envelop spinner search close plus arrow-right arrow-left facebook twitter

Broken and the Blessed, Lent Day 30

by David Joynt on March 30, 2017


DAY 30

1 CORINTHIANS 15:7-11

Saul’s “dead end” on the Damascus Road was also a brand new beginning. Moreover, he soon learned a very valuable truth—God can use a checkered past! Yes, he’d pursued Stephen to death and arrested innocent people for holding true beliefs. Yes, he’d opposed God’s true Messiah. But all his mistakes provided material for God’s purpose. By showing Saul the futility of actions, there was room for a new understanding of grace apart from works. By commissioning an opponent as an apostle, he grasped God’s love for the undeserving.

 

Is there part of your past you’d like God to redeem?

Ask him to do so.

 

FAMILY TIME:

Who in your family holds grudges?

Discuss.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: grace, love

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

More from Pastor Joynts Devotionals

return to Pastor Joynts Devotionals