Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Acts 9:1-9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.  As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.  "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."  The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone... Apostle Paul was named Saul before he accepted the Lord, and he was an outstanding young man who quickly entered the inner circle of politics in Jerusalem.  Actually, he was a member of the group of seventy that ruled Jewish affairs in the city and followed the law strictly.  He couldn't tolerate the fact that Christians openly proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah promised by God in the Old Testament and how they went around spreading the witness of how Jesus resurrected from death.  When he saw how the church grew everyday and miracles were taking place, he proactively started to persecute Christians.  That's why he asked the grand priest for a permit to allow him to arrest the Christians in Damascus. It took six days to go from Jerusalem to Damascus, so Saul had plenty of opportunities to reflect on how he persecuted the Christians back in Jerusalem.  The inexplicable questions that must have occupied his heart were: Why didn't the Christians give up their faith even when faced with persecution?  Who was this Jesus?  Didn't he die, or did he actual come back to life? When he was contemplating these questions, a great light flashed on him from the heaven, so he fell on the ground and heard: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  The question asked by this voice seemed ridiculous, so Saul could have asked "who are you, and when did I persecute you?"  Saul, however, had an even more important question to ask, because he knew that it was no other than God, ruler of the universe, who was talking to him, and therefore he asked the most important question in his life: "Who are you, Lord?"  The Lord said to him: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."  At that time, Paul met Jesus and gave the authority to his life to the Lord, and his life was never the same.   Pray with Pastor Tong Liu        Lord, I thank you for letting us see the preciousness of your grace through the life of Paul.  May the Lord help us to experience how real you are in our daily life.  Let us experience your abundance and presence so that we may have a different life, and let us give you all the glory.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!