“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
“In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me.., ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision… To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying.” (Acts 26:9-19,22)
Paul’s defense to King Agrippa detailed his spiritual transformation. The bold persecutor for death became brave purveyor of life, the strict Pharisee became preacher of grace, the guilty was declared innocent. All Saul was, when arrested by God, changed, for Him and His kingdom purposes. The Creator recreated His child to exemplify new creation. (Acts 20:18-21,24,26-27; 22:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17)
Man is prone to making excuses for sin, blaming everything we cannot change. My sloth, temper, worry, lying are just the way I am and can’t be helped. But when we renounce it, God saves us, replacing the heart of stone with flesh, beginning the process of sanctification, and calling us to accountability. What we were no longer has a hold on who He’s called us now to be. His Spirit reworks impulses, affections, and ways of thinking, yet as spiritual cowards we coddle what we’ve always known. (Ezekiel 36:26)
What am I blaming for ugly attitudes and behavior? Where am I lazy, frozen in past sinful habit and mindset? What truths about salvation will I claim this day in order to say no to what was, and yes to Christ? (Romans 6:1-7,11-14; Philippians 3:12-15)
“O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.” ~Robert Robinson (1758)
Lord, help me live out vibrantly, faithfully and effectively my changed life, to Your glory.
As the rain and snow 