Author: missionspaul

God is with me
Acts 7:9
“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him”

Stephen is continuing in his defence of himself that he is not blaspheming Moses and the law by walking through the history of Israel reliving key moments.

What enables a man when he is sold as a slave by his own brothers?
What enabled Jesus to walk through his Holy Week towards the cross?
What will enable you today and tomorrow, whatever you are facing?
It is this simple but profound truth: God is with you!

It matters not the circumstance. Joseph went from the palace to the prison, but God was with him.

If God is with you then there must be the realisation that He will not be a silent partner. He is going to get involved in whatever is happening. He may choose not to take you out of the difficulty but work through you within it. The circumstances may or may not change. But what is important is what you become though the circumstance.

Walk through your day today with this truth in your mind.
And if God is for me ……..

The cut.
Acts 7: 8
“Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.”

We all know what circumcision is. The covenant of circumcision was simply the outward symbol of an inward truth that Abraham and his descendants would be God’s people and He will be their God.

But it wasn’t long before the prophets and then the apostles were realising that the outward symbol was not enough. Today the outward sign of belonging to God maybe as some think, water baptism. Or perhaps other things like the Lord’s Supper. Do these or other things indicate a person belongs to God? It’s not enough of course. Yesterday in church there will have been people sitting in the same seat that they have sat in for years with the same face and the same behaviour. They have been baptised and they take communion faithfully, they have the badge of belonging but do they belong?
Moses called for people to circumcise their hearts. Jeremiah called for people to circumcise their hearts before the Lord. Paul would later say that circumcision is one done by the Spirit.

As we enter this Holy Week may our hearts be cut. May we be broken. Like Mary breaking the alabaster jar. Let us come to the feet of Jesus and recommit ourselves, break our lives, give the Lord the centre of our being, our heart, mind, will. It will hurt us, any cut does.

The Promise
Acts 7:7
“But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterwards they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.'”

1. The promise of God is to step into your situation.
2. The promise of God is to stop the hand of the enemy against you.
3. The promise of God is to set you free.
4. The promise of God is for you to do what the previous generation could not do.
5. The promise of God is to bring you closer to Him, into the place of worship.
Which promise are you holding on to today?

The Living years
Acts 7:6
“God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated for four hundred years.”

God is willing to see 4 generations go by before His promise is fulfilled. He is not in a hurry. He can and He does wait.
400 years of listening to people groan under the weight of oppression. 400 years of injustice and maltreatment. There is no mission to save or to alleviate the suffering. What about the children, the poor, the starving? Where is the mercy?
We all love the bigger picture so long as we are not effected by it. We want to be the centre of the picture. We want to be what the picture is all about. We don’t want to be part of a story, we want to be the story. Well, we are not. We are part of HIS story. Sometimes we are placed into situations that are not our destiny, it is not where we were created to be, we are strangers, aliens. This is not our home. This can be a place of suffering but we don’t belong here. We can spend all our lives under the oppression of an enemy and know no freedom from it. Why would God allow this? Because HIStory doesn’t revolve around you. You are part of something bigger.
Can you imagine in eternity meeting someone who lived during this verse 6? What would you say to them? How did you survive? How did you hold on? Did you feel God with you during this time?
These kind of questions can be asked today of the millions of people who are living under the presence of the enemy right now. Their lives are not purposeless, without meaning. It may well feel like that but someone has to tell them to hold on, this is not their country. This is not what they were created for. These are not the living years but life will indeed come to them one day. God knows about this day.

Impossible
Acts 7:5
“He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.”

How would you feel if the role you played in this life was actually about what you would leave behind after you died?
How would you feel if there was no evidence whatsoever in the present of any such influence after you were gone?
Abraham had no child when God told him his descendants would inherit the land.
Just because you don’t have doesn’t mean it cannot happen.
Why would God promise something that was inevitable?
God specialises in doing the impossible.
Sometimes we don’t see everything.

On mission
Acts 7:4
“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.”

Many leave but some settle and never arrive.
Sometimes a generation has to die for the missions activity to begin again.
It’s not how you start that is important as much as did you get to where you started out for? Was Haran worth it?
Haran proves you did move, you did set out.
Haran is along the way to where you are meant to be.
Haran has many qualities.
Haran satisfies enough to tempt you to remain in it.
But on your deathbed you will look into the eyes of your children and they will know whether you made it or whether you settled.
God still sends. So wherever you are today are you feeling the the sending God behind you? Are you moving purposefully? Are you heading in the right direction? Are you on mission?

What is a missionary?
Acts 7:3
“Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.”

No, not everyone is a missionary. Crossing the road to witness to your neighbour is a great witness but it is not missionary work.
Missionaries leave their land.

No, not everyone is a missionary. Trying to reach people of a different faith takes courage and the power of God to enable you to evangelise. But it is not missionary work.
Missionaries arrive in an unknown land.

Pray today for the many missionaries who have left their land and gone to an unknown land.

We know where He is!
Acts 7:2
“To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.”

Stephen begins to defend the person of Jesus. The Sanhedrin did not recognise Jesus at all. They did not see Jesus as the visible, physical appearance of God on earth. John wrote in the first few verses of his gospel that he and others had seen the glory of God in Jesus but the Sanhedrin clearly hadn’t.

The Sanhedrin were attacking Stephen because they heard he was slandering the Temple, the very place they believed the glory of God presided. It was in the Temple and no place else where God was. Not in any other building, or place in the world or a person who is now not here.

Stephen not disrespecting them reminds them of the father of their faith, Abraham and how even before he was called, before he set out for the promised land, before he received the incredible covenant, before he became the father of many nations saw the glory of God in a place far away. It was in Mesopotamia that he first encountered the glory of God. The book of Genesis tells us that the place he lived was Ur. It was a place where there were many gods worshipped, but the main god was the moon god.
One day Abraham made a decision based on a revelation of God. He would no longer go along with polytheism but embrace monotheism, one God.
So in a place of many gods Abraham received the glory of the God.
We cannot ever say God is not here or there.
His glory, His presence is in places and on people we would never have imagined. Stephen knows this in order to show that the presence of God is never restricted to one place or one person.
Never say the glory is not there. The glory is probably where you least expect it to be.

Depression
Acts 7:1
Then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?”

Caiaphas presided over the trial of Jesus which led to his condemnation.
He presided over the trial of Peter and John.
Here he is though his name is not mentioned, but he was the high priest still at this time, again he is presiding over another trial of a follower of Jesus.

Many have interpreted his name to mean ‘depression’. I’m not sure about that but I do know how for many who are doing the work of God depression does attack. It attacks with uncertainty, questioning in order to trip up, trying to bring self-doubt, pointing us to those who are against us and not the One who is for us. “Look at these charges. Look how serious this is. You are really in a difficult place right now. Can this be true? It can’t be surely? How are you going to get out of this one?”
That’s the voice of a high priest from the dark side. Don’t listen to him, he’s just depressed.
You have another high priest who is standing beside you right now no matter what your predicament is. You are not alone.

Shine
Acts 6:15
“All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”

Now what does the face of an angel look like?
Sometimes it is hard to describe what we see and experience.
Stephen now before the Sanhedrin being tried on trumped up charges is different to everyone else in the room. His demeanour is different. Whether this would be some form of light illuminating from his face it is difficult to know for sure. But clearly though his circumstance was dark and dismal. Though he was surrounded by lies and false witnesses. Though his future looks bleak.
In all these accusations and collaborations, Stephen is standing peacefully and in control.
How is that possible except for the help of the Spirit in our lives?
No matter what you face today your face can reflect a picture of the divine. This is not a made up pretend all is going to be okay attitude. This is an assurance that whatever happens you belong to Him who died for you.
So let your enemies look intently as you shine the glory of the Lord in a dark world.