My reflections on the life of Saul who became Paul, the
greatest missionary ever of the early Christian church rise once again to the
surface as I reflect on the recent terrorist acts and martyrdom of my Egyptian Christian
brothers now revealing their graphic and very brutal deaths.
The Message writes about Ananias who had a vision from the
Master, Acts 9:13-14 Ananias protested, “Master, you can’t be
serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been
doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown
up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same
to us.”
Saul was the most feared terrorist of Christians in those
early days and Jesus Christ showed up and stopped him dead in his tracks. He was blinded by the light of the glorious
Gospel and it changed him forever. He
had a visitation in a moment that changed the course of his life forever. Once a man so bent on eradicating the people
of the Cross, he became the greatest proponent of the Way. God saw his radical commitment to faith and
turned what once hatred for everything Jesus and put a burning passion in Him
for a new way of obtaining righteousness.
He went through a name change and Saul who now became Paul was ready to
go to hell if it meant more people could experience life with Christ. He was radical for what he believed to be the
pure and holy way of truth through Judaism and it’s laws to being radical to
justification by faith alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
I can’t help but echo the prayer that was recently portrayed
by video from the “People of the Cross’
and pray that God will reveal Himself in such powerful ways
that they will not be able to deny the vision and the revelation that they will
receive to turn the most radically opposed to Jesus into His greatest
followers.
God can change people in a moment of breakthrough. We must pray for radical revelation and it
has been so awesome to see it happen with people who attend church at the
Manor. God has turned the life of people
who many would think were the farthest from the gospel and they now are
baptized and followers of Jesus. They
share with us of radical revelation and angelic visits, God revealing to them
how He was with them through some of the most brutal times of their growing up
years.
They have amazing joy, they make
us laugh and they are simply amazing. It
is a joy to journey with them. We just celebrated Bobby's baptism on Sunday April 19th at www.ercf.ca
