God uses many avenues and channels to meet people: – whether going to Peter along the sea, or to a woman by the well, or to Nicodemus at night, or to Zacchaeus in his home. The scriptures don’t prescribe a one-size-fits-all experience to the Christian faith. If they did, I know I would probably fail the test. I didn’t have a dramatic call or conversion to Christ like Paul. No, it was more like a growing awareness that God’s grace was real and that there were people who communicated and demonstrated that grace to me over time. I was loved into the kingdom, so to speak! It wasn’t spectacular, but it was life-turning.
What about you?
I don’t believe there is only one way to experience the risen Christ. Instead, what we need to see is how such experience is always followed by faithfulness, by displaying the fruit of the Holy Spirit, like love, joy, peace, patience (Gal. 5:7-8). True conversion will always lead to a life of commitment, to living the commandments of loving God and neighbor. Indeed, if a person is not demonstrating such activity following their meeting Christ, we might ask if conversion has taken place.
Remember that the person who was persecuting Christians, Paul, is also the same person who will write to the Corinthians that “love is patient and kind; not envious or boastful.” There was a real change.
Paul’s encounter with the living Christ along the road to Damascus was a painful encounter, with Paul coming to a dramatic change in his life. It reminds us that Christ surprising him unexpectedly. How might we remain open to Christ this season? Where might Christ surprise us in the days ahead?
Pastor Andy Kinsey
What about you?
I don’t believe there is only one way to experience the risen Christ. Instead, what we need to see is how such experience is always followed by faithfulness, by displaying the fruit of the Holy Spirit, like love, joy, peace, patience (Gal. 5:7-8). True conversion will always lead to a life of commitment, to living the commandments of loving God and neighbor. Indeed, if a person is not demonstrating such activity following their meeting Christ, we might ask if conversion has taken place.
Remember that the person who was persecuting Christians, Paul, is also the same person who will write to the Corinthians that “love is patient and kind; not envious or boastful.” There was a real change.
Paul’s encounter with the living Christ along the road to Damascus was a painful encounter, with Paul coming to a dramatic change in his life. It reminds us that Christ surprising him unexpectedly. How might we remain open to Christ this season? Where might Christ surprise us in the days ahead?
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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