Category: Devotions

He loves you
Acts 7: 46

“who enjoyed God’s favour and asked that he might provide a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob.”

David enjoyed God’s favour.
The only thing that matters is this.
To know you are loved and that this is not just perception based on your love for Him, but this is fact and confirmed in the many times He has demonstrated this.
David knew it and he enjoyed the love, grace and help God’s favour brought him.
Today whatever you are going through, whatever you are facing, let your life be changed and turned around by the simple truth of the love of God. He loves you.

Joshua
Acts 7:45

“Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David”

There is a lot of talk today about the presence of God, the tabernacle of God in our lives and churches.
We all want to receive. Hands wide and arms stretched open we want more of His presence.

There is a lot of talk today about taking the land. We sing about it, stand and shout about it. We proclaim and announce the enemy is defeated and we are advancing with His kingdom.

That’s not what I’m thinking about in this verse.
It is this: “under Joshua”.
Stephen was saying the previous generation served under the leadership of Joshua.
Church problems occur over the topic of leadership.
I was hearing recently about how a church went through a difficult time with their Pastor because he closed down a prominent church ministry without any consultation with his leaders. It actually made the local newspapers! The church couldn’t follow him anymore. He was a bad Joshua.
Do you find it difficult to serve under your Joshua?
Do you find it difficult to lead as Joshua?
The answer is found in that those who find it difficult must find a way.
Followers should follow.
Joshua’s should lead.
We need more better followers and we need more better Joshua’s.

Patterns for His Presence

Acts 7:44
“Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.”

The tabernacle (God’s presence) needed a pattern. His presence still needs to be built into our lives according to the similar pattern that Moses had been given.
What is that pattern?
Pattern 1: God desires to presence Himself amongst His people – Exodus 25
Pattern 2: God’s presence needs a habitation that is desiring of Him – Exodus 26
Pattern 3: His presence within us must be a fresh present experience – Exodus 27
Pattern 4: You never operate on your own, it is always the work of Jesus – Exodus 28
Pattern 5: You work only out of the finished work of Christ – Exodus 29
Pattern 6: Be real, avoid pretence at all costs – Exodus 30:22-33
Pattern 7: You are chosen so now go and be who you are called to be – Exodus 31

Shrines, stars and idols

Acts 7:43
“You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.”

Shrine is a place of holy ground. However it wasn’t holy, before Molech there would be hideous child sacrifice.
Star is a symbol that points to the beautiful heavens. However it wasn’t beautiful as Rephan was connected to Saturn which was worshipped as the highest occultist god.
Idol is an image or representation that helps us worship the true God. However the calf didn’t help but took them further away from God.

Some people are sent by God to break down (using His power and love) the shrines, symbols and idols of this world.

Some people are sent away from God because they are holding on to shrines, symbols and idols.

We are all sent. Shrines, stars and idols will determine where.

Idols

Acts 7:42
“But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:” ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?”

They began worshipping God through the calf they had created.
They ended up worshipping the stars, sun and moon that God had created.
Leaderless people go astray.
They worship God through idols they make.
They then become enamoured by the idol and begin to worship that rather than God.
It still happens today. We like our idols. They are not calfs but they are golden. They may be earthly bodies not heavenly ones but they are all connected to worship.
And God may not turn away but He is silent.
And the answer to the question is ‘No’.

6 things about calfs.

Acts 7: 41
“That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honour of what their hands had made.”

1. Leaderless people need an idol. (Moses had disappeared)
2. Idols don’t replace God, they just replace His presence. (The account in Exodus shows they tried to worship God through the idol)
3. When an idol replaces His presence then the next step is the worship of it. (
3. The reason why people chase idols is because they need to personally experience the divine. (They wanted the guidance of God)
4. Idols will need sacrifice.
5. Idols of Gods people are identical to those who are outside the family of God. (There were many calf or bull worshippers found at that time).
6. It is possible to idolise our past work (The golden calf represented all the sacrifices made by the people over the years)

7 possible consequences for a leader going up a mountain

Acts 7:40
“They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt-we don’t know what has happened to him!'”

1. When a leader disappears from their post then those who were following start retreating.

2. When a leader does not preach or speak to his followers regularly then the followers start listening to other things.

3. When a leader is out of sight the leader soon becomes out of mind and the followers put their attention elsewhere.

4. When a leader does not explain their absences then the followers begin to fill the vacuum very quickly.

5. When a leader spends all of the time seeking God, to the expense of encouraging the followers to do the same, then these people will soon be seeking other gods.

6. When a leader leads people out of Egypt their next task is to shepherd the followers to stay away from Egypt.

7. When a leader delegates they need to delegate to someone who is strong enough for the task otherwise compromise will come.

Where is your back?
Acts 7: 39

“But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.”

It doesn’t matter how gracious God is or what He does and saves people from, there is one thing He will not do and that is to break the will of a person. That is ours.
What will we do with our will?!
There is only one thing we should do with it and that is to submit it to Him.
God’s people in the story of Moses didn’t. They did not obey and then they rejected Him. To say No and then to turn their back on God was what made them die in the desert.
The submission of your will is the greatest challenge of your life.
Yesterday I talked with one of our missionaries who has done exactly that. The person hasn’t got what they perhaps originally had wanted and still want. But they are content to have a heart that is turned towards God and not to their past.
Your back should be towards Egypt, your past, instead of your back against God.
Take your will and submit it.

Living words

Acts 7:38
“He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.”

Living words are what we need.
Words that don’t manipulate or groom or destroy a reputation or bring to shame through exposure. We all are familiar with words of death. They come out of the mouths of many outside and unfortunately inside the church too.

Give me living words.
Living words are carved out of desert experiences, tried and tested.
Living words are found at the feet of the mountain experiences of instruction and guidance, coming with purposes and direction.
Living words are passed down from our fathers, they are filtered through and remain because they cannot die.
Living words are received.
Living words are for passing on to others.

Be seekers of living words today. Watch what comes from your mouth, will this bring life?

This is that

Acts 7:37
“This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’

‘This is that’ is a phrase which has been used by Luke before. He quotes Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:16 who was using the prophecy of Joel to explain the Spirits coming. This present outpouring is that what was promised.

But now he uses it again and this time it the defence of Stephen who uses the story of Moses. The Moses that did all those things in their history was the same Moses who prophesied the Messiah to come. This is that.

Moses had become an object of worship for them and Stephen was saying that even this great man was just a forerunner of who was to come.
This Moses is that Moses who spoke of now.

Your history spoke of the future, we are in that future, this present generation, the Jesus generation. That is what Stephen was saying.
I’m a firm believer in honouring the past but not worshipping it.
The generation that have gone before us experienced God but they also prayed for more, the more that we are now experiencing.
Isn’t that an amazing thought?
The stories of the past can sometimes loom over us and we can feel overshadowed by their brilliance. However let us not be intimidated for the past stories also spoke of the hope and the presence of God that we are experiencing in our story.
You may feel the great days of your church have now gone but they contained prayers of greater days to come. Days that you are in now.