Embracing Your Season of Change: The Purpose of Change (Part 2)

The second reason we go through seasons of change is to transform us into the image of God’s Son Jesus Christ. One of the greatest examples of a transforming change in the Bible is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus to Apostle Paul. His “blinded by the light” experience was the catalyst to launch him into a new season of his life.

Growing up in a Jewish family meant that Paul was well trained in the Jewish scriptures and tradition. At an early age he entered the synagogue day school. Paul eventually went to Jerusalem to study under the best Jewish rabbi, the famous Gamaliel.

As a Pharisee, Paul became very zealous for the traditions and teachings of his people.This zealous commitment to the study of the Old Testament laws and traditions is the background of Paul’s persecution of his Jewish brothers who believed Jesus was the Messiah.

While traveling to Damascus to arrest Jewish people who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, a startling light forced him to the ground. Then a voice asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me”, and identified the speaker as Jesus. Paul was struck blind and was led into the city. Ananias met Paul and told him that he had been chosen by God as a messenger for the Gentiles. After Paul received his sight, like other believers before him, he was baptized (Acts 9:1-19).

In this conversion experience, Paul accepted the claims of Jesus and the church, the very thing he was seeking to destroy. Both his conversion and call are reflected in Paul’s letters. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 he writes, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

His conversion brought a complete change in the inner controlling power of his life. It was like dying and receiving new life (Galatians 2:20) or being created anew (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). This experience of radical change and call to the Gentiles provided the motivation to travel throughout the Roman world preaching the gospel of Christ. Apostle Paul embraced his season of change and went from chief church persecutor to chief church planter.