If you remember the classic TV show Leave It to Beaver, you probably remember the neighborhood scoundrel, Eddie Haskell. He was a master at looking like the perfect gentleman on the outside, but underneath that polished act, we all knew he was a rat. Looking back at my own high school years, I have to confess: I was more like Eddie Haskell than any other character on the show.
Between my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college, everything changed. I met Jesus in a very real, personal way. The transformation was so profound that within a year, I found myself serving as the pastor of a small Baptist church in southeast Missouri.
One Sunday morning, I was getting ready to preach and saw an old high school friend sitting in the service. He seemed like a strong follower of the Lord, though I didn’t actually know where his faith stood. Assuming he’d be entirely comfortable, I put him on the spot at the end of the service and asked him to pray.
The reality? He was absolutely terrified. He later told me that he only came to see if it was true that I had really become a preacher.
Saul/Paul in Damascus
My life before coming to Jesus, and my conversion itself, were far milder than Paul’s. Paul faced a similar, though much more intense, reaction when he began preaching in Damascus. People could not believe that he was now proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God and Lord.
“All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?'” (Acts 9:21)
My high school friend, who came to see if it was really true that I had become a preacher, never came back.
The response to Paul’s preaching was much more dramatic. People tried to kill him, and he had to escape.
“After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.” (Acts 9:23-25)
Starr Daily in Prison
I wrote about Starr Daily in yesterday’s blog post. Today, I would like to continue with what happened after his dramatic conversion.
If you did not get a chance to read yesterday’s post about Starr Daily, please take a look. I also encourage you to listen to the sermon from him that I included in the article.
After Daily’s conversion, the prison gang he once ran with did not know what to think of the new Starr Daily. They opposed him at every turn. When Daily was given a chance to speak at a prison chapel service, his former criminal friends heckled him without mercy.
Although he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus in solitary confinement, pressure from other inmates almost caused him to give up his walk with the Lord.
The warden, whom Daily had once wanted to kill, knew what he needed. He placed Daily in a cell with a mature Christian who helped him stay strong in his faith.
There is an interesting note about the man who counseled Daily. Because of his excellent behavior, he could have been released from prison. Yet he said, “I will stay here because I am more useful here than anywhere else I could live.”
Daily did not escape in a basket like Paul. Instead, he escaped through the wise counsel of a man who chose to serve prisoners rather than live freely outside.
The Spirit’s Impact
Starr Daily spent years in prison, from 1910 to 1920. After his release, he married, had children, and became influential among dynamic leaders of the day, including Glenn Clark, Frank Laubach, and E. Stanley Jones.
The key to Starr Daily’s life was a surrendered heart and the Holy Spirit working through him. The same was true for Paul and the other followers of the Lord. Their effectiveness in both the community and the church came from their relationship with God.
“Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.” (Acts 9:31)
The best way to understand the fear of the Lord is as a relationship with God—living humbly before Him and allowing Him to guide our paths.
The word “comfort” is hard to translate in this passage. It literally means “to be called alongside.” It does not simply mean that the Holy Spirit puts a loving arm around us and makes us feel better. Instead, it means that the Holy Spirit is with us, active and at work.
He is the Paraclete Jesus spoke about in John 14, 15, and 16. He works in us and through us.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Acts 9:20-31 on YouTube today.
