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The Amish Voice 3
the face of the earth. The point is that Paul was saved from a terrible
life of sin and shame, a life steeped in as much sin and shame as a
man could be. He was self-righteous and arrogant, full of bitterness,
hatred, and murder; and he went about misusing his position and
power just like a tyrant—to the point of imprisoning and murdering
those who differed with him.
When Paul was converted, he had a dire need to be alone with
God. He did not need the counsel and help of men; he needed the
presence and help of God and His Spirit. He already knew the Scrip-
tures. He had studied them at the feet of the greatest religious teachers
of his day, but he had not known God nor Christ, not in a personal
way. Paul had no knowledge of God, not a personal knowledge. What
he had known about God had been twisted and corrupted, misapplied
and misused. He desperately needed...
time to learn how to live with Christ day by day, drawing confi-
dence and strength from Him.
time to learn the real meaning of the Scriptures: how they ap-
plied to Christ.
time to accurately handle the Word of Truth (the Scriptures).
time to learn how to fellowship with Christ in daily worship
(devotions, quiet times).
time to learn how to walk in the presence and communion and
fellowship of Christ all day.
time to learn the commandments and will of Christ.
time to think through how to go about making Christ known to a
world in dire need and steeped in sin and darkness.
How much time did Paul need? Apparently, he spent about three
years in Arabia. Imagine spending three years seeking the Lord and
learning how to live and serve Him!
APPLICATION:
What a lesson for all believers, ministers and laymen alike!
What power would be in our lives and ministries if we
sought to know Christ as Paul did!
“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he
shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the
LORD” (Ps.27:14).
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew
their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint” (Is.40:31).
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a work-
man that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth” (2 Ti.2:15).
ILLUSTRATION:
It is during some of the loneliest times of our lives that we
find ourselves with God. This seems to be a paradox, but it is
true. For when we are truly alone, we can clearly listen to
Him. And as Brother Lawrence, a humble Frenchman of the
17th century, stated so well, we can “practice the presence of
God.” How is that done in a practical sense?
Jeremiah Denton was a prisoner of war in North Vi-
etnam for seven horrendous years. As one of the highest
ranking American captives, he was subjected to particularly
grueling torture, spending almost his entire incarceration in
solitary confinement. In such a barren, brutal situation, it
would be hard not to focus on the pain and [monotony]. Yet,
Denton not only survived but also came back and was elect-
ed a United States senator from Alabama.
How did he survive? He stated on many occasions that
an essential survival skill was quoting passages from the
Bible. Internalized Scripture became the unseen sword that
enabled him to fend off the cruelest weapons of the enemy.
By inwardly focusing on the power of God to sustain and
strengthen him, he was able to rise above the squalor of his
lonely existence.
(Charles Stanley.
How To Listen to God
.
Nashville, TN: Oliver-Nelson Books, 1985, p. 97.)
QUESTIONS:
1. When you feel alone, does God seem to be more acces-
sible to you? Why or why not?
2. What barriers stand in the way of your spending quality
time alone with God? Which one can you work on
now
?
3. What tragedy would it take to get you to totally depend
upon God?
2. SECOND, HE RETURNED TO DAMASCUS: HE COR-
RECTED THE WRONG HE HAD PREVIOUSLY DONE (v.17).
When Paul was converted, he was on his way to Damascus to
arrest and stamp out the followers of Christ. It was his intent and pur-
pose to literally cleanse Damascus of all Christians. The bitter perse-
cution had, of course, greatly disrupted the lives of believers. It had
forced many to flee for their lives, leaving their families, homes, jobs,
and all means of livelihood.
The point is this: Paul had returned to Damascus to do what he
could to right the terrible wrong he had done to the believers of Da-
mascus. He wanted to ask their forgiveness and assure them that he
had been saved; and, no doubt, he wanted to share Christ among the
very people he had been so bent on destroying.
“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first
be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy
gift” (Mt.5:23-24).
ILLUSTRATION:
Paul did one of the hardest things for a person to do: he went
back and made things right with those he had hurt. He want-
ed a fresh start. Do you? In the book
Is it Real When it
Doesn’t Work
?, Doug Murren and Barb Shurin recount:
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Swedish
chemist Alfred Nobel awoke one morning to read his own
obituary in the local newspaper: “Alfred Nobel, the inventor
of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more
people to be killed in a war than ever before, and he died a
very rich man.”