On My Way to Rome

by Tim Green

saved by a basket exactly how a young baby was once saved. He was lowered down into a river in a basket. He was only a young baby when his mother, Jochebed made a basket out of bulrushes. She made it watertight by daubing it with a bitumen pitch. Then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes, by the brink of the River Nile. That young baby was Moses, the father of our Law. So here I was, like Moses being saved by a basket.

  That night I travelled and made my way to Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea. It was the centre for Judaism as our Temple was located there. It was home to our kings and our priesthood. King David first made Jerusalem his home after defeating the Jebusites there. Melchizedek, King of Salem originated from there and our Messiah was crucified there. It was my desire to join myself with the Lord's disciples and His apostles that were there. But they were all afraid of me and didn't believed that I was now a "Disciple of the Way." They thought it was a conspiracy of mine to discover who they were and where they were living, so I could flush them out and hand them over to the chief priests. However there was a young man who believed me and my story, named Barnabas. His name meant, the son of exhortation. He was a Jew from Cyprus, a Levite. He took me and led me to the Lord's apostles.

  I declared unto them how I had seen the Lord Jesus Christ in the Way, as I travelled to Damascus. How Christ had revealed himself to me in a heavenly vision. I told them how I had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of the Lord. I spent time with the saints and the apostles, coming and going in and out at Jerusalem. I spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians, the Jews that spoke Greek. But once again they went about to slay and kill me. When the brethren, the brothers knew that the Grecians were wanting to kill me, they took me down to Caesarea for safety. Caesarea was a major Mediterranean port that was rebuilt by Herod the Great. It was named after Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor.

  The brothers sent me back to Tarsus, my home town for my own safety. I spent five years there working with my hands, doing my trade and skill, which was making tents. It was during this time that I became intimate with the Lord Jesus Christ and with His heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit began to enlighten my understanding to the ancient texts and the Scriptures more and more. The Scriptures came alive to me and I could see Christ upon every page. The word of Christ began to dwell in me richly. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ had hidden Himself in our Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. I was just too blind in my zeal and my traditions to see it. But ever since the eyes of my understanding had been enlightened and the eyes of my spirit had been flooded with light, I could finally see. Christ is all and in all. I could see Him everywhere in our sacred texts.

  It was also during this time that the churches had rest throughout all the regions of Judea, Galilee and Samaria. They were built up in the most holy faith and were edified in Christ. They walked in the reverential fear of God Almighty and stood firm in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The churches multiplied and increased greatly. Holy respect and reverence for God came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the hands of the apostles.

  Yet in Tarsus, God was preparing me for greatness and I knew it. Like steel is tempered in a fire and forged to conform to the shape that the hammer smith deems fit. So my character was being forge by the fire of the Holy Spirit burning deep within me. God was working within me both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God the Father had begun a good work in me and I knew that He was going to finish what He had started. I was His workmanship, created for good works in Christ Jesus. A message was been engraved into me, which I received directly from Jesus Christ Himself. This Gospel message was not taught to me by men, but I received it by divine revelation from before the Throne of Grace.

  The more I made tents the more I discovered that the God of the universe was looking for a place to dwell. Here I was making dwellings for people to rest in while God Himself was looking for a dwelling place of His own to rest in. He had dwelt in a tent on a mountain in the past but now He was desirous of dwelling in the tent of a human heart. And He wanted me to be his messenger. It was His will to establish a tent, a tabernacle, a dwelling place in the Earth. It was His plan and purpose to rebuild the Tabernacle of King David once again. So that all men from every tribe and nation could approach Him. Do you not know that your body is the temple of God in which He dwells by His Holy Spirit.

  He wanted me to spread the good news of the Gospel and proclaim that the dwelling of God is now with men. He wanted all men to know that He desires to live and dwell in their hearts. To the Jew first and then the Gentiles. He wanted to be intimate with them. He wanted to walk with them face to face, like He did with Adam in the Garden of Eden during the cool of the day. He wanted to be their God and their heavenly Father. He wanted them to be His children, His sons and His daughters.

  Suddenly one day Barnabas appeared. He had come to fetch me. He had overwhelming news about a particular "Church of the Way." Barnabas remembered how I had debated in fluent Greek with the Grecians in Jerusalem. I was needed for my language skills, as many Greek speaking people had been converted to Christ, the Messiah. I was fluent in all three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. So my journey began into the world of preaching Christ's Gospel message, the Good News. It was my destiny, the reason I was born, to preach this gospel to the entire world. This gospel was Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

  The more Cassius heard about the story of my life, the more he became intrigued and was fascinated how the Light had miraculously change me from being a murderer to a minister. I had Cassius water baptised secretly by Luke late one night in Rome. He was now in chains, spiritual chains. He was now crucified with Christ. He was buried with Him and raised to newness of life with Him. And since we have been raised with Him, we are seated together with Him in heavenly realms at His Fathers right hand.

  I laid my hands upon Cassius the following day and he received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. I encouraged him to speak in tongues as often as possible as I spoke in tongues more than anybody else. I explained to him that when we speak in tongues we are speaking mysteries unto God.

  I am Paul, I was blind but now I see. May the God of Shalom - peace Himself sanctify you and make you pure in every way. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  Amen - so be it.

  The Journey begins. #10

  Jerusalem had changed over a short period of time and I was the one responsible for that change. The believers had dispersed after the death of Stephen, the first martyr. They had fled from Jerusalem when I began to arrest the "Disciples of the Way" and have them flogged and imprisoned. The believers spread all over the world and spread the Good News, the Gospel of the Kingdom as they went.

  I had changed my name from Saul to Paul, which means dwarfish or little one. In order for God to use you as His servant, He must first make you small. You must first decrease that Christ may increase in your life. There are no big shots in God's Kingdom as the proud are rejected and access to His Throne is denied to them. Grace is only given to the humble, to those who are penitent, those who show genuine remorse for sin.

  I did not want to be remembered as the one who breathed out threats of slaughter against the disciples of the Lord Jesus. I did not want the horror to linger in my mind of how I persecuted the "Saints of the Way" even unto death. I had to make myself forget those things that were behind in my past and I had to press on to obtain the prize of the high calling that is in Christ Jesus my Lord. I was ashamed that I had bound both men and woman and led them back to Jerusalem to await trial. I had persecuted the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ beyond measure and wasted it away. My hands were bloodied and soiled by the innocent blood of God's saints.

  So by faith, I laid my old carnal man Saul to rest. I crucified him with the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary. I buried that old man Saul in the tomb with the lifeless body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I considered every
old earthly passion dead and presented my body now as a living sacrifice unto God. As far as I was concerned, Saul was dead and buried and my new self was raised back to life again. When Christ died, I died. When Christ was raised, I was raised with Him to newness of life and the life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me.

  God showed me his unfailing mercy. Before I was a blasphemer, a persecutor. I injured the Church of Jesus Christ. Yet I obtained mercy, because I did all these things out of ignorance and in unbelief. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief leader of all sinners. If you think that God cannot forgive people their sins then you are mistaken. I'm living proof that God is a God of mercy and forgives sinners of their sin. That's why I changed my name from Saul to Paul. I was arrogant and full of pride. Now I'm a humble servant of the Messiah.

  The converted Jews, the "Believers of the Way" that had fled Jerusalem preached Christ and His Kingdom in the city of