Title: Saul's Journey
Contents
Bible Text: Acts 9:1-9
Saul's Path
There is something called a comeback win in athletics. It loses at first, but later turns the tide. It is exciting to hear the phrase “reversing your life”.
Life is not a permanent winner just because you win it once, nor a permanent loser when you win it once. If you leave early, you arrive late, and if you leave late, you arrive early. Not everyone who has quick feet is the first to arrive, and not everyone who is smart doesn't succeed. Life is about going ahead and behind and meeting together at the final finish line. The shade becomes bright and the positive becomes negative.
Saul's course, the course of his life, started from evil but turned into good. It started as an evil spirit, but entered into the Holy Spirit. The beginning was bad, but the later was good. That was the course of Saul's life.
'Saul, who goes to Damascus with the intention of living
When Saul went to Damascus, “there were threats and death and so on against the disciples of the Lord.” Disciples of the Lord are believers. Living is a wicked heart. It's the feeling of wanting to kill someone. To live is to say that the heart is full of wanting to kill. He was on his way to Damascus, breathing in his heart to kill.
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life in him” (1 John 3:15). If you have a vision, you become a visionary, and if you have a life, you become a killer. A person's footsteps are driven by the thoughts they hold in their hearts. It is the same person, but the person who embraces love and the person who embraces life are not the same person.
The path of life is made by you. What you have in your heart decides. If you think about killing, you will kill. Saul's course turned the hatred and anger in his heart toward wretched words. Saul had an official document stating that he could arrest a Christian hiding in Damascus.
“For if he finds anyone who follows that way, he might bring them to Jerusalem in bondage, both men and women” (verse 2).
We see here the narrowness of religion. It is a false insistence that only one is right.
There is a saying when the Taliban, an Islamic extremist group, educates innocent children to commit suicide attacks. “Life on earth is just a waste. If you die in a suicide bombing, you go to heaven right away.” The Pakistani government military took away a training base that was used to raise teenagers as terrorists and opened it to the public. There is a painting depicting heaven, in which virgins are playing in a river flowing with milk and honey.
The Taliban persuade 12-18 year olds recruited from nearby areas: “If you die in a suicide attack, this kind of heaven awaits you. Your sacrifice will surely be rewarded.” Children living in poverty and deprivation, isolated from the outside world, are deceived by nonsensical, vain and eloquent rumors. Parents are also deceived by the rumors that they get free meals and education, and send their children to the base. Poverty and ignorance lead to death.
It is a mistake of belief that Taliban-educated children carry suicide bombs and commit suicide attacks. You die and I die. This is not even a religion.
Jesus said I came so that I might have life. He said that he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his body as a ransom for many.
Saul's authority is to arrest those who believe in Jesus. Our authority is to rescue those who are bound by the powers of Hades. It is a deliverance from distrust and despair. I hope that one person will become the authority to evangelize one person for a year.
Jesus met on the road to Damascus
If you go to Damascus, you will find Christians, and if you meet them, you will bring them to the council, and those who are handed over will suffer great suffering and persecution before being martyred.
It happened when Saul was almost on his way to Damascus. “As Saul was on his way, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him” (verse 3). And his eyes couldn't see anything.
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (verse 4) “He answered, “Who are you, Lord?” He said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (verse 5).
Jesus called Saul by name. Jesus is Saul, Saul! called that name.
A man met a college friend on the street after a long time. Saying goodbye and getting married? Yes, I got married and had a child. How old are you? gave birth a while ago Only now the stone is back. Then, when you have children, you have to call and come and go to be friends, otherwise we will move away from you. OK. and parted.
One more word as you go. Don't forget to call! ok Of course I should call you... I remembered what I said when I broke up with my friend.
Call me! have to call Put the words on fire you have to put on the fire It sounded like
“...If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
Saul! Saul! Jesus called. Jesus set the fire. Saul accepted Jesus, who had come to cast fire. Fire melts iron. It changes nature and form. Jesus changed Saul.
“Before I called out his name, he was just a gesture. When I called his name, he came to me and became a flower.” This is a poem called “Flower” by Kim Chun-su. Saul became a flower because Jesus called him.
The human heart is like a field. It is up to you to decide which seeds to plant and which ones to water. Why do you persecute me? I received this word as a seed. These words changed Saul. He turned the persecutors into loyalists and others into the Lord's.
The Bible says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Jesus told Ananias, a disciple of Damascus, about Saul. “This man is my chosen vessel to carry my name to the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (verse 15). When he said that he would fill it up, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again (verses 17-18).
Saul was chosen and made by the Lord for use. May the Lord call your names so that passion and love will sprout.
Saul Follows the Leader on a New Road
Up until now, he has been going the way he wants to go and doing what he wants to do. He was the subject of his own actions. But now it's different. I became a follower of a guide, and I became a mover under direction.
“Arise, go into the brook, and someone will tell you what you are going to do” (verse 6). Because I couldn't see ahead. Listening is important. God is pleased with those who hear, and blessed are those who have ears to hear.
“Saul got up from the ground, and his eyes were opened, but he could not see anything, and he was carried away by men into Damascus, and for three days he could not see, eat or drink (verses 8-9).
Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the dead three days later. Saul had three days of experience as a dead man. I couldn't see, eat, or drink for three days. He is now being dragged into the hands of someone. He is not in control of his life.
He is on his way to Damascus, but the path he used to walk on his own feet and the path he now follows the leader are different. Previously, I had a desire to live, but now I have a heart of obedience.
Glass artist Dale Chihuly suffered a major fire in 1972. Four years later, in 1976, in a car accident, I had 256 stitches on my face, so I can guess what the accident was like. Then my left eye went blind. In 1979, a dislocated shoulder made glass work impossible. It was natural for him to sit down, but he was different. Unable to work with his own hands, he rose to international fame by leading a team working on his own ideas.
The body is an upgrade of mental activity, even when constrained. Instead of being angry and frustrated with his own misfortune, he walked the life set before him with humor and a spirit of challenge. At the most dead end of life, he exercised his alchemy to transform himself into a shining jewel. What was to be let go was let go, and what was to be accepted was accepted without delay.
Saul gave up all the values he had considered to be the best in his life. Now, he considered his worth as excrement and made Jesus his treasure. Walk the way you are now. The road you're on is the road you left, and the road you're on is a new and living road.
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
He followed a path higher than his own, a higher thought than his own. After meeting Jesus, I was able to organize and liquidate the past. I found a way I had never known before.
Jesus is the new and living way. If you go down that road, you will become a new person and live a new life. Saul was converted immediately and became a new man. It's an amazing transition since I made a decision on my own and went on a new path.
Ants leave the house and look for food. They spend a lot of time wandering in search of food. Then, when they return to their home after looking for food, they never wander. Up until now, I've been wandering around, but when I go home for food, I go straight through the shortest distance. When you go home, measure the angle and rotate it 180 degrees to head home.
Aren't you on the way to turn now? Shouldn't we turn around and go on a new path?
A gift is called present in English, and it also means ‘present’. What is a gift? The present is a gift. Today, it is an ordinary gift given to everyone. Don't cling to the past. We must cover the past with the present. You have to erase yesterday with today. We must erase the past and write a new history. Stepping into the past into the present will make you better and higher.