Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 9-10
Key Verse
Acts 10:3 — “He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.”
Devotional Thought
Epiphany has just passed, and the church is still singing about light shining in darkness—a star over Bethlehem, a glory revealed to wise men from the East. How fitting, then, that today’s reading opens with a light from heaven blazing around a man on the Damascus road. Saul of Tarsus was no seeker. He was breathing out threatenings and slaughter, hunting Christians from house to house with letters of authority in his hand. Yet the risen Christ did not wait for Saul to find Him; He knocked him to the ground and called him by name. The persecutor became the chosen vessel, and the scales fell from his eyes.
Notice how God works through ordinary people in this chapter. He sends Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to a house on Straight Street to pray over the very man who came to arrest him. Ananias protests—rightly, humanly—but goes anyway, and greets his enemy with the words “Brother Saul.” Later, when the Jerusalem believers are still afraid of Saul, Barnabas takes him by the hand and vouches for him. God’s great reversals almost always arrive through the hands of the faithful: Ananias laying on hands, Barnabas standing up, Peter kneeling by a dead woman’s bed in Joppa and saying, “Tabitha, arise.”
Then the vision of the sheet comes down from heaven, and Peter hears, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” The same Peter who once would not eat with Gentiles finds himself in the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, declaring, “God is no respecter of persons.” While he is still speaking, the Holy Ghost falls on the Gentiles, and the Jewish believers with him are astonished. The walls they had built between clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile, friend and enemy, come tumbling down—not by argument, but by the sovereign work of God.
What does this ask of us at the start of a new year? Simply this: to stop deciding in advance whom God can save, whom God can send, or whom we may call brother. Perhaps you have written off someone—a family member, a coworker, a neighbor—as beyond reach. Perhaps you have resisted a prompting to reach out to someone who has wronged you. Saul became Paul; Cornelius became the firstfruits of the Gentiles; Tabitha rose from her bed. The God who did these things is not finished. The light that shone near Damascus still shines, and it often shines through you.
Reflection
- Is there a “Saul” in your life—someone you have dismissed as beyond God’s reach—whom He may be asking you to greet as “Brother” or “Sister”?
- Where has God been stretching your vision, as He did Peter’s with the sheet, calling you to lay down a long-held prejudice or boundary for the sake of the gospel?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we worship You as the risen Christ who met Saul on the Damascus road and meets us still. Thank You for the light that shines into our darkest rebellion and for the Ananiases and Barnabases who welcome us when we turn. Forgive us for the people we have written off and the walls we have built. Give us Peter’s willingness to go where You send, even to the house of a stranger, and to speak boldly that whosoever believeth in You shall receive remission of sins. Make us chosen vessels, ready to suffer and to serve for Your name’s sake. Let the Holy Ghost fall afresh on us and on those we least expect. Amen.