Acts 26:9-11

We can become so set in our beliefs that the new things that Holy Spirit desires to show us are lost in our traditions. 

Change is good. God changes us from the inside out.

We need to be open to His teachings! He desires to do a new thing in our life.

1 Timothy 1:13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

God speaks to His people, we also know He has spoken through His Son and continues to communicate through His Holy Spirit. 

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world" (Hebrews 1:1-2).  First5 

In letters written in 1740, Jean-Pierre de Caussade (ordained member of the Society of Jesus) wrote about the sacrament of the present moment. We are invited to choose to live each day as a sacrament (as a gift), enabling us to see, to hear, to taste, and to touch grace—the goodness of God’s presence in our world. We need to bring this sacrament back and allow it to be front and center in our lives. Put simply: God is close, never far away. SabbathMoments 

Change is not just a part of life; change is a necessary part of God’s strategy. To use us to change the world, he sometimes redirects our assignments. Mary, from peasant girl to the mother of Christ. Paul, from local rabbi to world evangelist. God may call you to a new season, but he wants you to know: you’ll never face the future without his help. Max Lucado

Acts 26:9-11

9 “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. 

17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’ The New King James Version

Like a stubborn animal attempting to fight the sticks used as prods, Paul cannot succeed in fighting against God.

Paul records what Jesus said to him on the road to Damascus, elaborating both on the earlier account in Acts and what he has previously articulated during his former trials. Faithlife Study Bible

Some have concluded that Paul must have been a member of the Sanhedrin at some time, since he mentions casting a vote. However, Paul was probably too young to belong to such a body of aged men or elders. Paul may have been the Sanhedrin’s chief prosecutor, urging a verdict of guilty against those Christians he had hunted down in the course of his campaign of persecution. The imperfect tense of the verb compelled does not tell us whether or not Paul had actually been successful in causing believers to blaspheme their faith, only that he had tried to compel them to do so.

Paul speaks of the “renewing of your mind.” We do what we think is best, what makes sense to us. Paul was killing Christians because he thought it was the correct course of action. Christ’s revelation changed his thoughts, but his preaching of the Good News was visible proof that he had repented of his former ways. Genuine repentance is evidenced by changed behavior. The NKJV Study Bible

John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

Acts 8:3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Acts 9:13 Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

Acts 22:5 as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.