A Story of God and All of Us Young Reade - By Roma Downey Page 0,45

blind, but now I see."

In one small church, a woman steps forth and spits into his face. "Liar!" she screams at him.

Paul does not wipe it off. "Please," he tells her and the others in the small room, "listen before you judge."

The room goes silent, but the suppressed rage has a

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sound all its own that rings in everyone's ears and lies heavy upon their hearts.

Paul continues, afraid and yet also unafraid, knowing that he has no choice but to say what he is about to say. "I did what I did because I was certain that I was right. I was certain that I knew the will of God. As certain as you are now."

He looks around the room, knowing that he's bought a little time.

"But then Jesus came to me. Not in righteous anger or in judgments, but in love. His love."

Eyes moisten. Heads nod. Yes, they've felt this, too.

"Without love we are nothing," Paul tells them. "Love is patient. Love is kind.

It is not jealous. It does not boast. It is not proud."

There are murmurs of discontent. What does this man know about love?

But Paul continues. "It keeps no record of wrongs. It rejoices with the truth, bears all burdens, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

When everything else disappears, there still remains faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these, by far, is love."

One by one, members of the congregation rise from their seats and walk to Paul. It is difficult for them at first, touching this man whose fists have so often

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brought forth pain. But they soon reach out and hug him, accepting him and his teachings.

One man holds back. He is a learned man, clearly disturbed by Paul's words, and he wants to have an intellectual discussion of what they mean.

Finally, Paul addresses him. "You don't believe in God's love?" he asks.

"I do," says the man, whose name is Luke. "But I am a Greek. A Gentile. I know there are laws and rituals that I must follow first to become a Jew."

Paul's face grows stern. He shakes his head. "No. No. You don't need to become a Jew in order to know God's love. It is available to all."

"But the laws," Luke reminds him.

"If you could be saved just by following laws, Jesus would have died for nothing. But Jesus died to save you from sin. To save all of us from sin."

Once again, Paul addresses the entire congregation. "There is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free person. We are all one in Jesus Christ."

These are world-changing words, and the congregation shouts back a heartfelt "amen" in agreement.

"Join us," Paul tells Luke. "God will be with you."

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Paul is a radical and a revolutionary, preaching this new Gospel of Christianity with a fervor that puts his life in danger and sees him thrown into prison time after time. This new faith spreads across the Roman Empire, thanks to Paul's selfless and tireless zeal.

But once again, it is Peter whom God calls upon to do some of his hardest chores. Peter accepts the difficult task of traveling to the hub of the empire to change hearts and minds. Peter, the unlearned and uneducated fisher of men, is on his way to Rome. Like Daniel wandering into the lion's den. To a rational man, Peter's fate will most certainly be death. But as he walks slowly

through the empire on his way to Rome, Peter reminds himself of the story of God and all of us. The words and stories give him strength and serve as a reminder of his purpose: "In the beginning, God embraced Abraham. From him came a family that became twelve tribes, which became a people and a nation. Now, through Jesus Christ, we must embrace the entire world."

Thus fortified, Peter enters Rome. The city is exotic and exciting, with the smells of spices from around the world wafting through the winding streets.

He feels out of place and at first believes that his simple dress and foreign appearance mark him as an outsider. But then he realizes that as the hub of the empire, Rome

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is home to men from around the known world. All manner of dialect and mode of dress can be seen all around him. Peter may be an outsider, he realizes, but he is not alone.

Luke, the new follower whom Paul has recruited for Jesus, like Matthew and Mark before him, is fervent about writing down the story of Jesus so that it will