The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Unto Me"
Had one lived in the years following the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ prior to the Apostle Paul's conversion, we might have considered him as the person least likely to be redeemed by faith in the Savior.
"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison" (Acts 8:3).
A reading of Paul's own words in his epistles indicates that before his conversion, no one more hated the Lord Jesus and His people, or treated Him and them more cruelly. "Why persecutest Thou Me?" asked the Lord when meeting Saul on the road to Damascus, revealing that hatred for God's people actually proceeds from devilish hatred for the Lord Himself (Acts 9:4). Indeed, the Savior's enemies cannot directly mistreat Him. They rather attack Him in the only way possible, through those in whom He lives. Saul did not realize this about his own animosity toward Christ. "I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (I Timothy 1:13). This does not excuse his sin, however, because like all who live in God's truth- revealing creation, Saul should have known better (Romans 1:20).
Two primary lessons greet us in the account of Paul's persecution and redemption. First, we give up on no one regarding the possibility of salvation. Nor do we fail to pray when we see the most violent rejection of the Lord Jesus. Indeed, when Stephen asked, "Lay not this sin to their charge," he included Saul of Tarsus among those for whom he prayed. The text of Scripture may even imply Saul to have been the primary instigator of Stephen's martyrdom. Why else would Luke write that Saul was "consenting" unto Stephen's death? Thus, the Lord's martyr sought grace for one who would perhaps have seemed most unlikely to respond to the grace of Christ's Gospel. We do well to remember this and pray accordingly when we consider those who seem to most reject the Lord Jesus. "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men" (I Timothy 2:1).
We also realize that those who persecute believers actually do so as the sole means they possess to attack the Savior. This does not discount the disrespect, pain, loss, and sorrow experienced by Christians under attack. It does mean that we make the challenging choice to remember and believe that we never serve as the primary target of our enemies' assaults. If Christ did not live in us, we would not face much of the difficulty Satan foists upon us. Because our Lord lives in us, our enemy sees us as a threat he must attack, the threat being the Lord Jesus Himself as He lives in us. This helps us to see our challenges more clearly, and like Stephen, to bless our blind and deluded enemies who fail to realize that assaults upon us are actually directed toward the living God Himself (Matthew 5:44).
God saved the one who viewed himself as the chief of sinners, which for a time may well have been true (I Timothy 1:15). Who in our culture or personal sphere of influence may one day - perhaps this day - shock us by receiving the grace of God in the Lord Jesus? Moreover, let us realize that the surprising convert will be forgiven and spiritually birthed into newness of life by the One who actually served as the primary object of hatred and despite. Of all we learn from Saul/Paul, his pre-conversion and conversion experience tells us so very much about sinners and sin, but far more about the Savior and salvation. We give up on no one until their dying breath, and we remember that just as focus on the Lord Jesus results in salvation, so do those who see us with hatred actually direct their foolish focus on Another...
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
(Acts 25:40)
Weekly Memory Verse
And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchizedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
(Hebrews 7:15-16)
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