(Read Acts 9)
This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing to learn more about the amazing life of the Apostle Paul. Yesterday I gave you Paul’s personal account of his conversion experience. This morning we will take a different approach. I am going to tell you a story of something that happened in China in the late 1970s.
The year was 1978 and the Communist regime in China had a stranglehold on Christianity. However, inspite of the oppression, the underground Church movement kept growing and the Gospel was being preached. People were getting saved, delivered and set free. Christianity’s most ardent opposer in China, at the time, was Ji Shen Meng. Meng led the charge against Christians; having them beaten, tortured, imprisoned and even killed. One day Ji Shen Meng was on his way to raid a suspected underground Christian Church when the Lord got a hold of him. The Lord stopped Meng in his tracks and he fell to his knees with an acute pain in his belly. While he was laying on his knees he heard the Lord ask, “Why are you persecuting me, when I am the one true God?” Meng wasted no time and he called out to God, and His Son Jesus, for help and relief from the pain. The Lord told Meng to go to the Chinese Province of Hebei, where he was originally headed. Meng headed there and awaited instructions.
Meanwhile, the Lord woke up one of the Christian leaders of the underground Church in Hebei, a man named Kong Man Su, and He began to talk to Su about Meng. The Lord told Su that He had great plans for Meng and that he was to head to where Meng was to pray for him. Kong Man Su was afraid. He reminded the Lord of the countless people Ji Shen Meng had imprisoned, beaten and killed over the years. Su did not want to do it and he thought he was walking into an ambush. The Lord reassured Su, and he reluctantly went. When Su arrived where Meng was he found a broken man. Instead of the ardent persecutor he knew Meng to be, Su found a man who was crying out to the Lord. Su prophesied to Meng, telling that the Lord was going to use him mightily. And Meng wept as he thought of the awesome reality of the assignment. Meng had been persecuting Christians for years and now the Lord of the Christians wanted him to become a leader in His church. Meng felt completely unworthy. He argued with God, telling him that he was not good enough for the assignment. He tried his best to get out of it, but the Lord told Meng that He was not calling him because Meng was so good. No, God was calling Meng because God was so good. Even though Meng had spent years fighting against God, God was now ready to use that same passion for HIs glory. Not because Meng deserved it, not because he had earned it, but only because of His Grace! Meng went on to win several provinces in China for Christ!
I made up the story I just told you. I made it up to put a modern twist on Paul’s story. Like Ji Shen Meng, Saul of Tarsus was not worthy. Saul had done so much damage against the church that he was the last person on the planet you would think that God would call, but God has a funny way of using the seemingly unusable for His glory!
So what does this mean to you today? A few quick things:
1. If God can use Christianity’s most ardent enemy for His glory, then He can surely use you.
2. Satan will highlight your flaws and tell you that you are not worthy to be used of God. God will highlight His grace and remind you that Jesus was worthy in your place.
3. By Grace God uses the seemingly unusable. We preach Grace and not the Law, because when people preach the Law and how you must be perfect to please God, sincere people wind up leaving the church. They don’t leave because they are so bad. They leave because they are sincere. They love God and since the Law makes them feel like failures, they wind up leaving because they don’t want to feel like hypocrites. However, the true hypocrites are those who claim to be without sin. The message of Grace reminds us that we are all failures outside of Christ. So don’t look down on anyone. If God could use Paul, then God can use you, and He can also use those you did not think He could ever use. Think of the worst person, in your opinion, that you know… and now acknowledge the fact that God can use them for His glory. Not because they are so good, but because He is so good.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for Your amazing Grace. I am who I am by Your Grace and by Grace alone. If it were not for Grace I would have never been called or used of You, for Your glory. You loved me when I was dead in my transgressions and sins. You opened the door of salvation to me; even though I had turned my back on You countless times. You have blessed me richly, in spite of the fact that I have messed up more times than I can remember. Your goodness, mercy, and grace kept me, even when in my own estimation I was not worth keeping. Thank You Father for loving me that way that You have and for bestowing Your goodness upon me when I clearly did not deserve it. As I learn more about Your immeasurable and incredibly amazing Grace, I am convinced that You can use anyone for Your glory. Even those considered to be unusable, can become the greatest tools in Your hands. You put Your treasure in us, earthen and flawed vessels, and we in turn tell the world that the excellency comes from You and not us! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
