Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, April 19, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Acts paints Saul as the perfect villain. He represents everything that’s wrong with the “old guard” and his actions in pursuit of stamping out any voice of dissent are horrific. Yet for all his evil deeds, God chose this guy to be the primary voice of the gospel to the non-Jewish world, and, therefore, to us. Love or hate what Saul-turned-Paul had to say in his epistles (and I do some of both, but mostly love) without him, Christianity doesn’t get far, and we’re probably not Christians today.
Which makes me think about all the ways God can use us to share God’s good news with the world, even when we’re not perfect. Even if we’ve done things we’re really really ashamed of, things we might think of as unforgivable. If God can not only forgive this guy for his evil deeds, but then establish him as God’s mouthpiece of the gospel of Jesus, then is there really anything we’ve done that would disqualify us from serving God once we’ve repented? I think not.
Am I afraid I’m just not good enough to speak the word of God with boldness?
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