"A Life of Transformation"

Have you ever been really wrong?  I mean really, really wrong? Have you ever been outspoken or opinionated about a subject and then made a huge discovery that radically shifted your position? Imagine in our ongoing study of the book of Acts, just what it must have been like for Saul of Tarsus. In an instant, on the road to Damascus, Saul discovered that he was completely wrong about Jesus. Imagine how that felt. He had not only been outspoken against the Church and its message about Christ, but he was violent in his opposition to Jesus. He had approved of the stoning of Stephen to death. He had arrested and beaten and imprisoned numerous men and women.  He had threatened many and was bent on stomping out this movement called The Way. Then, he met Jesus. And he realized that he was wrong.
 
All discipleship begins with an acknowledgement: I was wrong. Really wrong. For some, we have to acknowledge that our lives were filled with sin and willful rebellion. For others, like Saul, our lives were filled with hypocritical religion and self-righteous superiority.  We were wrong about ourselves. We were really blind to the depth of our need for Christ. Conversion (coming to faith in Jesus) begins the process of a radical reorienting our lives around the truth of who Jesus Christ really is and why we need Him so much. We need deep and perpetual recalibration. That’s our sermon title for this week: "A Life of Transformation."

I think this is deeply encouraging as we discover that we are all in the School of Christ if we are believers and because of His forgiveness and grace, we can continue to learn what it means to live our lives by faith in Him.