May the mumbling commence!
Today, we will look at excerpts from Acts chapter twenty-two that includes Paul remembering of the vital event on the road to Damascus. Read some of the chapter below:
"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 fathers 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 men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'
When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking. 'Quick!' he said to me. 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'
'Lord,' I replied, 'these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.'
Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'" (Verses 6-21)
We learn from this recollection of Paul that the vision happened at noon – one of the times of prayer. Many Christians and Jews were gathering at that time to prayer. In fact, Paul may have been preparing to pray at that very time. Maybe that is why he remembered the time of the vision.
For Paul, it was a time to listen. He had been chosen to do God’s will. He was chosen to speak for the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. He was called to a new commitment that turned his prior commitment on its head. It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus sent Paul away from Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, he would have been tempted to return to his old ways. And the Christians would be reminded of the stoning of Stephen every time they looked at Paul.
Paul was meant to revive his image through a ministry of the Lord to the Gentiles. This mission and his past forced Paul into dangerous situations like this one – where he was speaking to a riotous crowd in Jerusalem.
Ministry to the Lord calls for daily prayer. It calls for courage and selflessness. May we fair as well as Paul once did.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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