The Violent Capture of a Rebel Will
Greetings one and all. Some time ago I started a series of blogs on the Apostle Paul using a book called Paul: A Man of Grace of Grit by Charles Swindoll. I wrote one post about it and some how or another I lost the book. I am currently using my dad's copy of the book to resume the posts about Paul. Without further ado here we go.
Chapter one of the book was about introducing Paul, whom we first meet as Saul. This chapter talks about his conversion. Everyone has a story to tell about how he or she met Christ and came to believe in Him. Paul's was seemly a lot more dramatic than even the wildest fairy tale we could come up with. The book of Acts talks a lot about Paul and his life before becoming a Christian. In Acts 22: 4 we reed, "And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prison". In Acts 22: 5 it says, "As also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished". And in Acts 26 Paul said that he "... had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus ..." that he took many as prisoners and cast his vote against them when they were put to death ( vv. 9-10). But as he said in 1 Timothy 1:13 he "... was shown mercy". When he was riding out to Damascus, he was in a rage of furry. His eyes were full of anger and hate and he wanted to bring Christianity to a halt. But before he got to his destination he was brought to screeching halt. There was such a bright light shinning that it made Saul blind. And he heard a voice say to him; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:3-4). God certainly had his attention at this moment. God does this to a lot of us. We get some major tragic news and suddenly we are in such shook we can barely speak. Whatever it is, be it a bad medical emergency; news of a death of a loved one or friend, the news of a national tragedy (ie. what occurred on September 11, 2001) or something else, God can use that to bring you and I to our knees. Then God seems to say, "Now do I have your attention?". Kind of like when Joshua and his troops were going to attack Ai and were soundly defeated and Joshua was like. "What happened here?". At that moment Saul was fully attentive to God and He told him exactly what He wanted Saul to do to be saved. He did what God wanted him to do (ie. repent and baptized) and he was on God's side from then on.
Another part of this deserves our attention as well. In Acts 26:14 we read; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads". These seem to be slender pieces of timber. They are blunt on one end and a sharp, pointy end on the other. They are used be farmers to urge a stubborn ox. The farmer would use them to get an ox going, but if the ox kicked at it , it would stab him and that would hurt. A lot, I'm sure. But Jesus likened Saul to an ox kicking goads. There are three possible goads He was referring to. One is the goad of Christ's life and words. Saul was one of the pharisees and wanted to see Him dead. He refused to believe Jesus was a live and well and personally saw to it to end the Christian religion. But God saw to it to show Saul the error of his life and thinking.
The second one could be Stephen's peaceful death. He didn't curse or cry for mercy. He simply prayed for God to forgive his killers and not to remember this charge against them. Surely that replayed in Saul's mind. And the third possibility is the Christians' courage and faith in death. Saul arrested so many of them and voted for them to die. Perhaps a few recanted their faith, but a lot more stood firm in their faith, perhaps even prayed for their killers. If so that surely plagued him in his dreams and thoughts. In the end God wins. God won't let the enemy win. He wins. We must listen to God before He does something dramatic to get our attention.
More blogging later. I hope each of you had a great July 4 yesterday. God bless!
Zack
Chapter one of the book was about introducing Paul, whom we first meet as Saul. This chapter talks about his conversion. Everyone has a story to tell about how he or she met Christ and came to believe in Him. Paul's was seemly a lot more dramatic than even the wildest fairy tale we could come up with. The book of Acts talks a lot about Paul and his life before becoming a Christian. In Acts 22: 4 we reed, "And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prison". In Acts 22: 5 it says, "As also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished". And in Acts 26 Paul said that he "... had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus ..." that he took many as prisoners and cast his vote against them when they were put to death ( vv. 9-10). But as he said in 1 Timothy 1:13 he "... was shown mercy". When he was riding out to Damascus, he was in a rage of furry. His eyes were full of anger and hate and he wanted to bring Christianity to a halt. But before he got to his destination he was brought to screeching halt. There was such a bright light shinning that it made Saul blind. And he heard a voice say to him; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:3-4). God certainly had his attention at this moment. God does this to a lot of us. We get some major tragic news and suddenly we are in such shook we can barely speak. Whatever it is, be it a bad medical emergency; news of a death of a loved one or friend, the news of a national tragedy (ie. what occurred on September 11, 2001) or something else, God can use that to bring you and I to our knees. Then God seems to say, "Now do I have your attention?". Kind of like when Joshua and his troops were going to attack Ai and were soundly defeated and Joshua was like. "What happened here?". At that moment Saul was fully attentive to God and He told him exactly what He wanted Saul to do to be saved. He did what God wanted him to do (ie. repent and baptized) and he was on God's side from then on.
Another part of this deserves our attention as well. In Acts 26:14 we read; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads". These seem to be slender pieces of timber. They are blunt on one end and a sharp, pointy end on the other. They are used be farmers to urge a stubborn ox. The farmer would use them to get an ox going, but if the ox kicked at it , it would stab him and that would hurt. A lot, I'm sure. But Jesus likened Saul to an ox kicking goads. There are three possible goads He was referring to. One is the goad of Christ's life and words. Saul was one of the pharisees and wanted to see Him dead. He refused to believe Jesus was a live and well and personally saw to it to end the Christian religion. But God saw to it to show Saul the error of his life and thinking.
The second one could be Stephen's peaceful death. He didn't curse or cry for mercy. He simply prayed for God to forgive his killers and not to remember this charge against them. Surely that replayed in Saul's mind. And the third possibility is the Christians' courage and faith in death. Saul arrested so many of them and voted for them to die. Perhaps a few recanted their faith, but a lot more stood firm in their faith, perhaps even prayed for their killers. If so that surely plagued him in his dreams and thoughts. In the end God wins. God won't let the enemy win. He wins. We must listen to God before He does something dramatic to get our attention.
More blogging later. I hope each of you had a great July 4 yesterday. God bless!
Zack
posted by Zack | 8:27 AM
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