“But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3).
With this passage in Acts 8 we are introduced to Saul who would be named Paul later. From being the foremost persecutor of the Church he would become the greatest evangelist of the early Church. No one could read this account and predict what he would become after an encounter with Christ in the next chapter of Acts.
It is one of the most remarkable conversions in the New Testament. It was such an important change that the story of his conversion is recorded three times in Acts. First was the account of the conversion itself and twice it was included in his own testimony. Paul never hesitated to recount it as an example of God’s grace.
This is a reminder of the power of God who can rewrite our personal histories. What we have been doesn’t have to be the person we become if we allow God to intervene in our lives. The hate-filled persecutor became the apostle who helped to shape our faith through his life and letters.
We aren’t to be stymied by our histories. Once we meet Jesus God can turn us completely around. Our stories can be like Paul’s who wrote to the Corinthians, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
