Sight Beyond the Surface

March 2025 

Rev 12:11 …And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 

Preface

To those predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s holy Son, to whom be all glory and power and dominion forever and ever:

You were once blind but are now illuminated by Truth so astounding… internal evidence so profound– everything changes: 

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He indeed was God, is God and always will be God.  He humbled Himself in the form of a man, to pay the penalty for mankind’s sin; for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. For God the Father, so loved those He created in His image, that despite our rebellion, He sent the most precious Possessor of His heart to die so that we would not be destroyed, but live forever.  He only requires that we believe.   

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

John 6:39-40 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. ⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Now we know this, so we go… Move the message on the mountain.  Sound it in the streets.  Proclaim it the prisons.  Jesus Christ is LORD. 

Paul’s Conversion Conversations

 Acts 26:4-18 “My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. ⁵ They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. ⁶ And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. ⁷ To this promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. ⁸ Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?

⁹ “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰ This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. ¹¹ And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹² “While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, ¹³ at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. ¹⁴ And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ ¹⁵ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. ¹⁷ I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, ¹⁸ to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

In observance of Paul’s dramatic interaction with King Agrippa regarding the sincerity of his allegiance to the Way, the reputable servant opens his profession by confessing the former actions of his violent past as a prominent oppressor, thus illuminating the actualization of his current spiritual state and responsibility. 

In the book of Galatians, we discover a separate situation when the apostle emphasized his plea with a clear convicting purpose: to relay the reality of the Gospel to a sect of humanity who did not know God. The call was a monumental commission given by the Commander of Light Himself. In adherence, Paul recognized the dire need to defend the purity of the Gospel to those whom the means of salvation had been introduced, yet their grasp on the vital element of grace was deteriorating due to a transpiring false doctrine. In response, Paul strategically constructed a platform on which to state his case. 

Upon reflection, one might extract the value of personal (and when necessary, public) confession before exhibiting the Gospel’s claim. There’s something about the exposure of shared sin that makes a person credible to others, particularly when testifying about the transformative power of God’s Spirit working in one’s life, through faith in what Christ accomplished on the Cross of Christ (Acts 26:16-18). 

Gal 1:12-14 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.¹³ For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 

Consider this: when we share what God has done for us, with whom do we share? Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He commissions His followers to inform those He came for; hence, as Paul pointed out, our assignments might be mysteriously mapped out for us before our material lives begin. 

Gal 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace…

We recognize a similar claim in Psalm 139, made by an individual identified as “the man after God‘s own heart“, king David, whose posterity the Messiah came through. 

Ps 139:16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

The Creator and Sustainer of the universe is not bound by time, thus stands outside of it, bringing to fruition His purposes for those He knew would trust in His matchless love and unending faithfulness. 

Eph 1:4 …just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…

Most intriguing is the fuel with which Paul exacerbates his energies.  Note, that after his encounter with the LORD on the road to Damascus, the apostle ventures off into seclusion for an extended period, presumably to receive otherwise unfathomable revelations concerning the eternal destiny of those who are purchased by the blood of the Lamb. No doubt this excursion immensely aided in equipping him to take up responsibility for much of the New Testament, from which we derive our spiritual sustenance as re-born believers.

Gal 1:16-17 …to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

From start to finish, the documentation of Paul’s life in Christ embodies full submission to the Holy Spirit for the sake of God’s Kingdom. As a result, Paul’s documented experience entails a well-balanced blend of suffering and power: the cause and effect of true allegiance to the One who called him out of the darkness, and into servitude through sonship by way of reconciliation.

May God’s grace enable those of us who have received the Truth to in mirrored manner, oblige Jesus Christ as worthy of our objective and complete submission.  

1 Thess 2:13  For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.