INDEX  INDIA  NEPAL  ABOUT US CENSUS INDIA STORY OF INDIA CHURCHES INDIA   KERALA   OUR INDIA PUBLICATIONS        HOME         GUEST BOOK

Friday  11  January

It came to pass,  that, as I made my Journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 
 Acts 22, 6.

What Saul here reported of his life applied in some way or other to each one of us. So long as we are alive, our life resembles a journey. There is no standing still. The crucial issue is: what is our destination?

Saul was an educated man, a theologian with a thorough knowledge of Jewish law. Yet he was on the wrong track. As a strict Pharisee he imagined his duty was to persecute the Christians. He even thought he was doing God a service thereby. For that reason he undertook the trip to Damascus. But because as far as faith was concerned he was on the wrong pathway,  Jesus Christ made him halt on his way. He found himself dazzled by light from heaven; that made him aware that he was going astray and heading for a dead end. This occurrence turned Paul into another man: he underwent a complete and radical change. From an enemy of Jesus Christ he was transformed into a faithful servant, his hatred changed to fervent love, his fanaticism to  true devotion. The proverbial transformation of Saul into Paul thus took place.

Everybody needs to undergo this transformation. The Bible calls it conversion. It consists in turning from a pathway  of self-will  to follow Christ, from the broad way that leads to destruction to the narrow path of life (cf. Matthew 7, 13.14). Even if God does not use a miracle, as He did with Paul,  He brings us face to face with Himself nevertheless. Our conscience may prick us, or serious occurrences affect  our lives to make us sense how hollow a life is apart from God. God speaks in many different ways. A new life begins for those who attend to  His call.