Beyond help

Beyond help

Bible: Acts 9:1-18

Reading

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (ACTS 2:21).

The man seemed beyond help. His crimes included eight shootings (killing six) and starting almost 1,500 fires that terrorised an entire city. He left letters mocking the police at his crime scenes. He was finally caught and given twenty-five years to life for each murder. Today this prisoner goes by the title “son of hope”. He is now a follower of Jesus who spends time reading the Bible every day, has talked about his deep regret to his victims’ families and continues to pray for them. Although imprisoned for more than four decades, he finds hope in God and the Bible and says, “My freedom is found in one word: Jesus.”

The Bible tells us about another unlikely person who became a Christian. Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Saul (who later became Paul) was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (ACTS 9:1). Yet Paul was transformed by Jesus (VV.17-18), and he became one of the most powerful witnesses for Him in history. The man who once plotted Christians’ deaths gave his life to spreading the message of the gospel.

Salvation is always a miraculous work of God. Some stories are more dramatic, but the underlying truth stays the same: none of us deserve His forgiveness, yet Jesus is a powerful Saviour! He is perfectly able to “save completely those who come to God through him” (HEBREWS 7:25).

WE ARE GREAT SINNERS,

BUT JESUS IS A GREAT SAVIOUR!

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries