The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, 2015Mfano

Can a Leopard Change it Spots?

Darrell Tunningley started using drugs at the age of eleven. By sixteen he was selling large quantities. He became a ‘debt collector’, on one occasion using a petrol grass strimmer on the soles of the feet of someone who owed £300.

Aged seventeen Darrell took part in an armed robbery. He was arrested and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. While inside, he did Alpha. He prayed, ‘God if you’re real, prove it. Take away my drug addiction, take away all this anger that’s inside me. If you do that for me I’ll live the rest of my life for you.’

When he woke up the next morning he picked up a cigarette as usual, but the thought of touching it made him feel physically sick. He threw it out of the cell window. He got his tobacco and threw that out of the window. He took his drugs and threw them out of the window too. Then he stopped feeling sick.

When Darrell looked in the mirror he didn’t recognise the reflection because he was smiling – not just smiling, but beaming. Since that day he hasn’t touched drugs. He hasn’t smoked. He hasn’t got drunk. He hasn’t been in a fight.

He started running Alpha in the prison. Hundreds of people came. Prison officers came to him for advice and counselling. When he left prison he became the assistant at a local church run by a pastor, Mark Finch. He married Mark’s daughter, Rebekah, and they now have two children.

When I interviewed Darrell I asked him what difference Jesus has made. He replied, ‘I don’t say this lightly, I really do mean it, he [Jesus] is more important to me than the air I’m breathing.’ He says, ‘Now he’s my everything. He’s my lifeline, he’s my strength. He’s everything. I couldn’t live without him and everything I do is through him and for him. My life wouldn’t be the way it is if he wasn’t exactly who he said he was.’ Darrell’s life was totally changed because Jesus set him free from his addictions, his anger, and the sin that was destroying his life.

Is it possible for you to change? One of the most difficult things in the world is to break from a bad habit or to give up sin. In one of today’s passages Jeremiah asks, ‘Can a leopard change its spots?’ (Jeremiah 13:23).

Psalm 118:1-16

1. Changed by God’s help

Are you fearful about what other people think or say about you? Are you worried about what they might do to you – that they might treat you unfairly or reject you?

You need to realise how big God is and how small your problems are in comparison with his power. The psalmist gives thanks to the Lord because of his great love (vv.1–4). He writes, ‘In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free' (v.5).

Freedom gives us a new perspective on life. The psalmist turns to God, knowing he can be relied on no matter what: ‘God’s now on my side and I’m not afraid: who would dare lay a hand on me? God’s my strong champion; I flick off my enemies like flies’ (vv.6–7, MSG).

The rest of the passage then tells of the ways in which the psalmist has experienced God’s help (vv.10–12), before he turns his thoughts to thankfulness and song. Praise God today that, like the psalmist, you can say: ‘The Lord is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation’ (v.14).

Lord, thank you so much for your amazing love for me. Thank you that when I cry out to you, you answer me and set me free. Thank you that you are always with me, and that you are my helper, my strength, my salvation and my song.

Colossians 2:6-23

2. Changed by Jesus

Sometimes we can be tempted to overcomplicate our faith. It can appear that if you want to be part of the ‘spiritual elite’ there are various extra things you need to understand or do. Paul challenges this kind of false teaching head on.

All you need is Jesus. It is not a matter of adding anything to Jesus, but rather of living out what you already have in him: ‘You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught’ (vv.6–7a, MSG).

Paul warns the Colossians against the false teachers who try to dazzle them with their ‘big words and intellectual double talk’ (v.8, MSG). ‘You don’t need a telescope, a microscope or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything’ (vv.9–10, MSG).

In the immediate context, Paul was telling his readers that they had no need to be circumcised. He explains that they have already been circumcised – not ‘by human hands’ but ‘with the circumcision done by Christ’ (v.11). Those who have been baptised do not need to be circumcised (v.12). Baptism symbolises something even more amazing than circumcision: death and resurrection.

You are in Christ. Therefore when Jesus died you died in him. When Jesus was buried you were buried with him – and when he rose from the dead you rose with him (v.12). This is how you got rid of your sinful nature – ‘putting off of the sinful nature’ (v.11). It died with Christ and was buried with him. ‘When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive – right along with Christ!’ (v.13, MSG).

Understand and think about the amazing victory of Jesus on the cross. ‘All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets’ (vv.13–15, MSG).

In the ancient world, triumphs over hated enemies were celebrated with public spectacles (v.15). The spoils of war were brought back, often consisting of a long line of prisoners whom they had disarmed, and at the end of the line would be the king of the nation that had been defeated. The king would then be executed.

Jesus has done it all. You don’t need to add anything. ‘So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services or holy days’ (v.16, MSG). All you need is Christ ‘who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us’ (v.19 MSG).

Lord Jesus, thank you that as you hung on the cross for me and for the entire human race, in your apparent defeat you actually triumphed over all the powers and authorities of this dark world. Thank you that you set us free from sin, addiction and death. Help us never again to allow anyone or anything to take us captive.

Jeremiah 11:18-13:27

3. Changed by testing

Don’t be afraid of pressure. Pressure is what transforms a lump of coal into a diamond. Life can be seen as a series of tests. We test things by putting them under pressure. Physical muscles grow through being put under pressure. God is more interested in how your heart and mind grow when they are tested; he tests ‘the heart and mind’ (11:20).

God is not impressed by what we say we will do – he is impressed by what we do when we’re put under pressure. Progress in life and in ministry happens when we are tried and tested, and we pass the test. Jeremiah was tested. He had the unenviable task of warning people that they were about to go into exile – ‘the Lord’s flock will be taken captive’ (13:17).

As a result, he was very unpopular and under constant attack. In this passage we read that God revealed one of the plots against him (11:18–19). He turned to God for help: ‘To you I have committed my cause … I bring a case before you’ (12:20,1).

God warned him that even worse was to come: ‘So, Jeremiah, if you’re worn out with this footrace with men, what makes you think you can race against horses? ’ (v.5, MSG).

Jeremiah calls the people to change their ways. He says, ‘Can a leopard get rid of its spots? So what are the odds on you doing good, you who are so long-practiced in evil?’ (13:23).

It is hard to change. It is difficult to pass the test. But the New Testament tells us that change is possible through Jesus. Darrell Tunningley’s life is just one example of how this is still being worked out today. A leopard can change its spots.

Lord, help us when we are tried and tested to rise to the challenge. Thank you that it is possible to change through your help and by the power of the victory of Jesus on the cross. Thank you for the transformation in Darrell’s life. May our lives too be transformed and may we continue to proclaim Jesus and his power to change us.

Pippa Adds

Psalm 118:7

‘The Lord is with me; he is my helper.’

It’s a busy day. I’m dependent on his help and presence with me today.

Notes:

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.