Story - Jesus Caught a Preacher

Parable
of the
Ten Christians
The Pearl
of
Great Price
The Seed
Bully Pressure

Yo, dude. Hey, I'm Paul, and I've got to tell you what happened to me. It was awesome.

You know, I used to be different. I was into yoga, and meditation and all that far out eastern stuff. You know what I mean? Well, me and the gang were all into that stuff. Now when I say into it, I mean we were really into it, all the way into It. So, we couldn't stand it if anyone didn't agree with us. Especially Christians. There's a bunch of them here in the school, seems like more of them all the time. Running around, carrying their Bibles, saying crazy things like "Praise the Lord". You know. Well, these guys really irked me. You know, they always thought they were right. A bunch of real know-it-all's.

Anyhow, .1 couldn't stand seeing them run around like that. Having their church and their bible studies, and acting like everything's Just wonderful. So me and the gang, we decided they needed some trouble. There was this guy named Steve, he was one of the hot shots In that bunch. One day, he was out there preaching. He was saying this stuff about how the Bible, yeah the Bible says all of us are sinners. Sounded pretty high and mighty to me, like he thought he was something special. According to him, all of us needed to accept this Jesus of his.

Well, we got mad. Nobody was going to tell me I was a sinner and some Jesus that died a long time ago could take care of it. Looking around, I could see the other guys around am felt the same way about it.

Now, what would you do? Here I was, supposed to be one of the leaders, and Just standing there getting mad. So what do I do? I look at the ground. Real swift huh? Anyway, when I look at the ground, I get this great idea. There, right at my feet was a rock. Just about the same size as a baseball, maybe a little bit bigger. I picked it up, and jabbed the guy standing next to me. Soon we all had rocks in our hands, and then it started. It's hard to tell who threw first, but we all Joined in. You know how it is when the gang does something, you all do it.

Steve there, he's getting hit by all those rocks. So he starts praying. Must have thought acting spiritual would make us stop. of course we didn't. At least, not until after he fell down.

That's how it all started. After that, we really went after the Christians. I mean all of them. Getting them in trouble, beating them up, stealing their stuff. Anything we could do to get to them. Of course, it didn't take long for their parents to find out and transfer them to other schools. Then there were just a few of them left.

Most of the gang was pretty happy with that. After all, how can they bug you if they're not around, right? But not me. For some reason, just getting rid of them wasn't enough. I wanted more. I wanted to really hurt them, real good.

I started talking it around about them. How they had Just slipped away like that. Like they were Just hiding, waiting to come back and get us. I even talked to the Principal about it. It took a while, but pretty soon I had them sold. They all could see it. How these Christians were just a bunch of trouble makers. With their different ideas, and old fashioned ways of thinking.All those outdated myths from the Bible. Well, like I said, theygot sold on the idea.

The principal, he wrote this letter for me. You see, I had found out what school those Christians were going to. Yeah, their parents had put them In Damascus Junior High. That's over on the other side of town. So, the principal writes this letter to the principal of Damascus. Letting him know how much trouble those Christians were, and that I was there to get them. Now, you might think this was a lot of trouble to go through, but to me, it was worth every bit.

Off we went. Of course, I took some of the gang with me. Thought I might need the backup. Then it happened. The strangest, most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. We were almost there, Just down the street, and a bright light hit me. At f first, I thought it was the cops. But this light was much brighter, and somehow, It was beautiful. This light, it was so strong, It knocked me down. Then a voice spoke to me, and I knew it couldn't be any cop. This voice, it had love in it, and it said "Paul" Just like that. Nothing fancy, Just filled with love. ''Paul" it said again "why are you persecuting me?" Now, this was real strange to me, you know. I like to know-who I'm talking to. So I said "who are you, sir?" Not very original, bit it did the job. He answered "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go to the school, and you will be told what you must do." That was it, no big long lecture. No, well, no anything really. But when I got up, I couldn't see, and I knew somehow everything was different.

The guys from the gang Just stood there. They didn't know what to say. After all, it didn't make any sense to them. All they heard was some sound, then saw me down on the ground. Since I couldn't see, they led me by the hand, till we got to the school.

For three days we waited, not knowing Oat to do, or what was going to happen. I didn't eat anything for those days, or drink anything either.

Then this Christian dude, named Andy, comes to see me. The way he put it, Jesus had told him to come see me. When he told Jesus that he didn't think that It was a good idea to help someone who was causing Christians trouble like I was, Jesus told him that he had special work for me to do. So Andy put his hands on me and I could see again. In fact, I could see even better than before.

Well, as you can probably guess, this changed me a bit. I went around the school preaching to everyone I could find.Telling them all about how Jesus could change their lives too. Pretty soon, I'm going to get to go to the rest of the schools in the area and tell them too.

This story is taken from the book of Acts, chapter 9 - the story of the apostle Paul's conversion.