SPIRITUAL DIAR FOR 11/10/2017 9:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Stephen’s Countenance”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 6:15
Message of the verses: “15 And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.”
We have a contrast in terms here as we look at this verse
and compare it to what the Sanhedrin have been stating about Stephen, that he
was an evil man who was talking bad about the Law of God and about the
temple. Now when they look at his
countenance they see a man with a face like an angel. He was far from being evil, Stephen was
radiating the holiness and the glory of God.
John MacArthur writes “God Himself answered their false
charges by putting His glory on Stephen’s face—something experienced by no
other person in history except Moses (Ex. 34:27-35). He thus showed His
approval of Stephen’s teaching in exactly the same way He did that of Moses. Paul writes:
‘7 But if the ministry of death, in letters
engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look
intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it
was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9
For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of
righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has
no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades
away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.’
By
putting his glory on Stephen’s face, God showed His approval of the New
Covenant and its messenger.”
MacArthur continues “Stephen’s noble
character and extraordinary courage reflect his greatness. The church’s selection of him for high office
shows their high regard for him. Most
significant of all, Stephen was great in God’s sight. By honoring him as He had Moses, God singled
Stephen out as one of the greatest men who ever lived. And his life and testimony profoundly
affected an even greater man—Saul of Tarsus.
“Every believer should remember
Stephen and imitate those qualities in his life that made him the man with the
face of an angel. That would be his most
fitting memorial.”
As I think back at this sixth
chapter of Acts I have learned a lot. I
have learned that perhaps the men that were chosen as leaders in the early
church were not really the first deacons, but that does not shake my belief in
how the church that I go to operates as we have deacons who are leaders in our
church, and I have to say that we have some godly men in leadership in our
church. I also learned about the
wonderful character that Stephens had character that I can look up to and want
to have in my life. I have learned that Stephen’s
character and life would be passed on to Paul, even at this time he did not
realize, but I have to believe that what happened to Stephen haunted Paul for a
long time. Chapter six is a short
chapter, but packed with many wonderful things, and now we move onto chapter
seven and in John MacArthur’s commentary on the book of Acts the first 53
verses are packed into one chapter, something that is not usual for him to do.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
learning that spiritual growth is a lifelong process and once you stop growing
you go backwards so I need to continue to feed on the Word of God in order to
keep growing.
My Steps of Faith for Today: My prayer is
that God will give me the words to say for this upcoming Sunday school class as
the subject is on the church of Ephesus from Revelation chapter two.
Memory
verse for the week: “Philippians 4:8 “8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever
is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.”
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Babylon”
(2 Kings 24:10-16)
Today’s
very difficult Bible question: “Who was
father of all such as handle the lyre and the pipe?”
Answer
in our next SD.
11/10/2017
9:41 AM
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