Change Your World

These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

Acts 17:6

Quick—name five Christians who literally changed the world by their presence (or, as young people might say, five Christians who “rocked their world”). Think about Martin Luther and the Reformation, John Wesley and holiness, William Wilberforce and slavery, C. S. Lewis and apologetics, and Billy Graham and evangelism. None of these men set out to change the world; they set out to obey God one step at a time.

That could also be said of the man who, besides Jesus Christ, was the greatest world-changer in history—the apostle Paul. Ironically, Paul set out to keep his world from being changed. He was content with being a Pharisee—keeping the Law and making sure others did too. He didn’t like the changes the itinerant preacher Jesus of Nazareth was proposing. But when confronted by Jesus in all His glory, Paul’s world was changed—and the whole world was changed as well.

What does it take to impact your part of the world, or the whole world, for Christ? If we use Paul as an example, we would have to say unreserved obedience. Jesus told Paul to take the Gospel to the Gentile world, and that’s exactly what he did.

What has God directed you to do? Remember, your world has to change before you can change the world.