Tag: faithful

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Audience of One

Daily Reading

Acts 7-8

Daily Thought

Stephen was dragged into the council room, placed before the court, and interrogated about Jesus. He answered by opening the Scriptures and teaching the chief priest and elders a lesson from their own history, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to David. He then accused these “stiff-necked people” of following in the footsteps of their forefathers: “As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” (Acts 7:51-52). Their fathers killed the prophets, the council killed the Son of God, and now for his insolence, they would put Stephen to death.

As they picked up stones to throw at him, Stephen looked up, and heaven was opened; and “full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

Travel back a couple months to the night before the cross. Jesus was on trial in the same council room before the same court, and the high priest asked if he was the Christ, the Messiah. For an answer, Jesus announced, “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69). 

But he wasn’t sitting now; he was standing. 

Stephen endured the wrath of the council to stand faithful before his Savior. Stephen stood before an audience of one and now his Savior stood for him. You can picture Jesus applauding.

Daily Prayer

My Lord and my God, You have my allegiance. I am Your ambassador, and will stand on earth and represent You with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. I love You that much. At least I want to. My love fails at times, but You never fail, so strengthen me. I will stand, but please pick me up when I fall, hold me when I weaken.

You began a good work in me, and I trust You to complete it. May I cast aside anything that slows or stops the progress. I long to see You standing, to hear You say, “Well done.”

Amen

Daily Question

When have you stood for Jesus when it was not a popular stance?

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Broken Records

Daily Reading

Judges 13-15

Daily Thought

When I was young, I listened to records. A scratch in the surface of a vinyl record would cause a song to repeat at the same spot over and over again. We called it a “broken record.” It would sound something like this, “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord – And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord – And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Judges 13:1, “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” In the Bible, when something is repeated, you are looking at a theme, and the theme of Judges is God is faithful when we are not. Israel would do evil, a foreign nation would enslave Israel, and God would do something special that only he could do to remind Israel that he is their God. Samson was going to be special, it was obvious before he was born. “There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son’” (Judges 13:2-3).

There it is, another scratch in the record, a child born out of barrenness, life from death, another theme. It has happened before. Isaac was born to Sarah, who “was barren; she had no child” (Genesis 11:30). Later, “Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer” (Genesis 25:21), and Rebekah gave birth to Jacob and Esau. Jacob’s wife, Rachel, “was barren” (Genesis 29:31), “then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and she called his name Joseph” (Genesis 30:22-24). The theme, life from death, continues. Hannah, “though the Lord had closed her womb” (1Samuel 1:5) would give birth to the prophet Samuel, and barren Elizabeth (Luke 1:7) had a son named John, who would be called John the Baptist. 

Then, one very special, not from barrenness, but from innocence. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). God with us. Jesus. 

Some things bear repeating, again and again. Life from death. “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love for us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Not a broken record, this is grace.

Daily Prayer

God Almighty, I can do all things through You. You give me the strength to find peace and contentment in any circumstance. Whether I have plenty or am in need, weak or strong, You are my strength. If You are for me, who can be against me.

I pray that I grow daily in dependence on You, and in replacing my will with Yours.

Amen