Devotion: J U N E 9

Transformed By the Word of God

Scripture: Romans 13:14
Topics:

In the 19th Century a famous skeptic in England challenged a noted minister to a debate. The minister said he would gladly involve himself in this debate under one condition: that the skeptic would bring with him two people who could testify that the teachings of this skeptic had bettered their lives. The minister said he would bring 100 people who would testify that what he had taught had bettered and transformed their lives. The skeptic withdrew from the debate because he said he could not meet the condition.

Mel Trotter, an inveterate drunkard in Chicago, squandered money on alcohol rather than meeting the needs of his family. He came home one day to find his family famished from lack of food and his little son dead of malnutrition and neglect. What did he do? Though his heart was broken, he was so constrained and in bondage to alcohol he took the baby shoes off his little son and sold them for another drink. Having gotten that drink, he was so overwhelmed with remorse that he determined to throw himself into Lake Michigan and end it all. On the way to the lake, he heard, coming from a mission in one of the worst parts of Chicago, the glorious story of love of Jesus Christ for sinners. Mel Trotter became a new creature in Christ, resulting in the establishment of 56 missions around the United States for derelicts such as he had been. The Word of God changes lives.

Dear God, thank You that You can do the miraculous. Thank You that one of the greatest miracles of all is the transformation of the human heart. Change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Thank You, Jesus, for changing us from the inside out…

"BY HIS STRENGTH, WE ARE TROPHIES OF GOD’S GRACE."