Acts 9:1-9

Hey guys, this is one of the most remarkable passages in scripture. It is the conversion of Saul. God meets him on the road while he is traveling and asks Saul, WHY ARE YOU PERSECUTING ME?? Saul immediately repents and accepts Jesus Christ as his savior and goes on to become one of the most faithful followers of God that ever lived. Read his story here, and then answer the questions below:

¹ Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

² and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³ As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

⁴ Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”   

⁵ And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.^[a] It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 

⁶ So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 

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

⁸ Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

⁹ And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Alright, pretty cool stuff. now read the questions below and apply this passage to your life. 🙂

QUESTIONS:

1. Saul was breathing threats and murder against followers of Christ. He was passionate about HATING Christians! If you would have met him, he would have scared you to death. I mean this guy has fire in his eyes, and He wanted to kill anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ. That is serious business! Even the hardest person is not unbreakable when it comes to God. God is omnipotent which means that he has all power. Who are a few people that you would naturally think could never become Christians? Name three? With God, all things are possible, so take a second and pray for those three people that they may accept Christ.

2. Verse 3 says that he was on his way to Damascus when a light shown around him from Heaven. The word of God often compares light to the things of God and darkness to the things of evil. In the light we can see, we have peace and direction, but often times in darkness we trip over things, we have no understanding of where we are and where we are going, and we are often full of fear as well. I remember walking through the woods (hiking to fourth falls) in North Carolina with me and one other friend  at midnight. It was pitch black and very scary. Another great illustration of this is if you have ever turned on the lights somewhere and saw roaches… what do they do when the light comes on? THEY SCATTER!! What does John 8:12 say about God, Lights and darkness?

3. Kick against the goads??!??!?! What in the world?? This gives the idea of a cow or a horse that is getting led in a direction by a pointy stick, and instead of moving in the direction they are supposed to go, they try to kick the pokey thing, only to realize that IT HURTS!! God tells Saul, SAUL, YOU ARE TRYING TO SERVE GOD, and so you are killing these followers of Jesus in the name of “God”, but you are actually fighting against God instead of working for God!! Wow! That is deep! Think about what that means? Have you ever thought that you were doing what God said, only to later realize that you were working against God? I KNOW THAT I HAVE! When I was a teenager, my dad would make me mow the lawn on Sundays, and I thought that it was a sin to work on Sundays (that is not true, but it is what I was told) So, I would be outside ticked off and disrespectful to my dad, thinking that I was pleasing God because “I didnt want to work on Sundays”, the problem was that I just didnt want to work at all, and I was using God as an excuse… Ok, so, whats the point? Whos side are you on? Are you really Serving and pleaing the one true God? How can you know that for sure?

4. What spoke to you personally from this passage?

5. Will often tries to push the limits with me, and he will do something to test the waters and see if He will win, or if I will win… Most of the time, I win, and I sit down and explain to him that daddy will always win if it comes to a disrespectful situation. If he tries to run away from me, or block a swat, I explain to him, that I will always win, that he should not even try to fight against me. God will always win in our life. It is crazy for us to fight God, there is no way that He can lose. Would you ever go get on a team knowing that they are going to lose ahead of time? No normally!! In the same case, we should choose to be on Gods team, because He will always win. How did God win in Pauls life? How has God won in your own life?

 

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