September 2012
Matthew 4:19
“Chummin’ for Saints…until the nets are full”
To the Saints,
With us coming to a close on Stephen’s speech and his life, God has allowed me to see how He works in the lives of the Church which gives me great hope in our Father and His love for His children. At times, His ways hurt and I might just feel 100% alone, as if I am the only one facing a similar situation. I find myself crying out to our Lord for favor or relief and it doesn’t seem to come. Just at that time, a good-willed Christian will enter in with a bumper-sticker slogan, such as “Sometimes God says no!” and just as fast he’s gone and I am still sitting on my bunk with my head down to the floor. When this happens to me, I know by faith that I am not alone nor has Father left me. His Word tells me that He will not leave me and that He has a plan for my life. I can not tell you how our freewill and His perfect plan work together, just that they do!
In this past month, I have spent one-on-one time with some of the brothers and my heart breaks to hear their pain as they search for God’s will in all of this. So, I go to God and ask why so much pain? Have they not, are they not paying a good enough price for their crimes? He tells me in a soft voice “My ways are higher ways. Just love me as I love you”. I’ve been thinking as I study Stephen, how the Saints must have questioned God and His great plan.
I look to see myself sitting at the foot of Jesus questioning His will in my life and the lives of the Saints, but in studying His word, the Spirit teaches that God does have a plan. Stephen’s upcoming death was not for nothing. Here are just four events directly and indirectly planned by God:
1. Phillip’s evangelistic tour (8:4-40)
2. Paul’s (Saul’s) conversion (9:1-30)
3. Peter’s missionary tour (9:32-11:18)
4. The founding of the Antioch Church (11:19-20)
It is the same for Moses’ early life; it shows how God prepares His people for future service. Though Moses was cruelly taken from his family, his privileged life in Egypt as a prince provided him with the training and insight into both cultures. This would be needed later to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. If I may take some liberty here…I can see how God is working in men’s lives. Here within the Church where I serve, we serve many denominations, races, and types of upbringing. We have our overlords (guards) and by society’s standard, we serve the worst our culture has produced and because of the Holy Spirit, I can say I love them. God is sovereign; nothing about our lives is ever accidental; no circumstance is ever wasted. Trust God to take all of your hard times and life experiences and weave them together to equip you to be alive and effective for His Kingdom.
As we are moving on in Acts, I’ve spent the last week looking at how to cover 7:17-60. In my studies, I’ve come up with some nice nuggets and insight. So we go from last month which was short and nice, to how much food do I put on one plate? My Pastor has told me many times to feed the Saints with a spoon, not a bulldozer. So, let me be honest. This was supposed to be in the mail to Barb one week ago, so I have to just start and when I get to the end, I will stop. (A white rabbit told me that one!)
(Acts 7:17-19) "But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt "till another king arose who did not know Joseph.” This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. (NKJV)
In Genesis 15:13-15, God told Abraham that after his descendants had been in Egypt for 400 years, He would “Punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions”.
Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill every male newborn so that the Hebrews would not increase in numbers. (Exodus 1:16, 19, 22).
Stephen’s readers might have bells going off in their heads. Just a short time earlier, Herod also ordered the “slaughter of the innocents’ at the time Jesus the Christ was to be born. (Mt 2:13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.)
(Acts 7:20-22) "At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father's house for three months.”But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
God did not choose a convenient time for Moses to come into the world, instead He chose what one could call the worse time to show up. But, during this horrible time in Israel’s history, the nation’s first real deliverer was born, and He was beautiful in God’s eyes, and so are you. Stephen covered some points about Moses’ early life and you can read about it in Exodus 1-2. Again, see that Stephen shows that God is working in the nation He loves, but through some seemingly odd ways. Moses was adopted by an Egyptian princess, who was not a Jewess, and he was born in a strange location, outside of the borders of “Israel”.
(Acts 7:23-25) "Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.”And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. "For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand
We can see that Moses has an idea that God is calling Him to “rescue” the Hebrews and in His own will, he attempts to defend his fellow Israelites.
“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death”. Proverbs 14:12.
Just some weeks earlier these religious leaders convinced each other that Jesus was a dangerous threat. They thought he had to be taken out. So they killed the very one sent to bring them life. Now, in Moses’ case, God did want to use him to deliver the Jews, but not at that time and not in that way. Don’t run ahead of God. Watch to see His timing! Read Romans 5.
Acts 7:26-28) "And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?' "But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?’ Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?'
Eighty years of Moses’ life---gone! It seems he has spent most of his life waiting; the last 40 years just watching the sheep. There in the desert after what must have seemed an eternity, God moved. See Exodus 3-4. In God’s timing, not ours, and in God’s way, not ours.
• God was working all of the time
• God was speaking
• God was about to deliver His people
• There was no temple around
• There was no tabernacle
• They weren’t near Jerusalem
• God chose to use a bush in the desert
Waiting on God!
Stephen’s message before the Jewish Council was filled with pictures of time passing; the long years (400) that the Israelites spent waiting on God to act and fulfill His promise. It seems that humans always hate to wait. The other day, I was waiting to use the microwave to cook my dinner---3 minutes. Don’t you think by now we could find a way to make this faster? We get impatient, doubt God’s plan and try to work in our own agendas. Taking matters into our own hands will lead to heartache, if not outright disaster. How much better it is to wait on God by allowing Him reveal Himself and His plan and then humbly trust and obey.
“I have found that I must be poor and want, before I can exercise the virtue of gratitude; miserable and in torment, before I can exercise the virtue of patience”. ~~~John Donne
I feel that this is a good place to stop and think. For the family on the streets, I don’t know what you are waiting on for God to do in your life. I do know that the results are in His time. Now to the Saints behind the walls…don’t give up the hope with which you started. I know some of you have seen 30+ years and are still waiting. Ten more years and you will be in the Moses Club at the lodge. I too wait and question, but I know He will not forget me in prison. To tell you the truth, He has allowed me to have a great life. The future still scares me. I do trust and obey by the faith which He gives to me.
UPDATE: Not much happening. My plate is full and I’m working on time management. So pray as I learn how to live a balanced Christian life. Pray that I will be the man whom God is training me to be.
Semper Fidelis!
I Corinthians 16: 13-14
Phish Bowl Coffee House/Ministries
276 E. 29th St
Loveland, CO 80538
http://inthephishbowl.blogspot.com/
An outreach of Calvary Chapel Loveland
