Daily Manna

Key Verse

“And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5).

TEXT — Acts 9:1-9

Message

The Road to Damascus was associated with the most dramatic conversion story in the Bible. It was about Saul of Tarsus, who embarked on a mission to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians who had fled from Jerusalem to Damascus, following the persecution that attended the stoning of Stephen. On the way, Saul encountered Christ, surrendered to Him, and became a Christian. This classic story has inspired the theme of scientific fiction, music, films, and novels. Notable among them is the 1952 novel titled, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, where a character commented thus: You start as Saul and end up Paul. In widespread usage, Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus has become a metaphor for a sudden or radical change of heart or purpose. As Christians, we can deduce several moral or scriptural lessons from Saul’s conversion.

The manner of his arrest shows that Christ is always interested in the protection of His people (Acts 9:5; Matthew 10:40; Luke 10:16). It took a personal encounter with Christ for Saul to get converted. This unique encounter humbled Saul to the point that he lost all his pride and arrogance. The Apostle John had a similar experience on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:17). Like Saul, every child of God was once zealously serving the flesh and Satan before conversion when the Lord met us on our own ‘Road to Damascus’. The conversion of Mosab Hassan Yousef, now called Joseph, in the book titled Son of Hamas, published by Tyndale, England, in 2010, shows that God is still transforming lives in Saul’s kind of dramatic fashion. This all indicates that no one is beyond God’s reach or redemption.

God loves sinners but hates their sins. He met Saul on the way to Damascus and transformed him into a chosen vessel and an apostle to the Gentiles, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious…” (1 Timothy 1:13). So, we should never give up on any sinner, no matter how seemingly far from God. Christ is the Lord of the work, and He has promised to be with us even unto the end of the world.

Thought for the day

Every sinner is a potential saint.

• Bible
• in one year
• Leviticus 8 – 11 (Read By Alexander Scourby)