Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome back to Biblit!
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This week’s passage once again starts with an amazing conversion, but ends with 2 powerful images of the different trials we Christians face every day.
Let’s jump into some application points on how we might see this today!
Lessons Learned from Saul’s Conversion
The big key points I take away from Saul’s conversion are these:
Sincerity in our faith doesn’t save us if we don’t believe in Jesus
When we build our own gods, taking whatever characteristics of God make us feel “good” then we aren’t truly putting faith in Christ.
But when we put our faith in Christ, and start a relationship with him, so we are known by him, then we are saved.
To know Jesus requires some kind of humble surrender
We were once in darkness, as Paul later puts it. We all once were bound to our own prideful human desires and plans. But when we meet Jesus, we put aside our human desires and we humbly come to Christ, realizing we can’t save ourselves.
And the reality is, that same humility is something I continue to work on.
I still can’t do anything alone. No matter how good a planner I think I am, I can never out plan God’s plans.
It always works better to just follow His plan for my life and rely on Him for guidance instead of myself. The hard part is that it requires a lot of trust and a lot of patience. God often works in generations, not days or hours like we often want him to.
Conversion to Jesus gives our life a brand new purpose: share the gospel.
Too many Christians get caught up in the different minutia of theology: predestination, Biblical evolution theories, etc etc.
Yet, they spend all their time arguing with other Christians and ignoring the whole mission we are set out on: to share the gospel with those that don’t know Christ.
We have all eternity to learn more about the workings of God, but we only have a mere 80 or so years to share the gospel.
Saul’s Trials
I think a key takeaway from Acts as a whole is that as Christians, we should know and expect opposition.
We should know and expect that the world’s standards and cultures are contrary to what we are trying to share.
We should expect the world to fight back when we share the truth.
The key takeaway from today’s passage is that in order to keep sharing the gospel boldly, we need to continuously pray for boldness.
Are you praying for the boldness to share the gospel each and every day? I know I for one am not and I know I need to.
Peter’s Trials
Lastly, what group of people are you discriminating against?
Take some time to think about it. Everyone needs the gospel, no matter what sin they are in, no matter their background, they all need it.
We all need it.
Are you turned off when you encounter same-sex couples, cross dressers, people with opposite political beliefs, Muslim families, rich people, drug addicts, or fill in the blank?
I know I for one get very angry at many of the different cultures and society norms we see thriving today.
But God didn’t call us to get angry and judge. He is the only judge.
And until the day of judgment, these people have a chance to know Jesus. So drop whatever thoughts you have about whatever group it is that rubs you the wrong way. It’s not about you and it never was.
It’s all about Jesus. Just get over yourself and share Him with whoever crosses your path.
This doesn’t mean we tolerate sin or stay silent, but it does mean that when we call out sin, we do it with a gentle love as Jesus did.
It means that we first share the love of Christ, because only through His power alone will someone be convicted to drop a sinful lifestyle, pick up the cross, and follow Jesus.
Here is a crazy story I recently learned that I’ll leave us with:
Gandhi almost became a Christian. Did you know that?
He hated the caste system in India and thought the Christian beliefs seemed to solve all the issues they had.
However, when he tried to go to church he was turned away, with the elders telling him to go worship with his own people.
After being dismissed based on the way he looked, he realized that the Christian church was just the same as the horrible caste system he was trying to escape.
So he figured why change from one caste system to another and decided to just stay Hindu.
Can you imagine if Gandhi had become a believer in Christ? If all his writings about peace that people quote to this day were actually about Jesus?
Imagine the impact he could have had if those Christians could have dropped their discrimination and shared the gospel like Jesus commanded them to.