The Journey of Life- Part 2

Did you think I forgot my next Life's Journey blog? I didn't but I have been busy with some other things. Today's blog will take a look at people who start out bad and end up doing good. I am reminded of the story of Corrie Ten Boom and her encounter with a former Nazi guard at the concetration camp she and her sister were imprisoned in during the war. Her sister Betsy died while Corrie was miraculously released before she too would have been put to death. She met the guard at a service years later where she found out he had come to Christ and was now her brother in Christ.

The thing that amazes me so often is how someone who is heading down the path of destruction encounters God and their lives are changed so dramatically by this encounter. I think about the Apostle Paul who was a Jew's Jew and hated Christians. He thought he was doing God's will by trying to stamp the Church out. He was going to arrest the beleievers he found at Damascus but was waylaid on the way by God. He met the risen Savior and his life was changed. He did go to Damascus but not for the reason he set out for originaly. He was led blind to the city and God restored his sight and began to be used by God to preach the same message he had earlier tried to snuff out. Eventually he met the other apostles and was commissioned to go and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul no longer counted on his religious superiority and the law but on faith in a Living Savior. He was to face all types of difficulties and trials and eventually death for his faith. He wrote most of the New Testament and he impacted the world through his life. Had he not had an encounter with Christ, he would have just been another Jew who passed into eternity never amounting to anything. He started off bad but ended up doing good.

Corrie Ten Boom was confronted by her former prison guard and struggled to forgive when he asked for her forgiveness. She told God that she couldn't forgive him and He said that only through Him could she do it. She embraced that guard and gave him her forgiveness. You see the guard was evil yet his life too was changed much like Paul's. So if you are one of these folks strruggling to do right, don't think God can't change you. He can but only if you let Him do the changing from the inside out!