Story of Saul who become Saint Paul
The biography of Saul is described in Bible in detail. He received the name ‘Paul” and has become a Saint who wrote 14 books in Bible which we reads in “New Testament”.
Once Saul pledged to kill all the apostles of Jesus. Saul was an angry man who did not like Christians at all. He yelled and screamed at them. He made nasty threats. He beat them and sometimes even killed them. Saul was definitely not a man anyone would want to try to befriend. Once Saul requested to all the priests of Rome to allow him to capture all the Christians to bring them to Jerusalem. For this reason Saul decided to go to Damascus.
One day Saul was traveling to the city of Damascus. He wanted the leaders of the city to give him permission to hurt more Christians. As he and his friends were making their way along the dusty road, discussing what they were going to say to the leaders, and bragging about how happy they would be to receive permission to persecute the Christians . . .
SUDDENLY . . .
Then he heard a voice. It was unlike any voice he had ever heard, saying, "SAUL! SAUL! Why do you want to persecute me?"
Saul, not recognizing the voice, said, "Who are you?"
The answer came back, "I am Jesus."
Of course, Saul was terribly afraid. He was shaking and trembling and could hardly speak. In a weak voice he said, "Lord, what should I do?"
Jesus replied, "Go into the city, and someone will meet you and tell you what to do."
The friends that were with him were astonished! They didn't see the light. They didn't see a person. They only heard the voice. They didn't have a clue what was happening!
When Saul was able to get up off the ground, he uncovered his eyes, but he couldn't see anything. His friends had to hold his hands and lead him into the city of Damascus. The light was so bright it had blinded him. For three whole days he couldn't see anything at all.
While all of this was happening on the road outside the city of Damascus, something else was happening inside the city.
The Christians were becoming fearful because they had heard that Saul was on his way. They knew he was a cruel man that didn't like them. They knew what terrible things he had done to other Christians and they were getting quite worried.
There was a Christian man named Ananias who loved the Lord very much. God spoke to him in a vision, telling him to go down the street to find Saul. Now, Ananias had heard all the stories about Saul and he wasn't very fond of this plan. Ananias spoke to the Lord: "What if he hurts me? What if he even wants to KILL me? Are you sure about this, Lord?" I'm sure we all can understand Ananias' hesitation to go out and find Saul!
The Lord spoke to Ananias again, reassuring him that everything would be fine. Ananias found the house where Saul was staying and went in for a visit. While he was there, he prayed for Saul and the blindness left him. The Lord healed him so he could see again.
This lead to the conversion or repenting or rather change of mind in Saul. He stayed in Damascus with the Christians. He became good friends with them and learned from them. It wasn't long before Saul became a preacher teaching people about Jesus. Everyone was amazed! They couldn't believe that this was the same person that had hated them so much and wanted to kill them.
Paul travelled to many places in the world and he has put the effort to grow the Christianity and spread everywhere. Paul has done many missionary travels.
Jews arrested Paul for not adhering to their rules and rituals and thus he has been jailed in AD-57. Through Biblical verses he spoken to people from jail itself. Most of the verses of 14 books we read today was written by Paul from Jail. In AD-67 Paul was killed by beheading in Rome and this was more merciful death given by the then Ruler of Rome because of his Roman citizenship.
If repented or do penitence any evildoer can become the follower of Jesus Christ and Apostle Paul is the example for this.
*
**
