Hello good people.

Dr.

Brad Miller here for a daily Bible refresh brought to you by Voice of God Daily.

This is the daily reading of the Bible from the Revised Common Lectionary.

We're in year C, the epiphany season, and we like to read the Bible every day to you in a way that is understandable.

We read from the message version of the Bible, the New Testament lesson only relatable.

We offer you three, two or three points to ponder and think about and applicable.

We give you an action step to take with a prayer and we do all of that in usually less than 10 minutes.

So our lesson for the day, our reading for the day, for this very day is Acts 9, 1925.

Reading from the Message.

So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind of Saul and said, brother Saul, the master sent me the same Jesus you saw on your way here.

He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul's eye.

Eyes he could see again.

He got to his feet, was baptized, and sat down with him to a hearty meal.

Plots against Saul.

Saul spent a few days getting acquainted with the Damascus disciples, but then went right back to work, wasting no time, preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the son of God.

They were caught off guard by this and not at all sure they could trust him.

They kept saying, isn't this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem among the believers?

Didn't he come here to do the same thing?

Arrest us and drag us off to jail in Jerusalem for sentencing by the high priest?

But their suspicions didn't slow Saul down for even a minute.

His momentum was up now and he plowed straight into the opposition, disarming the Damascus Jews and trying to show them that this Jesus was the Messiah.

After this had gone on quite a long time, some Jews conspired to kill him.

But Saul got wind of it.

It they were watching the city gates around the clock so they could kill him.

Then one night, the disciples engineered his escape by lowering him over the wall in a basket.

Well, let's take a few moments now to reflect on this scripture.

Acts 9, 19:25.

It's really about transformation, trust and speaking truth to power and through change in community and resistance.

So here's a few points to ponder, to think about.

One of them is radical transformation and accountability.

Saul's story isn't just about an individual conversion, but about systematic change.

Here's a person who represented oppressive religious and political power structures, choosing to align himself with the marginalized.

In our contemporary context, this challenges us to consider how those with privilege and power can authentically work for justice interest transformation it's noteworthy that Saul had to earn the trust of the community he once persecuted.

This was no automatic acceptance just because he claimed to have been changed.

Another point that's one about community Skepticism as Wisdom the Damascus disciples initial suspicion of Saul wasn't a failure of faith, it was wisdom born of experience.

Progressive Christianity affirms the importance of healthy skepticism, especially when dealing with former oppressors or those claiming dramatic change.

This teaches us that reconciliation requires both transformation on the part of the oppressor and careful discernment on the part of the oppressed.

Trust must be earned through consistent action.

One more point, Creative Resistance the story about the basket right at the end of the scripture.

There the basket escape scene shows early Christians using creative, clever, non violent resistance to protect the community.

They didn't respond with violence on violence, but found alternative ways to preserve life and continue their mission.

This speaks to contemporary movements for social justice that use creative, clever, non violent methods to resist oppression and protect vulnerable people and communities.

Here's your action step for the day.

Examine your own position of privilege or power in any context that you have.

It might be racial, economic, educational, religious, social, economic.

Anyway, identify a concrete way you can use your privilege to support marginalized people, marginalized voices without taking over their space or their story allowing them to have that.

Remember Saul's example?

He used his knowledge and position position to advocate for change while remaining accountable to the community he once harmed.

So you might want to write down something about that or journal about it or somehow have a record of that in your context.

We're going to pray in just a moment.

Just a reminder that we do have a fantastic resource for you to use in your own personal Bible study.

It's called the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Guide.

You can find it at voiceofgoddaily.com makes Bible study for you personally as easy as ABC and 1, 2, 3.

And it's free to you if you go to our website voiceofgoddaily.com it's also where you can find the full catalog almost 800 episodes of the Daily Bible Refresh on the Voice of God Daily.com website.

Well, it's been fantastic.

Let's.

Let's have a prayer.

Divine Source of Transformation we live in a world desperate for change and yet often skeptical of those who claim to be changed and help us to navigate the delicate balance between hope and wisdom, between welcoming transformation and requiring accountability.

For those of us who come from places of privilege or power, grant us humility to listen more than we speak, to learn more than we teach, to support more than we lead.

For those who experience harm from religious or political systems, grant wisdom and discernment and strength in boundary setting.

Guide us in finding creative ways to resist injustice and preserve our integrity and humanity.

May we be both bold and wise as we work for transformation in our communities and ourselves in the spirit of justice and hope.

Amen.

Well, what a joy and a privilege it is to be with you here every single day when we drop our episode of the Daily Bible Refresh.

My name is Dr.

Brad Miller.

We come to you almost every day before 6am Please join me tomorrow and bring a friend as we continue this pathway together.

You go on everything we are about@voiceofgod daily.com I'll see you again tomorrow.

Remember that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up, is created new every morning.