Acts Chapter 7 Devotion

Sweet got a 42 inch T.V. but we don't have cable...Ummm so what was the point of that purchase? sweet "Wii" on 42 inch lol

Man if wednesday was my trun and i did mine at thursday... I am going to feel the fury of Isacc arent I...

Wow chapter 7 was just so Wow. Stephen you are the man. Stephen was being opressed by the high preist, and in the beginning you can sense that Stephen was trying to plead to the high preist to change their sense of righteousness. Stephen went on and summarized the lives of great past followers Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and on. Stephen was being overwelmed by the holy spirit and verse 51 to 53 he hit them dead on. The high preist were not of pure heart, they have closed their hearts and ears. Verese 51 the last statement Stephen made in the argument was so powerful becasue it was true; not like some random crap we make up when we are in a fight with someone else. Their is power in the truth.

Stephen did not have fear in his heart. His heart and beliefs were written in stone. He knew that he was probably going to die. I am pretty sure that he knew that we was risking his life, but he didn't care. He knew what had to be said and he said even with the cost of his life. I am just pondering and are "we ready to give up something to uphold the truth and the things that are just". We are pampered, we have too much things we could live without, but thats the problem, we are too comfrotable. When is our time to uphold what is right can we not be hyporites and actually mean what we say, and risk whatever we migh lose.

good practice! i just want to say how well we are at this "pick up" stuff when it comes to learning new songs/ practicing. We got in 6 songs today and we should be proud

two things i learned
1) If you read the whole story of like everything you realize the amount of guidance God was to them and in reality to us. He guided everyone, everywhere, safely and for a purpose.
2) Steven, what a champ huh? Stoned and he forgives the stoners. Some thing we should look up to.

Gotta sleep now, work tomorrow :S. SHANKS HANNAH'S MOM FOR DIN DIN!!!!! Thank your mother for it !!!

Ciao
E-Sek OUT!

Acts 7

This was way too intense for me. Firstly, Stephen tells THE most detailed retelling of the journey of the chosen peoples, has such honesty and truth to his words, and gets stoned for it. Because they could. Because they couldn't admit that everything he said was true. "You always resist the Holy Spirit!" In his retelling, you see time and time again, God performing the 'impossible' in the most unfeasible of times, and yet people still don't learn from their mistakes and continue to doubt and continue to refuse to practice doubtless faith. And I'm prone to thinking we still do that today, I still do that today.
It makes no sense to me that I'm reading about how God gave a man a child, to carry out His promise, when the man was in his 90s, and silently rebuke the Sadduccees for continuing to doubt all that God can do, and yet there are times when I pray and don't sincerely believe that God can answer..Ridiculous, I know. Something to work on. Faith is the wordd.

- H

What Stephen said in this Chapter struck me as well...
"Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute?"
The passage speaks for itself, and it spoke to me definitely
Partly because it relates to all my atheist friends and stuff
even though they're not really persecuting, what they're doing (just shutting down religion for themselves) might as well be persecution
They know about all the bible stories and stuff and they're aware that it all happened
but becuase its' not happening in our time or it's not as clear to us, they refuse to believe.
"If God does this, then I'll believe." Is the common concept, or rather the common misconception
If you think God needs to prove Himself to you for you to believe, then you're one egotistical person

you guys this chapter is EPICCCCCCCCCCC
stephen goes and pretty much retells all of genesis and exodus and maybe a bit more or less, i dont know
at firrst i was like.. yo where are you going with this
but at the end he tells us that we have seen generations and generations of rejecting the Holy Spirit. Even when God gave them many great blessings, led them out of Egypt, etc. they still chose to work against God and his Spirit. Generational sin, anybody?
He talks about how everyone is still the same - that people have hardened hearts that are not open to the Holy Spirit
then the people got mad and stoned him to death.
But Stephen didnt' seem to be worried or in pain at all - he looks up to heaven and he finds comfort in knowing that the gates of heaven wre open to him. Even in the midst of being stoned to death, Stephen asks God to forgive the people that are stoning him!
Stephen is SO GANGSTERRRRR OHMYGOSH
the amount of faith he has in God's works is unbelievable - that his own life, the pain he must feel is all useless to him becuase he knows that his real life, his real pleasures are up in heaven.
This provides such an amazing example -not that we should go around waiting to be stoned to death, but to really show us to have so much courage and so much faith in what God does for us that we may be able to stand up for God like that.

Acts 7

v.60 "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

It was really interesting to review Genesis and see it chronologically in one chapter. Like many of you, I saw that God was with every single person through their struggles and accomplishments. In this chapter, Stephen tries to show God's miraculous works through their ancestors to these people who were so clueless to God's power. Even until the end of the chapter, many people refused to believe him, and stoned Stephen to death.

What striked me most was this verse. Stephen had just recounted the whole book of Genesis in one speech, and the people were still not convinced. Even though he was treated with violence, he wanted these people to eventually get to know God and be saved. Because Stephen knew how to love and forgive, he asks God to forgive these people once again.