Have you been counted as faithful?
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” ( 1 Timothy 1:12 ) The testimony of a changed life is perhaps the best evidence that God is alive and active today. The fact that at salvation a dead slave to sin is given life and a new nature comprises the only rational explanation for one who lives in victory and power after a lifetime of defeat. Take Paul, for example. Our introduction to him is at the stoning of Stephen ( Acts 7:58 ), after which his ardor for the Jewish traditions and hatred of Christianity caused him to wreak “havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison” ( Acts 8:3 ). This was not just casual opposition, for he was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” ( Acts 9:1 ). He was a “blasphemer, and a persecutor [not only of Christians , but of Christ Himself— Acts 9:5 ], and injurious” ( 1 Timothy 1: