DRAW ME CLOSE is the Bible Teaching Ministry of Whitestone Christian Fellowship, taught by Pastor Bob Lawrenz. We pray that the audio bible teachings will bless and encourage you in your Christian walk. It is our desire that you draw ever so close to our Savior, our Redeemer and Lord. 

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Colossians 3:16⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Bobservations' Column is written each week by Pastor Bob Lawrenz, and correlates to our weekly Sunday Morning teachings. To hear the full message just click on the following link: ⁠⁠The Book of Acts - playlist by Whitestone Christian Fellowship | Spotify⁠⁠

This week's Bobservations' Column is written in correlation to Acts chapt 9.

Paul's conversion stands as a model to teach us that anyone can come to Christ. That there is no sin too bad, no evil too wicked, that can prevent us from receiving the grace of Christ—if, like Paul, we repent. The story then is rightly used as a paradigm of conversion. Certainly not all conversions are as dramatic! But all conversions to Christ are the regeneration of a sinful person, receiving God’s Spirit, and being declared righteous by faith in Jesus. Like Paul, if we are to be truly converted, we must be humbled. We must repent. We must start a new life. If we do that, we will be accepted, however bad our sins may be.

Second, Paul also tells us that while on the one hand his conversion is paradigmatic of all conversions, it is also unique and different, and tells us instead that Paul was an apostle. The marks of an apostle (as we saw from the beginning of Acts chapter 1) are that a person was a witness to the resurrection of Jesus and is appointed by Jesus himself to be his representative (and not just a representative of the church). But what of Paul? He was not with Jesus before Jesus’ death. But Paul became an apostle through his Damascus Road experience. In other words, he did not merely have a subjective experience of Jesus, he actually saw the risen Lord. He insists on this in various places.