Is Anything Impossible for God?

Sin uproots human beings, annihilates them while they are still alive, and locks them in the prison of foolishness and in the obstinacy of fighting for nothing. Believing that he can take life by the horns like a bull and aspiring to conquer it through the force of his desires for success and fanfare, man walks toward his own destruction

, toward eternal death. The obstinacy of turning sin into an addiction leads him into a dead end. Even while flaunting paper titles and awards, man remains ignorant of divine things. God has not qualified us to judge such ignorance. Before passing a judgment that is not ours to make, we must love them. Is that not what the first commandment Jesus left us says? God has not given us permission to judge our neighbor; instead, He gave us a commandment that we seldom apply to our own lives: to love our neighbor as ourselves.

There is an old saying that goes, “A tree that grows crooked never straightens its trunk.” As if anything were impossible for God! Those who believe such things do not know the power of the Holy Spirit; they have not experienced firsthand, in themselves or in others, the indescribable abundance of God’s grace.

Yes, Brother Jeremiah, the Ethiopian of our times can change his spiritual skin when he is reconciled to God. Christ bleaches men with His holiness, clothes them in clean garments, whitens the blackness of the heart hardened by sin, bathes them in the grace flowing from His springs of mercy, and straightens their twisted roots of iniquity. How many times have we ignored the power of God, condemning a person by denying them the right to hear the gospel from our lips? On how many occasions have we made ourselves judges and assumed that “the trees that grew crooked” will never be receptive to the message of salvation? Christ is irresistible, and we have proof of it.

God can change the Ethiopian’s skin; He has the power to make a new creature out of nothing. Christ is much more than Lord and Savior. He is life, and He imparts it so that we may live it with Him. I have seen many Ethiopians (and leopards) reputed to have hardened hearts—poets, “snake charmers,” military personnel, professors, doctors, and even the “teachers of the law” of our day—broken by the power of the gospel, crying out for God’s mercy upon their lives. That is the grace of God, which looks upon man in his sinful condition, humbled by the work of the Holy Spirit, who regenerates repentant hearts. At the cross there is enough room to mend hearts (to find comfort), and a workshop full of grace to make them new.

Is there an Ethiopian in your family who has not surrendered to the Lord so that He may change their skin and make them a new creature? How many leopards do you know who prefer to continue displaying their spots, proudly strutting about in their sins, and refuse to take a step of faith by surrendering themselves to Christ? Surely you are thinking of some of them right now—an opportunity for you, at this very moment, to commend them to the saving grace of our Lord. For Him, there are no Ethiopians or leopards capable of resisting the call to surrender their souls, minds, wills, and feelings.

Christ is not only able to straighten the trunks that grew crooked or that a disorderly life twisted along the way; He makes new trees. I was a crooked trunk, like so many others, and my natural skin is also like that of the Ethiopians, but the Lord drew me with cords of love. And although I am still very far from the goal, He gave my soul a new color and made me aware that, in order to live in Christ, I must allow Him to live His life through me. I am striving to do that, and I invite you to meditate on it with your eyes fixed on Christ, the only One who can lead you to the cross so that your old sinful self may die forever. There at the cross are new cisterns filled with the fresh waters of eternal life, which will not only change your Ethiopian skin but will also crown your surrender with His blessings. Speak to the Ethiopian beside you; love him as you love yourself!

God bless you!