April 11, 2010

Scriptures for April 18th: Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19; Songs: Spirit Song – UMH 347; It is Well with my Soul – UMH 377; Father I Adore You – TFWS 2038

Acts
Today we will deal with the call stories of the two most important disciples. Acts is the story of Saul persecuting the Christians, and Jesus comes to him on the road to Damascus and asks why he is persecuting Christians. This is not the moment that Saul is converted to Paul, this is the moment that he goes blind. Jesus tells him to spend time with Ananias – this is when he is converted from the kindness and forgiveness that he receives from those who believe. He finds community in the very place that he is trying to destroy community. In the world today – we don’t have to fight Christ’ battles, we have to believe that he is fighting on our behalf.
John
This is the commissioning of Peter. The Risen Christ tells Peter to go and “feed my sheep”. Christ has given the gift of the Holy Spirit to all of his disciples. This is the power to follow Christ in a world that could care less. But in that blessing, we are also given a job – to be Jesus for the world. Jesus knows where each of us is in our lives and in our faith. Jesus knows how much we love him and what we are capable of doing for him. All he asks of us is to show others how much we love him.

Questions: What is your conversion experience? Has there ever been a time in your life when you were asked to do something different in the midst of your sin? When have you experienced the love of other Christians? How did you change after that encounter? How are you being called to love others?