The Farmville herald and farmer-leader. (Farmville, Va.) 1934-1957, 1956-05-04

do not mean just -
any kind OF - -
change. Every DR.. Foreman
Christians life. if it is growing
life. is a changing life. People
who never become Christians at
all may change their lives in vari-
GUS ways. The specially Christian
meaning Of conversion" refers to
the basic change from being non
Christian. sub-Christian or un
Christian to being a Christian
Was Paul PseuliaF7
Probably the most famous con
version in the history of Chris
tianity was that Of the man who
later became the Apostle Paul
He was called Saul at the time.
while as for being an apostle. he
was on the contrary something
rather worse than a bad egg
He was an apostle Of hate. prose
cutting and prosecuting people for
being Christians. His conversion
was sudden, spectacular and dra
matte in the extreme. 1t was so
impressive that to this day there
are some who think that if you
are not converted in the way in
which Paul was converted. you
can hardly have been converted at
all. On the contrary. the one God
who works in Nature in so many
varied ways, works in men in var
led ways too. Just as there are no
would be surprising if any two
neutrality-suspicious. were ex-
actly alike Paul was a special
case. and God dealt with him in
special way. One might almost say
God had to hit Saul on the head
and knock him down. to bring him
10 his senses There were many
features Of that conversion that
seldom if ever occur in othel
cases.
From -. to-.
First and all-inclusve, in the
universal features of Sauls con
version, is the fact that this eX
perience meant turning around.
His life pointed in a different di-
rection ever after Conversion
means turning. and turning means
a new course new destination,
a new road He turned from
negative to a positive life, from
being against, to being for. His
entire energy had been spent IN
hating Christ and Christians. Aft
erwards his entire energy was de
voted to the service of Christ and
Christians Before his conversion
Saul was chiefly noted for his
eagerness TO tear down After
wards one OF his favorite words
and favorite occupations, wa,
building up He was turned from
bride to humility. from trying u
get what he wanted. TO trying Il
40 what Christ wanted Before, h'
vas masterless man, af'ei
wards. he himself often said Of MN
sell that he was slave o
Christ But il was precisely IN oe
ing body-and- soul devoted to Chris
FOR life. here and forever. that ne
found the freedom from evil IN MS
own life for which, as a master
less man. he had sought in vain. In
these and in other ways. the con-
version of Saul was not peculiar
Ali true conversion is turning,
from a negative. empty, destruc-
tive and fruitless life, to the life
IN Christ" a positive, loving. con-
structive. brotherly life with much
fruit Of service
The Thing, Not the Word
The word conversion occurs
only once in the whole Bible 1kine
James translation)-Acts 1873. All
the words together, like convert,
connected with this. make only
fourteen out of the thousands OF
words in the Bible But the thing
is there, and that is the important
point. One way of putting it is sug
gested by the story in Acts 9. which
of course does not use the word
conversion what happened
| there? Saul came into contact witt
| Jesus; and instead of hating hin
any more, he worsnipped him. He
called him Lord" that's CONVEX
| sion But not all Of It. Paul in later
years told this story twic' tthat we