The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States "LEFTOVERS OR NEW BEGINNINGS?" for Sunday, 22 May 2016 with Scripture Acts 9:19-28

The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States "LEFTOVERS OR NEW BEGINNINGS?" for Sunday, 22 May 2016 with Scripture Acts 9:19 then he ate some food and regained his strength.
Sha’ul spent some days with the talmidim in Dammesek, 20 and immediately he began proclaiming in the synagogues that Yeshua is the Son of God. 21 All who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Isn’t he the man who in Yerushalayim was trying to destroy the people who call on this name? In fact, isn’t that why he came here, to arrest them and bring them back to the head cohanim?” 22 But Sha’ul was being filled with more and more power and was creating an uproar among the Jews living in Dammesek with his proofs that Yeshua is the Messiah.
23 Quite some time later, the non-believing Jews gathered together and made plans to kill him; 24 but their plot became known to Sha’ul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to do away with him; 25 but under cover of night, his talmidim took him and let him down over the city wall, lowering him in a large basket.
26 On reaching Yerushalayim, he tried to join the talmidim; but they were all afraid of him — they didn’t believe he was a talmid. 27 However, Bar-Nabba got hold of him and took him to the emissaries. He told them how Sha’ul had seen the Lord while traveling, that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Dammesek Sha’ul had spoken out boldly in the name of Yeshua. 28 So he remained with them and went all over Yerushalayim continuing to speak out boldly in the name of the Lord.
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If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new![2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSV)]
A few years ago, my church bought a group of caterpillars and placed them in a large netted enclosure in the church. Each caterpillar formed its chrysalis and began emerging from its cocoon two weeks later. One Sunday morning, I caught one glimpse of the net and gulped. What happened? I wondered. The new butterflies were fluttering around the enclosure, but red splotches that looked like blood stained the netting. Later, I learned that the red substance was actually the leftovers from the butterflies’ emergence from the chrysalis. The butterflies were unfolding their beautiful wings, but I couldn’t see past their messy leftovers.
The early apostles behaved in a similar way. When Paul, their former persecutor, came to Jerusalem, they were too afraid to meet with him. They couldn’t look beyond Paul’s dark past to see the passionate preacher God was molding him to be.
God doesn’t care about what background we come from; God accepts everyone. Yet, too often, we reject new believers because of their past mistakes. God desires that we look beyond their messy-looking leftovers to the beautiful creations they are becoming through the touch of God’s loving hands.
Read more from the author, here."My Own Messy Leftovers"

When I first wrote my “Leftovers or New Beginnings?” devotional, I was convicted by my tendency to judge others for their past mistakes and by my failure to see the beautiful new creatures they were becoming through Jesus. In the years that have passed since then, however, I have become more and more aware of my own messy leftovers and of the brokenness that Jesus has saved me from. The benefit to this is that I’m less likely to judge others for their sin; the downside is that I can become so focused on my failures that I fail to accept the grace Jesus is offering to me.
As I re-read the passage from Acts 9 about the disciples being afraid to accept Paul as a true believer, I wonder if Paul ever had similar doubts about himself. Was he haunted by the cries of the Christians he had thrown in prison? Did guilt condemn his heart every time he remembered Stephen's stoning (see Acts 7:54-60)? Did he ever question Jesus’ ability to forgive and use someone as broken as him?
I have no doubt that thoughts like this consumed Paul at least occasionally. He was only human, after all, and as humans, we are usually pretty good at self-condemnation. However, I think Paul understood a concept even greater than his own sinfulness—the depth of the grace of Jesus.
I rediscovered these verses today, written by Paul himself in his first letter to Timothy: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:15-16, NIV).
Paul became one of the best-known missionaries of his day because he understood the delicate balance between these two truths: 1) he was a sinner and 2) he was forgiven. It’s a hard balance to find, but I think once we grasp it, we are able to share the good news of Jesus much more powerfully with others because we have understood it personally first.
My messy leftovers are a painful topic for me to think about, but through Paul, Jesus reminds me that his grace is bigger than any sin I have ever done or could ever do. And in the process of accepting his grace for myself, he has taught me to offer it much more willingly in return to those around me.[Ruth Anne Burrell][Check out Ruth's blog at www.ruthanneburrell.com/blog.]
The Author: Ruth Anne Burrell (Kansas, USA)
Thought for the Day: God doesn’t care where I’ve been — only where I’m going.
Prayer: O God, help us learn to see others through your eyes. Teach us to see them for the wonderful people you are molding them — and us — to be. Amen.
Prayer focus: NEW BELIEVERS---------------------