DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 1 March 2025: The Road to Damascus
Text: Acts 9:1-9 ( (KJV)
Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
KEY VERSE: Acts 9:5
“And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5).
The Road to Damascus was associated with the most dramatic conversion story in the Bible. It was about Saul of Tarsus, who embarked on a mission to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians who had fled from Jerusalem to Damascus, following the persecution that attended the stoning of Stephen. On the way, Saul encountered Christ, surrendered to Him, and became a Christian. This classic story has inspired the theme of scientific fiction, music, films, and novels. Notable among them is the 1952 novel titled, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, where a character commented thus: You start as Saul and end up Paul. In widespread usage, Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus has become a metaphor for a sudden or radical change of heart or purpose. As Christians, we can deduce several moral or scriptural lessons from Saul’s conversion.
The manner of his arrest shows that Christ is always interested in the protection of His people (Acts 9:5; Matthew 10:40; Luke 10:16). It took a personal encounter with Christ for Saul to get converted. This unique encounter humbled Saul to the point that he lost all his pride and arrogance. The Apostle John had a similar experience on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:17). Like Saul, every child of God was once zealously serving the flesh and Satan before conversion when the Lord met us on our own ‘Road to Damascus’. The conversion of Mosab Hassan Yousef, now called Joseph, in the book titled Son of Hamas, published by Tyndale, England, in 2010, shows that God is still transforming lives in Saul’s kind of dramatic fashion. This all indicates that no one is beyond God’s reach or redemption.
God loves sinners but hates their sins. He met Saul on the way to Damascus and transformed him into a chosen vessel and an apostle to the Gentiles, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious…” (1 Timothy 1:13). So, we should never give up on any sinner, no matter how seemingly far from God. Christ is the Lord of the work, and He has promised to be with us even unto the end of the world.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Every sinner is a potential saint.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Leviticus 8-11
Daily Manna 1 March 2025
