History has millions of stories of dramatic conversions! Nicky Cruz, whose story of transformation was told in Wilkerson's bestseller, The Cross and the Switchblade, was a New York street thug who became an evangelist for Christ. Saul, better known as Paul, was once the enemy of Christ. After having a vision of Jesus on the road to Damacus (Acts 9) he became the apostle to the world. At the end of the 19th century, a hard-drinking baseball player named Billy Sunday, met Christ and became a preacher whose fiery sermons helped to bring about Prohibition in 1918.
These men and millions of others - experienced that hard to describe life changing encounter with the Spirit of God of which Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John 3. “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8, NLT) The process defies explanation, but the results are obvious!
Even process differs from person to person. Some are quickly changed, almost overnight. I remember one young man that heard the story of Jesus and loved Him immediately. Scotty's drug habits and addiction to cigarettes were gone, right at that moment, and he is a fervent follower of Jesus to this day, nearly 20 years later. Others come more gradually into the Kingdom, discovering more and more about Jesus, the Light increasing in their life like the light of the sun gradually spreads over the earth at dawn.
One common thread is shared by all who are called to Christ - they were previously useless to the Kingdom, now they are useful! The little letter found in the New Testament in the book of Philemon is one of Paul's most 'human' missives. A slave named Onesimus somehow meets up with Paul while he is under house arrest in Rome. He had run away from the household of Philemon in Colossae and was hiding in the city. Paul knew the slave and his master, Philemon, a church leader from a time of early ministry. In fact, from the letter we can infer that Paul had been the means of Philemon's conversion. (I won’t mention that you owe me your very soul! 19)
So, he writes to Philemon, asking that he forgive Onesimus for running away, a crime punishable by death. More than forgive this hapless slave, Paul urges Philemon to accept him as a brother. In the middle of the letter, Paul makes a play on words that is lost on us as we read it in English. He says, "He was useless to you before; now he’s useful to both of us." (Philemon 11, The Message) The slave's name, Onesimus, means 'useful.' He was made useful, a man of great value, by coming to Christ. Paul does not mean this simply in the sense that he will be a better slave! He means that he is valuable in the work of the Kingdom. He is "no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord." (Philemon 16, NKJV)
Have you been converted? Have you met Christ, received the Spirit into your life, and experienced a transformation?
One way to know is to look at your life and ask, "Am I, once useless to God, now useful in His work?"
We cannot save ourselves by good work, but if we are truly converted, the evidence will be plain to see - useless, now useful!
Here's a word from the Word to think on today.
"God saved you by his special favor when you believed.
And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece.
He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:8-10, NLT)
Jerry D. Scott
www.WashingtonAG.com
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