August 30, 2019 - There are those people who believe that something they have done in their lives would forever prevent them from being saved, from being accepted as his own by the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not what the Bible teaches and for all who have this feeling, “I have been too bad for Jesus to ever love me, there is just no use for me to even ask him to forgive me for I am lost forever.”
Let me tell you about a man whom I assure you was much worse that you, a man who lived to persecute and execute Christians every day.
This man was known as Saul of Tarsus, he was a son of a Pharisee and was raised in strict orthodox Judaism. When he was thirteen he was sent to Jerusalem and completed his studies under the famous Gamaliel.
Saul was the most fanatical of the Jewish scholars and became the natural leader of the persecutions of the Christians, the followers of the man Jesus Christ.
Saul even presided over the stoning of Stephen. He was convinced that Christians were heretics and that the honor of the Lord demanded their extermination, and he was dedicated and vigorous in this mission.
On the last of his missions to exterminate those who followed the man, Jesus Christ, as Saul and the men who were traveling with him to Damascus were stopped by a brilliant light coming down from heaven.
Blinded by the intensity of this light Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, “Why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:4-5)
Here we have the foremost persecutor of the followers of Christ being stopped in his tracks on the road to Damascus on another of his missions to arrest and imprison Christians, by the leader of those Christians, the man known as Jesus, the Lord we know as Jesus Christ. And then Jesus our Lord tells Saul what he is to do next.
“But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” (Acts 9:6)
For three days Saul sat in Damascus, unable to see as he waited for word from the Lord. Saul then saw a vision of a man called Ananias that would come and lay his hands on him that he might see again.
As Jesus called on Ananias to go to Saul, he resists saying to the Lord, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” (Acts 9:13-14)
Ananias knew very well of Saul and he certainly did not want to go to him for the Lord, but Jesus assured him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15)
And so the Lord changed his name to Paul and he became the greatest of the apostles bringing the gospel to all who would listen.
Paul established the seven churches in Asia Minor, converted thousands of Gentiles to Christianity, proclaimed the gospel, even to the Romans and wrote thirteen books of the New Testament.
And so now I ask you, “Is anything you have done so bad, so evil as to compare to Saul of Tarsus?”
Don’t you think that if God could use a man so vile as Saul, making him into the apostle Paul, that he can also use you? Do you really think that you are “Too Bad” for Jesus to accept?
Call upon him and he will accept you today and save you from the penalties of your sin forever. May his blessings be upon you forevermore…
