¹And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

²And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

³And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

⁴And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

⁵And 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.

⁶And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

⁷And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.

⁸And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

⁹And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

¹⁰And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

¹¹And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,

¹²And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

¹³Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:

¹⁴And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

¹⁵But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

¹⁶For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

¹⁷And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

¹⁸And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

¹⁹And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

²⁰And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

²¹But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

²²But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

²³And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him:

²⁴But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.

²⁵Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

²⁶And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.

²⁷But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

²⁸And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.

²⁹And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.

³⁰Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus. (Acts 9:1-31, King James Version)

This chapter of Acts recounts the dramatic conversion of Saul of Tarsus by Jesus Christ Himself.

I chose the King James Version of this event, because newer translations, like the NIV and NLT, leave out Christ’s comment about it being hard for Saul to ‘kick against the pricks’, and more importantly, Saul’s first question after learning Who this ‘vision’ was:  “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

Saul, possibly the most dogged and tenacious persecutor of the the early Christians, a Pharisee, obedient to the Law of Moses his entire life, has been hand-picked by our Lord and Saviour to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Saul, the man who was present at the stoning of Stephen, Christianity’s first martyr, who had documentation in hand to bring anyone, man or woman who professed to follow The Way back to Jerusalem, trembled in fear and astonishment. Here was the very Man who had been crucified, ALIVE, shining with a glorious blinding light and speaking to him. The Man whose followers he had vowed to eradicate.

And his very first communication to Him was a question:

“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

His conversion was instantanious. He didn’t ask “Why me, of all people?”  Or “Are you serious??”

His first act, with those words, was to hand his life over to Christ.

As we see later in the chapter, he received the Holy Ghost when Ananias healed his blindness. Today, believers receive the Holy Spirit when they truly believe and confess their sins and ask God for forgiveness. Here, in this passage, Saul, the most ardent of persecutors of the early Christians believed the instant Christ identified himself. And, without hesitation, gave himself over to Christ’s guidance.

Many people believe that Saul, renamed by Christ to Paul, is possibly the greatest of the apostles. I certainly do, though I do want to clarify that I don’t put him before Christ. No, it is my opinion that Paul epitomizes what a Christian should be. Devoted completely to Christ, living his life in God’s will, and gladly evangelizing the Gospel every chance he got.

Of course, we, as mere humans, flawed as we are, can find living one’s life entirely for Christ quite daunting. And too many do not even try to do even simple evangelizing. Certainly, we can’t all travel to the end’s of the earth, preaching the Good News. But we don’t even try to talk to people we know about Christ. Fear of embarrassment, or rejection, or some other reason gets in the way of the Great Commission.

My prayer is that we all, including myself, ask God for guidance and courage to speak to others about Christ and spread the News as He commanded. The Apostle Paul set the standard for us. We should do no less than to follow his example

The Annunciation.
That magnificent interlude where Archangel Gabriel announced to a poor Jewish teenager that she would bear the Son of the Living God. I’ve chosen this for closer study as I felt the Lord led me to it. I opened my Bible to the first page of Luke and while reading the first chapter, the last verse stood out for me.

My Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
I pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit as I delve into Your Word, to give me greater understanding and insight into Your will for my life and revelation of the mysteries of Your Word I’ve yet to discover. In Christ’s Holy Name, Amen.

As you read this account from the New King James Version, you may wonder why I titled this “Unquestioning Faith”. Indeed, Mary does ask a question. Does this mean her faith was not enough? In my opinion, no.

Mary was obviously a devout Jew, hence her selection by God to bear his Son, Jesus. We see that she knows that Gabriel was a messenger from heaven, and though his appearance was totally unexpected, she didn’t reject it in any way. However, she was perplexed that such an exalted being would manifest itself to her: 

²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

For those first few moments, no doubt she wondered at his greeting and why he would be visiting her. But Gabriel gets right to the point, allaying her fears and telling her the reason for coming to her. She would concieve and give birth to the Messiah! The Son of the Lord God Almighty, Who Was and Is and Will Always Be!

Can one imagine this? Mary, undoubtedly had to be astounded by this news. A poor Jewess, betrothed to a poor carpenter, Joseph ben Heli….and now she has a question:

³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

People, no matter how devout, still live in this world, a world ruled by satan. Sometimes, even those with great faith, can have questions. Mary, knowing how children are conceived, obviously was thinking along ‘fleshly’ lines. She had never lain with any man, and likely, thinking in somewhat logical terms, probably had the idea that this would be how it would happen; but she was betrothed, not yet married, and sexual relations of any kind only came after the marriage. Obviously, she didn’t entertain any idea of bedding anyone before the ceremony!

In that light, let’s examine a little more closely:

She knew how children were concieved and came into the world.  She obviously understood that this conception would happen very soon, hence her question concerning her virginity. Until THIS conception occurred, no child had ever been born of a virgin. As she stood there before Gabriel, listening to how it would happen, understanding sank in.

She remembered that this was her Lord God, Yahweh, who would father this Child.

And she remembered that with the Lord, her God, nothing was impossible.

And it made perfect sense to her:

³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

I can see her, bowing her head in acceptance of God’s Will for her life. And what a will! She was the vessel, prepared and chosen by God to bring forth the Saviour of the world. In these two sentences, Mary acknowledges that she was on earth by God’s grace, and His service. God not only let her know in no uncertain terms what His will for her life would be, but also sent one of His highest ranking angels to give her this astounding message.

And in accepting God’s Will, her life was changed forever.

The Magnificat:
⁴⁶ And Mary said:

      “ My soul magnifies the Lord,
       ⁴⁷ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
       ⁴⁸ For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
      For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
       ⁴⁹ For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
      And holy is His name.
       ⁵⁰ And His mercy is on those who fear Him
      From generation to generation.
       ⁵¹ He has shown strength with His arm;
      He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
       ⁵² He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
      And exalted the lowly.
       ⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things,
      And the rich He has sent away empty.
       ⁵⁴ He has helped His servant Israel,
      In remembrance of His mercy,
       ⁵⁵ As He spoke to our fathers,
      To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

(Luke 1:46-55, New King James Version)

I thought this would be a pertinent post to add since this so-called prophecy is on the mind of many nowadays, especially now that there is a movie out on this subject.

Got Questions.org is a wealth of resources for answering questions one may have about the Bible, God, Christ, etc. You can also submit your own questions.

At the outset, I want to make it clear I’m not an expert on any of these subjects; just putting forth some observations.

Many Christians, no matter how closely (or not) they walk with God, believe we are living in the End Times, and that we are coming ever closer to Christ’s return to the Earth.

In Matthew 24:4-8, Christ responds to the disciples’ queries about signs of His return and the end of the world:

4. Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.
5. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, ‘ and will deceive many.
6. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Birth pains.

When a woman is about to go into labor, she begins having labor pains. They start out slowly, coming rather far apart, but as birth is imminent, they come closer and closer together. This is a perfect analogy for what Christ is talking about.

The world’s economy is still in bad shape. Many nations in the Middle East are preparing for war against Israel (actually this isn’t really new, they’ve been that way for a long time); the president of Iran has vowed they will ‘wipe Israel off the face of the map’.

Quite frankly, many of the prophecies concerning Christ’s return have come to pass. Not all, but quite a few. I recently watched a sermon by Greg Laurie, senior pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship titled “Signs of the End Times”. If you wish to view this, click the Media button and it’s listed in the ‘Essentials of Our Faith’ sermons. He does a great job explaining this topic.

Just a couple of days ago, I found this at a Christian forum:

This is a perfect example of God turning a bad thing into something good. 3000 confirmed conversion, 101 of which were confirmed voodoo priests. Nothing like a little earthquake to put a healthy fear of God into an unbeliever! Sorry, I’m not making light of this country’s woes. I pray for these people and am glad to see the government itself calling for fasting and prayer from it’s people, turning from their sinful ways and accepting God’s leadership.

I say Hallelujah!!! What other country would have the guts to stand up in front of the entire world and admit the existence and sovereignty of the One True Living God? Haiti was brought to her knees with a devastating earthquake and rose from the rubble with praise on her lips and repentance in her heart. May God richly bless Haiti and those who have come to help her recover and rebuild.

It’s a separate page here; link at the top My Testimony.

Thanks!

Years ago, I recall thinking it would be hard for me when my mother died. It was very hard to imagine life without her. We weren’t extremely close, but not estranged or anything. We were much alike in many ways, and I was quite independent for much of my life. She helped me when I needed help, as she did for the rest of us kids (there are six of us, I’m the oldest of 5 girls and one boy)

My sister Kathy was living with her, as was my brother, and when she retired, Kathy took care of her, as she was getting more frail (she was in her seventies). Kathy, herself, was unable to work because of health issues. Another sister, who had taken over ownership of the house when Mom became concerned that she might lose it if anything happened to her, had become extremely hostile toward Kat, for reasons unknown to the rest of us. This sister was very close to Mom and when she came to visit, would sometimes close Mom’s bedroom door during the visit. I suspected and now know that she had plotted Kat’s destruction when Mom died.

This sister was the beneficiary for the only insurance policy Mom had and since Mom had no will, she was obligated to be the administrator of her estate. Since the policy was only for $10,000, there was only enough to pay the funeral costs, with just a bit left over. There turned out to be other bills that needed to be taken care of, (I knew nothing about them). She was very angry about this and blamed Kathy for running up these bills and using up Mom’s money. Kathy said that anytime Mom needed or wanted anything, she got it, even if it required using a credit card. I agree; it was Mom’s money and her cards, and if she needed or wanted it, so be it! If Kathy needed anything and Mom knew about it, it was ok with me, since she was taking care of her.

But this other sister doesn’t see it that way. Mom had fallen (again!) and broke her hip on Halloween of ’08, and wound up in the hospital, then later into a nursing home for recovery. Mom had COPD and emphysema, along with other health issues. While in the nursing home, she required a feeding tube toward the end of her stay there. (This nursing home was in the city where my other sister worked …..at her request…so she could see to her care. It was there that the tube somehow got dislodged and some of the ‘food’ got into her lungs. She became sick from this and was transferred back to our hometown to a nursing home here. This was where she died.

Six months after Mom’s death, this first sister devised a plan to get Kat out of the house, by telling her they (she and her husband) wanted $400 a month rent or she had to get out. I was staying there at the time, but it wasn’t permanent. Since Mom was gone, her SS check, of course, was stopped. It was taking all of my money to try to keep things going (my brother only paid for what he wanted; this other sister had conspired with him to let him off the hook for rent and basically turned him against us by telling him we would ‘screw him over’!) Kathy had no income, and basically, any money would have to come from me. There was no way I could do it. She took Kat and I to court after not getting only one months rent.

Sorry, but she’ll never see a penny, as she tried to extort this from us! We are now out of there. Things are extrememly hard for us. Kathy is now in a facility to get treatment for depression and being suicidal. She’s been turned down 3 times for disablity.

And I’m trying very hard to keep my eyes toward God. But it’s very difficult when every day brings more hardship. I only make so much money and though I know all things are possible with God, I’m still having a hard time with it. I’ve prayed and given it over to him, but I guess I haven’t really let it all go. I just wish that the bad stuff will at least stop for a while, and let me have a little rest!

It’s because of this situation with my other sister that I rededicated myself to God. I know he’s working on me, refining me to his will. But, oh, how hard this is! If it was just only me, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for me to go through; but I brought her with me to help her and I don’t know how! I really believed that God wanted me there in Mom’s house because He knew what was going to happen. I guess nothing is making sense to me and that’s causing my confusion.

In typing this, I realize I’ve gotten off God’s path for me. I’ve allowed the Father of Lies to deceive me. I’ve let him turn me every which way and gotten me confused and disoriented. This calls for some serious prayer time.

A rather odd depiction, don’t you think, of someone who was born Hebrew?

Not wishing to stereotype, but aren’t many Jews dark-skinned, with dark, even black hair and dark brown eyes?’ No, I’m serious here. While many of the world’s nationalities, and races today have intermingled and produced varied looks, I’m betting that at the time of Christ, bloodlines, especially amongst the Jews weren’t so…varied. After all, God had commanded the Israelites not to marry outside their race; of course, as we know, the Israelites weren’t all that obedient.

Be that as it may, and, of course, knowing that Christ’s imminent arrival on earth through the Virgin was designed, orchestrated and ordained by God, Our Creator, I believe it is safe to assume that the bloodline was pure; after all, it could be traced all the way back to Abraham….better yet, Adam!

There are no descriptions of Jesus in the New Testament. The closet we can get is in Isaiah 53:2b :

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

“..nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”  Christ apparently was an average-looking Israelite. But many DID desire him! Many followed him and not just his disciples. Droves of people came to him day after day, seeking his wisdom and healing.  This isn’t to say he was ugly or unattractive…just an every-day man of his time in his appearance. And to top that off, he was poor. Though he had a family, he traveled about sleeping wherever he could, sometimes, probably in homes of friends, but most times outdoors. He carried no money or valuables with him, and instructed his disciples to do the same.

So…what was it about him that attracted people to him?

The answer is simple: God

Jesus was God the Father in the flesh. God’s love, compassion and mercy was plainly evident in his demeanor and teaching.  He denied no one of his healing, teaching and wisdom. He knew what He was here for and accomplished that at Calvary. He came to earth to do God’s Will to redeem mankind from sin.

I don’t think it really matters what Christ looked like when He lived. When He returns, everyone on this earth will know Who He Is!