00:00Saul of Tarsus had his life all figured out. The finest minds in Israel educated him.
00:12He was zealous for the law, a staunch defender of the religion that had been passed down to him by
00:18his father and his father's father. Saul was so committed to the Jewish faith that he tried to
00:24round up and arrest any Jews who converted to Christianity, going as far as Damascus,
00:30Syria, on his quest. But on the way to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Saul and everything changed.
00:38There, he became a believer. Instead of being a persecutor of the church, he became one of its
00:44apostles. Instead of scoffing at the name of Jesus, he began proclaiming it. It was a fantastic
00:51transformation. God plucked Saul from the kingdom of darkness and placed him in the timeless kingdom
00:58of his son. You might think that Saul's life before Christ was a waste, but it wasn't. God used all
01:05that education, all that training, and all that zeal for the spread of his kingdom. Saul, also known as
01:13Paul, planted churches in some of the most spiritually dark places of his day. And more books in the New
01:19Testament were written by Paul than by any other writer. No one was better equipped to write about
01:25the profound truths of the Christian faith. Since we live our lives under a sovereign God,
01:32the reality is that God can use even our worst mistakes for his kingdom. It was true for Saul,
01:38and it's true for you, too.
