18Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.
Acts 19:18-19 (NIV)
Paul was in Ephesus and many people were coming to faith in Christ. They weren't just simple "Ok, I'm a Christian. Now what?" conversions. No, the people were renouncing their old lives. Confessing the evil that they used to do. Taking the tangible signs of their old lives and burning them. Think about those books they burned. A drachma was about a days wages. Based on the 2008 average salary (as reported on the Social Security Admistration website) that translates to over 5.6 million dollars! Can you imagine a group of people coming to faith in Christ and destroying 5.6 million dollars worth of stuff just because it was an evil influence in the sinful life they used to lead? Honestly, comfortable materialistic American that I am, I can't imagine it. Why not? Why should such a radical conversion seem so strange to me? What from my sinful life would I be willing - and even eager - to burn to show the difference Christ has made in my life?
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