The Beloved Enemy

But the LORD said, "Go and DO what I say. For Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for me." -Acts 15-16

For the past 2 days I have been studying the conversion of Saul who would later become Paul. I imagine it was the Spirit's prompting in me to study this story a little closer, and learn and unlearn what I use to think this story to be. His conversion is amazing, and God reveals other things throughout the few verses of His redemption, and parallels; habits of man that have been going on from the very beginning of time, when He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden. There are unsung hero's to meet in these few verses.
Paul's conversion is found first in Acts 9:3-18, other accounts can also be found later in 22:3-21, and 26:12-18. Up until this point, just to get the context, the church has been born, and is called, "The Way" probably based upon Jesus' words saying He is "the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). In Acts 1:8 Jesus outlines a 3 phase process of the gospel, starting with 1. Jerusalem, 2. Judea and Samaria, and finally 3. The ends of the earth. The Lord was preparing his instrument in Saul by which phase 3 would begin-and the stage we are still involved in to this day.
Saul is seeking to destroy the church, though he was brought up in a very religious home. He was an expert in the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament. He was convinced that Christianity was dangerous to Judaism, Paul hated the Christian faith, and persecuted them with no mercy. Paul got permission to travel to Damascus to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem. However, the Lord had different plans and just as Paul is outside the borders of Israel, Jesus will meet Saul and take him prisoner!
Jesus immediately in His Shekinah Glory questions Saul, "Why do you persecute me?" Jesus literally felt the pain Saul was putting on the church. This question and calling out caused Saul to think about the course of his actions in life, and what he was doing presently traveling to Damascus. One can be quickly reminded of the question God arrested Adam with on that devastating day sin entered the world. He with Eve, hid from God, and God entered the Garden and called out, "Where are you?" Like Adam and Saul when God presses this question to us, if we really think it through we will find ourselves on the road back to God. We cannot know the way back until we know where we are. This is the question God asks every lost soul. Like Saul, God meets us where we are, He intervenes in our sin, and shows a better way, speaking to us so we can understand.
Saul now finds himself captured, instead of capturing others. He is not his own anymore. He is now blind, and realizes that he is nothing! His companions help him to the house of Judas. Where he becomes a mentor to Saul. For the next 3 days after his conversion Saul went without food and water, meaning he was in a fast. He was praying, repenting, and seeking God's face and will. God also sends another mentor to Paul by the name of Ananias. Upon first seeing Saul, Ananias greets him as a brother in Christ, and prays over him that he might receive the Holy Spirit, and gain his sight back. Now, I believe it is no accident that God chose these 2 men with these particular names. What do we know about the names of Judas and Ananias? Yeah! Judas betrayed Jesus, and Ananias just a few chapters back in chapter 5 lied to the Holy Spirit and was the first Christian to manifest hypocrisy in the church. God is redeeming the names of sinful men. These 2 men were also unsung hero's. When we think of the success of the early church, we often think of the work of the apostles. But the church would have died if it hadn't been for the unsung heroes, the men and women who through some small but committed act moved the church forward. It was an obedience to God, some of us are behind the scenes, some of us are on the front lines but we all participate in Kingdom work as one body moving the church forward.
I use to always believe it was at verse 18 that Saul was converted, but I have learned when Jesus met him on the Damascus road Saul's life changed. Oh but when the scales fell from his eyes. His eyes could see again, the eyes of his soul saw, and all his deep-rooted prejudice against the Gentiles disappeared in a moment. He could suddenly see all of humanity, Jews and Gentiles, as a single human race, made in God's image and desperate for redemption.
Saul is so radically changed, his names changes to Paul. He immediately goes out and preaches the Good News of Christ, just in his testimony. His mission was to do exactly for others as God had done to him, that the peoples eyes would be open, and turn from darkness to light. It's one thing to be a light, but it's another thing to use words too, and together people's lives are changed!
When we are like Saul, and are nothing, but allow the Holy Spirit to fill us who is everything we can be what we are called to be. To love and to suffer, influencing our world with the story of the Fathers love and grace.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.