Dramatic and encouraging Acts reminds us of who our God is and the goodness of His purposes.  Our agendas and plans are so little and confined compared to His. He continually BURSTS out of the boxes we’d put Him in.  As ever I like to mix up these notes a bit!  We usually read these chapters of Acts as separate accounts but what if we look at them together… and wonder a bit? Several times this week I’ve had to say, ‘God’s got this!’ it’s good to speak that out, especially in faith as things appear to fall apart. 

Here we have completely separate events in these 3 chapters (9:1-11:18), but I want to point out something that binds them all into one account to tell us something about the amazing way God doesn’t leave lose ends but goes ahead of us to glorify HIS name.

These accounts: The Conversion of Saul, Peter in Joppa healing like Jesus did, Peter and Cornelius are all connected. Imagine the problems if Saul had been converted and called be ‘my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings’ 9.15 without Peter understanding that Gentiles were invited to the party too!  God goes ahead so as Saul understands who Jesus is, Peter also understands that the ‘all the world’ of Matt 28 means that heaven’s gates are open wide to EVERYONE – the Rock upon which the church was built HAD to see that!  Praise God!

So to Saul – and our wonderful God of the Unlikely! What happens on this Damascus road? Quite simply, Saul meets Jesus.  Jesus gets Saul by himself, away from Jerusalem where he’d been surrounded by like-minded Pharisees who think he’s the bees’ knees.  God puts him in a situation where his learning, his cleverness, his reputation become useless (think about Paul counting everything as rubbish) so they can have a talk.  Saul is brought to his knees; he encounters Jesus and Jesus speaks to him and changes, totally changes, his life forever.

Take a moment now to remember your own Damascus Road, that moment when the LORD of all stepped beside you and spoke to you of who He is and what He can do.  Thank you, JESUS that You met us and brought us home. Thank You for Your Divine Agenda that transforms and fills our lives with Your treasure!

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Thought - Do you need God to get you on your own so He can speak to you? Away from everything you’ve every relied on or found your value in.  God had to shout to get through to Saul, that encounter was terrifying – do we want for it to get to that, or will we be still now and listen?