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The perennial statement: “I need to go on a diet.”

Not sure if you’ve said this before.  If you’ve never, congrats.  You’re either a hunk or a hottie.

But to the ‘average’ person like us, we’ve said this time and time again.

Thus, the invention of ‘lite’ foods – Coke light, Breyers light, Mayo lite, Coffee Mate light, Spam light, Tuna chunks light plus all the other products you can think of.

Even iPad apps have them – from Angry Birds lite to Fitness lite.

Their tagline?
Same flavor; less filling.
Great taste; less ingredients.

But we carry that over, unfortunately to our life with Christ.

Same flavor; less filling.  Great experience; less ingredients.

Jesus just becomes one of the ingredients of our week – 1 cup of work, 2 teaspoons of friends, 5 pints of family plus a dash of Jesus to cover all bases.

No wonder why we see ‘lite’ transformation… ‘lite’ lifechange … ‘lite’ adjustment … in our lives.

Same person; just different packaging.

Now we to church.  We carry a Bible around.  We say the right words like ‘Praise God’ and ‘God is good’ (‘all the time’).

But after peeling off the veneer, it’s the same rotten, depraved, lost person.

Jesus doesn’t want to just be one of the ingredients in your near perfect life.  When He comes in, He takes over.  He is not just Savior (to get us out of the mess we got ourselves into).  He is LORD.  And that means boss, in charge and the One who calls the shots.

When we surrender our lives to Christ, we die … so that He can live in us and through us.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

In the first ever UFC match in Genesis, we see Jacob wrestling with God.

God asked him, “What is your name?” (Gen. 32:27)

Did God not know his name?  Absolutely not for God knows everything.  The question was not for Him but more for Jacob.

Jacob had to acknowledge who he was… “Jacob” means heel grabber, deceiver, a cheat.

When Jacob finally recognized who he really was, then and only then that God was able to do something to transform him.

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

It is when we reconcile with who we really are, acknowledge our weakness and sinfulness, that God is able to step in and bring transformation and change.

“Your name will no longer be…”

I can’t get over how one “small thing” is making a difference in the lives of many.

This morning, in our Metro Manila Staff Meeting, Lynn Nawata who is the Executive Director of Real Life Foundation shared what happened last Sunday.

Joshua Suarez ran 102 kilometers during the “Death March/Life March” and in the process raised 130,000 pesos for Real Life’s Scholarship Fund.  People gave 1,000 pesos for every kilometer he ran.  But since more than 102 people wanted to give, the money raised reached 130,000.00.  Imagine how many high school and college students are helped through this.

I love what Lynn shared from the book, “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns.

“We, as Christians, can look at our broken world, shrug our shoulders, and say, “That’s just the way things are.”  Or we can instead embrace a vision of what could be – if we’d each pitch in.  Isn’t it better to light a candle than curse the darkness?  And what could be accomplished if we lit not one candle but many?  The light of even one challenges the gloom, but the light of a million could obliterate it.”

One can make a difference – as each in unison determine to work together for a common goal.