The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Acts 22:3-5,
“I [Paul] am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.”
Paul was a fulfillment of the words of Jesus, “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.” John 16:2-3. Paul was a blasphemer and a violent man as he confesses in 1 Timothy 1:12-14, but he was shown mercy and appointed to serve the Lord.
Our Lord is able to use anyone. What I find fascinating about Paul’s life is that the Lord utilized Paul’s education and zeal for the law as an effective tool in Paul’s work as an apostle. Inspired by the Holy Spirit to draft a letter such as Romans that has served the church so effectively for millennia, Paul’s great training in the Scriptures under Gamaliel was invaluable.
Certainly, while under the tutelage of Gamaliel, Paul had no idea that one day this training would provide for him a resource the Holy Spirit would use in his life as he reasoned and persuaded from the Scriptures from synagogue to synagogue throughout the Diaspora that Jesus was the Christ.
I am sure much of just this kind of thing goes on today: the Lord prepares us all for the things he wants to do through us in ways we would never imagine!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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