The preacher said, “Our living is like the chapters in a book.†If you have reached that “certain age†you may feel like your chapters have been a never ending story.
However, your life and times are really short. Your ups and downs, rough and smooth travels, your journey with bends and curves, even a road well traveled, are few. You might describe some events as troubles, trials, or tribulations.
You may feel you made bad decisions and choices. You may feel that you would like a “do over!†If only I had… stood up for myself, thought before speaking, turned right instead of left, followed my dream, taken that job, waited, etc. my life would have been better. Saul of the Bible, certainly led an adventurous life.
He persecuted the first Christians. He put them in jails and prisons. He held the coats of the ones who stoned Stephen. In this chapter of Saul’s life, he was following the wrong when he thought he was right. While on the Road to Damascus, an encounter with Jesus changed everything for him, even his name. Saul of Tarsus, Pharisee, and scholar, turned the page of his book and became Apostle Paul of the Mission Field. His apostolic adventures included being a heretic, being beaten with stripes, being arrested, being shipwrecked, being bitten by a viper, being hungry, being alone, BUT being unafraid to share his testimony.
One preacher said that when Paul entered a new city, he searched out the hospital and the jail because he knew before his visit was over, he would need First Aid and probably spend a few nights in an unholy hotel. Paul continued to turn pages. He left religious life behind and moved on to a relational, righteous life ordained for him by divine design. Paul wrote in Philippians 3: 13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.â€
In other words, Paul turned the page on his past in order to have a future. He decided to run the race with patience. To lay aside every weight and sin that could have so easily beset him. He listened to the voice he heard on the Road to Damascus that day. He turned the page on being a Pharisee, a zealot, and a persecutor of Christians. He became free to serve the one true God even though it cost him his life. Apostle Paul experienced a life where the power of sin was broken.
The debt of his past was paid in full. I believe Stephen cheered him on from his heavenly view. You, too, can turn the page and write new chapters in your life! You can begin by refusing to revisit your past sins knowing they are “under the blood of Jesus.â€
You can start each day with a clean slate. You can be filled with gratitude and praise for God. If your book has pages that are yellowed from age and crinkly with time, don’t fret! Do what you can, don’t look back, move forward. Is it time for you to turn the page and write new chapters? Get started today!
Penny Gilliam Hagy is pastor of Evangel Family Worship Center in Kingsport.
