Why was Paul chosen and called on the road to Damascus Syria.

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
J

jkalyna

Guest
#1
#1
I thought about how Christ called Paul to follow him, wrote almost the entire New Testament, and didn't choose someone from the Temple, learned, scholared in the Old Testament, and someone who never committed a crime. Paul was against Christians, put them in the lions Dens, had them executed, hundreds, maybe more. Why do you think he was called.​
 
Magenta

Magenta

Senior Member
#2
Jul 3, 2015
56,043
26,161
113
#2
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today."
Paul speaking in Acts 22:3
 
J

james57

Banned
#3
Oct 21, 2015
2,420
12
0
#3
I've always wondered if it was because he was the arch legalist, the most ardent of Pharisees.

He would be the ideal person to spread the message of grace, once he saw the light
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#4
#4
Paul said, he fought a good fight. I think he was called because he was a soldier, and a tough one. God knew the stuff "religious stuff" that was going on in the churches, it was a tough fight. He was beaten up because he cast out the demons in the sorcerer girl that was following him and Silas, and she was delivered. He was ship wreaked more than once, bitten by a viper, put into prison. All the stuff that was going on in the churches, and you could read it, people excomunicating the real believers, and them being the swindlers, yet John writes he never spoke a word against him, but that those things werent right. There must of been more opposition in the churches, where he said, he fought a good fight. Today churches are getting emptyied out, because maybe what's needed is a someone like Paul. Then again, we don't know the mind of the LOrd. Any insights. It takes a tough soldier to come against religion, as he wrote spiritual insights, against it, and didn't quite.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#5
#5
james57 said:
I've always wondered if it was because he was the arch legalist, the most ardent of Pharisees.

He would be the ideal person to spread the message of grace, once he saw the light
Click to expand...
I think along that also. It is like it takes one to know one, and I don't think a layman would stand up to all the opposition, and the things that he must of been confronted with. It doesn't speak of everything he went through, but I know people with unclean spirits, were sent to destroy him, just as even a sorcery girl, harassed him and Silas everywhere they went. Healings came from his body, from handkerchiefs etc. There was an anointing on his life he was real tough, and didn't quit he finished the race.
 
F

FreeNChrist

Guest
#6
#6
jkalyna said:
I thought about how Christ called Paul to follow him, wrote almost the entire New Testament, and didn't choose someone from the Temple, learned, scholared in the Old Testament, and someone who never committed a crime. Paul was against Christians, put them in the lions Dens, had them executed, hundreds, maybe more. Why do you think he was called.​
Click to expand...

Because God loves to take what is meant for evil and turn it to good.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#7
#7
When in jail, even God caused an earth quake that shook the prison doors opened, and they were told to go, and the jail guard believed. God did great miracles through him, someone who once destroyed many believers. God used him.
 
Magenta

Magenta

Senior Member
#8
Jul 3, 2015
56,043
26,161
113
#8
He understood the transition from the shadow of the law to
the reality and fulfillment found in Christ better than any.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#9
#9
FreeNChrist said:
Because God loves to take what is meant for evil and turn it to good.
Click to expand...
amen to that, I find that we are to expect positives with the Lord, and not get sunk in despair. I found that in every situation, trust him, and he loves us for ever, will not forsake us, nor leave us. Just goes to show, God is no respect-or of persons, after he repented, he was used, amazing.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#10
#10
Magenta said:
He understood the transition from the shadow of the law to
the reality and fulfillment found in Christ better than any.
Click to expand...
Yes. If any one was remorseful, and repented he's a good example, and ​wrote about it almost in tears, felt. God's way are the ways of love. Today in prisons, even if someone repents, and is remorseful, if they get the death penalty, they die. There was one man who believed in Jesus, but the Laws of the governing state had no mercy on him, he could of been set free to be used, by they gave him the lethal injection. Laws are not good. Good is good.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#11
#11
I think also that he was fearless. Today people in the churches are loaded with fear, and look at people who come through the doors, straight, or been in prison with a crooked eye, or someone having a thing like mine on my signature, hey it's a Ukrainina soldier. Fear has taken the place of FAith. Oh but I want to talk about Paul. :)
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#12
#12
But let’s stay focused on our primary question: Why did Paul refuse compensation and work a day job?
Reason #1: He wanted to have the greatest possible impact.


Instead of clinging to the principle “the laborer deserves to be paid,” Paul was thinking, “How can I be most effective?” And specifically, Paul pondered this question: “Is it most effective to preach for free or for pay?” Much of the time, Paul conscientiously chose to preach for free. And that meant, Paul had to work a day job. Fortunately, since Paul was trained by the ancient rabbis who believed in teaching the Torah out of love and not for profit, Paul was skilled in a trade and that trade was tentmaking (Acts 18:1-3). (The actual Greek word translated “tentmakers” in Acts 18:3 could be applied to any type of leather worker.)
For Paul, earning money through manual labor wasn’t a second-tier way to make a living. Instead Paul’s statements display a certain pride in his hardworking lifestyle:
For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God (1 Thess. 2:9).For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you (2 Thess. 3:7-8).Those statements give us a second and third reason why Paul worked a day job.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#13
#13
Okay, I think I found an answer or part of it. God knew him, and his training, to preach free for his love of God. He was a trained tent maker, and said he didn't want to pose a financial burden on anyone. This I like, and he said, to take an example from him. So,, if God let him write the New Testament, most of it, called him, and he was changed sounds like a very loving man to me. He worked and preached.
 
Magenta

Magenta

Senior Member
#14
Jul 3, 2015
56,043
26,161
113
#14
The church at Philippi financially supported Paul for years :)

https://discipleallnations.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/partners-in-mission-the-example-of-the-philippian-church-and-the-apostle-paul/
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#15
#15
In summary, Paul didn’t make a living from his spiritual work in Corinth, Thessalonica, or Ephesus. In fact, he refused to do so. And he refused to do so out of a desire to be most effective, to avoid being a financial burden, to serve as an example of diligence, and to personally provide for those in need.
 
tourist

tourist

Senior Member
#16
Mar 13, 2014
41,323
16,307
113
69
Tennessee
#16
jkalyna said:
Yes. If any one was remorseful, and repented he's a good example, and ​wrote about it almost in tears, felt. God's way are the ways of love. Today in prisons, even if someone repents, and is remorseful, if they get the death penalty, they die. There was one man who believed in Jesus, but the Laws of the governing state had no mercy on him, he could of been set free to be used, by they gave him the lethal injection. Laws are not good. Good is good.
Click to expand...

God is indeed good. God is also love.
 
J

jkalyna

Guest
#17
#17
Magenta said:
The church at Philippi financially supported Paul for years :)

https://discipleallnations.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/partners-in-mission-the-example-of-the-philippian-church-and-the-apostle-paul/
Click to expand...
they did but not under his authority to say to do that. he says something different that he didn't want to be a burden. I am starting to see his character, and he was like a missionary he traveled to preach. Free gift offereings are of the Lord, forced are not.
 
Magenta

Magenta

Senior Member
#18
Jul 3, 2015
56,043
26,161
113
#18
jkalyna said:
they did but not under his authority to say to do that. he says something different that he didn't want to be a burden. I am starting to see his character, and he was like a missionary he traveled to preach. Free gift offereings are of the Lord, forced are not.
Click to expand...
True :) God loves a cheerful giver! 2 Corinthians 8-9 provides another relevant perspective on giving. There Paul boasts about the Macedonian churches’ generosity, the church at Philippi being included. He again highlights the divine party involved in giving, when he says, “they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God” (2 Cor. 8:5). Supporting front line workers is first a matter of people’s commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ, then secondly to the worker. Mission partnerships are built on relational commitments, first to the Lord, then to the worker. We may conclude that relationship precedes stewardship. (From same page as link previously given)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.