Beyond Conversion Marks
by Tim Isbell, 11/2017
After conversion to Christian faith, nobody follows Jesus perfectly. In this life, the best we can expect is for our heart to beat increasingly like Jesus' heart: with a deep love for God and others. In the process, God marks us with many of Jesus’ characteristics. This webpage offers my description of the marks. We bear some of God’s marks from birth and may add a few before conversion through willpower and human strategies. Beyond conversion, God accelerates the marking process as we repeatedly pass through his redemptive loop. A byproduct of these marks is to raise curiosity in the people living around us. Some become curious enough to ask about something different they see in us, providing an opportunity to share a snippet of the gospel.
The document embedded below is my list of God's marks on his people. I compiled it for three kinds of people:
People who want a preview of what their life might look like if they follow Jesus. Recently, someone said to me that they'd be interested in Christian faith if they were confident they wouldn't end up like some of the self-identified "Christians" in the news. That conversation prompted me to curate this list. If you like it, I hope you will consider following Jesus - because I'm confident that he will add several of these marks to your life.
People who already follow Jesus and want to know what is possible, not only for their own life but as a help when they are in spiritual conversations with people. I find these marks extremely useful in personal conversations with churched and unchurched people.
Pastors and Christian teachers who want a fresh tool. You can develop a lot of sermons from the intersection of the Beyond Conversion 1, 2, and 3 teachings plus this list of marks. Here's an example of a sermon I preached in August 2017.
Without leaving this webpage you can scroll and read the document below. But the best way to experience this material is to access the underlying document directly by clicking on Marks of Life Beyond Conversion. Then you can navigate the document rapidly using the links in the Table of Contents. And you can print all or parts of the document, download it in various formats, or copy it to your Google Drive (or any cloud drive) where you can edit it as much as you want. Then, it's your doc.
Blessings, Tim
