Today's Devotional

 

January 15, 2008  

                                                                                         

Subject:   Jesus And The Thug 

Acts 9:1 - 4 "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And 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.  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" 

---

As I was monitoring the halls at school yesterday, I ran into a couple of n'er-do-wells, as they would be characterized, who were skipping class.  As I approached them from down the hall, I asked them where they were going and they responded, "to class."  Knowing that they had no intentions of that which they professed, I took an alternate route away from the direction that they stated they were going.  Amazingly, I turned the next corner and ran directly into them.  They, feeling caught, surrendered to the ensuing discussion as I began to question them on not only why they lied to me, but also, why were they content to walk the halls while everyone else was in class.  We engaged in about a 20 minute dialogue as they realized that I wasn't simply hounding them to cast them into the school "dungeon," but was instead, truly interested in what they were about and what their plans were for the future.  

This is what happened to Paul.  Paul had no plans for Jesus.  In fact he was headed in exactly the opposite direction in his life, but God saw the direction that he was going and headed him off on the road to Damascus.  He didn't simply cast Paul away because of his evil deeds.  Jesus began a conversation with this n'er-do-well; this thug as I like to call him.

This is also what Jesus has done with each and every one of us.  One day He had a personal conversation with us, when He could have rightfully simply cast us away.  He asked us figuratively speaking, "why are you not in class?  Why would you choose to go opposite the direction that you should be going?"  We are the n'er-do-wells.  Praise God that He is always monitoring the halls.  

Carlen