GetWisdom PaperturnSampler FINAL SinglePages - Flipbook - Page 58
steps into the path of someone no one thought would ever become a Christian.
Do you know someone like that? A person you’ve been praying for, and yet it just seems so
unlikely that they’d turn from their current lifestyle and actually becoming a new creation? But
the beginning of Paul’s story tells us something extraordinary: we serve a limitless God who often
does the unlikely.
In Acts 9:10-11, we see God ask a man named Ananias to do something that seemed crazy: to
go meet up with Saul. Ananias knows of this man named Saul of Tarsus and all the horrible things
he’s been a part of in and around Jerusalem. In fact, the first time we hear Saul’s name in the Bible
is during the stoning Stephen, the first Christian martyr:
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. (Acts 7:58, ESV)
Can you imagine being asked to go meet with this kind of man? It probably felt to Ananias like
he was being asked to go to his death!
How does Ananias initially respond to God?
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How does the Lord reply to Ananias’ concern? (Hint: See verses 15-16.)
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God knows something Ananias doesn’t: the man who had spent so much time persecuting
Christians is now a completely new person.
Flip over to 2 Corinthians 5:17. What does happens when we follow Jesus?
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You can make yourself better, but only Christ can make you new. And if ever there was
someone who became a new creation, it was Paul.
So what exactly does new mean, anyway? Let’s head to the BLB app and find out. Head to 2
Corinthians 5 and click on verse 17. Tap on the Interlinear/Concordance and scroll down to find
the word new or καινς (kainós, pronounced kahee-nos). Click on the word to find English
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