Second Chances

Second Chances

“But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house,        dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.        Acts 8:3 (NLT)

Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt worthless?  Perhaps you once knew what it meant to live a good, moral life, but circumstances made you turn away and follow a different road.  Have you ever felt God calling you to a better life and you shut it out and kept going away from Him?  Today, do you feel like it’s too late to change because you had your chance and flubbed it?

There is such a thing as “Second Chances” and it can happen this very minute.  If you think you’re bad, let’s go to the Bible and take a look at Paul (Saul).  In the book of Acts, we read where Saul, as he was called then, was set to persecute the Christians.  Stephen, a man of great faith, was accused of blasphemy against God because he preached about Jesus.  So the leaders chose to stone Stephen to death and Paul stood there agreeing as he watched him die.

He set out to kill and destroy all Christians, as they called themselves, after Jesus’ death on the cross.  The Jewish leaders did not believe Jesus was the Son of God.  Paul had studied the scriptures and was taught by a famous teacher, Gamaliel.  Paul knew the law backwards and forwards.  He was totaling set on following God, so he went about murdering the disciples of Jesus.  He had his chance to understand the truth, but was bound up by the law; he saw nothing wrong in killing innocent people.

As bad as Paul was, Jesus loved him and saw Godly potential in him; he was given a second chance to serve the Almighty God.  On his way to Damascus to do more destruction to followers of Jesus, Jesus, himself appeared to Paul and spoke to him, telling him to stop persecuting Christians and to follow Him. Paul was struck blind and those who were traveling with him led him to the place Jesus had given direction to go to.  

Paul was healed, forgiven and converted; he became an apostle for Jesus Christ and an untold number of people became Christians as he traveled around the known world spreading the Gospel. Paul wrote a great part of the New Testament in the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and has been the inspiration of many to follow Christ.

This same Jesus who gave Paul a ‘second chance’, is waiting for you.  You probably won’t have the dramatic conversion that Paul did, but God does have a plan for your life.  He had a plan for you before you were even born and this is what He wants you to know.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

Remember this; just as God was with Paul thousands of years ago, He is there with you now.  He wants you to come to Him, tell him the sin in your life and ask His Son, Jesus to forgive you of those sins; to come into your heart and change you.  It’s probably your second chance to redeem yourself to Him, but make sure it isn’t your last chance.

As for myself, I had heard the Gospel all of my life, but never received it into my heart.  Then one day I saw the truth and as I knelt on the floor in my bedroom, something in my heart said, “This is your last chance.  If you don’t ask me into your heart today, you never will.”  I knelt there and with many tears asked Him into my heart.  I promised Him that I would serve him the rest of my life.  That was 40 years ago and I have never regretted making that decision, not even one time.  Just like the scripture, His plans for me were good and I still have a future and a hope.  Don’t miss this chance.

It may be that the decision you make today will show your future in eternity, and that is either Heaven or Hell.  What’s it going to be, your plans or God’s plans?