The Joyful Voice of Martyrs #2 – Stephen

Stoning of Stephen

When I think of martyrdom, the first person I think of is Stephen. Stephen, like  many early followers of Christ was being put on trial for preaching Jesus and mocking the religious establishment of the Pharisees. In Acts 7:1-50 Stephen gives an account throughout history of the scriptures concerning the ignorance of the Israelites and the religious leaders. He was even bold enough to blame them for being a crucial part of the crucifixion of Jesus. Read what Acts 7:51-53

51 “You stiff-necked ^(A) people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! ^(B) You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your forefathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? ^(C) They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers ^(D) you have now become. 53 You received the law under the direction of angels ^(E) and yet have not kept it.”

Cross references:

1. Acts 7:51 : Ex 32:9; Dt 10:16; Heb 3:13;
2. Acts 7:51 : Lv 26:41; Jr 4:4; 6:10; 9:26;
3. Acts 7:52 : 2Ch 36:16; Mt 5:12; 21:35; 23:31;, 37; 1Th 2:15;
4. Acts 7:52 : Ac 3:14; 5:28;
5. Acts 7:53 : Ac 7:38; Gl 3:19; Heb 2:2;

One thing I admire about Stephen is that he probably knew he was facing death by saying what he said but he said it anyways. How many times are we afraid to say what needs to be said? In the ministry I have been faced with a few times in which I either said what needed to be said no matter what the outcome and I stayed quiet. I have become more bold recently, but if you are going to be a leader, you must be bold in your beliefs. Stephen was bold, Stephen was murdered for it as we read on the chapter…

54 When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts ^[a] and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with ^[b] Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ^(A) and he said, 56 “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ^(B) 57 Then they screamed at the top of their voices, stopped their ears, and rushed together against him. 58 They threw him out of the city and began to stone ^(C) him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. ^(D) 59 They were stoning Stephen as he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ^(E) 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ^(F) “Lord, do not charge them with this sin!” And saying this, he fell asleep. ^[c]

hmmm….some good thoughts from the first Christian Martyr

Life Is Meaningless! Or Is It? #2

The passage which has struck the most fear into me is found in Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 click here to read. I believe church goers are living out the wrongs that v.1 talks about. Do you go to church to “listen” or to “offer sacrifices” to idols? Idols aren’t just stone figures or golden calfs…they can be the love of money, power, gossip, deception, etc. V.2 speaks of the importance of being real with God in prayer and worship. God doesn’t want fancy speeches to him or our outward expressions of showiness…He wants true worship and to that, it means to let our words be few and as it says in v.7, to stand in awe of God!

Life Is Meaningless! Or Is It?

For My 100th post here on my blog I begin a series from the book of Ecclesiastes. I decided to do this because last night during my normal Bible reading time, I was compelled to read through the whole book at one time! Ecclesiastes was the next book in my reading straight through the scriptures and even though I have read it before, studied it in classes, etc. it never has opened my eyes more than it did last night! As we notice the decline of Christianity in our society, evil overtaking our politics and schools, families being destroyed by sinful desires, and the economy declining due to bad decisions…the reasons why are in this book!

Ecclesiastes was written by “The Teacher” who is general considered to be Solomon, the son of David. When you look at his life, his decisions, his sins, you can know he has authority on speaking on making wise decisions and placing the priority of earthly materials in life. Here are a few verses that popped out at me and bit me like a snake last night.

Ecc. 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. I can relate to this being in the ministry. It seems it is best not to know everything about everything! The more you know, the more responsibility you have to deal with issues…”the more grief” as Solomon said.

Ecc. 2:24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too I see is from the hand of God. I have often heard about people who once they retired from working after 50+ years have gone into depression and have died! They lost the one thing that kept them going and “satisfied” The key to having satisfaction after retirement is to not stop working for the Lord!

Hard To Get Along With Someone?

We all have that someone at work, school, church, family, etc. that we just have a hard time loving and getting along with! What do you do with them? Click Here for the answer! You may not like it.

Psalms, Hymns, and Contemporary Music!

In Ephesians 5:19-21, there is a great doctrine for worship music in churches. Many times I am approached by someone reminding me about a particular style of music they like to sing in church. I have blogged about this topic before, but it is a never-ending battle I deal with so I’ll mention it again. We come to worship to worship God, not fulfill our fleshly desires. What! wanting to sing only gospel or hymns is a fleshly desire? Absolutely. It is commanded in Scripture to sing to the Lord all types of song which glorify Him. I am one of the few worship leaders who actually incorporate a true blended style of worship in the services. I feel there is great doctrine and theology in the hymns we sing, I also feel there are great contemporary songs which are based on Scripture too. I have been studying the book of Psalms recently and have read it in an entirely new way then ever before. Since Psalms was the “hymnal” back in the day, I have been reading the texts while trying to come up with a tune to go with it. Some are harder than others. It is easy just to sing familiar tunes that have already been put to them like Third Day’s version of Psalm 36. if you’ve never tried this before I encourage you to, it has really made me enjoy the Psalms even more.
Anyways…the verses in Ephesians give the importance of using all types of songs for worship. It could be translated today as being “singing old gospel songs, hymns, and praise music! While studying hymnology in school, I learned that some of the hymns we sing today are from old tavern tunes in which the church set the words to to help people learn them. That’s always been funny to me. Do you agree that wanting to sing only one type of music because it is what YOU prefer is a fleshly desire?