Acts 9-10
November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving.
Today I see more than a single story, unfolding or developing in sequence.  This is multi-faceted, and complex.  While Philip is speaking in one place, God is using Peter in another.   While both of them are witnessing and being challenged to go to different places, God is also preparing the next generation of witness in Saul.   If it weren't written down, we never could have kept track of it, that's how amazing it is.

I was chosen for job one time and found out some time later that men more qualified than myself had applied and were turned down.   I asked my superior why they chose me when more qualified people were denied.   He said "they knew more than you, but you were the right material.  We can teach you what you need to know, but we couldn't teach you the type of personality that we needed."

I see Jesus pursuing Saul because he is the right kind of material.  He is strong willed, able to learn and debate, and not afraid to do so.   Many people are intelligent, not all of them can speak in public.   And among those, even fewer are able to be humble.   Saul, later to become Paul, was a unique personality type, and Jesus chose to use him for a special task.

Could Christ have used others?  Yes.  Did Saul have to respond?  No.  Would the Gospel have been preached by another person if Saul refused?   Certainly.  It may have had a slightly different story line, but it would still be the Gospel, all doctrines unchanged.   If you and I are willing to allow Jesus to break through the fog of deception that the devil wraps us with, we will see clearly that Christ is the only rational solution to our fallen state.   Saul is "dead-set" against Christians, but that's because he has been deceived.  Who knows what lies Saul has believed.  He probably was told that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and hid it elsewhere.  After all, that was the official story that the Pharisees put out.   I imagine Saul to be both excited and disappointed as he realized that much of what he had believed in was not true, and that the people who had sent him on this mission were actually lying to him.    No one likes to be lied to, or used like a puppet to serve someone else's purpose.   I can only imagine the turmoil in Saul's head as he sat for several days in darkness considering all the terrible things that he had done, for a government that he no longer believed in.

The appearance of Jesus to Saul on the Damascus road serves as an illustration for Christians today.  We must all have a "damascus road" experience.  Generally when we say that, we mean a big, flashy and undeniable event where God speaks so clearly that we cannot miss it.    But what I mean is a turning point in what we chose to accept as truth.   Who are we going to believe, and what actions will we take, and what things will we no longer put up with, because of those beliefs?

From the time Saul makes up his mind he is changed.   He isn't always accepted by the other Christians.  In fact for a while they don't want to be around him.   And there is a period of time when Saul leaves Jerusalem and goes home to witness and continue his spiritual growth.   Even this serves as a clue to the type of ministry he will have...an itinerant, traveling ministry to gentiles, instead of a fixed and located ministry to the Jews.

Peter has a formative moment here as well.   We often reference the idea that we should "not call unclean what God has called clean".    We overlay that statement on food, on people, on music and styles of worship, on clothing and just about everything else.    Maybe we over use it, I don't know.   The point is:  God is bigger than what you and I can imagine or conceive of.  His purpose and His grace go beyond our ability, His mercy beyond our comprehension.  His plan is so much larger than ours we cannot possibly understand it all.   We must be content to do as the disciples did, trust and obey that God will give us enough light for the moment.  

We can only walk in the light that we have, obey the command that we understand, and wait patiently for the rest of the plan to be revealed for us.   Since it has so many facets, we must rest in the assurance that God is in control of it, and we don't have to worry about it.

I'd better bring my rambling thoughts to a close.  I'm visiting my son and his family today in South Carolina, and my grandson will be waking up soon.   I don't want to miss that.


PR