St. Paul part 2

Dear friends,

As promised, in this section I will discuss a little bit about Acts 9: 1-19. It says “Saul’s Conversion.”

1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest

2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5″Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.

6″Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.

9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.

12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13″Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

18Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

19and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

From the reading, there are many interesting things we could take, they are:

1. Had a change of heart

Let’s observe verse 1 and 2 carefully! Based on what has been written, Saul tried to shatter Jesus’ followers; man or women. He truly despised Christian people for believing in Jesus as their saviour.

On his way to Damascus, a bright light flashed upon him and a voice was heard. Starting from that moment, Saul lost his vision. He could not see and do a thing. Why did God do this to him? To punish him? To show His power? Nay!!!

Losing his vision, Saul then spent his time thinking, realizing, feeling and praying. For him, this was the moment he could then understand and believe in Jesus. This was what God’s want of him. Starting on that day on, he had a change of heart. He had chosen to follow Jesus and even suffer for Him. He burnt down his bridge and never returned to his past.

2. A double-edged sword

Following Jesus’ steps, he encountered billions of problems.

The first problem, he encountered, dealt with the Christian people. As stated, he previously did not believe in Jesus, yet after around few days or weeks, he decided to believe and follow Him. If you were one of the Christian people at that time, would you believe in Paul? Well, observe Ananias’ response when Jesus asked him to cure Saul! It was not easy for Ananias to say ‘yes’ noticing Saul’s treatments toward Christian people. Well, it was difficult to believe that Saul had truly changed. Many people at that time might think “He will just go back to his community once he was cured” or “He might be a traitor trying to sneak around and get bulks of information about us and later on crush us all.”

The second problem was the Pharisees. What do you think the Pharisees might think? Of course they considered Saul as a traitor. Leaving their pals behind and joined the enemy. Noticing how smart Saul was, they tried to clip his wings. However, God was by his side.

3. Slap on the face

The conversion of Saul has also become a slap on the Pharisees face. Their best weapon became a great enemy. As we all know, Saul was one of the brightest person at this time. Due to this, he also created great fright toward the Pharisees.

To be continued till I could have the time to read it again and again…

 

 

 

St. Paul part 1

Dear friends,

September has come and finally, Holy Bible Month has already started.

Our pope, Benedict XVI has stated that this year; starting from June 28, 2008 until June 29, 2009; would be considered as ‘St. Paul’s Year.’ Well, who is St. Paul and what could we learn from him?

Let’s take a look at the Holy Bible! St. Paul appears in several parts of the New Testament (a third of the New Testament is his); mostly in his letters. However, ‘the best moment’ that will capture your eyes lies in the Acts 9: 1-19a. However, I will discuss this part in the next posting due to the many things I would like to share about St. Paul.

Before we go further to the discussion, who do you think the writer of Acts the Apostles? Has this question crossed your mind?

There has been quite a long debate for this one; yet, up till this moment, nobody could really find out who the person was. Many scholars agreed that the writer was no other than St. Luke; St. Paul’s companion. However, later research stated that it was another person, also St. Paul’s companion, who kept his diary. Well, this person has successfully covered his tracks (maybe he wanted to say ‘You don’t need to know me but the lessons are the fundamental parts that you need to know and understand’).

Now, let’s discuss St. Paul and the facts a little bit!

1.Life (AD 3-62)

St. Paul was born to Jewish parents in Tarsus, an area in Kilikia (now, known as Turkey). From his parents, Paul inherited Rome citizenship – his being a Roman later on plays an important part dealing with the conflicts he encountered; especially with the government officials. A place, where he was born, was not a village. Instead, it was a big city where Greek’s trading and culture went in advance.

2.Paul and Saul

It is said that ‘After Saul, the Jew converted to Christian; he took the name of Paul.’ This sentence has made many people getting wrong impression of the name of Paul. They believed; you can see that not only do children believe this, but even some adults do to; that because he has repented his sins and has become a devoted Christian, he finally took the name of Paul (changing his name meaning leaving his sins behind and born as a new person).

This is the wrong idea about the name.

Actually, Saul and Paul are the same. Paul is the Latin name. His father gave the name Saul (taken from King Saul) but he was well known as Paul (his everyday name). In conclusion, both names are the same; it was just written in the two different languages. This one is almost the same with ‘Mary’ and ‘Maria’.       

3.His life in the beginning and his study

He socialized well with the Pharisees and spent his life mastering Jew Doctrine/Jew Law in preparation of becoming a Rabbi.  In his entire study, it was noted that he was one of the brightest students.

Saul learnt Jew Laws (Halakha) in Beith Hillel Academy and graduated as the best student. His advisor was Gamaliel. Gamaliel was not an ordinary lecturer, he was considered as professor in his field.

As the brightest student, he was a person with high logical thinking (ratio). Due to this, he found it hard to believe things without observing the fact carefully. That was also the reason why it was quite difficult for him to believe in Jesus as the Saviour.

Note: Rabbi (my teacher), Rabban (our teacher)

4.His view about Jesus’ followers

He used to hate the Jews who converted and followed Jesus. At that time, he would not feel hesitate to devastate all of them (Gal 1:14). Moreover, he had the power from the old councils.

5.After his vision

He became a devoted follower of Jesus and even established the first Christian’s Society in Antioch. His faith to Jesus could not be washed out even though he lived in a double-edged sword.

6.Execution

He was executed in 66 D during Nero’s time; just after the burning down of Rome by Nero himself. Yup, making St. Paul as the black sheep of the incident.

Any additional info, just write it!!! 

 

 

 

Using others …

Dear friends,

This is the topic that I highlighted when I did my morning devotion last Friday. 

Taken from Amos 8: 4-7

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
       and do away with the poor of the land,

 5 saying,
       “When will the New Moon be over
       that we may sell grain,
       and the Sabbath be ended
       that we may market wheat?”—
       skimping the measure,
       boosting the price
       and cheating with dishonest scales,

 6 buying the poor with silver
       and the needy for a pair of sandals,
       selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

 7 The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

I was talking about many kinds of human being, which we call people of course.

The types are:

• A person who keep on thinking about money and money. We can’t live without money and surely I will do everything for money. This kind of person is the most wicked one. Not only do they kneel down before money, but they will one day use people for their own sake. Let’s see the corruptors!!! They will never feel satisfied for the things they have. They get a lot of money from corrupting the country and they even use their power to take more and more; blackmailing is just one of thousands of ways they have.
• A person who keeps thinking about money but never used another person hand to get his needs. This person may not be an evil human being. However, most of them turn out to be living without GOD. They mostly will think “I can do everything by myself. I live by myself. I don’t need anybody…..” In one side, it is ok, but in another side, this person is empty.
• Some others may use others because they do not know what to do. Let’s see our country carefully. Do you think that discrimination has perished? Nay. This kind of situation still appears. For the people having some problematic situations – especially with the government officials – maybe the one and only answer is ‘bribery’. They may not have any intention to do bad things but tring to find the easiest way. However, this will later on create other bad corrupted people
• The smallest amount of people may be honest, never use others and afraid of God. However, how many percents of those kind of people you can find? Rare.

In conclusion, there are types of people with many different characteristics and way of thinking. People may find their downfall for many things, and one of them is “money”. However, one thing to note is that “never use other” in every situation that you may find.

Actually, everybody should start since they were small. It reminds me on the situation at school when my students were using the cleaning service staff to do something and kept silent about it.  I still remember clearly when I said not to do it. However, they didn’t listen and finally they got themselves into another big trouble.

Guys, what about you???

Cheers 

This one is good to read but not at the ending. Enjoy…