November 12, 2010

When Trouble Comes, Where Do You Look?

Acts 6:15 "And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel."

Acts 7:55 "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;"

Pastor's Blog

This is no prayer meeting these men are dragging Stephen to. Their intention is pretty clear, they do not like the Gospel and they intend to stop it by silencing the messenger.

Stephen has been given the task of the distribution of food to the widows and has been doing it well, so well in fact that many of the priests were coming to faith. Stephen’s ministry is so effective that the temple worship is being affected. It might be one thing to be feeding widows it is another thing all together to make serious inroads into the Jewish faith, costumes and worship. Converting priest to Christianity was no small thing, these priests ministered at the temple. No wonder these men are accusing Stephen of speaking against the Law and the Temple. Stephen is now falsely accused and dragged before the Council, the same Council that had just dealt with Peter and John.

Yesterday we saw the need for others in times like this, but what happens when we find ourselves alone. We can not look to someone else, we are alone or are we? Jesus said “I will never leave you or forsake you” so we must not be alone. It might feel lonely but this is never an indication that we are alone. We are not alone because scripture tells us we are not even if our feelings tell us different. If it is between our feeling and God’s Word, the Word is right every time. What we need is to get our emotions to align with God’s Word. This is done by where we place our focus.

The mob put their focus on Stephen and what he was saying. They had already made up their mind about his message before hand. They simply needed him to cross the line. In other words they were waiting to rush him. Stephen, on the other hand, put his focus on Christ and Him crucified. When he was alone and in need in an earthly sense, he found he was not alone at all. He in fact had all of Heaven at his aide. Stephen is a wonderful example of a life lived in surrender in small ways each day which prepared him for a day when surrender would be all he had. Surrender for Stephen had not become “second nature”, but in fact it had become his new nature. This is what God wishes from all His children.