Hello and welcome back to the Selah study! Today I'm doing something a little different. I'm posting a video discussing today's reading selection because I just don't have the time to type it all out. Nothing fancy, just me in my back yard working against the wind and sunshine. :)

If you'd like to order your printed and bound copy of Selah: On Your Road to Damascus for $9, click HERE.

If you'd like to download a FREE PDF copy, click HERE. Use "selahdevo" at checkout to claim your free copy. 

Welcome! Thank you for joining me this week! This week's reading was much shorter than last week's. (And wait'll you get a load of how little you'll be reading for NEXT week! There may be fewer words, but the words that are there pack a punch!)

Reminder: I will be writing each week as if you've already read this week's section. You can download a FREE PDF of Selah HERE. Use "SELAHDEVO" to receive your copy free. 

Let's launch into discussion, shall we?

The Men with Saul...at a glance, there really isn't much to say about them. However, if you dig in a little, you'll learn a lot about them...and yourself!

Saul had asked for permission to travel over 130 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest any Christ following members of The Way. He had men traveling with him to aid in that effort. Saul (Seemingly) had no idea how many prisoners to anticipate, so he had to be prepared. We aren't told the exact number of men that he had with him, but that isn't a critical point. 

What we do know is that when the blinding light (Phos) shone around Saul, it also shined around the men with him. In fact, Saul wasn't the only one knocked to the ground. The men with him were as well. The interesting thing we learn is that the men were able to hear something as Jesus spoke to Saul, but they couldn't understand what they heard. They also couldn't see Jesus. 

The Scripture tells us that Jesus spoke to Saul in Aramaic, a nod to Saul's Jewish heritage. Could that be why the men couldn't understand what Jesus said or did the Lord choose to keep His and Saul's conversation private? I'm thankful for the times the Lord gently and privately redirects me. He's merciful in that He doesn't air my sins for the world. His goal is never to humiliate me, but rather to humble me. 

The men watch Saul seemingly go crazy as he speaks to someone they can't see or understand. They watch him grope about, unable to see anything and then heed his directive for them to take him to Judas' house on Straight Street. I imagine these men shaking their heads in disbelief as they try to make sense of the scene that just unfolded before them. What had just happened? 

The Bible tells us that Saul spends 3 days at the house of Judas, but what we don't know is what happened to the men traveling with him. Did they hang around with Saul? Did he share with them what Jesus had said to him? Did they ask? Did he give them marching orders? Did they go to the Damascus synogogue or head back to Jerusalem? I want to know more! It's times like this when I want to sit at the Lord's feet and ask Him many questions. For our purposes, however, we're finished learning about the men traveling with Saul. 

These men held the hands of the greatest religious celebrity of their time, the noted Christian killer Saul, and watched him stumble and grope his way to Damascus, to the door of his enemy...not to arrest, but to stay! Can you IMAGINE what their conversation was like after they deposited the out-of-his-mind Saul and moved on?

What do you take away from this selection of Selah? Have you ever watched a noted leader stumble and fall? How did you react? 

Have you ever had the Lord speak to you (impress something on your heart) that no one else "heard" or understood? How did that make you feel? Did their doubt or lack of understanding affect how you responded to the Lord?

Up next week...Ananias. See you next Saturday!