As I stated last week, fall is my favorite season. With all the brilliant colors, warm days and chilly nights, bonfires, and such…you know that FALL IS HERE! There is something special about this season. There is no season, in my opinion, that has the sharpest of change in our environment than fall.

    

The same should be said of Christians. There should be something so distinctively different about us that the world takes notice and says, “A Christian is among us.” For the month of October, we will look at four of the many signs that screams “Christians are here!” through the acronym of FALL. Last week, we noted that the F stands for FELLOWSHIP! This week, we look at the letter “A” for AWE.

 

Acts 2:43 says, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of AWE; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles” (emphasis mine). Everyone, not just the disciples or those who followed Christ, but everyone – saints and sinners alike – kept having this sense of reverent awe at what was happening right before their eyes.

 

Albert Barnes, biblical commentator, says (and I am paraphrasing)… That the mass of people who had been picking and ridiculing the disciple earlier were now reverently humbled, amazed, and speechless at the unleashed power of God. Why? Because their lives were so dramatically changed by the grace of God that the opponents of Christianity were silenced in their opposition of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

 

As I said earlier, there should be something so distinctively different about us that the world takes notice and says, “A Christian is among us.” Our lives should be so radically different after encountering Jesus that the world’s opposition to Christians is silenced.

 

Yet the noise of opposition still clamors around us. Maybe because we don’t bear the marks of a truly regenerated fellowship of believers. You see, as the brilliant colors, warm days and cool nights, bonfires, apple cider and the such scream FALL IS HERE, so should the signs of spiritual regeneration be so distinct that they scream, A CHRISTIAN IS AMONG US!

 

Many people wear the title “Christ-follower” but their lives do not resemble that inward change. Bad attitudes, unforgiving spirits, unwholesome practices, neglect of the Word and prayer are just a few of the questionable practices that show the world no true change. The Bible says that when we genuinely turn to Christ, “…the old is gone and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

Fall is a season of dramatic change. The world knows this because they can see and sense the amazing change. Can the same be said of us? The world should know we are Christ-followers because there has been a dramatic change in our lives.