Truth and Martyrs

March 29

(Acts 7:51-58 NIV) ""You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! {52} Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him-- {53} you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it." {54} When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. {55} But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. {56} "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." {57} At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, {58} dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.""

(Matthew 23:25-39 NIV) ""Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. {26} Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. {27} "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. {28} In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. {29} "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. {30} And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' {31} So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. {32} Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! {33} "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? {34} Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. {35} And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. {36} I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. {37} "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. {38} Look, your house is left to you desolate. {39} For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'""

Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes it can even get you killed. Ask Stephen. Ask the millions of Christians who have been martyred since Christ walked this Earth. After Stephen’s brief history lesson, he unloaded on the Sanhedrin. They and their ilk had persecuted and killed many a prophet down through the years. Now they had murdered the Son of God. They had been entrusted with God’s Law, but they did not obey it. Stephen held nothing back. Full of God’s Spirit, he looked to heaven and declared that Jesus was alive and standing at the right hand of God. He was saying that Jesus is Lord -- Jesus is God. The Sanhedrin went ballistic. They struck back -- not with arguments, but with violence. They stoned Stephen to death and Christianity had its first martyr. Sometimes the truth hurts. It can hurt those who hear it, and it can hurt those who speak it. Speak it anyway. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day

A House for the Creator

March 28

(Acts 7:44-50 NIV) ""Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. {45} Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, {46} who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. {47} But it was Solomon who built the house for him. {48} "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: {49} "'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? {50} Has not my hand made all these things?'"

(Psalms 139:7-16 NIV) ““Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? {8} If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. {9} If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, {10} even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. {11} If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," {12} even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. {13} For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. {14} I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. {15} My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, {16} your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.””

(1 Corinthians 3:16 NIV) "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"

How do you build a house for a God who is omnipresent? How can a structure made by human hands possibly hold the Creator of those hands? No temple made by man can contain God. The religionists that Stephen addressed had become proud and arrogant. They thought their theology could contain the God of the universe. They believed their laws were the summation of God’s nature, and that their piety made them godlike. They should have known that, even though God instructed Moses in the building of the tabernacle, and Solomon in the construction of the temple, no man made structure can contain a God who is infinite and eternal. The only temple that God lives in is one that He made. God lives in His creation -- in you and me. When we come to faith, Christ comes to live in us. If we believe God, we become God’s temple. Take care of that temple. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day   

Take Me Back to Egypt

March 27

(Acts 7:36-43 NIV) ““He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. {37} "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' {38} He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us. {39} "But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. {40} They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt--we don't know what has happened to him!' {41} That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. {42} But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: "'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? {43} You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.””

(Deuteronomy 6:10-15 NIV)  "When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, {11} houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, {12} be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. {13} Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. {14} Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; {15} for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land."

(Luke 4:5-8 NIV) ““The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. {6} And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. {7} So if you worship me, it will all be yours." {8} Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.””

Moses was sent back to Egypt to free God’s people. But after they were set free, they rejected the leadership of Moses. Their bodies had left Egypt, but their hearts had not. Instead of stepping out in faith, they wanted to go back. Being sent back to Egypt by God and desiring Egypt’s comforts are two completely different things. As Moses was on the mountain receiving the words of God, the people built a golden calf to worship. Later they chased after false gods like Molech and Rephan, and the Lord gave them over to captivity and exile among the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Stephen’s message is clear. When we put our personal Egypt and our idols ahead of God, we surrender our freedom. When our hearts do not fully belong to God, we will eventually enter into exile and captivity. “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day  

Full Circle

March 26

(Acts 7:17-35 NIV) ""As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. {18} Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. {19} He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die. {20} "At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house. {21} When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. {22} Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. {23} "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. {24} He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. {25} Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. {26} The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?' {27} "But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? {28} Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' {29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. {30} After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. {31} When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: {32} 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. {33} "Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. {34} I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.' {35} "This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.””

Stephen’s history lesson continues with Moses. God’s people were enslaved in Egypt, but began to outnumber the Egyptians. Pharaoh began a forced infanticide, but baby Moses was placed in a basket, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised as an Egyptian. At age forty, Moses killed an Egyptian in defense of his people, and fled to Midian. After forty years there, God spoke to him out of a burning bush, commanding him to return to Egypt and become their deliverer and ruler. Moses obeyed. He had come full circle. There are two lessons here. First, when God wants a job done, He prepares His ministers, and waits for the right time to send them. Hurry and haste are not godly traits. Second, when God wants a job done, He often sends someone who has “been there, done that”. Don’t be hasty in returning to your “Egypt” -- God may send you full circle in His time. Wait on the Lord! -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day