Taming a Rabid Wolf

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” -- Acts 9:4

Back in the early 1970s, Chuck Colson was Richard Nixon’s White House counsel and hatchet man—one of the most ruthless political operatives of the past 50 years. During Nixon’s first term as President, Colson was behind the scenes carrying out Nixon’s dirty work—no matter how dishonest or unethical it was. Someone who knew Colson well described him as “the kind of guy who would run over his grandmother if necessary to get the job done.”

But early in President Nixon’s second term in office, Chuck Colson gave his life to Jesus Christ. Once he was a Christian, he was determined to become an honest man. And he didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk. In 1974, over a year after leaving the White House, Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and he served a seven-month sentence in Alabama’s Maxwell Prison.

In his book, “Born Again,” Colson reflected on his time behind bars: “I found myself increasingly drawn to the idea that God had put me in prison for a purpose and that I should do something for those I had left behind.” And Chuck Colson did do something. In 1976, a year after being released from prison, he founded Prison Fellowship, which is now the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners and their families.

You see, as I mentioned in my last column, God doesn’t just save hell-bent sinners. He recruits them to change the world. That was true of Nixon’s hatchet man, and it was also true of a young Jewish thug named Saul.

Saul was a Pharisee—a well-educated, legalistic member of the Jewish establishment. He was, as he wrote later, “convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9). In those days, Saul was like a rabid wolf mangling his prey. He often went from house-to-house and synagogue-to-synagogue arresting Christians. Some he whipped. Others he imprisoned. Still others he recommended for execution. That all changed suddenly one day when Saul was on the road to Damascus, on his way to take more Christians as prisoners.

A blinding light from heaven blazed around him, and Saul fell to the ground. A voice asked him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). When a terrified Saul asked who was speaking to him, he learned it was Jesus of Nazareth. And God didn’t just appear to Saul in order to save him. He appeared to Saul in order to appoint him as a servant and witness to both Jews and Gentiles to “open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). In other words, Jesus wasn’t just interested in saving hell-bent Saul. He was recruiting him to change the world. And Saul responded with obedience. He stood up—blind as a bat—and walked the rest of the way into the city of Damascus to await his instructions from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In that moment, Saul’s world turned upside down. Here are a few quick lessons we can learn from his conversion.

Lesson #1: More often than not, those who most aggressively attack Christians and claim that God is dead are in an unseen spiritual battle, wrestling with faith in God. So, hold out hope and pray for them. What we see on the surface in just a glimpse of what’s going on inside a man or woman. Oftentimes, under the surface there’s a spiritual battle raging that we don’t know about. So, despite what you see or hear on the surface, pray for God to keep working on that person’s heart and overcome his/her resistance.

Lesson #2: Like Saul, we’re no match for God. Because He loves us, He will relentlessly pursue us until we willingly submit to Him. As the great British author C.S. Lewis put it, God was like a Divine chess player—systematically, patiently maneuvering his opponent into a corner until finally Saul conceded. “Checkmate.” So, if you’re resisting God, I encourage you to knock it off. You’re hurting yourself. And in all likelihood, you’re hurting others around you. So, stop being so stubborn. Saul learned the hard way, but you don’t have to.

Lesson #3: On the road to Damascus, Jesus Christ didn’t just turn a wolf into a sheep. He began turning a wolf into a shepherd. Think about it: God didn’t waste any of Saul’s wolf-like past. Instead, He used it for advancing Christ’s Kingdom. And the same could be said about Chuck Colson and you. God won’t waste any of your past. If you’ll let Him, He will use your stubbornness, your orneriness, your broken relationships, your addictions, your failures and even your greatest sins for His glory. Remarkable, isn’t He?

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Join us at Impact for Sunday services: in person at 9 a.m., or online at 10 a.m. on YouTube or Facebook Live. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

The Most Unlikely Christian

“Paul was like a wild man, going everywhere to devastate believers.” – Acts 8:3

Every few years, historians around the country are asked: Who was the greatest President in American history? And the one who almost always comes in first place is Abraham Lincoln. As much as the Civil War tore our country apart, it could have been much worse if we hadn’t had such a strong, godly leader in the White House.

You might think that his success as President was the culmination of a successful career.

But surprisingly, it wasn’t. Lincoln had almost no formal schooling. He started two businesses that failed. When he applied to law school, he was rejected because of his miserable qualifications. He ran for the Illinois General Assembly, Congress, the U.S. Senate and for Vice President—and lost every time. In 1858 he ran for the Senate and lost again. By then, no one in their right mind would have predicted that two years later, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln not only would be elected as the 16th President of the United States—but that he would become the greatest President in our history. If you’d made that prediction in 1858, people would have thought you were clinically insane.

And in the year following Jesus’ ascension into heaven, people would have said the same thing about Paul. If you had told the people of Jerusalem that the young, hot-headed Pharisee known as “Saul” was going to become a Christian, they would have called you delusional. If you had told them he would go on to write half the books of the New Testament and become the most influential Christian leader in the history of the faith, they would have thought you were a lunatic!

The first time we meet Paul in the Bible, he’s standing by, guarding the coats of the executioners who threw stones at Stephen, the first Christian martyr. These murderers were the same false witnesses who had condemned Stephen on phony charges of blasphemy. And in case there’s any doubt in our minds about whether or not Paul approved of this lynch mob, we’re told plainly in Acts 8:1, “And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.”

As Stephen’s blood splattered on the ground at Saul’s feet, he developed a thirst for Christian blood. Because we read in verse 3, “Saul began to destroy the church.” This word “destroy” is a translation of a Greek word that described a wild animal mangling its prey. Saul was like a blood-thirsty wolf who wanted to mangle Christians. The Living Bible says it this way: “Paul was like a wild man, going everywhere to devastate believers.” And verse 3 continues, “Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.”

The Jewish leaders hated Christians. But Saul hated them even more. Saul hated Christians with a passion. Because, from the bottom of his heart, Saul hated Jesus Christ. He hated Jesus so much that he set out on a mission to eradicate the name of Jesus not only from the lips of Christians in Jerusalem, but from the lips of Christians around the world. Yet this is the man God chose to write half the books of the New Testament. This is the man God chose to be the most influential Christian who ever lived. No one in his right mind would have ever seen that coming!

I’d like to share three life lessons from the example of Paul.

#1: Even the greatest Christians have a dark side. We all have checkered pasts. Think about it. David, the man after God’s own heart, was an adulterer and a murderer. Jacob, father of the 12 tribes of Israel, was a conniving liar. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. And Paul arrested and killed Christians, because the bottom line was: He HATED Jesus. Even the most loving, caring, world-changing Christians have checkered pasts. We all have a dark side to our testimony.

#2: No matter what you’ve done, no matter how far you’ve strayed from God, there is hope for you in Christ. If you’ll let Him, God will save you. I tell people often: God’s grace is greater than my disgrace. The most loved, most sung Christian song of the past 200 years is “Amazing Grace.” Its writer, John Newton, was once a disgraceful slave ship captain. But after he became a Christian, he was so convicted by what he had been doing, he quit the slave trade. And years later he penned the words, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. ... Was blind but now I see.” If God could forgive and save a man like John Newton, then he can save you and me, too.

#3: God doesn’t just SAVE hell-bent sinners—He recruits them to change the world. This lesson applies to everyone around you—especially to those who are the furthest from God right now. It applies to your brother or sister who hasn’t gone to church in 10 years. It applies to your son or daughter who told you a few months back, “I don’t believe in God anymore.” It applies to your niece or nephew, strung out on drugs. It applies to your uncle in prison. It applies to everyone.

Christians, don’t stop praying for those around you who are the least likely people on the planet to be saved and chosen by God to change the world. In His amazing grace, God loves choosing the worst of sinners to do some of His greatest work. He loves to pull wicked sinners out of the grip of hell and raise them up to bring heaven to earth. God did it 2,000 years ago with a Jesus-hating murderer named Saul, and He still does it today.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Join us at Impact for Sunday services: in person at 9 a.m., or online at 10 a.m. on YouTube or Facebook Live. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

A Wretch Like Me?

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

 I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” – John Newton

Without a doubt the most popular Christian song of the past 200 years has been “Amazing Grace.” It’s been featured on 11,000 different albums, and it’s sung an estimated 10 million times every year. I love the story behind the writing of this great hymn. “Amazing Grace” was written by John Newton, who as a young man did one of the most disgraceful things a human being could do. He was a slave ship captain who kidnapped dozens, possibly even hundreds, of Africans and forced them into the slave trade in England. But several years after becoming a Christian, he quit the slave trade as God convicted him that slavery was a wretched sin.

At the age of 46, as Newton reflected back on his life with a sense of guilt and shame for what he had done, he wrote these words: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Hundreds of millions of people have found strength and comfort in these powerful words. Countless Christians would say, “I LOVE this song!” But honestly, there is one word in this song that most Christians these days don’t like very much. It’s right there in the opening lines: the word “wretch.” 

Millions of Christians sing these words, but deep down inside they insist, “I am NOT a wretch!” After all, the word “wretch” means “a despicable person” –a scoundrel, a villain, a reprobate, a delinquent, a creep, a jerk, a good-for-nothing, a snake in the grass, a lowlife, a scumbag. Honestly, most of us don’t think of ourselves as despicable, do we? We don’t think of ourselves as scoundrels, creeps, lowlifes or scumbags.

But in Luke 7, the Bible shows us a woman whose perspective was much different from ours. If you had asked her, she would have told you: “I’m a wretch.”  And she would have been right. The incident took place when Jesus was dining at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. An unnamed woman who had lived a sinful life came in, walked up to Jesus and begin anointing his feet. “As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them” (v. 38).

Simon said to himself, “If this man [Jesus] were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” (v. 39). And remarkably, this woman would have completely agreed that she was all those things: a scoundrel, a lowlife, a scumbag… a wretch. But clearly--Jesus accepted her anyway. Simon the Pharisee had straight A’s in identifying other people’s sin. But when it came to identifying his own sin, he flunked every class. Warren Wiersbe says it this way: “Simon’s real problem was blindness…. It was easy for him to say, ‘She is a sinner!’ but impossible for him to say, ‘I am also a sinner!’”

Until we open our eyes and see that we are deeply flawed and admit that we desperately need God’s grace and healing, we will never receive it. You see, God’s mercy and forgiveness are offered only to those who come to Him humbly, in desperation and ask Him for it. “God, please have mercy on me, a sinner.” “Lord, I know I don’t deserve it, but please forgive me anyway.” God loves pouring out His amazing grace on those who pray those kinds of prayers.

God despises self-righteousness. He hates it when sinners say, “I’m so much better than THAT guy! I’m so much more moral that THAT girl! I’m so much more deserving of heaven than THOSE low lifes!” Bottom line: If you insist on buying into the lie that you are right with God because you are a “good person,” you’re never going to be right with God.

The truth is: I am a wretch, and so are you. The world tries to convince us that we are basically good, but the Bible says the exact opposite. We are all in the same boat with John Newton and the woman at Jesus’ feet. We are all scoundrels, reprobates, delinquents, snakes in the grass. More than we’d like to admit, we are in the same boat as those we would call lowlifes and scumbags, because we say and do the exact same things as them. If you keep comparing yourself to people you know who have lied more than you or gotten drunk more than you or cheated on their taxes more than you or kicked their dogs more than you, then you are going to be in for a rude awakening when you stand before God on Judgment Day.

Whether your sins are few or many, you are no more or less deserving of heaven than the next guy. None of us deserves heaven. Regardless of how many sins are on your ledger, your only chance of making it to heaven is by God’s amazing grace. And here are the “A,B,C’s” of receiving God’s grace: A = Admit that you are a sinner who desperately needs God’s grace. B = Believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. C = Choose to follow Jesus Christ and obey his commands.

John Newton and the woman at Jesus’ feet understood something that far too many of us have missed. They understood that it’s not the person who has the fewest sins who will make it to heaven but the person who humbly brings whatever sins he/she has to the feet of Jesus.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our online Palm Sunday worship service tomorrow at 10 a.m. on our website, www.GreaterImpact.cc, on our YouTube channel (Impact Christian Church) or on Facebook.

Are You a Party Crasher?

“Whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” – Luke 7:47

In 1829 two men robbed a U.S. Mail carrier train. They were both arrested and sentenced to hang on July 2, 1830. One of the men was executed on schedule—but not the second man, George Wilson. His friends had petitioned President Andrew Jackson to give him a presidential pardon, and President Jackson DID. But surprisingly, George Wilson refused the pardon.

Well, the courts didn’t know what to do, so they petitioned the Supreme Court to make a ruling. This is what Chief Justice John Marshall wrote: “A pardon is an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws…. But delivery is not completed without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered, and we have no power in a court to force it on him.” Marshall said, in a nutshell: We can’t force the Presidential Pardon on George Wilson. If he doesn’t accept it, his sentence stands, and he must be hanged.

Not a very cheery story! But I’d like you to keep Justice Marshall’s words in mind: “Delivery is not completed without acceptance.” That not only holds true for a Presidential pardon. It also holds true for God’s grace and forgiveness. Hold on to that thought as we look at an episode in Jesus’ life from Luke 7.

Jesus had been invited to eat at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. And as Jesus was at Simon’s house, in came an uninvited guest—a party crasher. Luke 7:37 tells us that she was a woman in that town “who had lived a sinful life.” We don’t know for sure, but most likely she was a prostitute. At any rate, she wasn’t on the guest list. But she came in with a jar of perfume and stood at Jesus’ feet, weeping so much she was able to wet his feet with her tears. “Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them” (v. 38).

What was the Pharisee’s reaction to this party crasher? He thought Jesus, if he was a prophet, should know the woman was a sinner and should want nothing to do with her. But Jesus pointed out that because she had received more forgiveness, she loved Jesus more, while his respectable host had shown him little or no love at all. As Jesus put it, “Whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (v. 47). Here are a few lessons we can take from this incident.

1) A Lesson on Acceptance: Jesus was utterly accepting of deeply flawed people, and so too should we be. Simon refused to accept this woman, but clearly Jesus did accept her. I love how Chuck Swindoll makes this point. He writes: “Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus never compromised the righteousness of God, yet he remained utterly accepting of deeply flawed people. No incident illustrates this better than the day a prostitute crashed the Pharisee’s party.” Did you catch that important phrase in the middle? Jesus “remained utterly accepting of deeply flawed people.” As Christians, we sometimes do a good job talking about God’s grace. But we often do a shoddy job sharing that grace in real life. That shouldn’t be.

2) A Lesson on Self-Awareness: Until we open our eyes and see that we are deeply flawed and admit that we desperately need God’s mercy and healing, we will never receive it. The greatest sin I could ever commit would be to blindly think that I don’t have any sin for Jesus to forgive. As this sinful woman kept carrying on—crying and wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair and pouring more and more and more expensive oil all over his feet, Simon the Pharisee began to have second thoughts about inviting Jesus to his house. He didn’t realize that even if you sin less than the next guy, you’re STILL A SINNER! And you need to realize that. Simon the Pharisee was very good at identifying other people’s sin. But he was terrible at identifying his own sin.

3) A Lesson on Love for Jesus: The more we express our sorrow for sin and our love for Christ, the clearer evidence we have of the forgiveness of our sins. What came first, the woman’s love or the woman’s forgiveness? Did Jesus forgive her because she loved him, or did she love Jesus because he had forgiven her? Jesus told the woman in verse 50, “Your faith has saved you,” making it clear that her faith in Jesus led to his forgiveness of her many sins. And once she had experienced his amazing forgiveness, she couldn’t help but shower him with love.

Now, let me ask you: With whom do you most identify in this story—the party host or the party crasher? At first glance, you might say, “The Pharisee.” But the Pharisee was blind to his own sin, and he stubbornly refused to repent and put his faith in Jesus—much like the train robber who refused his pardon. So, he wasn’t forgiven, and therefore he had very little love for Jesus.

I hope you and I can most identify with the party crasher, because SHE was the one whose eyes were open to her own sin. SHE was the one who humbly reached out to Jesus in faith and repentance and love. And her repentance and love for Christ give crystal clear evidence that SHE was the one who was truly forgiven. I so much want us to identify with her … because I want us to be forgiven much and respond by loving Jesus much.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 a.m.