Mar 20 2012
Whats in a flower?
1 Samuel 15.1-23
Have you ever been in the situation above; having to say ‘sorry – I really do love you?’ Florists tell us to say it with flowers. If you are usually a loving and thoughtful person and it’s your first mistake, you are likely to be forgiven and your flower received as a token of your love. But if you are always messing up you may be told that the flower means nothing. This is the situation Saul found himself in. Saul kept messing up and God had finally had enough. More
Nov 21 2013
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting
An imaginative but possible rendering of Saul’s conversion in Acts 9
Arrests were followed up with executions, and they were not pretty. Many were by stoning and had been cruel and bloody. But this was the intension, the community was to heed the warning, the authorities were not playing games.
House raids were indiscriminate. It did not matter if those arrested were male or female, or if they had children, the guilty had to be exterminated at all costs. They had perverted the ways of God and their doctrine was spreading like a disease.
But the executions were beginning to have a positive effect; in fact most of the cult members had fled Jerusalem and were now hiding in cities further afield. And no one was more aware of this than Saul. He was ready to hunt these Jesus followers wherever they went. Even now his eyes scanned the horizon for his next target. “Ah, there she is!” More