A Radical Perceptual Shift

1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!(Phil.3) 

We hear in Philippine 3 The Apostle Paul's assessment of his past good fortune. 

Paul was a well known leader in Jewish Law.  He was respected, powerful, born of the 'right' tribe, under the law, blameless.  

He was also a champion Jewish warrior who persecuted, mutitated, Jesus'  follower.  

This man, formally Saul, had held huge power and authority.

Something quite similar to the American dream of success.    

And then he met the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus.  Where he was planning to do some more killing of Jesus' follower.  When, all of the sudden, the Holy Spirit -- the resurrected Jesus -- threw him from his horse by a bright light. I'll say lighting.  

And in that one moment Saul became Paul.  A name change for sure.  But more.  A radical perceptual shift occurred within Saul's being.  He was change inside out, never to be the same again.

You might say he, literally, saw the light.

The cool thing for me is that he realized, at the core of his being, that all of his  past power, all his prancing on his high horse claiming authority was unacceptable, wrong, inappropriate behavior.

 I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ..

This meeting with the Risen Christ revealed the sham he was formally living. 

An analogy of this kind of total transformation is difficult to find.  The only thing, even slightly close, would be what happens to someone who is addicted to drug and successfully beats the addiction.  They are literally like a new person.  

Another analogy would be when just normal people -- if there is such a thing as 'normal' -- who have found faith.  That is, found a source of strength in a higher power.  

Someone who sees past logic, reason, intellectual knowing, to something more calming, peaceful, comfortable. 

Someone who experiences a small transformation of their character.  They find a freedom to be who they are in God's grace alone. 

I call this a precious gift brought by the working of the Holy Spirit.


1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— 4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.(Phil.3)