Good Morning Friends,
“For you have heard of my previous way of
life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to
destroy it.” (Galatians 1:13)
The Apostle Paul is a clear example of the
truth that a person doesn’t have to stay the way he is. Change is possible
through the intervention and the power of God!
Think of the worst enemy of the church that
you can imagine from the modern era. Perhaps the person who comes to mind is
Madeline Murray Ohare from a few years back. Or perhaps you are immediately
drawn to Osama Bin Laden. We can’t imagine Ohare in any way other than as an
avowed atheist who is fighting with every ounce of energy she has to defeat the
church of Jesus Christ. We can’t imagine Bin Laden in any way other than as a
militant Muslim with such hatred for America and for Christians that he would
mastermind something as hideous as September 11th.
For the Christians of the early church, the
pre-Christian Paul was someone with a reputation similar to Ohare or Bin Laden.
He hated the church of Jesus Christ and the Christians. He sought with every
ounce of energy that he had to destroy it. He stood by, giving his approval,
while Stephen was stoned to death. He sought permission from the leaders of the
Jewish people to arrest Christians, especially their leaders, and even to
execute them.
But Paul didn’t stay an enemy of the church. God
had a plan and purpose for Paul’s life that wasn’t as someone outside the
church. God’s plan and purpose for Paul was to be brought into the kingdom of
God, to be radically changed by the power of the gospel, and to be a messenger
of the gospel to others. And God intervened in Paul’s life to confront him with
his sin and with the truth of the gospel – and Paul embraced Jesus and was
transformed by the power of the gospel.
Paul is not the only example of a radical
change in a person’s life by God’s power. You know of people in our own time
who have experienced the same kind of radical change. Perhaps you are one of
those whose life God has transformed by His intervention and His power.
Consider the people around you who do not
embrace Jesus, His message and His kingdom. Remember that they are not beyond
God’s power to change them. And God may have plans for you to be one of the
instruments that He uses as a channel for His message to them. They don’t have
to stay the way they are!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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