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
Aug 29 2014
Only in a Prophet’s Own Home
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Mt 13:34-36).
Shocking words from Jesus, but what he said is true. The gospel divides families – one brother can embrace it while another one rejects it. And Jesus experienced this in his own home. More