DS Devotional Day 5

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Sunday - 9:30AM Bible Study, 10:30AM Worship Service | Saturday - Devo 10:30AM

by: Wayne Vaughan

08/09/2020

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Day 5: Crafting a New Identity

In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul tells a bit of personal history that is not revealed in any of the other stories about him.  He says that after his conversion experience, he went “into Arabia”(vs 17) before consulting with the Apostles or anyone else about his new-found faith.

I’m not sure that anyone has exactly interpreted what Paul was talking about with this reference to Arabia, but it seems to me that he was saying that he needed a time in the wilderness to completely reconstruct his identity in relation to the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Certainly, you know something of Paul’s resume.  We know that he was a highly-educated Jewish zealot who was committed to persecuting Christians for their heresies.  His identity was wrapped up in becoming the kind of person who would find himself at the highest levels of Jewish government and he was well on his way.  At this time in his life, he was known as Saul.  Then, on one fateful day, he was blinded on the road to his next persecution destination, Damascus.  It was there that he heard Jesus call his name for the first time and he realized how blind he really was.

This revelation of Jesus required a complete reordering of his life.  He had to go through what he described in Romans 12 as a “transformation” through “the renewal of his mind.”  He had to completely reorient his life around Jesus, which included both a change of name and a change of purpose in his life.

Meeting Jesus in the wilderness can do that to a person.  I have heard many ask, “What will the church be like when we are released to go back to normal.”  I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m pretty certain that God is not wanting us to go backward.  What if this wilderness time is a time in which God is inviting us to reorient our lives around Jesus until we are completely transformed and renewed in our thoughts, motives, and values?  What could the church look like if we came out of the wilderness like Moses coming down out of the mountains, faces shining because we have been in the presence of God?  I think we could change the world!

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Day 5: Crafting a New Identity

In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul tells a bit of personal history that is not revealed in any of the other stories about him.  He says that after his conversion experience, he went “into Arabia”(vs 17) before consulting with the Apostles or anyone else about his new-found faith.

I’m not sure that anyone has exactly interpreted what Paul was talking about with this reference to Arabia, but it seems to me that he was saying that he needed a time in the wilderness to completely reconstruct his identity in relation to the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Certainly, you know something of Paul’s resume.  We know that he was a highly-educated Jewish zealot who was committed to persecuting Christians for their heresies.  His identity was wrapped up in becoming the kind of person who would find himself at the highest levels of Jewish government and he was well on his way.  At this time in his life, he was known as Saul.  Then, on one fateful day, he was blinded on the road to his next persecution destination, Damascus.  It was there that he heard Jesus call his name for the first time and he realized how blind he really was.

This revelation of Jesus required a complete reordering of his life.  He had to go through what he described in Romans 12 as a “transformation” through “the renewal of his mind.”  He had to completely reorient his life around Jesus, which included both a change of name and a change of purpose in his life.

Meeting Jesus in the wilderness can do that to a person.  I have heard many ask, “What will the church be like when we are released to go back to normal.”  I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m pretty certain that God is not wanting us to go backward.  What if this wilderness time is a time in which God is inviting us to reorient our lives around Jesus until we are completely transformed and renewed in our thoughts, motives, and values?  What could the church look like if we came out of the wilderness like Moses coming down out of the mountains, faces shining because we have been in the presence of God?  I think we could change the world!

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