“Cold Blooded Murderer”

​B I B L E  B I T S  &  B I T E S
Devotions for Families

Season: Book of Acts
Episode 11: “Cold Blooded Murderer”
Today’s Bible Bite: Acts 9:1-19

Video Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q48KtECYDXk (Hillsong Kids)

“Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers.” (Acts 9:1, NLT)

The number of people who believed in Jesus continued to grow as people of the early church spread out. This made some of the Jewish leaders very angry. They didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah and thought His followers were spreading lies. Saul, a Pharisee, wanted to put a stop to the early Church and he even got letters from the religious leaders to give him authority to arrest any of Jesus’ followers he found. On his way to Damascus, intent on arresting any Christians he found there, Jesus literally stopped Saul in his tracks!

A bright light shone and Saul was knocked to the ground. A voice from heaven asked Saul, ‘Why are you persecuting me?’ Saul knew he better listen, but didn’t know who was talking to him, ‘Who are you?’ The voice replied, ‘I am Jesus the one you are persecuting. Go into Damascus and wait there for further directions from me.’ And after the light and voice stopped, Paul discovered he was blind! The men who were with him led him to the city and he stayed with a man named Judas for three days.

Then God spoke to Ananias, a follower of Jesus, and told him to go and heal Saul. This freaked Ananias out a little bit, but he trusted God and went to the house Saul was staying at. Saul was given back his eyesight when Ananias prayed for him, he was baptized and immediately he began telling others about Jesus—Saul, the man who had tried to put a stop to Christianity, became one of the leaders of the early church. He travelled all around telling people about Jesus, planting churches and even writing many of the letters we find in our Bibles today.

Think about it...
• Saul was convinced that the early church was spreading lies against God. What did he want to do?
• He was on his way to Damascus to arrest any Christians he found there. What happened before he got to the city?
• Jesus told Saul he needed to stop what he was doing. What new job did Jesus want Saul to do?
• God told Ananias to go and pray for Saul. Why did this make Ananias a little fearful?
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Prayer: Thank you, God, that you stopped Saul in his tracks. He thought he was doing what was right, but was he ever wrong! Help me to always do the right things and obey you.