“To Serve And Testify”
“Indeed,
I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus
of Nazareth. And that is what I did in Jerusalem;
with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of
the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being
condemned to death. By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to
force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I
pursued them even to foreign cities.”
“With
this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus
with the authority and commission of the chief priests, when at midday along
the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun,
shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I
heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ I asked, ‘Who are you,
Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand
on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to
serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me, and to those in
which I will appear to you. I will rescue 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, so that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith
in me.’”
Acts 26:9-18
Every
believer has a unique story of how they came to Christ, and why. Each journey
will be different. Some have been saved out of a life of drugs and immorality.
Others have been church attenders who came to Christ
after years of biblical instruction.
Conversions
vary. The apostle Paul had a crisis encounter with the Savior that turned him
from a persecutor into a preacher of the gospel. In contrast, Timothy was
quietly nurtured in the Scriptures from early childhood, resulting in his
salvation experience. No two faith journeys are identical. But each has the
common element of turning to the Lord Jesus in faith to be saved from sin and
to receive a new heart.
Can you retrace the steps that God helped you take in coming
to Christ?
What’s your story?
We need more than a new start – we need a new heart!
Our Daily Bread – September 15, 2008