Stand StrongSample

Surprise Interview On a crowded London commuter train, an early morning rider shoved and insulted a fellow passenger. It was the kind of unfortunate and mindless moment that usually remains unresolved. But later that day, the unexpected happened. The person who had acted so poorly on the train walked into a job interview only to discover that the person who greeted him for the interview was the person he had mistreated earlier that day. Saul also ran into someone he never expected to see. While raging against a group called the Way (Acts 9:1–2), he was stopped by a blinding light. Then a voice said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (v. 4). Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The One speaking to him replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (v. 5). Years earlier Jesus had said that how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, and the prisoner reflects our relationship to Him (Matthew 25:35–36). Who would have dreamed that when someone insults us, or when we help or hurt another, the One who loves us takes it personally? Mart DeHaan