Good morning and happy Thursday. Tell me who this sounds like. He stood and led a crowd that killed a man. He went house to house throwing people in jail for following Christ. He done all he could to keep the word of God from being spread in his country. Killing and prison were the most widely used deterrents. He wrote many books and letters relating his past and present experience with Christians and how they should be living. His name is Paul and was once named Saul until he met the Lord. Jesus changed his heart forever. What if Osama bin Laden had met Christ and changed his heart for God? What if he became a Christ follower like the one Paul did? How would the world be different today?  How skeptical of his change would you be? This is what Paul had to face in his day and found himself in the jail he once put people in. And yet, from there he penned most of the New Testament. We Christians study the words he wrote to better know the Jesus he was once hated. That gives me hope for my little petty life of stuff I've done over the years. I haven't been perfect, in fact, far from it, but Jesus did not die for me to just quit. He's paid a very high price for me and you and all our past is covered when we let Him take it and bury it to be remembered no more. The least we can do is live a life as pleasing as possible for Him. To give it all to Him the same way Paul did. To realize that Jesus is exactly who He said He is. To have our hearts changed forever and to live the way we should. Osama's sins are no greater than ours. Sin is sin. But we have the chance to be redeemed where we stand right now in one instant. In one instant a past of bad living can be gone, used now as a witness to others that if I can do it so can you. Paul's life gives me hope in all of us of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Thank you Jesus. In love always. <><