The scripture for today, September 19, is Acts 9:19f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food he regained his strength.”
This is the story of Saul, as he was known to the Jews and to us as Paul, who became an apostle. Notice the order he did this: He was hungry, but that wasn’t important. He had to do what was important first. He was baptized.
Why was Paul baptized? In Acts 22:16 Paul recalls that day when he was told, “Get up: be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”
Further, notice who baptized him. Was he part of the clergy, someone with an ordained title in the church? No. He was ordinary and unknown. Acts 9:10 says, “In Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him: ‘Go to…. a man from Tarsus named Saul’.” What title did Ananias have? None. He was just another disciple. Disciple simply meaning follower.
Little did this otherwise ordinary and unknown disciple realize that day that the person he baptized would end up writing much of the New Testament.
Do you feel ordinary like you are an “unknown disciple” to followers of Jesus around you? Find something to do, and God will make it great.
Paul took Christians to prison and tortured them. He hated Jesus, then became one of his most passional and unstoppable ambassadors in a hostile world. Read what it might have been for this terrorist turned apostle. To order, click one of the images or go here: https://amzn.to/2plwTdJ
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