SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/5/2017 7:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Stephen’s Character
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 6:8
Message of the verses: “8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.”
We promised to begin this SD by looking at the third
spiritual reality that is flowing from trust and obedience and this
characterizes Stephen’s grace as seen in our verse as this first section in
what is entitled “The Man with the Face of an Angel.”
We have talked about Stephen trusting God and that he was
walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and so because of this he was given
grace to face the persecution and even death that was about to come upon
him. Stephen was not afraid nor did he
have hatred controlling him, he only had trust in the Lord and submission to
Him. Stephen knew that He must trust the
Lord fully in order to work for the cause of Christ, and he knew that in doing
this work that difficult times may come his way and so he committed himself
fully into God’s hands. I have to
mention that I have been praying for the people who live in the Central African
Republic as they themselves are going through great persecution at this time in
their lives. It was a few years ago that
while in our evening Sunday service that I heard a story of what went on in the
Central African Republic (CAR) about a pastor who lived there and did a very
valiant thing. You see that persecution
came into a place where he lived near and there were a number of Pastors living
there and they rounded them up and buried them alive. This man knew if he had been there he would
have also had this happen to him, and felt compelled to go back and then the
same thing happened to him, he too was buried alive as they all died for the
cause of Christ. The CAR is important to
some missionaries who attend our church and one of them spoke about this in our
Mission’s conference last Sunday. He
said that his grandfather was the first missionary to go to the CAR 97 years
ago. His father followed and then he was
born there and eventually after college went back to the CAR. At this time these believers are in great
persecution, and yet they have stood strong for the cause of Christ just as
Stephen did and we can see that it was because of his character that he was
able to do this as we are learning from this 8th verse. John MacArthur writes “The only way a believer can live like Stephen is
by dying to his sinful self. Those busy
looking out for their own interests will have little time or inclination to
abandon themselves and experience the grace Stephen experienced.”
Last we looked at Stephen who was full of power. Being filled with the Spirit caused him to be
full of power (“but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth’ Acts 1:8”). When we look at the phrase “was performing”
we know that Stephen was continually doing this as he was reaching others for
salvation as he demonstrated the power he was given for this work he was doing
for the cause of Christ.
At this time I want to look at two verses (Acts 6:5 and
8) and then give a quote from MacArthur’s commentary which we will begin
looking at in our next SD. “The statement found approval with the whole
congregation; and they
chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip,
Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch…8 And Stephen, full of grace and
power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.” “Taken together, verses 5 and 8 give both the
Godward and manward sides of Christian character. A man full of faith toward God, and yielded
to the Spirit’s control, will be gracious toward others and manifest great
spiritual power.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ester.”
Today’s Bible
question: “How many daughters did the
priest of Midian have?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/5/2017 7:54 AM
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