Captured By Christ

Ever have a radical change of direction? What caused it? Why did you do it? Was it a mistake or was it worth the effort? 

The Apostle Paul was a respected leader with a promising future. In fact he says he was advancing beyond many of his contemporaries and colleagues. But something happened in his life that made him make a radical change of direction for his life.   This change not only affected him, but millions of people who came after him, up to this day. 

Consider for a moment what it would be like for you to have set your goals, plotted the course of your life and be well on the way to success.  You have the recognition of your peers and the acclaim and benefits that go with it. You've worked hard and it is really starting to pay  off, dreams are coming to fruition and things look very good.  Then, when things seem to be at their best, you turn from it all to pursue something that has captured your hearts affection like nothing before.  Friends and family wonder why. Peer pressure is enormous to reconsider, but you press on pursuing your new direction against many hardships and trials. That's what happened to Paul.

What captured his heart and moved him to make such a decision was an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ had entered his life, and Saul who once persecuted the new thing called Christianity, not became Paul, the Apostle, missionary and great theologian of the new religion. His entire life, value system, priorities, relationships were all forever changed and re-oriented. In fact, he wrote," Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ."

The effect on Paul when he encountered Christ was life changing for him, and it is the same for anyone who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior. After a true encounter with Christ, we are simply not the same when we experience the forgiveness for sins. The world is now viewed from a new perspective that affects priorities, our values, relationships and yes, our entire life.  We may not have been very religious before, but now Jesus Christ becomes the most important Person in life.  We find that everything revolves around Him.  

That is what happened to Paul and we can know that same transformation and radical life change. Believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, trust Him to be your Savior, and then follow Him as Lord.  Your situation may not change as radically as Paul's did, but Christ will certainly capture your hearts affection in the same way. There's no doubt about that. He will become all in all for you, just as He has for millions of people before you and me.  It is only when our heart is captured in this way, that we really experience devotion and true freedom.

The Promise

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah we find the words,"Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know."  These are especially comforting when we consider the preceding chapters of Jeremiahs' prophecy.  They are full of warning as God speaks to His wayward people who have turned their hearts far away from their God.  The book is full of Gods declarations of impending calamity because of Israel's sinful ways. Yet God promises restoration and more!

What a comforting thought to consider for life today. We can know that God Himself extends to us the invitation and promise that if we call to Him, pray to Him and turn to Him in simple faith and trust, that He will show us things that we can't begin to consider now.  No matter how difficult our life situation has become, no matter how seriously we have messed everything up, He is there to restore joy where sorrow rules.  He rebuilds confidence where fear and hesitation reign, and promises to restore whatever sin has robbed from us.

Jeremiah was speaking of a time when Israel would return from being in exile in Babylon for seventy years.  That kind of recovering would be wonderful enough, but we are able to receive greater blessing than even that. We may receive the great and mighty reality of salvation through Jesus Christ.  He creates in us the reality of sins forgiven. Instead of God's just anger directed toward us, His love, mercy and protection are ours because of what Christ has done on our behalf.  He bore the full punishment for our sins when He suffered on the cross.  This opens up a whole new sense of hope and a perspective on life that grows richer with each passing day.

We only need to hear what God says to us, believe His promise of salvation, trusting Jesus for the full pardon for all our sins.  Then life changes because we're changed inwardly. The great and mighty things that God will do for you are waiting if you will only believe and take Him at his word and promise.

The Blind Realization

On one occasion Jesus was passing through a town when a beggar who was blind, heard that He was passing by. When he realized this he began to call out as loud as he could,"Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me." This man was one whose life was one long episode of desperation and difficulty. He had no home, rather lived where he could and on whatever he could persuade people to give to him, if they took pity on him.

Now, in Old Testament times God provided instructions as to how to care for the poor among Israel. There were ample provisions for their help and aid but as cities grew the poor among them also became more numerous and were considered to be under some form of divine punishment for sin. They were therefore often disdained, even though they were put up with. This man was probably viewed in the same way, but not by Jesus.

Jesus saw in him something He did not see in the religious elite and proud Pharisees. He saw that he possessed something the fickle crowds who followed Him did not possess. What was it? It was a deep realization that gave birth to his request which he shouted out to Jesus. This man knew he was blind. He knew that his situation was desperate and that no one but Jesus could help his condition and when he heard that it was Jesus passing by he cast all his hope, frustrations, desperation and his future, even his very life upon Christ. There was no religious posturing, not a proper and acceptable prayer that the leaders of the day required, just a deliberate call to Jesus from a heart that had no one else to look to.  Such a heart felt request has a certain boldness to it. Therefore, even when people tried to quiet him down, he cried out even louder, "Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me."

Do you realize what this man realized? Do you sense that your spiritual condition is one for which there is no true human answer? That is a deep, but powerful realization to come to.  When we really understand that Jesus Christ alone is the answer to our standing before God, there is no one who can hold us back from coming to Him by faith and receiving salvation from Him.  No one was going to stop this blind man from calling out to Jesus, and the heart affected by His grace is also unstoppable, we will not be denied, we will cry out to Him, and surely, He will answer. 

Jesus stopped in His tracks to speak with him and hear his request and will do the same for us. But how about it? Has the realization broken in upon your soul that Jesus is the answer, the only answer for our spiritual blindness and the searching of our beggarly souls? If so, as you read, let no one stop you from coming, asking, calling out to Him even in desperation like this man did so long ago.

Come today, without fear of rejection because Jesus will hear you and He will answer you and mercy will be yours and the healing of sins forgiven will become an eye opening reality.