Rebel

Week 2 Day 3

 

Spend some time with God today.  Remember find a quiet, alone place with a Bible and no distractions.

 

Simple Prayer “God, thank you for sending you Son to die on the cross for my sins.  Help me to put my complete trust in You.  Help me to grow close to you.”

 

Spend some time in God’s Word, the Bible.

Has your favorite player ever left your favorite team?  Perhaps he/she was traded or they just signed with a different team in the off-season.  Way back in the day, the reverse happened for me.  One of the best players left my most hated team, the San Francisco 49ers to join my team, the Dallas Cowboys.  His name was Deion Sanders.  He was a star player.  But I sure did yell a lot more for him after he switched jerseys and put on the silver and blue!

 

There was a man in the Bible who switched jerseys, so to speak.  His name was Saul, who was renamed Paul.  Saul is first seen in the Bible arresting and killing Christians.  Saul was a very religious man who believed he was helping God out.  And then he met Jesus face-to-face.

 

Acts 9:1-9 tells the story.  Look it up in your Bible and if you don’t have one, let Forrest know!

 

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³ As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. ⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

God sent a man names Ananias to pray for Saul and then Saul regained his sight.  Then we read in verse 20 of Acts 9, “Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.  At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.”

 

Now at this time, Jesus had already died, come back to life and gone back to Heaven.  So when Saul saw Jesus face-to-face it was big time.  Saul not only stopped killing Christians (those belonging to the Way), he became one.  He didn’t become a Christian because the Bible told him to, he did it because he saw him and believed Jesus rose form the dead and was alive.

 

And Saul was later renamed Paul.  He life was completely changed.  He not only “changed teams and jerseys,” Paul died for His belief in Jesus.

 

The Christian faith is not a blind faith.  It is faith based on evidence.  Paul was an eyewitness to the real Jesus who had died and come back to life.

 

What do you need help trusting God for today?  Something at school?  A relationship with one of your parents?  A grade in class?

 

Prayer.  God, thank you for loving me.  Help me to believe in Jesus.  Help me to trust you completely with my whole heart.  I know You are real.  Change me from the inside out!