Weather report from : Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “I persecuted the followers of this Jesus to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him. “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.” Acts 22:4-15
Insight: The story of the Apostle Paul being transformed from the evil Saul is one of my favorites in the Bible because it teaches us so much about the heart, patience and grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior. Paul was of course first Saul of Tarsus, and he was the one of the first activists who greatly opposed the new sect and teachings of Jesus. Act 8:2-3 records that “ Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” Saul was a Jew’s Jew, taught by the top religious leader of the day named Gamaliel, and he hated Christians. He was steeped in legalism and religiosity and couldn’t see or accept that the Holy Spirit of God was the way to salvation, through repentance, that Jesus preached which ed to many being saved, even the hated Gentiles. If any one ever deserved to be disqualified from being saved by Jesus through their persecution of Him, for sure Saul was at the top of the list. But God works in mysterious ways, and Saul had a life altering encounter on the Damascus Road, see scriptures above, that turned his entire life into a new direction. Instead of Saul the activist and persecutor of Christians, Jesus was going to change His name to Paul and use him to write over 75% of the New Testament and to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, whom he had been previously seen as outcasts and incapable of being saved by God.
Paul was now an activist for good instead of evil, and he was an on fire evangelist for the Gospel. He suffered greatly for his new found faith, and yet nothing could deter him. He was on a new mission from God, and his redemptive encounter with Christ had set him free. This teaches us plainly that if Paul could go from Saul, an activist of evil and a top persecutor of the Gospel, to Paul an activist for good and the evangelist responsible for spreading the Gospel throughout the known world, then it is never too late for us. No matter how dark our past, or how much we have wondered or ran away from Jesus, He is waiting with open arms to receive us back. It is time for the Prodigals to return home, and it’s never too late. A new day is dawning and He is calling you back to Him. Lay down the past and run to Him.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the depth of Your love and patience for us. You never disqualify us from Your Kingdom based on our past, but rather You wait with open arms to receive us once we come to our senses, repent, and head back to a life based on the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen! Join me on an exciting new platform Foundations of Freedom below!
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