Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 56

February 25;        Acts 22:7;         111/260;        ‘Going the Wrong Way’

Acts 22:7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'

Saul, the persecutor of Christians was full of hatred for them and was on his way to Damascus, to arrest, imprison and put to death as many Christians as he could.  A great light from heaven shone around Saul, he fell to the ground, and a voice from heaven asked why was Saul persecuting Him?  Paul asked who are you Lord and Jesus replied that it was He.  We have said this before, that Jesus was now in heaven.  Saul was not persecuting Jesus Himself, but was persecuting Christians.  When you persecute Christians you are persecuting the Lord Jesus.  Jesus is well able to protect and come to the defense of His own, as He did here.  The point of this article is that someone can change their position very quickly, especially when they are confronted by the supernatural.  Why would Jesus choose and use a Christian hater like Saul?  There were qualities in Saul, soon to be Paul, that Jesus knew, when those qualities were purified and used for the kingdom of God, Paul would be a mighty minister for the Lord.  The Lord Jesus is a faith God and sees us not as we are, but as we can be.  Once Paul was delivered from religion , which is mean spirited and often deadly, the same tenacity he had to persecute Christians, would be used to promote the gospel.  Paul testifies that his persecution of the church was done out of ignorance.  The Lord knew that Paul was going the wrong way, by confronting Paul, he quickly realized this also. Learn the truth about Jesus, turn if you are going the wrong way and minister for Jesus.