(submitted by Kerry Patton)
…and he fell to
the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He
said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city,
and it will be told you what you must do.” Acts 9:4-6
Into the Fire
Anyone who has ever
touched a hot stove, or sat on a vinyl seat in the Summertime heat does not
have to be told about the experience of heat. Oh, we may debate how hot it is
on a given day, or how it was hotter back when we were young, but when one
bears the scars of having been burned, the debate is suddenly over.
We can teach our
children that some things are hot…but they are instantly transformed from being
a believer that a thing is hot, to one who KNOWS that a thing is hot that
moment when they first make the mistake of touching the muffler of a running
engine or lingering over the flame of a candle too long. That personal
experience cannot be debated, nor refuted, for one’s personal encounter with the realities of what it is that is hot
changes everything.
Who Are You Lord?
History records
Saul as a man dedicated to the extermination of the faith movement which had
come to be known as “The Way.” Acts chapter 9 tells the account of Saul
traveling toward the city of Damascus with letters in hand from the Jewish High
Priest which gave Saul the authority to essentially arrest any followers of
Jesus, and bring them bound back to Jerusalem…No doubt for judgement and
probable execution.
Along the way,
however, Saul had…an encounter…with Jesus himself. It seems that this experience was so powerful
that Saul fell to the ground and was stricken blind. From this vulnerable posture, he conversed
with Christ and learned firsthand that the rumored resurrection of Jesus was no
rumor at all. Saul also learned that he
had been wrongly persecuting Jesus and his followers. And the final instruction Saul was given was
to get up, go into the city, and await further instructions. It should be noted, that following this
encounter, everything changed for Saul.
He would thereafter be known as Paul, would be commissioned as an
Apostle of Jesus Christ, and would spend the rest of his days evangelizing for
the very faith he had sought to destroy.
Personal Encounters
While most
followers of Jesus have not had a conversion experience as epic as Paul’s
Damascus road experience, being a follower of Jesus does make the presumption
that we are not merely living out our days as believers in Jesus. Rather,
our accepting the Lordship of Jesus suggests that we have encountered him in some capacity that has caused us to abandon all
other gods and live for him.
Furthermore, it takes for granted that we are seeking after Jesus… and
thereby encountering him regularly in our lives through the reading of
scripture, personal prayer, and corporate and private worship. And finally, we encounter Jesus as we love,
and serve others, and communicate the Gospel to them as well.
Alister McGrath is
a Northern Irish theologian, priest, intellectual historian, scientist, and
Christian apologist. Concerning the
communication of our own encounters with Jesus to others, he states:
“Part of our great privilege as Christians
is being able to share with other people what it is that we find about the
Gospel that has drawn us out of the world and made us realize that there is
none greater and more wonderful than the Living God.”
I encourage you
this day and every day to pursue an encounter with Jesus. Find him in your Bible reading. Experience him in prayer. Worship him freely
and with abandon. And then love others
as he has loved you. Feel free to tell
them why you have chosen Jesus! Who
knows, they too may encounter Jesus as well.
Prayer
Father
God, George Whitfield said of his preaching that he would “light himself aflame
so that others could watch him burn.” Let us burn this day with the fires of
your presence and love in Christ. May
our sights be set not on ourselves, but on you…such that others might look with
us to see who or what had captured our gaze.
Let us encounter Jesus this day and be like Paul…forever
transformed. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
