Acts 9:7-9\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound\u00a0but did not see anyone.\u00a08\u00a0Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.\u00a0So they led him by the hand into Damascus.\u00a09\u00a0For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound\u00a0but did not see anyone.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The men travelling with Saul were speechless.\u00a0 They had just seen a focused light more powerful than sunlight surround Saul and then they heard a sound, perhaps a voice, from Heaven speaking to Saul. \u00a0Putting ourselves in their place, they must have been overwhelmed and they didn\u2019t understand what was being said.\u00a0 They guided Saul to Damascus. \u00a0What was that walk like?\u00a0 Did Saul tell them what had happened or was Saul so in shock from what had happened that he didn\u2019t, or couldn\u2019t, share with them what he had been told?\u00a0 He was likely still processing it all.\u00a0 Still, after seeing what they saw, it makes one wonder what became of them.\u00a0\u00a0 Later, when they heard what Saul had said had happened, and they could bear witness in some regard, and when they heard him preaching Jesus, did they give their lives to the Lord? \u00a0One would have to wonder how they could not.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.\u00a0So they led him by the hand into Damascus.\u00a0 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.\u00a0So they led him by the hand into Damascus.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 What do we all do if an extremely bright light suddenly hit our eyes?\u00a0 Of course we immediately shut our eyes, and likely with our hands give them shade from the light.\u00a0 So did Saul.\u00a0 Yet, when the light was gone and he opened his eyes he was blind.\u00a0 It is natural that after encountering such a bright light that we may not be able to see, or perhaps even that his eyes had been damaged.\u00a0 Paul was blinded, but we shall know that it was not a natural harm to his eyes that had occurred, but that it was a supernatural blindness that was caused by the Lord (Acts 9:18<\/b>).\u00a0 How apropos that he was physically blinded as he had unknowingly been spiritually blind in his blood thirsty, hateful pursuit of the church.\u00a0 Saul had spiritually blinded himself as he had blindly followed what he had been taught.\u00a0 Jesus blinded him and left him that way for three days.\u00a0 His physical blindness was something that Jesus imposed and Saul could do nothing to remedy it.\u00a0 Saul\u2019s self-imposed spiritual blindness was by his own free will.\u00a0 It was his own sentence of death that he was walking in.\u00a0 However, Jesus brought about his physical blindness to begin the healing of his spiritual blindness.\u00a0 Though many may have cried out to God \u201cYou are not a good God!\u00a0 How could you have blinded me?\u201d\u00a0 Saul was not a person of such ilk, and Jesus knew it.<\/p>\n \u201cFor three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 In his blindness Saul was forced to humble himself and be led by the hand.\u00a0 Jesus, whom Saul had considered a blasphemer, had supernaturally appeared from Heaven and snatched him from the darkness of his former opinion of Jesus, to a new informed knowledge.\u00a0 Saul had to rethink what he thought was the purpose of his life.\u00a0 It was obvious from what Jesus had told him that he would no longer fight against Jesus.\u00a0 The original language gives a picture that Saul was like an ox harnessed in and was kicking against the goads that were placed behind him so that he would not kick.\u00a0 The goads were sharp instruments so that if the ox kicked up he would hurt himself and would learn to submit and not fight.\u00a0 Saul had devoted himself to studying scriptures. The Truth of Jesus was there for him to learn, but Saul had spent his life fighting the truth to believe a lie.\u00a0 To understand what was happening to Saul, one must view these events through heavenly perspective.\u00a0 Jesus was not harming Saul, He was saving him from filth to purity, from a life of doom to a life of hope and eternal life with God Himself.<\/p>\n We have, and can, act like Saul.\u00a0 Fighting against the grace and the perfect will that God desires we walk in.\u00a0 We can kick against the goads, hurting and harming ourselves and not believing that God has something better for us.\u00a0 Let\u2019s let the bright presence of God shine in our hearts and permeate our being.\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s heed and be guided by the very voice of God who lovingly calls out to us every day.\u00a0 Family, God is good all the time and He loves us.\u00a0 How wonderful! May we purposely explore His goodness and love all the days of our lives!\u00a0 Praise and honor God through Jesus our Savior and Lord!\u00a0 It is the right thing to do!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 9:7-9\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound\u00a0but did not see anyone.\u00a08\u00a0Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.\u00a0So they led him by the hand into Damascus.\u00a09\u00a0For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. \u201cThe men traveling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,94,17],"class_list":["post-1593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1594,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}