“I AM JESUS!”

Acts 9:1-9                                  (ESV)

“1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the LORD, went to the high priest

2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to THE WAY, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.

4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

5 And he said, "Who are you, LORD?" And HE said, "”I AM JESUS”, WHOM you are persecuting.

6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, “HE SAW NOTHING”. So they (Saul’s entourage) led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”

The day was Sunday January 08, 1978.   Being a 17 year old young man, I thought I was a bit invincible.   I was a senior in high school and my stature was already 6’6” in height and I weighed 225 lbs., or so.   There wasn’t many things I feared, but most of that was because I was ignorant, not because I was wise!  When I got home following church service that Sunday evening, I was miserable from the “unsettledness” in my life!  I remember begging for GOD to give me direction and purpose in my life........and HE did!!!

The conversion of Saul was a bit more dramatic.  He was going “... to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to THE WAY, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”   Persecuting those following THE WAY was exactly what I would have been doing in the first century.  Ignoring the Spiritual and advancing the Physical was the way, aw far as I could SEE!  However, Saul was about to have his eyesight adjusted, and by Heavenly means!  For three days he “fasted and prayed”, not due to Spiritual Intervention, but rather because his life was being turned upside down!  

“This world” seems to have the opinion that Believers in JESUS CHRIST are “more holy” than others, people with NO SIN in our lives?  Saul would soon be renamed to Paul, and in 1 Timothy 1:15 states that “.....CHRIST JESUS came into the world to SAVE SINNERS, OF WHOM I AM THE FOREMOST (or CHIEF)!”  Being one who is nowhere close to Saul/Paul in his Spiritual walk, admitting that I AM the FOREMOST of sinners isn’t something that I Glory in, but Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “...for when I am weak, then I am strong”.  As a matter of fact, Paul writes in the preceding verse “...Therefore I will BOAST ALL THE MORE GLADLY of my weaknesses, so that the power of CHRIST may rest upon me”.  

Don’t be shocked when I am found imperfect in my example of living for CHRIST.  Yes, I am a poor example of living for HIM and sometimes I get very frustrated that I am not the servant that I need to be.  NO, I am not one who YET can Glory that I BOAST THE MORE GLADLY of my weaknesses!  But I am trying to be used of HIM to be exactly what HE is calling me to be and going where HE wants to use me!  “I AM JESUS” is WHO I want others to SEE when they are SEEING me, not myself!!!