Yesterday, finishing Philemon, I wrote about The Whole Gospel and the danger of incomplete faith. Today, I am starting at the beginning of Paul's journey, the book of Romans.  I want to walk through Paul's writings in chronological, to get into the context and see Paul's development, growth, and how his journey with Christ affects his writings. 

Our journeys should look different over time. We should be evolving and maturing with time and experience. I know I sure have. Like I read yesterday, 

Incomplete faith is dangerous. Your blind spots, whether accidental or on purpose, can do a lot of damage. - Pastor Kris Langham

Most don’t intend to be dangerous in their journey, but we must recognize our flaws and blind spots. We all have them, so we need to be careful how and when we speak with authority and know the damage that can be caused by our ignorance. 

To understand the Gospel, and the transformative power of Jesus, we have to go back to Act chapter 9 to get a picture of who Paul was before his radical conversion.

“Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.” - ‭‭Acts‬ ‭9:1-2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Well, you just read that and maybe wondering where Paul is? Simply put, Saul/Paul are the same person. In those days, it was prevalent to have two names, a Jewish and Hebrew name. A few examples of this in the New Testament are Joseph, later called Barnabas (Acts 4:36); Simeon, also called Niger (Acts 13:1); and Thomas, also called Didymus (John 21:2); among others.

I highly recommend you jump to Acts 9 and grab the full context. Paul was a murderer. Jesus called him out, blinded him, sent Ananias a disciple to heal him physically and spiritually, and surrounded him with disciples in Damascus to train him up. Murderer to Pastor.

Let me take us back to incomplete faith and blind spots. Paul was blinded by Jesus and was healed by Ananias [through the Holy Spirit]...his blinding was a part of his transformation from murderer to a preacher. I draw attention to this because the blind spot for Paul was visible, but our blind spots are not always that obvious.

“Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.” - ‭‭Acts‬ ‭9:17-19‬ ‭NIV‬

This visual is incredible and crazy. “something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes,” - that's wicked cool. The Gospel does this, scales should fall from our eyes, and we should see differently. I can not say it better, so I will bring back some thoughts I shared from Pastor Kris yesterday:

Get the whole gospel, and let it change your entire life. Change the way you see people. Like the poor. Prostitutes. Convicts and ex-cons, addicts and homeless, liberals and conservatives, special needs, mentally ill, the unborn, homosexuals, trans, different color, different culture, different religion, saints and sinners alike. God makes it real simple: love everyone. Just like Jesus loved you. 

Murderer to Preacher might not be your story or mine. But we all have our conversion then followed by our journey. I pray we can shed all the scales from our eyes and see as Christ Jesus desires us to see.