Acts 6:8-15 Here is Stephen

Acts 6:8-15 NIV
Here is Stephen; one of the faithful men who had been appointed to ensure that the whole community had food to eat. Here is Stephen; full of grace and power, doing great wonders and signs among the people. Here is Stephen; his enemies bearing false witness against him. Here is Stephen; tirelessly proclaiming the truth of the Gospel. Here is Stephen; persecuted; yet his judges behold a Stephen with a face like an angel.

In the midst of it all, Stephen maintains his composure. He is at peace because he knows he speaks the truth. He is at peace because he has confidence in the promises of our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

May God grant that we should be able to stand, by the power of the Spirit, in the day of trial, composed and ready to speak the truth for the good of all people and for the glory of God. Amen.

God's Peace - Pr. J

John 18:19-24 Speaking the Truth

John 18:19-24 NIV
Every now and then when I question my grandchildren (as well as other children in the community) as to what has been going on, I get the run-around. They won't answer me directly. They will say things like "I don't know. Ask so and so. They should know." Or they will say something like: "You already know, anyway." Honestly, it makes me want to slap them. I don't and haven't. But, there are definitely times that I consider it, as these kinds of responses just make me think all the more that they've been up to something they ought not have been doing and then I have to take the time to go and find witnesses or corroborating evidence to be able to confront them more directly and to the point. It's really a lot of work when telling the truth would have worked a lot faster and easier.

Jesus was slapped by one of the officials for talking to the high priest like my grandchildren talk to me when they are trying to hide something. But, Jesus' purpose was not an attempt to hide anything. Since, he is on trial for breaking the religious laws of the day (mainly his claim to be the Son of God); he calls upon the high priest to follow the law and get witness testimony as the law requires.

Jesus reminded them that he had spoken and taught openly. He testified that he had not been doing anything in secret. If his life was on trial then witnesses were required.

My grandchildren are not on trial for their lives. As of yet, they are still in the living stage; that stage where Jesus spoke the truth openly and not in secret. It would be well for all of us if we said or did nothing that has to be hid so that witnesses don't have to be found.

Have a blessed day and may God help us all to speak the truth.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Jeremiah 12 - God's Justice

Jeremiah's starting to sound a little fried. Yes, I know what "fried' is. Been there... Many of us have. Jeremiah is sounding just a little unhappy with God's kind of justice. He's not thrilled that the wicked prosper and the faithless live in ease. He's not thrilled that while he is busy doing the LORD's will and being persecuted for it, the persecutors go about doing as they please. I think Jeremiah's getting just a little tired of being "refined" as he does the LORD's will. For, indeed, the LORD will refine even His children so that they can endure every trial and be made even stronger through each of them. Trials build character - or so I've been told. Could Jeremiah possibly be tired of all this character building? There seems to be just a tinge of self-righteousness in him today.

Like Jonah (unhappy that the people repented and were saved) and many others, Jeremiah just doesn't seem to get that God's justice, His will, includes welcoming those who are not His people, as His people. The LORD reminds Jeremiah that even to those who go against God's people, all who turn from their false gods and call upon the name of the LORD, He will show mercy. He will make even the enemy His own. "But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people." (Jer 12:15-16 NIV)

God's plan and His mercy is for all people. Jeremiah's role and the role of all whom God has called is to seek out the lost, seek out those who do not know God, and introduce Him (by proclamation) so that they too might hear and believe, and be welcomed into the Kingdom, the family, of God. And... that, my friend, includes even you and me. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1Pet 2:9-10)

God's Peace - Pr. J