Acts 9
17  without prompting, without knowing by human ability, Ananias of Damascas was able to tell the blind gaunt distraught confused Saul EVERYTHING that he had experienced and heard - now THATS a powerful endorsement!
20 Saul HAD to have heard and known of the sayings and actions of Jesus during his persecutorial reign and YET would NOT place them in the messianic context of God's Word - like the pharasies who PERSONALLY witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus and yet ONLY saw that as further evidence of the THREAT of Jesus rather than of the DEITY of Jesus!
	Saul too until Jesus reached out and personally FORCED him to examine the claims, words and actions of Jesus in the light of Gods word - Given Sauls encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture, once he was willing and able to FIT Jesus truth into that grid  - place the Jesus key into the lock of scripture, the WHOLE thingmust have exploded in front of and inside him - entire vast chunks of God's word were suddenly seen as NEVER before and NOT as a creek trickling by, not even as a river flowing by, but as an OCEAN suddenly leaping into view, clear, clean, intoxicating in it's effect on him;
	No WONDER that after only a few days HE is READY to go out and preach and teach as NEVER before! With power and authority and a vast intellect AND knowledge of the foundational issues of scripture BEYOND that of most Jews, even beyond that of most clerics and academics;

Acts 16
v 16-19  for her to be so profitable a prophet, she had to be known as a very credible  "witness", ie, being truly demon possessed, she probably was VERY good at her job, so when SHE started to carry on about Paul and Co, the local folks we SURE to stop and pay attention; perhaps that is why Paul let her continue, because she was a very credible source of free advertising? I don't know why else he would let her remain in her present state of enslavement to demonic forces...? He did not deliver her out of pity or mercy, but out of exasperation - Paul is a man with flaws and foibles and less than ideal attitudes at times, just like the rest of us...but God made sure HIS Word WAS relayed through Paul totally correct, even if Paul, too, struggled to live up to it all, too...
v16-34  The Philippian jailer - he was told to guard them "securely" which apparently had the effect of his feeling obliged to lock them in the "inner" prison...does this imply some extra measure of imprisonment and a concurrently greater threat to him should they escape? Clearly he too had been listening to the men singing their trust in the Lord in the midst of prison; 
	Because when it all happened, he KNEW what the REAL issue was - not "How did you do that" or "who ARE you people?" BUT "What must I do to be SAVED?!" 
	So you NEVER know who may be listening in on you during your hard times - perhaps EVEN the ones who are MAKING those times so very hard!!

Acts 17
16-32  Athens - truly cosmopolitan city! Perhaps theres no one more thoroughly hardened or resistant to the Gospel than the truly "religious" - self-satisfied in their appearance of propriety, comfortable in their home-grown righteousness, the idea that THEY should NEED a savior would seem odd (and possibly insulting) indeed; But NO "religion" apart from God is TOTALLY satisfying, is absolutely adequate to genuinely searching heart - SO there are evidences of the inadequacies - here in Athens their gesture to whatever god they may have missed in a city FILLED with gods and goddesses 
	how Athens so perfectly mirrors our own society! So many "religious" people, yet so few who realize there need NOT for a religion but for a RELATIONSHIP with the one TRUE living God; 
	Even today men WILLING to believe ANY OTHER possible thing (re-incarnation, gods on mountain tops, UFOs, myths, legends and lies) will curl their lips and sneer at the mention of resurrection - especially of Jesus resurrection...