June 6

WHY DO YOU PERSECUTE ME

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.

Acts 9:1-5

Saul’s conversion story is unique. Very few people testify to such an electrifying salvation experience. But there are those rare conversion stories that are similar. One of those is the story of Sundar Singh, a man who turned away from his heritage of wealth to travel, barefoot, the dusty paths of India and Tibet with the gospel of Christ.

Sundar Singh was raised in India in a Sikh family, but through his mother he had come to appreciate not only the Sikh scriptures, the Granth, but the Bhagavad Gita and the Koran. The Bible, however, was not on his reading list. He hated the Bible—not because he had read and studied it, but because he hated Christians. Their religion was not part of his heritage, and in an effort to express his outrage for their presence in his country, he joined with others in a Bible-burning ceremony in his village square. But burning the Bible was an act of outrage against God, as Sundar learned through a vision.

“Though I thought I had done a good deed in burning the Gospel, yet my unrest of heart increased. On the third day, when I felt I could bear it no longer, I got up at three in the morning and, after bathing, prayed that if there was a God at all He would reveal himself to me, and show me the way of salvation. I firmly made up my mind that if this prayer was not answered, I would before daylight go down to the railway, and place my head on the line before the incoming train.

“I remained till about half past four, praying and waiting and expecting to see Krishna or Buddha, or some other avatar of the Hindu religion; they appeared not, but a light was shining into the room. I opened the door to see where it came from, but all was dark outside. I returned inside, and the light increased in intensity and took the form of a globe of light above the ground, and in this light there appeared, not the form I had expected, but the living Christ whom I had counted as dead.

“To all eternity I shall never forget His glorious loving face, nor the few words which He spoke: ‘Why do you persecute me? See, I have died on the cross for you and for the whole world.’ These words burned into my heart as by lightning and I fell to the ground before Him. My heart was filled with inexpressible joy and peace, and my whole life was entirely changed.” 6