But the Lord said to him, “Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites.  I will show him how much he must suffer for My name!”  Acts 9:15-16 HCSB

Now allow me to give you a little back story here.  The Lord is talking about Saul who is being converted to Paul.  Saul was a well educated man.  He came from a good family and when he was running around persecuting Christians he truly believed he was doing the right thing.  He was wrong.  While in route to Damascus, Jesus blinded him by a great light and confronted him and asked him why he was persecuting Him.  Saul had been blind for three days in Damascus when the Lord asked a disciple there by the name of Ananias to go to him and place his hands on him and heal his blindness.  Now Ananias had heard about this guy Saul who went around persecuting Christians and questioned the Lord about this.  Our scripture passage is the Lord’s response to Ananias.

Now if you have studied the life of Paul, you know that he was passionate about his service to the Lord.  He endured beatings, shipwreck, and many imprisonments for his service to the Lord.  The Lord truly did show him how much he would suffer for Him.  But Paul endured all of this patiently because he understood what the end result would be.  He knew that no matter what he suffered here, that he would spend eternity with his heavenly Father in glory.  In Philippians 1:18, while in prison, Paul wrote, “What does it matter? Just that in every way, whether out of false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed.  And in this I rejoice.  Yes, and I will rejoice…”  Paul proclaimed the gospel with as much, or perhaps even more, passion as he used when he was persecuting Christians.

Now we may look at Paul’s introduction to us in Acts 7:58.  While Stephen was being martyred for his sermon, we are told that the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  Saul was present and obviously approved of this stoning.  In a time when Christianity, which was first called the Way, was spreading through the land like wildfire, Saul was doing his best to stop it.  He was killing Christians and was headed to Damascus to imprison more Christians and deliver them to Jerusalem.  Looking at the life of the young man Saul, one may wonder why the Lord would choose someone like him to proclaim the gospel.  In our scripture passage, the Lord calls Saul His chosen instrument.

Well, one thing about reading the bible is that we see people just like you and me who are used to accomplish great things.  Once Saul was converted to Paul, he continued the spread of the gospel.  He started many churches.  He was baptized and aided in the salvation of others.  Even while in prison, Paul was leading people to the Lord.  So maybe the Lord used Paul as his chosen instrument to show that if he can convert someone who is going around killing Christians, he can certainly convert someone like me or you.

Maybe another reason is Paul’s passion.  We know that lukewarm is something that the Lord hates.  In Revelation 3:15-16 the Lord tells the church in Laodicea that because they are neither hot nor cold, but Lukewarm, that he will spit them out of his mouth.  Saul was very passionate about his persecution of the Christians.  He believed in what he was doing.  He had this same passion and belief in the Lord and His gospel as he proclaimed it wherever he went, even into the depths of the prisons.

Now we may look at Saul and shake our heads in wonder.  We may say how could God even consider using someone like him?  But before you start staring down your nose at Saul, think about yourself.  The bible tells us that we are either for God or we are against Him (Matthew 12:30).  So as you read this take a look at yourself.  Would you say that God would consider you to be for Him or against Him?  Either you live a life that honors Him and leads others to Him or you live a life that does not. There is no middle of the road here. When we face the throne of judgement, we will either be condemned to hell or welcomed into heaven.

None of us know whether we have a few seconds left to live or many years.  Only God knows when we will die a physical death.  Forever is a long, long time.  Are you ready to face your forever?  Are you where you need to be?  If you have not been living a life that honors God there is no better time than the present to start.  Turn to Him today.  Trust in Him to walk you through this thing called life.  Allow Him to use you as His instrument to save others.  The greatest thing about Paul is that in all his writings no matter what he was going through he had peace in his heart.  He had joy.  You can have the same if you only trust Him.

Have a great day!