Grace Encounters

Acts 13:9, "Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas (the sorcerer) and said, "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about , seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord." Acts 9:3, "Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him (Saul). He feel to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do..." Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing...and later...Saul, the Lord-Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized." There are a lot of interesting parallels in these two stories. Do you see how Paul uses the method of his own conversion to proclaim the gospel to the proconsul? Paul was a vicious enemy of the gospel; Elymas was also a man working against the ways of the Lord-both were effective in hindering the spread of the gospel: Paul as a persecutor, Elymas as a false prophet. Paul was struck with blindess and heard the voice of the Lord, leading to his conversion and call into Christian service. Paul struck Elymas with blindness as a sign of the gospel he was preaching to the proconsul, leading to his conversion and belief in the gospel. What can we learn here? I think that, at some level, whatever means God used to bring you to repentance can be useful in leading others to Christ. I think we need to embrace the work of grace in our lives and seek out opportunities to minister to others in a similar context. Will God always have us minister from the familiar? No. But I think there is definite power when we proclaim the power of God to minister to a person, or situation, that we have personally seen manifested in our own lives. Simple Application: Is your grace encounter leading you to extend the love of God to others, or is it just an exhibit in your personal museum of spirituality?