For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 5:7
- Because not everything in life can be seen
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth.
When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.
Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them - both men and women - back to Jerusalem in chains.
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord!” he replied
The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
“But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to believers in Jerusalem! And he is authorised by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptised. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.
Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying “He is indeed the Son of God!”
All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
Acts 9:1-21
Saul (Hebrew name), later going by the name Paul (Greek name), went on to write several very important letters to the growing Church back in the day (which are now found in the New Testament of the bible).
He wrote many of them while incarcerated after being persecuted himself for being a Christian.
In one of his letters to the Church in Corinth (written approximately A.D 55-57 from Macedonia) Paul describes the hardship he had to face as a Christian:
Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.
I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas.
And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights.
I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.
2 Corinthians 11:24-27
Despite all these unjust punishments, Paul became arguably the most influential Christian who ever lived. A man, who before his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, wanted nothing more than to see all Christians die.
Paul is an example of how Jesus can take even the most unlikely of people and use them for good because of his boundless love & grace. There is still much persecution today in countries all around the world where Christians are put into prison, beaten and even killed in places like China.
Paul Williams, author of “If You Could Ask God One Question” writes this:
“And all this is to say nothing of the Christian whose faith invites a subtler sort of suffering. Like a friend of mine whose father said to him, simply and sadly, ‘Aren’t you taking all this too seriously?’ Or the colleague whose best friends at university told him, ‘We just can’t respect you intellectually any more.’ Or the person passed over for promotion, quietly overlooked when the party invitations get sent, and politely ignored in the office cafeteria. Death by a thousand papercuts is death nevertheless.”
Paul’s life story is for me, hope that persecution will not win over. And like Paul, my hope is that something like scales will fall from their eyes…and they will at last, see clearly again.
