As Bad as Saul, But Not Quite Paul Yet...

Saul was not a Christian, on the contrary, he hated Christians.  He caused terror. He was a Christian killer, who had no mercy. Age or gender did not matter. He killed all the same, old and young, babies and all.

Perhaps he had a notebook filled with names and addresses: John, the guy that worked for the baker, Alice the older lady who lived near the green,  Michael who worked in the market street... none would escape...What he did was not good, but he was good at doing it. Saul's plans SELDOM failed but Jesus plans NEVER fail.

The Bible says that only God knows the plans He has for us, plans of peace and not of war. Saul's life was changed after Jesus' plan unfolded. Jesus had planned an encounter with Saul. Jesus wanted to know from him: Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me? And Saul, once the planner, now part of the plan, once a religious man, now a spiritual man, once the one writing in the hateful notebook, now the one writing in the Good Book. Once Saul the persecuter of Jesus, now Paul His follower.

I have hated Christians too, for many years. I couldnt even tolerate their voices or anything they said. But God had a plan for me. I was as hateful as Saul, but unfortunatelly I am not as good as Paul. I hope God is still unfolding His plans for me. I hope I can be more of a christian, more of a disciple, more of a sister, more.

And yet back to "today" nothing has changed in the world. There are many unsafe places for Christians. There are still many Sauls here. In many countries those Sauls can kill and destroy.  They dont passively hate. What the haters dont know, is that they are not persecuting Jews or Christians. In reality they are persecuting Jesus. The pictures above show their victims. Killed, beaten, tortured. All because they are/were associated with God, or would be.

For us who see this horrible images 2 prayers are left:
Pray for the families of the victims, and pray for the Saul's of the world to be changed into Pauls.