Luke's Story by Tim Lahaye 7 Jerry B. Jenkins Page A

future as a Jewish leader in Jerusalem would be guaranteed.”

    “So you were doing this as much for yourself as for God?”

    “Oh, certainly! I didn’t see it then, of course, but it’s quite clear to me now. Then I truly believed God would be pleased with me as well. And there is no better feeling.”

    “For one who believes in these sorts of things, I suppose.” What had been so ingrained in Luke that he found it so difficult to think unconventionally? Dare he believe in something beyond himself, as so many of his patients now did? As Paul clearly always had? As Saul, his old acquaintance had seemed miserable. But Luke’s believing patients exhibited an inner peace he could not understand. And now Paul seemed so different.

    Paul rubbed a sleeve across his mouth and grinned. “So said by one to whom God Himself would have to speak, or before whom some miracle would have to be performed in order for him to believe.”

    “I’m afraid so,” Luke said. “I’ve seen too many misguided people put their trust in the immaterial and wind up none the better for it.” He was div>
    “Luke, I had no choice. Jesus was speaking to me from heaven, and I knew He could have killed me on the spot.”

    “And what did he tell you to do?”

    “He said, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’”

    “What did your traveling companions make of all this?”

    “They stood speechless, telling me later that they had heard a voice but saw no one. When I arose I opened my eyes and could see nothing. My men led me by the hand and brought me into Damascus to the house of a man named Judas on a street called Straight. For three days I could see nothing, and I had lost my appetite. I neither ate nor drank all that time. I simply prayed the entire time. And during my prayer, the Lord gave me a vision. In my mind’s eye I saw a man named Ananias coming to lay his hand on me that I might receive my sight.

    “Now soon, Luke, as God is my witness, a man arrived and introduced himself as Ananias. He said, ‘The Lord spoke to me in a vision, and told me to arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying and in a vision has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.’

    “Ananias told me that he told the Lord he had heard from many about me and how much harm I had done to the saints in Jerusalem. He had even heard I had authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Jesus’ name. But still the Lord told him to go and said to him, ‘for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.’”

    Luke found himself actually envying Paul’s passion, though this was all too much to fathom. “Gentiles, kings, and your own people? Did that make any sense to you?”

    “Luke, really, what makes sense to a man in my condition? I can tell you I had no doubt God was working in me somehow. That was all I knew. Ananias laid his hands on me and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’”

    “What did that mean?”

    “Well, I didn’t know either until immediately there fell from my eyes something like scales, and I received my sight at once. I arose and was baptized. When I had eaten, I felt strengthened. Then I spent several days with the disciples of Jesus at Damascus.”

    “And all of a sudden you had gone from being their enemy to being one of them?”

    “Immediately. And God gave me utterance. I preached in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. All who heard were amazed, and said, ‘Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that