MOVIEmoments – radicallyCHANGED

Rent or pull out your copy of CARS by Pixar.

Watch the changes Lightning McQueen goes through. Think about the temporary changes when he’s covered with cactus or tar; think about the outward paint job in his Dinoco fantasy reflecting an outward change with no difference on the inside and later the outward change in Radiator Springs reflecting an inner change; think about how at the end he looks like he did at the beginning but he acts VERYdifferent.

Which Lightning McQueen would Paul be?
Which one are you?

SECONDthoughts – radicallyCHANGED

Modern Day Parable: A Tale of Two Camrys

Two brothers went over to the Motor Mile and bought a couple of Toyota Camrys. They both got identical white ones with one exception - the older brother bought one with a 4 cylinder engine while the younger one bought one with a V6 engine. After a couple of months, the younger brother decided to play a trick on his big brother. That night he snuck over and exchanged his car for his brother’s. The next morning, the older brother picked up what he thought were his keys and got into what he thought was his car. Except when he started to back out of the driveway, the gentle pressure on the pedal rocketted him out into the street. Slamming on breaks, he caught his breath. Where did this new power come from? Hearing the screech of tires, his wife who had been in on the joke, ran outside to find her husband looking under the hood. She heard him say, “That kid brother of mine. You’d have never known the difference by looking at the outside.”

Although Paul still looked like Saul on the outside, there was a change on the inside. Unlike the story of the two brothers, Saul’s own engine was changed out for a new one. It wasn’t someone else’s. It was his. And unlike two white Camry’s Paul began to look spiritually quite different from the Saul of old.

For the JESUSfollower and the BLOGviewer alike:

Do you know people who claim to be JESUSfollowers but don’t look any different from the rest of the world around them?

For the JESUSfollower:

Though I am a V6 saviorCAR do I look like all the other 4 cylinder survivorCARs around me?

Am I really changed on the inside or am I a 4 cylinder survivorCAR pretending to be a V6 saviorCAR?

Are you tapping daily into the CHRISTpower for your journey?


PAULpoints on the TRANSFORMATION: Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 3:21-26, 8:3-4; Philippians 3:9; Galatians 5:5-6

PAULpoints on the POWER: Romans 8:1-17; Galatians 5:16-26; 2 Corinthians 5:5

FRONTSIDE180 - radicallyCHANGED

I was browsing in a store the other day and ran across this…

“Shipwrecked.
Attacked by murderous mobs.
Beaten. Starved. Imprisoned.
Betrayed by friends…

All to serve the one thing
He sought to destroy…”

Sounds like a teaser for a new movie or inside the jacket cover of a recent bestseller, but it was in fact a summary of the Apostle Paul’s early beginning as a Christian.


BACKstory

SAUL was an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, raised in the Greek culture in Tarsus (modern day Turkey) as a Roman citizen. He excelled in his studies under the Jewish scholar Gamaliel and rose to the ranks of the Jewish keepers of the faith, the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed in keeping all of the biblical / Mosaic / Old Testament law and the man-made traditions of their faith. They were legalistic / letter of the law kind of people, respected but rigid. The Pharisees were involved in the death of Jesus – a threat to their faith and the spiritual status quo of the time.

Saul was passionate about God and his faith and worked to protect it from any attack, including this upstart group who followed the CARPENTERrabbi Jesus. He held the coats of the men who stoned the JESUSpreacher named Stephen. Wanting to stamp out this spiritual threat, he asked to be sent to Damascus to hunt down the JESUSfollowers. It was on that journey to Damascus that the hunter became the hunted.

FRONTSIDE180

I was over at a skateboard park watching these guys ride up the ramp and then almost at the top the kick up ‘an ollie’ and then flip 180 degrees landing flat and going back the way they came completing a Frontside 180.

Saul’s ollie came somewhere on the road between Judea and Damascus where he was on his way to round up some JESUSfollowers. A light from above struck him down to the ground. A voice said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul answered the way you and I probably would, “WHO ARE YOU?” The voice said, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what to do.”

Talk about crazy. We have to decide if this is the kind of man who felt guilty about what he was doing – doesn’t sound like it. Was this a man who was off balance? Maybe if you were the ones he was persecuting. Or was this a supernatural experience that was almost in an instant going to turn the ARCHenemy of the JESUSfollowers into one of their GREATESTallies!

But get this, Jesus pulled a Frontside180 on his follower Ananias over in Damascus. No doubt the JESUSfollowers at least new of Saul and maybe even had a heads up he was on his way to confront them. And then Jesus tells Ananias to go meet Saul and help him. This is as radical as telling someone from New York City, “Osama bin Laden is in town. He’s had a change of heart. And he needs a place to stay and get some help, and I’ve picked you to do it!”

Ananias was afraid. Duh! I would have a hard time befriending my enemy too! But Ananias trusted God more than he feared Saul. (Wish I could always say that, how about you?) Jesus told him Saul was chosen to take His Name to the non-Jews of the world (which includes most of us even today) as well as the worldly leadership and his fellow Jewish people.

Saul became Paul, a changed name for a changed man. He lost his physical sight for a time until those eyes were actually touched by Ananias. The story tells us scales fell from his eyes as his vision was restored. Saul’s spiritual blindness also fell away to spiritual vision. You could call this Paul’s epiphany (a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking. an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure).

The JESUSfollowers were skeptical. Duh again! Even if your enemy shows up acting nice to you, it is human nature not to immediately trust someone. But they began to see his words backed by his actions, proving the change was genuine. The Pharisees were outraged. Duh yet again. Was this really Saul whom they sent to do the ‘good work’ in Damascus? Had he been brainwashed? Was it an impostor? Had he lost his mind? Perhaps so to them. Here was a man who was taking the very Scriptures they had learned together to prove Jesus was CHRISTmessiah. Saul had become Paul the ENEMYblasphemer. Like other JESUSfollowers, they sought to kill him and the threat he now posed. His friends lowered him outside the city wall in a basket for his escape. And the JESUSfollowers protected and aided him after he boldly proclaimed CHRISTmessiah.

-- So Saul did his Frontside180 in listening and seeking the JESUSfollowers for a different reason.
-- Ananias did his Frontside180 seeking his ARCHenemy and aiding him and loving him as Christ loved those who didn’t always love Him.
-- And saulPAUL completed a Frontside180 in the words he spoke to the people of Damascus, Israel, Asia Minor, Greece and Macedonia and even to the hallowed halls of Rome.
-- The words of Saul condemning the JESUSfollowers transformed into the equally bold words of Paul proclaiming Jesus as CHRISTmessiah.
-- The JESUSfollowers did a Frontside180 in accepting Paul as ally and protecting and supporting him as a FELLOWbeliever.
-- Only the Pharisees couldn’t do a Frontside180.
The difference was Jesus Himself, the CHRISTmessiah, who has the power to change lives in ways the world may call radical, crazy, strange.

You and I get to decide how we define this change. You and I get to decide if we believe Paul’s transformation. Two thousand years later, many have and are still hearing his radical words written down and translated into language after language in the books called Bibles; and they are taught in homes and preached in churches and cathedrals; and they even get fired across the World Wide Web.

Paul made his choice.
Ananias made his choice.
JESUSfollowers in Damascus and Jerusalem made their choices.
The Pharisees made their choice.
I’ve made my choice.

Okay, it’s your turn.
What will you choose?

Read it for yourself:
Acts 7:1-8:3; 9:1-31 at http://www.biblegateway.com/.
You can pick your translation to read.

INTROduction – beyond SURVIVORmode

One of my favorite shows in recent years has been Survivorman.You may have seen it. Man goes to an isolated place in the world with only his wits, his skills, and a few everyday items one might have traveling in those parts of the world. He has to find food, safety, and shelter and survive on his own for several days until he is 'found.'

In one episode Survivorman, he was out in the cold and the weather changed that not only threatened his ultimate safety but that of his support crew. It was the first time I had ever seen the show point out that there will come a time when you will not be able to truly survive on your own. The last scene shows a helicopter lifting them up into the sky with his team and things, taking them to safety.

Before he was the Apostle Paul, the man Saul was very much like Survivorman. He relied on his Jewish heritage, his Greek culture, and his Roman citizenship to survive in his world. He was very bright - he understood his world's religion, culture, and politics. Then one day he was 'found.' The rescue took place on a road of purpose. He was found surviving on his own skill set, his own acquired authority, and the everyday items he carried traveling in those parts of the world. The interesting thing is that he stopped surviving on his own. Instead he learned to thrive in the one who found him, the one who rescued him.

He became a SAVIORman - a follower of the one he sought to conquer - Jesus Christ. He spent the rest of his life not teaching people how to be self reliant and survive on their own. Instead he spent the rest of his life pointing to the Rescuer, the Finder of Souls, Jesus Christ.

His advice was no longer his own.
His plans were no longer his own.
His goals were no longer his own.
His vision was no longer his own.
Boy, to live like that - a heart for his own and those not his own.
A hope, a purpose, a plan, a power to rely on beyond our own.

Makes me want to be a SAVIORman too.

What is a SAVIORman?

A question to be answered...