Your Changed Life Is Evidence
Month 10: Telling the Good News · Why We Believe
Today's Scripture
Read together: Acts 26:9-18
9 So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them. 12 In this pursuit I was on my way to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 ‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’
Memory Verse
“But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect,”— 1 Peter 3:15 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Song of Solomon 5-8
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Near Day 287 of 365 — "love is as strong as death," a picture of God's faithful love.)The Heart of It
Listen to who Paul used to be. He says he locked up Christians, voted for their deaths, and traveled to faraway cities just to punish them (). Paul was the last person on earth who would ever follow Jesus. He was the enemy. So a man like that suddenly stops. He turns completely around. He spends the rest of his life telling people about Jesus, even when it gets him beaten and jailed. You have to ask, what happened to him? Paul's answer is simple. He met the risen Jesus, and it changed him forever. The change itself is part of the evidence. Lies don't usually turn enemies into joyful, willing prisoners.
This is one quiet but powerful reason we believe. Real encounters with Jesus produce real, lasting change. Across two thousand years and every nation on earth, the same thing keeps happening. Proud people become humble. Angry people become gentle. Hopeless people become full of hope. Many of them, like Paul, hold onto that hope even when it costs them everything. You don't have to be a famous apologist to point to this. Your own changed life is evidence your friends can actually see. Maybe your temper is cooling. Maybe a fear is shrinking. Maybe there is a kindness that wasn't there before. When the Holy Spirit grows His fruit in you (), people notice. Sometimes that quiet change opens the door for the words.
Around the Table
Paul used to be mean to people who loved Jesus. Then Jesus changed his heart and he became kind and brave! Jesus can change anyone.
Let's do it: Name one way Jesus is helping you grow. Maybe you are sharing better, or being braver. Thank Him for it.
Paul went from hunting Christians to being one. That huge change is itself a reason to believe something real happened to him.
Let's talk: What's one way you've changed since you started following Jesus, even a small one?
A genuine encounter with the risen Christ turned the church's fiercest enemy into its boldest missionary. Skeptics have to explain that turnaround. And "he made it all up" doesn't fit a man who suffered and died for it.
Let's go deeper: If your life looked exactly the same after meeting Jesus as before, would that be evidence for or against your faith? Why?
💬 Conversation Starter
If a friend secretly watched you all week, what would they guess you believe about God, just from how you act?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
When someone says faith makes no real difference, point to changed lives, including your own. Saul the persecutor became Paul the missionary. People don't transform like that over a story they invented. Offer it gently (). Say, "Here's what Jesus actually did in me," not "You're wrong."
For Dad · Go Deeper
There is a category of evidence that lives in your house and wears your last name: a transformed life. Cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace notes that the dramatic, costly, lifelong conversions of men like Paul are exactly the kind of behavioral evidence he'd weigh as a witness. People don't suffer and die maintaining what they know to be a lie. But here's the searching application for fathers. Your children are witnesses too, watching whether the gospel has visibly changed you. Are you more patient than you were five years ago? Quicker to apologize? Less ruled by anger, screens, or fear? They are gathering evidence daily. The most persuasive apologetic in your home is not on your bookshelf. It's your slowly-being-sanctified character. Let them see Jesus changing Dad.
Draws on: J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You that meeting Jesus changes everything. It changed Paul, and it's changing us. Keep growing Your fruit in our family so others can see You in us. In Jesus' name, amen."
The change Jesus makes in me is something my friends can actually see.