Our life’s starting point may be the direct opposite of what the Lord’s plan is for us! Change of our hearts needed.
When Paul was standing before King Agrippa he acknowledged his persecution of the early church, imprisonment and death.
“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them”. Acts 26:9,10
Paul goes on to tell of his Damascus road experience about noon(brightest time of day) and how Jesus spoke with him and called him to be His witness.
In 1748 a man called John Newton was on board a ship, the Greyhound, returning to England. The ship was caught in a terrible storm off the coast of Donegal, Ireland(Atlantic Ocean) and began to sink. He prayed for God’s mercy and the storm died down. After another four weeks the ship made it to port in Lough Swilly, Donegal. This marked the beginning of his conversion to Christianity, and he began to read the Bible and other literature. He marked the anniversary of the 10th March 1748 for the rest of his life.
John Newton had been involved in the slave trade and for a time still was, but he eventually became an evangelical minister in the Church of England, laterally in London. A young member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, who’d recently had his own conversion experience came to John Newton for advice. Should he leave Parliament? Newton told him to serve where he was(good advice, God can move us) and Wilberforce became the man who got slavery abolished in Britain(he literally gave his life to achieve this). Newton lived to see the abolition of slavery passed into law, but died the same year, 1807.
John Newton wrote a number of hymns, including ‘Amazing Grace’.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Etcetera
We are all born at certain times, in specific places and into communities with different cultures. The Lord seeks to meet us all in our various lives and bring His call to us. The apostle Paul and John Newton found their calling to be diametrically opposed to what they’d been doing in their lives prior to the Lord’s intervention.
It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desire that He creates. Amy Carmichael, repeated.
Will we trust Him to do it for us and in us?
God bless and keep you and make His face shine upon you today.