September 26, 2008

• Paul

  The best years of my life – By: Paul
  Hi, my name is Paul and this is my story how I found happiness. After working for years for the church in a dead end job I came to a place where one day on the way to Damascus I finally saw the light. Of course my momma always said don’t look directly into the sun or you’ll burn your eye balls.. well.. momma was right.
  
  AND this light stopped me dead in my tracks like a traffic light on main street! From this light came a voice from Heaven asking “Saul (my friends used to call me Saul).. why are you persecuting me?” You see, before this Damascus Road moment I was as dangerous to Christians as a fundamentalist on too much caffeine.. or a legalist getting up on the wrong side of the bed… or the ACLU! I was as it was written about me.. a man breathing murders and threats against Christians.
  
  Well this voice from this light was Jesus Christ and his followers were the very ones I was breathing murderous threats against. In fact, I was making a little side money working as a coat checker at the stoning of Stephen.
  
  So here I am blind as a bat with cataracts.. and had to be led the rest of the way to Damascus. This is where I met God and to show God’s ironic sense of humor I had to resign from my position of ‘Chief Church Prosecutor/Persecutor’ since it became an obvious conflict after I got my calling to the Mission field for Jesus Christ.
  
  Once my sight returned I could not stop preaching the truth of Jesus Christ. I was of course at first received very cautiously by this early Christian movement. I guess breathing murders and threats up til this point put me in a bad light with Christians.. GO FIGURE! and now preaching Jesus put me in a bad light with my Pharisee Lodge brothers. So at this point my list of friends was almost nil.
  
  But in time Christians saw my new found faith was real, and the Jewish community realized this was not just a Pharisees mid-life crisis. Life would never be the same, and while it was never a bed of roses it was without a doubt was the best years of my life.
  
  These were dangerous times, miraculous times, frustrating times, and even a time where differences within this new church movement meant we had to agree to disagree . It was a time to sing , and a time of high drama , and a time to stand up for the truth there is ONLY ONE GOD ! There was that good reunion at the METU Convention (Middle East Tentmakers Union). Good friends, good times were had by all.
  
  I also remember when a young man fell asleep during one of my long winded sermons, fell to his death, but got better? Anyways let’s just say from this day forward Eutychus became known as the unofficial patron saint for those who ‘sleep in church’ .
  
  Like I said, it was the best of times, and the worst of times. Time of great revival where God used me the once great persecutor of the church to speak to a world that needs Jesus. This message that was for both the Jew (God’s chosen people) and the Gentile (that is everyone else). Unfortunately the established Jewish leaders were about as ready accept Jesus as maybe some in your church accept overheads and guitars replacing hymnals and organs .
  
  So then God uses this zealous anger to get me arrested , while some threw little hissy fits , and others plotted my death . Yes these were the best years of my life. Persecuted for the truth of God. I can’t say prison life, or being hated was high on my list of things to do.. BUT God was able to use these times to share his truth like only He could. While I suffered, God gave me peace that none of this was about me. It was about sharing hope in Jesus Christ.. this was my mission.. dare I say my MISSION IMPOSSIBLE . God placed in my heart a zealous fervor to serve him even in the face of prison, death, and condescending words from rulers who sadly believed they were above the need for Jesus.
  
  I later on endured a storm at sea , was shipwrecked in a boat named I believe the S.S. Minnow. I must say if not for the courage of the fearless crew we would have all perished . Then while huddled around a fire on this island I was bit by a snake . Of course God protected me again.. I shook off the snake and the only frustrating after affect was that several of the crew took this as a sign and after we were rescued started the very first ‘Snake Handler Church’.
  
  After 3 months on this Island we set sail again and made our trip to Jerusalem where again I could plead my case for Jesus and the truth that he was the son of God who came to earth, lived, was crucified for our sins, and was resurrected, and now is in Heaven with the Father. What an honor for me the once great hater of the church to be used by God to share this perfect truth. God is so good, I am so blessed. Yes, I suffered plenty after I met Jesus on that Damascus Road. Before then I was an important (maybe self-important) man in the Jewish community, but after the Damascus Road experience I was blinded, beaten, hated, ship wrecked, and thrown in prison… but truth be told.. I was too busy serving to hardly notice .

  May God bless each of your lives, and give you opportunities to love Him, serve Him and others in ways that make your lives full and complete. May your happiness never be about comfort and wealth, but about the truth of God, and His perfect love and Grace. When you discover this, then you also will be living the best years of your lives.

  Paul

   

  • 10:39 am
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