Acts 9
By Pastor Brad
Never In A Million Years
For some of us believers, that’s the way we view people. That person will never come to know Christ. Never in a million years!
Thinking back to my days as a junior on the high school varsity football team I can remember most of the guys, at least the popular ones. But there is actually one in particular. His name is Bernie. He was a great athlete, girls liked him (I think he knew that) and he was a nice guy. But I knew he wasn’t a believer. At least the things I saw and heard would lead me to believe that.
One of the traditions before every game would be the locker room prayer. The coach would tell us all to take a knee and then one of the guys would lead in a prayer. I remember that Bernie prayed a few times because he had attended Young Life meetings and I guess that made him eligible.
Now, for myself, I was a believer. I just shook my head every time in disbelief during those prayers. And as soon as we’d finish the prayer, the coach would say at the top of his lungs, “Alright, get out there and let’s kill ‘em.” I’m so glad he never called on me to pray because I was too afraid in front of the team. Not a very bold Christian you could say.
Fast forward about four years. Alaina and I were both in a singing group for Point Loma Nazarene University. We traveled during the summer singing at Nazarene camps and churches promoting the college. I remember pulling into the parking lot at a Nazarene church in Santa Barbara, CA and being greeted by the youth pastor.
My jaw dropped to the floor of the van as I told Alaina and the others, “We went to school together. I can’t believe he’s the youth pastor!” I later had the opportunity to visit with Bernie and he shared with me how he had turned his life over to Christ and how he became a youth pastor.
As you read today’s passage about the conversion of Saul, keep in mind the following excerpt from one of BibleGateway’s commentaries:
The most important event in human history apart from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus. If Saul had remained a Jewish rabbi, we would be missing thirteen of twenty-seven books of the New Testament and Christianity’s early major expansion to the Gentiles.
God used Paul in a mighty way to change the face of Christianity. Will you let God use you in a mighty way to make a difference in the world around you? Whether that’s here or on the other side of the globe.
Today, Bernie and his wife Rhonda and their two daughters, Hannah and Abigail, are Career Assignment missionaries for the Church of the Nazarene serving in the Mexico Central America (MAC) Regional Office in San Jose, Costa Rica.
