Jesus Brings Radical Changes!

“Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on [Jesus Christ’s] name?” 
– Acts 9:21

About a hundred years ago, the story goes, there was an old farmer who lived with his family in the middle of nowhere. One day they climbed into their horse-drawn buggy and headed into the big city to take care of some important business. When they got there, the farmer parked his buggy in front of a massive building. He turned to his youngest son and said, “Little Johnny, you can come with me if you want. But the rest of you stay here. We won’t be long.”

 

Johnny jumped at the chance to go inside the huge building with his dad. Inside, the receptionist directed them to the elevator that would take them to the fifth floor. The farmer and his son stood in front of the elevator, bewildered. After a few minutes, they saw a little old lady shuffle into the elevator by herself. She stepped inside, turned and faced the farmer and his son, and the doors closed. About 30 seconds later, the doors re-opened, and a gorgeous young woman stepped out of the elevator. INCREDIBLE! A decrepit old woman went in, and a beautiful young woman came out. So, the farmer told his son, "Quick,—go get your Ma!"

 

That farmer was pretty shallow. He wanted to trade his wife in for a newer model. It never even crossed the old codger’s mind to step into the elevator himself to become a better man for her. But honestly, you and I aren’t very different from that farmer. We work much harder trying to get the people AROUND us to change than we do trying to change OURSELVES.

 

Well, some two thousand years ago, a man stepped into God’s elevator and allowed himself to be radically changed: the Apostle Paul. In a matter of moments, Paul went from destroying churches to building them. He went from exterminating Christians to nourishing them. He went from hating Jesus to loving Him.

 

In Acts 8, Saul was a religious zealot who hated Jesus Christ—so much that he tried to eradicate the name of Jesus from the lips of Christians around the world. He looked on in approval at the stoning death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. He arrested as many Christians as he could, often campaigning to have them executed. Saul hated Christians with a passion.

 

But that all changed in Acts 9 when Saul met Jesus Christ. He was knocked flat on the road to Damascus, temporarily blinded. He gave his life to Christ and was baptized. The next thing people knew, he was proclaiming the name of Jesus in the synagogues. Saul, the man who had been bent on getting rid of Christians, had become the Apostle Paul, trying to make more Christians. Within about 30 years, Paul traveled about 10,000 miles, helping to plant dozens of churches, and wrote half the books of the New Testament. Those books have led hundreds of millions of people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul changed the world. But before Paul could change the world, Jesus Christ had to first change HIM.

 

I’d like to share three powerful life lessons from Paul’s transformed life.

 

Life Lesson #1: Even the greatest Christians have checkered pasts. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how far you’ve strayed from God, there is hope for you in Christ. If you’ll let Him, God will forgive you. God’s grace is greater than our disgrace.

 

Lesson #2: God doesn’t just SAVE hell-bent sinners. He RECRUITS them to change the world. 

Lesson #3: You have precious little time to impact the lives around you. So, hit the ground serving. Finish strong.  In Paul’s own eyes, he started out as the worst of sinners. But he sure did finish well. In just 30 short years, he revolutionized the world by spreading the Gospel. Once he made up his mind to give Jesus Christ his all, he fought the good fight and finished the race strong. And so can you!

 

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church, meeting Sundays at 8:30 and 10 a.m. at 16209 Kamana Road in Apple Valley. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc. 

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Set Free by the Empty Tomb

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36

Last week as we celebrated Easter, I remembered a story I once heard about a first grade teacher who gave her class an assignment that involved plastic eggs. She passed out an egg to each of her students and told them, “Easter is about life. So, I want you each to take your egg home and put something inside it that is a sign of life.” The next day the kids returned with all sorts of things in their plastic eggs: leaves, blades of grass, an ant and even a butterfly. But when one little boy opened up his egg, it was empty. The other kids laughed. The teacher asked him, gently, why he didn’t do his assignment. He answered, “I DID do my assignment. My egg is empty because on Easter Jesus’ tomb was empty. Isn’t that a sign of life?”

It certainly is. And today I’d like to take a look at one of the first people to discover the empty tomb: Mary Magdalene. That empty tomb transformed her life. And it can transform yours as well.

 

All four gospels mention women going to the tomb at sunrise on resurrection Sunday to anoint Jesus’ body with spices. Matthew, Mark and Luke mention several women in the group, but each time, Mary Magdalene is at the top of the list. And John doesn’t even mention the other women. He focuses entirely on Mary Magdalene. What was so special about Mary Magdalene? That’s just the thing: As best as we can tell, she wasn’t very special at all. In fact, before she met Jesus a year or two earlier, she was pretty messed up.

Now, over the centuries many Christians have assumed that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute with loose morals. But nothing in Scripture supports that. When Mary Magdalene is introduced in Luke 8, we read that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (verse 2). So, most people who knew Mary Magdalene wouldn’t have said, “She’s a floozy!” They would have said, “This lady has lost her mind! Those demons are making her as nutty as a fruitcake.” But one day Mary Magdalene met Jesus. He drove out the seven demons and set her free. And she was never the same again.

From that point forward she stuck with Jesus wherever he went—regardless of whether he was popular or unpopular, regardless of whether the crowd was shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday or “Crucify him!” on Good Friday. Mary Magdalene was one of the few remaining followers of Jesus who was faithful and courageous enough to stand at the foot of his cross. She was the first to arrive at Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning. And she was the first to see Jesus after he rose from the grave.

This woman had likely been tormented by demons for years, but she was set free from her demons by the power and authority of Jesus Christ. And she was forever grateful to him. She had been forgiven much, so she loved much.

This transformed woman became even more transformed when she experienced the empty tomb and saw her risen Savior face-to-face. She ran back to the disciples and exclaimed, “I have seen the Lord.” They probably thought she had lost her mind again. But she hadn’t.

This oppressed woman had been transformed by Jesus Christ. And she was more in her right mind than ever before. Once again, Jesus Christ had set her free.

Honestly, many of us need to be set free in much the same way as Mary Magdalene. Some of us are held captive by our past. We look back on who we used to be and we’re the first to admit, “I was nuts! I was out of my mind. I wasn’t rowing with both oars in the water.”  And what’s worse, we know our family and friends had a front row seat to our nuttiness. They saw it all! They heard it all! And sometimes we feel like crawling into a hole. We know that we’ve deeply hurt the people who mean the most to us. We’ve burned so many bridges. And even though we’ve made big changes in our lives, we can’t repair the damage we’ve done. We’re still haunted by the demons of our past.

Well, I have good news for you. Just as surely as Jesus drove Mary’s demons out of her, he can drive the demons of our past out of you and me—if we’ll let him. There were likely times when Mary Magdalene thought about the woman she used to be, and she felt like crawling into a hole. But Jesus Christ had set her free. So, she boldly stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified. And she boldly led the ladies to Jesus’ tomb on Resurrection Sunday. And after seeing Jesus with her own two eyes she proclaimed to the rest of Jesus’ followers, “I have seen the risen Lord!”

So, if you feel like a prisoner of your past, Jesus holds the key to your prison cell. He alone can set you free. As Jesus himself says in John 8:36, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” So, journey to the empty tomb today. Come to Jesus and take hold of his forgiveness. Take hold of his healing. And take hold of his peace. Because the tomb is empty, because Jesus is alive … you CAN be set free from the demons of your past. You CAN be set free from  your guilt and shame. Jesus Christ can set you free. And if the Son of God sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our online worship service tomorrow at

10 a.m. at Live.GreaterImpact.cc or on our YouTube channel (Impact Christian Church) or on Facebook.

A Nickname You’ll Never Forget

“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”  – Genesis 32:28

I enjoy a good nickname. My first car was an emerald green 1973 Super Beetle. It went from 0 to 60 MPH…eventually. I nicknamed her La Maquina Verde, which translates: The Green Machine. In more recent years, my wife and I have used different nicknames for each other: Pookie, Sweetheart and Honey. We’ve nicknamed our four kids Kicker, Jet, Kid and Care Bear. And our dog has the strangest nicknames of all: Fuzzy Lips and Snout Head. Yes, I really enjoy a good nickname.

And in Genesis 32, God gives Abraham’s grandson Jacob a nickname for the ages. It’s actually much more than a nickname; it’s a brand new name that he and his descendents would bear for all time to come. After a long night of wrestling, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel.

It had been a nerve-racking few days for Jacob. He had learned that his older brother Esau was on his way to meet him, and that fact had Jacob worried. You see, years earlier Jacob had tricked his brother out of his birthright and stolen his brother’s firstborn blessing. In other words, he had cheated his brother out of what was rightfully his. And as a result, Esau had threatened to kill Jacob. So, Jacob ran for his life.

Fast forward about fifteen years, and these two estranged brothers were just hours away from a hair-raising rendezvous. The night before the anticipated meeting, Jacob was alone on the side of a stream. He cried out to God for protection, and in response, God sent an angel to wrestle with Jacob until sunrise. Scripture seems to indicate that it was no ordinary angel but was God Himself in the form of a man. As sunrise approached, the wrestling match ended in a draw. But as the Lord was about to leave Jacob, Jacob refused to let him go. He exclaimed, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

In response, God did just that: He blessed Jacob. But before blessing him, He gave Jacob a new name: Israel. It was a powerful name that would commemorate for all time the fact that Jacob has successfully wrestled with God. Consider this: Jacob’s given name means “he grasps the heel.” But Jacob’s name figuratively means “deceiver.” And it turns out that Jacob’s name was an apt description of his character later in life. At one time or another, he had deceived his brother, his father, his uncle and even his own wife. Jacob was not a very upstanding guy. He was a philanderer, a deceiver, a real snake in the grass.

Jacob had spent years living up to his name: Deceiver. But in one brief moment at the closing ceremonies of the strangest wrestling match of all time, God told Jacob bluntly, “Your name will no longer be Jacob.” God basically said, “You will no longer be known as a deceiver. From now on you will be known as a struggler with God.” That’s what the name Israel means—struggler or wrestler with God.

And as Jacob’s twelve sons gave rise to twelve tribes, they would not be known as the twelve tribes of Jacob. They would be called the twelve tribes of Israel. The nation comprised of Jacob’s descendents would not be a nation of deceivers; they would be a nation of God-strugglers. And the Jewish people still bear that illustrious name today. It’s amazing to realize that God transformed the life of a sneaky, conniving deceiver in just a few moments. Jacob began the night as a heel-grabbing deceiver but finished the night with a badge of honor. Jacob had wrestled with God and had walked away with God’s great blessing—a blessing that would be passed on from generation to generation for all time.

Recently, I shared Jacob’s story with our congregation. After doing so, I encouraged them to answer a couple questions based on this amazing chapter (Genesis 32). QUESTION #1: DO YOU FEEL ALONE? As Jacob sat on the side of a stream by himself, he felt scared, worried and helpless. Yet by the end of the night he had come to realize that he was never alone. God was with him and had blessed him. My friend, you are not alone either. If you are humbly following Jesus Christ and obeying His word, God is with you and will bless you too.

QUESTION #2: WHAT’S YOUR NEW GOD-GIVEN NAME THAT IS SHAPING YOUR LEGACY? Before I was born, my mom chose to name me Dane, which means “brook” or “from Denmark.” For years I’ve teased her, claiming that she got my name off of a semi truck’s mud flap: “Great Dane.” But honestly, she just liked the sound of my name.

And now I wonder: If God desired to give me a new name, what would my new name be? I would love for God to call me Faithful or Compassionate or Christlike. But honestly, I’m not sure what God’s name for me is. Perhaps you could join me in asking Him, “Lord, have you given me a new name? If so, what is it?” Like Israel, your new God-given name could help shape your destiny. It could reveal what God sees in you and what He has called you to become.

     Dane Davis is the Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com  and join us for our worship service Sundays at 10 a.m.

Spiritual U-Turns in Prayer

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” – Isaiah 55:8-9

David thought he’d really had it this time. He was running for his life from his own son, Absalom, who was leading a coup to overthrow David. So what did he do? He turned to God–but not, at first, in the way we might expect.

In the first two verses of Psalm 3, David writes, “Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.’” David sounds overwhelmed and scared. He feels surrounded by his enemies, he hears his critics saying, “God will not deliver him”—and David seems to be thinking that maybe they’re right. Maybe God won’t save him this time.

Sounds like a strange prayer from a man after God’s own heart, doesn’t it? So tell me: Is David sinning in these first two verses? Is it a sin for him to be afraid, to wonder if the pessimists around him are right? I don’t think so. But his perspective needs to turn. His faith in God needs to be strengthened. You could even say David needs to repent.

That may seem like an odd choice of words. But you see, most of us have a very narrow understanding of repentance. We may tend to toss up a prayer that sounds something like this: “Lord, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive me! In Jesus’ name, amen!” Well, nice try … but that’s not repentance.

The word “repent” means to change your mind, and it always leads to a change in your behavior. So, whenever you think of the word “repent,” immediately think, “change.” True repentance involves a change in your thinking. A change in your priorities. A change in your decision-making. And that adds up to a change in your behavior. To say it another way, repentance is a turning. When we repent, our thoughts turn from something old to something new. As a result, our behavior turns from one course of action to another. That’s why I like to describe repentance as a spiritual U-turn. Repentance is a 180 – a spiritual U-turn that always includes a turning FROM and a turning TO.

Now, let’s get back to David. As he prays in Psalm 3, notice the change that happens in verses 3 and 4: “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.”

Do you see how prayer changes David? He goes to God with his finite thoughts and his finite ways, then takes hold of God’s higher thoughts and God’s higher ways, and it’s absolutely transformational. In the words given to us through the prophet Isaiah: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” 

You see, true repentance arises from a deep-seated conviction that God’s thoughts are always higher than our thoughts, and His ways are always higher than our ways. So, from a broader perspective, repentance is not just for the times when we sin and turn to God for forgiveness. As we go to God in prayer, whether or not there is unconfessed sin in our lives, repentance is a re-aligning of our priorities with God’s priorities, a re-aligning of our ways with God’s ways. And isn’t this, in a very real sense, the heart of prayer?

There are certain things God will not do unless we pray for Him to do them. So our prayers do move God, and prayers do change God’s actions. But even more so, prayer changes US. We go into prayer thinking one way, and we should leave prayer thinking another. Effective prayer changes our thoughts. We go into prayer behaving a certain way, and we should leave prayer behaving differently. Effective prayer changes our behavior.

Prayer changed David. And it will change you, too, if you are absolutely convinced the God’s thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and His ways are higher than yours. So, go to Him humbly in prayer. Confess your sins to him. Grieve over your sin, and turn. If you are ready for God to change you, He will change you … for the better. That’s a promise.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 am.

The Power of Praise

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

These verses from 1 Thessalonians are three of the shortest in the New Testament. But they hold an important key to unlocking the door of life-changing prayer. Whether our circumstances are good, bad or ugly, God calls us to give thanks. And as we work to strengthen our prayer lives in this new year, I’d like to share three reasons praise is so powerful.

#1: Praise helps us fulfill our destiny. Did you know that God created you to praise Him? It’s true. To quote the wise philosopher Darth Vader, “It is … your destiny.” Praise is one of the main purposes for which you were created. The Bible tells us that creation itself praises God: “The wild animals honor Me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:20a). If even wild animals can honor God in their own wordless way, we have so much more reason to do so! “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Why did God choose us to be saved, bring us into His holy nation and into His eternal family? There were several reasons, but don’t miss this one: God saved us so that we can truly praise Him in a way that we could never praise Him before we were saved. And so, when we who are followers of Christ withhold our praises from God, we are forsaking one of the main reasons He saved us. Let’s don’t squander this privilege.

#2: Praise is a weapon to break spiritual strongholds outside us. Maybe you’ve never thought of praise as a weapon. But it can be a very powerful one. Look at what happened in Acts 16, when Paul and Silas were praising God in the Philippian jail after being stripped, beaten and fastened into stocks. As they were praying and singing hymns to God, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose” (Acts 16:26).

There is power in praise. Spiritual strongholds outside us can be broken through praise and thanks. When everyone in your family is down in the dumps, there is power in praising God. Your praise can transform their doom-and-gloom perspectives. When you have a close encounter with pessimists who can only see the negative in their circumstances, your praise can help them see the silver lining. And when you’re in church, you never know how many people around you may be uplifted, encouraged and even set free by your praise.

#3: Praise is a weapon to break spiritual strongholds inside us. Your praise can not only transform others – it can also transform you. In 2 Chronicles, King Jehoshaphat learned that three enemy nations had merged their armies and were marching toward Jerusalem. This combined army was massive, so when Jehoshaphat found out about it he was terrified. But instead of panicking, he started praising—and called his men to do the same. “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise Him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army saying: ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for His love endures forever’” (2 Chronicles 6:21). The result? God set ambushes that caused the three armies to turn on each other. When Jehoshaphat and his men arrived at the scene, they found nothing but dead bodies.

Isn’t that awesome? As God’s people sang and praised God their own fears were calmed, their own anxieties were quieted, and their faith was emboldened. As an added bonus, as the people praised God, God’s Spirit was catapulted onto the battlefield, and He won the victory without His own people having to raise a single sword. Without a doubt, praise is a powerful weapon to break strongholds outside us AND to break strongholds inside us. So, whether you’re dealing with internal strongholds of fear, anxiety, anger, lust, jealousy or unforgiveness—whatever it is—praising God for who He is and thanking Him for what He’s done can transform you from the inside out.

Maybe you’re facing some impossible circumstance. You’ve tried EVERYTHING to fix it, and nothing has worked. Well, could it be that the Lord is whispering in your ear: “You haven’t tried everything. You haven’t tried praise. You haven’t praised Me in the midst of your storm. You haven’t thanked Me for your lousy circumstances. You haven’t released your circumstances to Me and trusted Me to handle them. So, start praising Me! Start thanking Me! Start trusting Me! And just watch what I will do.”

Dane Davis is the Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 am.