{"id":10019,"date":"2022-01-05T06:37:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T12:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-9\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T15:01:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T21:01:34","slug":"devotional-on-acts-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15923\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15923\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15923\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/100_3025.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15923\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt St Helens, WA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>From persecutor to follower <\/p>\n<p>Acts 9: Things calmed down after that and the church had smooth sailing for awhile.<\/p>\n<p>From the Day of Pentecost on there\u2019s tension between the followers of Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  Obviously, the murder of Stephen is the primary example of that.  Now, Saul, who was there as Stephen\u2019s last words were addressed to Jesus, becomes the main enemy of the believers.  He terrorizes them, showing no mercy.  Then, on the way to Damascus to root out even more Jesus followers, he encounters Jesus, himself.  It\u2019s a dramatic turnaround.  The greatest enemy of Jesus and his people is now one of them.  Saul is as zealous for Jesus as he had been zealous against him.  Following the martyred Stephen\u2019s approach Saul debates the enemies of Jesus in Damascus.  Then, when opposition is stirred to murderous proportions he returns to Jerusalem.  Thanks to Barnabas, Saul is welcomed into the Church there.  Soon he\u2019s debating with the Hellenists of that city.  Before long they decide to deal with Saul as they dealt with Stephen.  Saul is hustled out of town and soon is sent to his distant home town, Tarsus.  It\u2019s only then that things calm down for the infant Church.  As I read of these events, I once again wonder if debate is the best way to advance Christianity.  It\u2019s Stephen\u2019s use of this approach that touches off the firestorm of opposition and it\u2019s when Saul, with his debate style is moved from the mix that things calm down and the Church advances under a banner of peace.  Also, I can\u2019t help but wonder if Saul\u2019s conversion doesn\u2019t frighten the enemies of the Church.  Saul was one of them, in fact, the most zealous of the lot.  If attacking followers of Jesus can somehow make a person into one of \u201cthem\u201d maybe it\u2019s best to just leave them alone!  No real application here but there\u2019s plenty to think about as I consider this chain of events. <\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Debate probably isn\u2019t the best way to influence people for Jesus.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From persecutor to follower Acts 9: Things calmed down after that and the church had smooth sailing for awhile. From the Day of Pentecost on there\u2019s tension between the followers of Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Obviously, the murder of Stephen is the primary example of that. Now, Saul, who was there as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1485,1428],"tags":[1268,217,1274,812],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10019"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15924,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions\/15924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}