The story of the martyrdom of Stephen, one of the selected deacons in Acts 6 and a powerful preacher, is found in Chapter 7. Then Chapter 8:1 begins, “And Saul was consenting unto his death.” Verse 3 continues, “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.” This same Saul was “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter” against the people of God as he traveled to Damascus to bind and imprison them. But He met Jesus on the Damascus road and, “he trembling and astonished said, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’” As Saul waited and was praying and fasting for three days in his blindness at the home of Judas in Damascus, God sent a disciple named Ananias to put “his hand on him (Paul) that he might receive his sight.” To Ananias God said, “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake,” (Acts 9:12, 16). Without a doubt, the Apostle Paul was called of God to suffer, and he embraced that suffering, proclaiming in Philippians 3:10 his heart’s desire, “That I may know Him ... and the fellowship of His sufferings.”