look of confusion on his face.  I had purchased him a copy of the latest Spiderman movie which I thought he liked.  “Why would Santa get this for me?” he loudly questioned.  Apparently he did not feel that this was the right gift for him and did not understand why he had received this present.

 

Sometimes we don’t understand why we receive what we are given.  When we don’t understand the purpose of a gift we don’t have the ability to appreciate the gift.  According to II Corinthians 4:7-11, what is the purpose of the Transformation gift we have received?

 

 

How do you see this lived out in your life today?

 

 

Spend a prayerful moment reflecting on your Transformation Story.