Before Paul was Paul the Apostle

He was Saul the Zealot.

He had zealously exchanged

The truth about God for a lie.

 

Not realizing his error,

Saul of Tarsus

Hebrew of Hebrews and Pharisee of Pharisees

Served the one whom he thought was God

With all of his heart.

 

Saul took the desert road

And much to his surprise

Ran into a massive and mighty road block:

The Only Begotten Son

Of the Most High Jehovah,

Creator of Heaven and Earth.

 

He met Him

Not in His former form

As Jesus the suffering servant,

But in his recently glorified form

As Jesus – The Messiah –

The Anointed One of Highest Earthly Rank.

 

 

Saul was shocked.

And that is putting it mildly.

He had sacrificed everything

To serve the false God he knew.

 

Saul gave 111 percent

To fulfill his Pharisaical calling:

Persecute by imprisonment and death

Any who were found to be Christians.

 

What was Jesus’ response to

Saul the Zealot of Tarsus

On the Damascus Road?

 

We find His response written

In the 9^th chapter of Acts,

 

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus,

whom you are persecuting.”

 

Later in the Book of Romans,

Paul the Apostle wrote:

 

“For in it the righteousness of God

is revealed from faith for faith,

as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

 

(18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness

and unrighteousness of men,

who by their unrighteousness

suppress the truth.

 

(19) For what can be known about God

is plain to them,

because God has shown it to them.

 

(20) For his invisible attributes,

namely,

his eternal power and divine nature,

have been clearly perceived,

ever since the creation of the world,

in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

 

(21) For although they knew God,

they did not honor him as God

or give thanks to him,

but they became futile in their thinking,

and their foolish hearts were darkened.

 

(22) CLAIMING TO BE WISE,

THEY BECAME FOOLS,

 

(23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God

for images resembling mortal man and birds

and animals and creeping things.

(24) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts

of their hearts to impurity,

to the dishonoring of their bodies

among themselves,

 

(25) because THEY EXCHANGED THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD FOR A LIE

and worshiped

and served the creature

rather than the Creator,

who is blessed forever! Amen.”

 

Romans 1:17-25

 

Dear reader,

Do you serve Jesus Christ?

Do you serve yourself?

Or have you exchanged

The truth about God

For a lie

And serve the same God

As Saul the Zealot?

 

Poem about Romans 1: 17 – 25

Requested by my friend and brother in Jesus,

Greg Isaacson of Chanhassen, Minnesota.

 

WTO 11.30.11
From my book Waysides along the Journey 4: