Conversion! Acts 9.

Conversion, change, translation, exchange – a mind-boggling change of character must have had the men with Saul scratching their heads, but it was all part of God’s sovereign plan to spread the gospel to the “ends of the earth”. So far we see the gospel preached in Jerusalem , Judea, and Samaria and Acts 8 shows us how God used persecution to help scatter his church and the gospel with it. In Acts 9 God confronts Saul and he is radically changed from an avid persecutor of the church into a great apostle to the Gentiles. In Paul’s own words - “For I am, by God’s grace, a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News and offer you up as a fragrant sacrifice to God”. (Romans 15:15-16) One thing that really struck me this time reading through Acts is the result of this conversion of Saul. Whereas he had stood by and approved of the stoning of Stephen, a powerful preacher to the Greek Jews in Jerusalem, Saul is now converted to be the most powerful evangelist to the Gentiles in the 1^st century. God is at work in the book of Acts and we see it in this powerful change in the life of Saul. Makes you wonder, “what can the Spirit of God accomplish or change in my life if I will only allow him?”