Can People Change?-------Monday, April 26, 2010 by Dave Sonnenberg

Can People Change?



Monday, April 26, 2010


By Dave Sonnenberg



Can people change? On some level I believe most of us believe people can change. But. . .. ..at another level I suspect many of us are skeptics- ending with theories such as “those who have a good heart can change”. We see and deal at times with people who get under our skin or are hostile or even downright mean. We may not even wonder if change is possible. We just “know its not!”

With that being said, we are introduced to Saul. In many ways, Saul was a 1st century terrorist. Whether we agree with that term or not, there is a lot of truth to the fact that Saul was a horrible person at this phase of his life. He wanted Christians dead and worked with intentionality to make it happen. If he wasn’t killing them, he was plowing into their homes uninvited and ripping people apart from families- doing whatever it took to destroy the Christian movement.

Yet, God will have other plans for Saul. The irony is that for as bad as Saul is in these moments, God will not give up on him. God will give him a chance at using his gifts in a different way- namely, as part of the Christian mission, as its most prolific writer and evangelist.

If God can use a terrorist like Saul and utterly change his life for the better, can we change? Can people we struggle with change? The answer is yes- however, we must remember that Saul had a lot of help from the Christian community along the way. The Christian community which was called to love and forgive and welcome struggled with Saul, yet they did not back away and found a way to start working with saul. They may have been skeptical at first but, as they worked together, the level of trust grew as Saul showed himself to be the real deal.



One thing we also must see today is how God likes to use oppositing to strengthen Christians. Every time the church faces persecution or hardships as these early followers did, it just made them more passionate to spread. The irony is that Saul’s attempts to shut them up only made them more passionate. (the Ripple Effect in play!)


Today's Text- Acts 8:1-7
81And Saul approved of their killing him.

Saul Persecutes the Church

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. 2Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. 3But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.

Philip Preaches in Samaria

4 Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. 5Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, 7for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralysed or lame were cured. 8So there was great joy in that city.





Note on Picture- The image of someone being in their “cocoon” but awaiting transformation to a “butterfly” is the best image I could come up with today but I think conveys that change can happen—it just waits to burst out of its shell!