by David Gibson<\/p>\n
When the man behind the counter saw the badly worn shoes I had brought in for repair, he told me they were too far gone to fix. I then took them down the street to another shop. The man there didn’t say anything about how bad they looked. He just fixed them.<\/p>\n
The process we call conversion is such a radical change that the Bible compares it to both birth and death. Like death, it is the end of the old self; like birth, it is the beginning of the new (Romans 6:3-7; Galatians 2:20; John 3:3-5; II Corinthians 5:17).<\/p>\n
Conversion means making a 180\u00ba change in our thinking and behavior. We decide we’ve been wrong and that we’ll follow God’s path from now on.<\/p>\n
Conversion is also a dramatic change of status. When we believe, repent, confess our faith, and are baptized, no longer are we in bondage to Satan; now we have a new Master. No longer are we headed for eternal destruction; now, we have abundant life and hope!<\/p>\n
The change is God’s doing, but we must cooperate.<\/p>\n
Have you ever known someone who was so deeply mired in self-destructive behavior that you thought, “He’s a goner”?\u00a0Maybe he is, and maybe he isn’t. If someone is truly willing to cooperate with God, who’s to say what God can’t do?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by David Gibson When the man behind the counter saw the badly worn shoes I had brought in for repair, he told me they were too far gone to fix. I then took them down the street to another shop. The man there didn’t say anything about how bad they looked. He just fixed them.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[390],"class_list":["post-70708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-conversion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90628,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/sauls-conversion\/","url_meta":{"origin":70708,"position":0},"title":"Saul’s Conversion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Greer I watched a DVD that contained a religious debate between Brother Larry Hafley and his opponent, a man whose last name is Ross. The subject of the debate: \"Is baptism necessary for salvation?\" One of the passages considered deals with Saul's conversion. Brother Hafley presented a powerful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66578,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lessons-from-sauls-conversion\/","url_meta":{"origin":70708,"position":1},"title":"Lessons from Saul\u2019s Conversion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Saul would become the saved apostle Paul, and his conversion from being totally against Jesus and his disciples to becoming a disciple of Jesus, from being a persecutor to being persecuted, is a remarkable account of what is involved in the process of conversion to Christ.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41840,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-origin-of-the-sinners-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":70708,"position":2},"title":"The Origin of the Sinner’s Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ryan Hasty No method of conversion has gained such popularity amongst mainstream denominations in the last century than that of the \"Sinner's Prayer.\" It has been said that thousands of people utter this prayer daily in response to altar calls and one-on-one conversations between friends, relatives, co-workers, and schoolmates.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27997,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-baptism-unnecessary-for-salvation-because-every-conversion-in-acts-doesnt-mention-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":70708,"position":3},"title":"Is baptism unnecessary for salvation because every conversion in Acts doesn’t mention baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I received the below email and am having a tough time responding to these verses in regards to is baptism being necessary for salvation. I was hoping you might be able to help with these verses. Thank you Here are the places in Acts that you need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57439,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/insufficient-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":70708,"position":4},"title":"Insufficient Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Allen Dvorak Perpetua and Felicitas were two young women who were martyred in A.D. 203 at Carthage, victims of the Roman persecution of the church. \u00a0When they were condemned to die in the arena, Perpetua was a woman of 22 years with a young child and Felicitas was pregnant. \u00a0Tertullian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/examining.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":45373,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-conversion-of-saul-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":70708,"position":5},"title":"The Conversion of Saul (Miller)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Rob Miller","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}