Good morning everyone and welcome back to another mornings with the masters where we devote

ourselves to the Lord, daily with you. Good morning, you guys. Good morning indeed. We're picking

up with day six of our divine direction devotional. In the Bible app, there's a link to that in the

description if you guys want to follow along with us. And as always, I'm going to read the scripture

then towards going to pick up with the Devo. Let's do it. The scripture is Acts chapter nine

verses 26 through 28. And they say this, when Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the

believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer.

Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to

Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in

the name of Jesus in Damascus. So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with

them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. The devotional is titled Connect and it says this.

When I realized I was made to not only serve in the church, but to serve others as the church,

connecting with people became paramount. You can't serve without connecting. And who you connect

with will change the stories you tell tomorrow. This has been true throughout history. Just

considered the man who wrote more than one third of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul. Paul

wasn't always a Christian. Before he was a follower of Jesus, he was Saul from a city called Tarsus,

an angry guy who persecuted and killed Christians. If you don't like Jesus' groupies,

you'd have loved Saul. But after taking the lives of those who believed Jesus was raised from the

dead, Paul became one of them himself. His transformation was so big, so radical, so life-changing

that Saul, who was renamed Paul, immediately wanted to tell others about Jesus. The problem was

that no Christians trusted him, and for obvious reasons. The Book of Acts puts it simply.

When Saul came to Jerusalem, he'd tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him,

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