Our Daily Scripture: 5/18/22

SCRIPTURE:  ACTS 26

Bible Verses:

“We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[a] ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.  ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them  to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:14-18)

“ But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—  that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.” (Acts 26:22-23)

King Agrippa gave permission for Paul to speak.  Paul narrated the experience of God’s encounter with him while on his way to Damascus.  A bright light brighter than the sun shone upon him and he became blind.  God told him that he was appointing him as a servant and witness to rescue his own people and the Gentiles from darkness to light so that they may receive forgiveness of sin.

Festus discredited Paul’s message and accused him of being insane.  He refused to accept the gospel.  However, he together with Festus concluded that Paul did not do anything that deserved death or imprisonment.

THOUGHTS:

  1.  Paul pleaded with the royal assembly to trust Jesus Christ.  King Agrippa was “almost Christian”, but sad to say, his will was unyielding.
  2.  Paul appealed his case to Caesar.  This trial was God’s means of getting him to Rome to fulfill His will.  In every trials that we have, God is always in control of our situation.
  3. Paul’s heart was more concerned for the salvation of the strangers than for the removal of his own chains.  May we also have a burning desire to see others come to Christ despite of our problems.