Is your life changed?

Are you living the same way today that you lived before God became a part of your everyday life? I hope not. I hope that the love of Jesus has infiltrated you in such a way that you are different. Not just on the inside, but on the outside too. I hope that you are a shining example of God's love. I know people who are like this. I'm not sure if I should name names or not, so I guess I won't. But there is this elderly lady at my church who u can almost SEE God shining off of her. She is just so 'THERE'. I want to be there! I want people to be drawn in to me to see His gloriousness. What a testament that would be , don't you think? You almost wouldn't even have to say anything, God would just eminate from you. I guess when we are in heaven we will be like this, but I want to try to live like this now. Yes, there have been times where people around me have "picked up on" the fact that I was a Christian and maybe didn't do or say the things others did. But yet there are other times when I know I wasn't a good example of what a Christian should be. For example, one time while working I was in the attached garage to our office and I accidentally slammed my thumb in the car door. I (unfortunately) yelled out the loudest most vulgar curse word I know, then gritted my teeth in pain and finished my job. HOWEVER, my employee came running back to see if I was ok. That meant that he AND his customer had heard me. (How sad-what a sorry example I was setting). I was very disturbed this had happened, not so much that I had let my flesh (and words of my past) take over, but that in doing so I had just possibly broken the positive example I had been setting for this employee up to this point. I know he was a Christian as well, and although we didn't talk about our faith outright, we had 'noticed' the kinsmanship I guess u would call it, in each other. I was also his mentor to a degree (as well as his boss) so I was trying to teach him not only to be successful in our business but to do it with a Godly intent. On this day, all that seemed like it had shattered with that one word from my mouth. Now I don't know for sure how much this affected him. But I know if affected me. I know I was not setting a good example. So I share this to enlighten. If we make a stronger effort to put the past behind us and move forward in our walk with God, eventually God will talk to us and tell us what things from our past are not necessary or maybe good, for our future. Like our language, or the movies we see, or the books we read, or even the company we keep. God in fact 'convicted' me (there's a church term for ya) of Danielle Steele romance novels. I used to be addicted to those things. I had every one ever printed on my shelf and the moment a new came out I bought it and read it immediately. Shortly after I let God into my life I realized I really didn't need any of the new books coming out, and I didn't need to keep the old books I had. It wasn't that romance was bad. It was that in EVERY one of those books there was some form of premarital sex or emotional and/or physical adultery. God had showed me that this wasn't right. Up until that point I didn't know that it was necessarily 'wrong' (can u imagine?! I thought it was ok!). But in today's society, it really ISN'T thought of as THAT wrong! That's why we see it on almost every tv show from Friends to CSI. That was just something He showed me. I'm sure he'll show you different things. But if and when He does show you something (you may start to lose interest in it, or you may become more aware of the transgressions that before didn't seem to affect you, or you simply realize its not right and you don't want it a part of your life anymore), then I pray that you will listen and take heed. Make the adjustments necessary to change your life to live it more fully to honor God. I personally won't go see or watch a movie that involves adultery any more if I know its in there, because the movie loses all validity for me when the characters are doing something that God has spoken so strongly to me about. I don't want to support that storyline with my money, so I won't see it. Not everybody is going to have the same convictions I have, but that just happens to be one of mine so I shared it. Like I said earlier, I just hope that whatever God does tell you, you listen. A changed life, is proof that our commitment to God is real. Just like when you got married, you committed to your spouse and quit dating other people. Well, a committment to God will often cause changes in our life as well.