I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 9-10

Just a note about the theme I have noticed about the confrontational style of many of the early believers: here in the account of Saul’s conversion and his early preaching we discover that in both Damascus and Jerusalem Saul quickly stirred people up so that they wanted to kill him.  However, I really want to focus on Ananias.  Usually when we talk about Ananias we are referring to the man who conspired with his wife to lie to the Church about how much he received for a field he sold.  That is kind of a shame because this Ananias deserves our praise.  We often hear commentary on the fact that when Saul later arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas was initially the only believer to give Saul a chance.  Yet, before that, when Saul arrived in Damascus, God sent Ananias to him to complete his conversion (actually, conversion is the wrong word, but I will go into that another time).  Ananias knew that Saul had come to Damascus with the intention of arresting any followers of Jesus he was able to find.  Nevertheless, he knew the power of the Holy Spirit and was willing to accept the Spirit’s leading that Saul had changed.  We need to be like Ananias and Barnabas, giving people a second chance, and as Jesus taught even a seventh chance.