And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

Acts 22:16, NIV

He had been wrong. Saul of Tarsus, the man we now know as the Apostle Paul, had been wrong for nearly all of his adult life. Convinced that Jesus was a fraud, he had devoted his life to wiping out His followers. In fact, he was on his way to Damascus for that very purpose. Armed with letters from the proper authorities of his time, Saul was going to arrest and imprison anyone who followed Jesus, this man whom he was convinced had fooled people into believing that He was the Son of God.

Make no mistake, Saul was absolutely convinced that Jesus was not the Son of God. Saul was as devoted to God as a man could get, and he was simply trying to live out that devotion in the only way he knew how: by wiping out anyone who stood opposed to the one and only, holy God. And Saul was convinced that Jesus and all of His followers were blasphemers and had to be stopped. Jesus was long dead, but Saul could do something about those who followed.

So Saul went to Damascus, but on his way something happened that would change his life forever: He found the truth! Later in his life, when appearing before the court of a king, he described his conversion in the following way:

"Thus I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles--to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' "Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

Acts 26:14-19, RSV

The thing I absolutely love about this account is that when Saul was presented with irrefutable evidence that he had been wrong, he did not waver or give up or in any way wait to take care of his error. Not the man who would soon become an Apostle and a devoted follower of Christ! No,the moment that he saw the light, he changed! Have we?

The fact is that just about everyone of us already believes in God. Further, just about everyone who is reading this is firmly convinced that Jesus is His Son. So what do we need to change? Certainly not our faith that has been properly placed in both the Father and the Son. But isn't it possible that, just like the devoted Saul of Tarsus, we may not have all of the information that we need?

The great blessing that we have now that Saul did not is the complete, written Word of God. While the truth was certainly available during Saul's time, the New Testament was not yet completed. But it is now and all we have to do is read it, find out what it says, and then do it! Far too many people never go much beyond their initial faith and they therefore live a subpar life for God.

God has insured that we have the entire truth available to us.We already believe in God and in His Son. Why not go the rest of the way and do everything we can to find the truth from His Word, and then do it? For you see, it was never enough for Paul to just see the light... he had to then make the necessary changes and walk in that light! For as convinced as Saul of Tarsus was that he had been wrong, he maintained his sin until he had done what Jesus had commanded. We, too, will retain our sin unless we fully see the light by reading all of His commands, and then begin to live by them. So, what are we waiting for?

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

I John 1:7, ESV