We seem to live in an age which lusts after the miraculous and obsesses about the supernatural. In this way we can very easily ‘miss the wood for the trees’. When Jesus Christ walked this earth He healed the sick to such an extent that one wonders if He virtually rid Israel of sickness for a time. Today, while the Lord graciously answers our prayers, He has given us no guarantee that He will always heal people. However, what He has guaranteed is that He will do something infinitely more wonderful than merely heal a body; He will spiritually save a person who cries out to Him!
Saul of Tarsus was just such a man who called out for salvation, and ever after has become a show case for God’s mercy. Saul started out a very different kind of man. He would later write “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man”. In fact, being such a man he was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. It was at this point that Saul had the shock of his life and met the very person whom he passionately disbelieved in!
The Bible says- “As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting...
That must have been quite an encounter! But it was one that changed Saul’s life. That day Saul became a new man, with a new life and a new mission; to make Jesus known. In fact Saul even got a new name- Paul, the one who wrote much of the New Testament.
Near the end of his life Paul would write- “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life”
We see that Paul saw himself as ‘a pattern’, an example of how God could powerfully transform a life no matter how smashed and broken it might be. So today you can not only see a supernatural miracle, but you can BE ONE by humbly coming in faith to the life changer- Jesus Christ who still graciously meets people where ever they are at in life.
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