“Repent therefore and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out,
SO THAT TIMES OF REFRESHING
may come from the presence of the Lord…”
Acts 3:19

Everyone who has been born again can think back to the days before this great event happened in their lives. For many, including me, their lives had been wasted and they were burdened and laden with sin. Lost, wandering, blind, afflicted, living the destruction that sin brings into one’s life.

But then the conversion came and they were brought into eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior whom the Father revealed to them, and the Lord changed everything. He healed them from deep inside and set them free from bondages, many of which they had carried all of their lives. He revealed truth to them, and showed them where they had been deceived. And he changed them completely.

Times of refreshing came to them from the presence of the Lord, and as he healed them, he bid them take up their cross and follow him. The road wasn’t easy, and for some it was the hardest they’d ever been through. But he kept them. And all the evil works of the devil in their lives – he turned it all to the good:

“And we know that all things work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28

And as they follow him, they joyfully sing a new song:

“Sometimes this cross gets so heavy
but each day I take it up again,
because I know its weight is so much lighter
than the chains that kept me bound in sin.”
-Lyrics to “This Cross”

Hear the song “This Cross”