Can We Change?
The Subscription Club Room By Thomas Rowland
We have a room full of men and all are part of the same club but obviously in various states of agreement. Rowlandson has a gift for painting faces full of expression reflecting inside emotions.
There is a cast of characters in this room representing the respectable, the indulgent, the opinionated, the exasperated, the bored, the angry, the sleepy, and the frightened. Conspicuously absent is the kind, the compassionate, the peaceful, and the happy. As you look around the room some are fat and indulgent, others look almost derelict. The man standing in the far back looks like a risen corpse.
What can we make of this strange painting? Without God man is left to his own devices. Every man is born in sin and they will go in that direction unless they respond to God's love poured out for them in His son Jesus.
A roomful of men and women without God is a picture of Hell. It's a roomful of striving, opinionated, arguing, shouting, resentful, exasperated people. When this scene in the subscription club room is duplicated in the home then it becomes a daily hell without God and without hope.
Now, if even one man has the Lord Jesus filling his heart there can be a difference. Where God is even the worst of men have the possibility to change. Change is possible because while we were yet sinners (expressing our opinions in the subscription club room) Christ died for us. He has made it possible for all men to change.
If you are part of a hell on earth situation you do not have to stay a part of it. When Jesus is invited to make his home in your heart through His Holy Spirit you will have the power and grace to change.