Before and After
Do you enjoy watching the house transformations that happen on TV shows that are on HGTV? I am amazed at how skilled people can take a run-down, falling apart house and change it into a renovated, useful, like-new home. But, to be honest, I don’t like watching the entire show.
If I can see the walk-through at the end of the show, I’m good. I know I can’t do the construction part of the work. So, watching others do the grunt work of renovating doesn’t do a lot for me. But, at the end when they show the before and after comparisons, I’m glued to the set. I’m amazed by the final product. Look at what that dilapidated house can become!
I’m so grateful that God does the same thing with people’s lives. He can take sin-filled, rebellious hearts and bring forgiveness for sin and healing for brokenness. The Bible has numerous examples of times when God stepped in and totally transforms someone from the inside out.
One prime example of that is found in the life of Saul. We first meet Saul in Acts 7:58. It says that while the angry mob was responding to the message of Stephen by killing him, the people laid their “coats” at the feet of a young man named Saul. So, our first glimpse of Saul in the Bible has him overseeing and applauding the killing of the first Christian martyr.
We get reacquainted with Saul in Acts 9 when when Saul receives permission from the High Priest to go to Damascus with the authority to arrest followers of Jesus. Saul sets out in an effort to damage if not eradicate this new movement of people following Christ.
But, along the way, something happens that changes Saul completely. Jesus shows up. The resurrected Christ appears to Saul and asks Saul why he is persecuting Jesus and His followers. Saul is shaken to the very core of his being. He is convicted and overwhelmed. He is stricken blind by God.
God sends a follower of Jesus by the name of Ananias to Saul to pray for him and share about Jesus. Ananias, though a little concerned because of Saul’s ruthless reputation, obeys and goes. Ananias prays for Saul and God totally transforms him. Saul is saved. He is filled with the Holy Spirit. He can see again. And he begins a new trajectory in life as a follower of Jesus.
Since he proclaims the gospel mainly to Greeks (Gentiles), we know him by his Greek name…Paul. God uses Paul in mighty ways. God inspires him to write part of the New Testament. All of this is possible because God totally changed Paul’s life. As Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story.”
God still does that today. Have you been changed by God? Does your before/after display the power of God in you?
(Responses/questions? jeff.perkins@mbclife.org)