Focus

Prepare yourself to discern what is and what is not of God today. Still yourself so you can hear how God is calling you.

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Read

Acts 9:19b-31 (NRSV)

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

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Reflect

It might not have been easy for Ananias to bring his new-found friend Saul to the Damascus church’s fellowship dinner! No doubt there would have been some present who had heard about this guy. Not only did Ananias take the chance that Saul would be unwelcome, but he must have wondered what his own relationship with these friends might be afterward. Candidly, in our churches there might be some who would be unwelcome, right? Even though our sign out front may insist “Everyone Welcome,” that isn’t always the case.

In this story there is an unwritten miracle. Have you noticed it? Yes, there’s the miracle of Saul’s conversation with the risen Christ, and the miracle of his being healed at the hands of Ananias. The unwritten miracle is the one behind that little phrase: “For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus….”

Whether it was Ananias’ persuasiveness or a special intervention from the Lord, Saul was received with open arms by the very people he had come to persecute! From that moment on, wherever Saul (who later is known by his Roman name of Paul) went, he wanted to start new churches just like the one in Damascus! He was committed to individual conversions, of course, like any evangelist, but his main calling in ministry was to get start and nurture new Christian churches. Nothing tells us more about the unique, courageous, loving, accepting, and wondrous fellowship he first knew in Damascus.

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Pray

O God, please help our church to be the welcoming and safe place that is modeled for us in the fellowship at Damascus, for the sake of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Go with God.