"Fear God, Love God, Serve God": "Blinded To See!"

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him,

"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

(Acts 9:4)

Saul was terrified "And he said, Who art thou, Lord?"

And the Lord said,

"I am Jesus whom thou persecutest."

(Acts 9:5)

Paul and Stephen

Sometimes we have to be blinded to see! Huh? Paul, who was called Saul at that time, spent his life persecuting Christians. It began with the stoning of Stephen, who preached Jesus Christ boldly, and for this, he was drug out of town and stoned to death. Saul, the Book of Acts records, was there and in full support of the stoning. Saul was on his way to Damascus; he had gotten full permission from the chief priests to hunt down Christians and put them in prison. But, on his way, a bright light shone around him, and knocked him off his horse. This is where the Lord asks him why he is persecuting Him, noted in the scriptures above. People who think they are hurting, mocking, or persecuting the Christian believer don't realize that in God's eyes, they are actually persecuting Him.

The Lord told Saul to go into the city and he would be told what to do; his companions led him there and he didn't eat or drink, remaining blind for three days. A man named Ananias was told to go to Saul, and pray for him, which he did and Saul's sight was restored, as well as he was converted to Christianity and he was baptized. Saul was changed to Paul and he was never the same again, preaching and converting everyone he saw to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Almighty God knows how to get our attention; He knows what to do to shake us into reality; He knows what it will take for each one of us to "see Him." The Apostle Paul did more than any other one person of that day, and it's carried over to today by his writings, to bring the gospel to the world. Adolf Deissmann, the renowned German scholar, stated regarding Paul, "There is no single person since Nero’s days who has left such permanent marks on the souls of men as Paul the New Man." He noted that the grand apostle of Christ, “rising from the mass of the insignificant many” is “still molding the world at the present moment” (1957, viii). This was at no small cost, when we note he and Silas "singing" in prison.

"Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more

abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods,

once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own

countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness,

in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness,

in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily,

the care of all the churches."

(2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

Ah, the Apostle Paul, what a man! Why did he endure all of that? He believed what he preached; he believed his mighty conversion; he "saw" after he was blinded, and he saw clearly that there is no other God but One, and His name is Jesus Christ. Paul gave his all for the One who gave His "all" for all of humanity. Paul lives on in the Church today, through current day believers walking in the precepts of the Book of Acts Church and the early apostles. We are "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." (Ephesians 2:20)

Are we seeing clearly? There is salvation and redemption in no other name, but Jesus Christ. There are millions of people all around the world singing the song, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now I'm found ..." The Apostle Paul was blinded to see the light, and he became the mightiest witness for Jesus Christ ever recorded. The light of Jesus Christ still opens peoples' eyes, still reaches the heart and soul, still fills us with His love and power, still converts and renews, still raises up with joy and wonder ... and we, too, are in a way, flooded with the light of His glory at salvation, and we are "Blinded To See." If we are blind, we are blinded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, his life, death, burial and resurrection, repentance and baptism in His name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost and fire. Open our eyes, Lord Jesus, that we may see ...