Conversion

This was part of a paper that I was required to write for a graduate class I am taking now. It helps to enlighten what conversion really looks like.

"Saul was up to his usual persecution when on the road to Damascus one day heaven itself opened up and He saw Jesus. Jesus asked him, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?” Saul being confused as he was asked, “Who are you Lord?” Christ’s reply was, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." Paul was blinded at that moment and stayed so for three days. The travelers that were there with him were shocked. It is almost for sure that the believers their heard the voice so that they would be able to testify to the accounts that had happened to him there on that day. Later God sent Ananias to him to remove His blindness and have him baptized. This experience was paradigm shifting for Paul that only very few could ever comprehend. This experience crumbled his world in different ways, mainly in his understanding and God.

Before this experience Paul was trying everything that he could to please God. He was not a nominal Jew. He was a leading Pharisee that was advancing greatly in Judaism. He was learning under the best teachers of the Jewish faith. It can be for sure that there were very few Jews that would have ever have question his election. He was not only a good Jew but he was full of zeal for God, or so he thought. He was doing everything that there was so that he would please God and bring prosperity to Israel. He was persecuting Christians because for him this was a service to God. With the persecution he believed that he was doing the will of God and cleansing the Jews so that they would benefit from prosperity and freedom from the Romans. He actually believed that he was among the most faithful men in all Israel that cared for the will of God above all other things. Paul was doing everything that he could to seek God, and not totally blind, he was following the law (the divine Word of God) to the letter as well. Then to have this experience had to have blown his mind. There is little doubt that this experience was like that of Isaiah in Isaiah 6, where he calls himself lost because he has seen the Lord. The entire ordeal must have been so terribly frightening that he was expecting fire to come from heaven and incinerate him. This is what happens when one sees God. So his entire idea of how people are saved was turned upside down. He was convinced that there was nothing that could be done to get salvation on the behalf of a non-believer. He tried everything and found himself worse then lost, he was a murderer of the people of God. So his ideas about election had astronomical changes. He was then convinced that there was not a single thing that man could do to get God’s favor. Even those who’s intentions were an attempt to get God’s favor were totally lost unless God revealed the mystery to them.

Election being the first thing that changed drastically in his mind is coupled with the second. The second is grace. There is little doubt that Paul was an extreme legalist before the Damascus road experience. He though that the covenant was kept by ‘good’ works and doing the Law of the Lord. After this experience he came to realize that his understanding of the Law was grossly wrong. He had considered the Law as a way that people were kept by God, saved by election and kept by Law. This idea changed and he realized that the Law was so overbearing that it could do nothing but to kill the people that were under it. For him there was no longer life in the Law, it was all dried up. Only death and destruction lie at the source of what he considered able to maintain salvation. Similar to this is the idea of grace. Think about how much his paradigm had to change when he saw Jesus that day. He was literally, at that moment in time, dragging Christians off to imprisonment and eventually their death! He saw the Lord. He should have been destroyed in the blink on an eye. Fire and all hell should have come to swallow him for the sin that he was committing at that very minute. Instead what happened, he was shown grace by God. He was forgiven. He must have not been able to speak for days, because he realized there was no good inside him at all. He was now convinced, for sure that he was nothing but condemnation in everything he had ever done. One can barley imagine what his understanding of grace had to be from that time forward in life. It had to be inexpressible for him. He was truly the worst of sinners, and not just in his mind, but literally, still God chose him and gave him grace and salvation.

His outlook on God changed more drastically in one day than is likely for us to have happen in a decade. God was now A) Christ, B) giver of grace (because man is incapable of good), and C) the one to call people elect. The entire attitude of Paul changed that day in such a way that there was no going back. God impressed the truth on his heart that day and there was no more turning back to the way things were, Paul’s vision was sufficient. He was saved by grace, he had to have been speechless for those three days (of blindness), amazed and in awe. The evidence of a life changed by that experience is found in his words of the New Testament. He was sold out from that point forward, that God called people, saved them by grace, and protected them all the years of their lives."

Confession of a Pragmatist

So, It has been unearthed that I am a pragmatist. What exactly does that mean?

prag⋅ma⋅tist
1.a person who is oriented toward the success or failure of a particular line of action, thought, etc.; a practical person.(Dictionary.com)

Simply this looks like someone who has really practical and helpful advice to get people through a situation. They see a problem/situation and they know exactly what to do to fix that problem.

The scary part about this is that it looks really effective and wise on the surface. Think about it, someone always knows how to solve a problem in the best and most effective way. What is wrong with that, should we not desire to be more like that?

No we should not. Why? Because this is turning systems into the savior of situations and formulas into the fixer upper of broken people. Ultimately the problem with pragmatism is that there is some concept that if I do this in a certain situation it will all be ok, fixed, work, whatever. The problem here is that there is no room left for God.

Example:
Someone comes to me because they want someone to talk to about a problem they are having. They are having a hard time trusting in the goodness of God or something of that nature. A Pragmatist knows a list of verses that relate to this subject. The pragmatist will tell the sufferer these verses and to trust in God and not themselves. All this is good but there is one problem here. The pragmatist things that if this person knows these verse and if they are given the advise that is Godley advise then the problem should be fixed. They are relying in their words to fix the problem and not God.

This is hard to detect sometime because all the things they say are right, the problem is what they are trusting in to get the job done. The pragmatist thinks that their idea seems to fit best and that it has worked in the past so therefore it is a good formula for that situation. The pragmatist does not understand when things do not work out like they thought they would. They forget that the one who open eyes to see and heals the broken hearted is God, not just Godley advice. The advice should do one thing, it should take the broken to God for healing, not it in itself do the healing. The power to heal is in the Lord and His word.

The pragmatist like myself need to repent for trusting in systems and experience to deliver us. Like all sinner we need to turn back to God and realize that is where the real change comes from.

The Cure for Procrastination

It is near finals time and I, like most college students, have real problems procrastinating. It seems that we want to do whatever it is other then work, or the work that does not need to be done. Many a time I will find myself cleaning the kitchen (yes, I live with other guys and there are no wives to help us!) more them doing the work that I need to be doing.

This has been a serious problem for years and I have found the true cure! The problem is that we are working for the grade, we are working for ourselves. Honestly I believe that we need to be working for the Lord in all the things that we do. I see so many other young men today that have no motivation to achieve their dreams. Even their greatest (or so they think) desires are not strong enough to get them off of the couch. I say that they need to find something bigger than them.

“Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”
- Col 3.22, 23

The way that we beat procrastination is to give our work to the Lord as an offering. Our love for Him and our desire to please His so great that it can revolutionize the way that we work. I put this into practice at my Ice Cream scooping job a few months ago. I had more joy in the things that I was doing. I literally was giving up to God the scoops that I put into cups that customers were going to buy. I was joyful, so much so that co-workers and customers alike asked why I was so happy. The people over we were amazed as well as to the sudden drive and attention to detail that I had in all my work.

I attempt to do the same in my school work as well. Often that means many more an hour at the computer and in books then playing video games and staring at walls with friends. I have to say that giving my work as a gift to the Lord has given me more motivation to do well then any other motivation that I can remember. Let this change your life and the way that you work.

"One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
- Luke 16:10