"At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said, 'Cornelius!' Cornelius stared at him in fear, 'What is it, Lord?' he asked. The angel answered, 'Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring

I'm finally back! Sorry I had to take a few days off from posting. The last time we met we looked at two reasons, or possibilities, as to why Saul persecuted the Church the way he did. I suggested that Saul simply was preserving a way of life (Judaism), and I also proposed that Saul had anger issues and was taking things out on God by way of persecuting the new Christian movement. Today, I will propose a third possibility. "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom yo

The last time we were together we looked at the "conversion" of Saul. I put the word conversion in parenthesis for a reason. We will discover why much later on in our look at Saul/Paul. If you recall, Saul had an encounter with the Lord while on the Damascus Road. "'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.'" (Acts 9:5-6, NIV) Saul did exactly as instructed withou