{"id":73262,"date":"2026-02-11T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/?p=73262"},"modified":"2026-02-09T20:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:15:26","slug":"pauls-defense-before-agrippa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/pauls-defense-before-agrippa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul\u2019s Defense Before Agrippa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scripture Reading: Acts 25:1-27, Acts 26:1-32, Job 33:4, Proverbs 2:6-8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you ever think about trees and water and wildflowers and how they don\u2019t use words to talk yet say so much? Right now, there\u2019s a Japanese maple in the garden to my right, and its soft, star-shaped leaves are reaching out into the afternoon light. There\u2019s a whole essay buried inside those leafy branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thankful for the agricultural age the New Testament was written in because there are so many tangible, everyday images that remind us of God and His kingdom. Mustard seeds and mountains. Grapevines, sheep, and fruit trees. While creation bears silent witness to what it has seen, we\u2019re called to bear witness with our words as well. I say \u201cas well,\u201d because our own silent witness is also powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apostle Paul\u2019s divine purpose was to become a servant and a witness of God\u2019s work. In Acts 26, Paul recounted God\u2019s call for him: \u201cI have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me\u201d (Acts 26:16). This is why Paul took great care to carefully argue and defend the integrity of his words and behavior before Festus and King Agrippa. He assured them he was being rational, \u201cspeaking words of truth and good judgment\u201d (v.25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Paul had seen was great. Revolutionary. He saw light from heaven (v.13). He spoke with the One who fulfilled the promised hope of the ancestors (v.6). He saw his own personal transformation in becoming the very kind of person he used to imprison (v.10). And his testimony was made even more powerful because it was his eyesight that was taken away during an encounter with God on the road to Damascus (vv.12\u201318). The humor in that isn\u2019t lost on me. Paul, the one who was blinded by God, was now bearing witness to Him. It\u2019s the kind of story only God could write, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul followed through on his calling to the death as he continued to serve Christ and speak of all he had seen. He lived a difficult life\u2014one that not everyone could bear so well. But now you and I have the privilege of reading story after story after story of God\u2019s faithfulness and transformation in the lives of both the Jewish people and Gentiles as the apostle preached the promised message of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are also called to bear witness to what we\u2019ve seen. What have you seen today that speaks of God? What have you seen that you can share with others? What have others seen and shared with you that points you to the love of Christ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Bailey Gillespie<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scripture Reading: Acts 25:1-27, Acts 26:1-32, Job 33:4, Proverbs 2:6-8 Do you ever think about trees and water and wildflowers and how they don\u2019t use words to talk yet say so much? Right now, there\u2019s a Japanese maple in the garden to my right, and its soft, star-shaped leaves are reaching out into the afternoon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":72915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acts26"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[73104],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"PAUL'S DEFENSE BEFORE AGRIPPA<\/b>

\r\nby Bailey Gillespie<\/i>

\r\n

Do you ever think about trees and water and wildflowers and how they don\u2019t use words to talk yet say so much? Right now, there\u2019s a Japanese maple in the garden to my right, and its soft, star-shaped leaves are reaching out into the afternoon light. There\u2019s a whole essay buried inside those leafy branches.<\/p>
\r\n

I\u2019m thankful for the agricultural age the New Testament was written in because there are so many tangible, everyday images that remind us of God and His kingdom. Mustard seeds and mountains. Grapevines, sheep, and fruit trees. While creation bears silent witness to what it has seen, we\u2019re called to bear witness with our words as well. I say \u201cas well,\u201d because our own silent witness is also powerful.<\/p>
\r\n

The apostle Paul\u2019s divine purpose was to become a servant and a witness of God\u2019s work. In Acts 26, Paul recounted God\u2019s call for him: \u201cI have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me\u201d (Acts 26:16). This is why Paul took great care to carefully argue and defend the integrity of his words and behavior before Festus and King Agrippa. He assured them he was being rational, \u201cspeaking words of truth and good judgment\u201d (v.25).<\/p>
\r\n

What Paul had seen was great. Revolutionary. He saw light from heaven (v.13). He spoke with the One who fulfilled the promised hope of the ancestors (v.6). He saw his own personal transformation in becoming the very kind of person he used to imprison (v.10). And his testimony was made even more powerful because it was his eyesight that was taken away during an encounter with God on the road to Damascus (vv.12\u201318). The humor in that isn\u2019t lost on me. Paul, the one who was blinded by God, was now bearing witness to Him. It\u2019s the kind of story only God could write, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>
\r\n

Paul followed through on his calling to the death as he continued to serve Christ and speak of all he had seen. He lived a difficult life\u2014one that not everyone could bear so well. But now you and I have the privilege of reading story after story after story of God\u2019s faithfulness and transformation in the lives of both the Jewish people and Gentiles as the apostle preached the promised message of hope.<\/p>
\r\n

We are also called to bear witness to what we\u2019ve seen. What have you seen today that speaks of God? What have you seen that you can share with others? What have others seen and shared with you that points you to the love of Christ?<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"38","scripture":"Acts 25:1-27, Acts 26:1-32, Job 33:4, Proverbs 2:6-8","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}