Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive to God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God Himself willing and working at what will give Him the most pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 THE MESSAGE.

Holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. Hebrews 3:1.

Reading this chapter, Acts 7, is like reading a flat rock skipping over deep waters and resting briefly but moving forward in eons of time. Stephen is before the Council that is asking him if the accusations against him are true. So he begins with their history, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’” v. 1-3. Abraham obeyed. “But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’ And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.” v. 5-8. The history continued through Jacob sold into slavery and yet rising to serve Pharoah and save his family who were brought to live in Egypt during the great famine. And the four hundred years enslavement began after that Pharaoh and Jacob had died. And God sent Moses born of slaves but raised by Pharaoh’s daughter only to leave Egypt when he feared for his life. 40 years passed, v. 9-31. And God called Moses. “‘I AM the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. But the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them; come now, and I will send you to Egypt.’”v. 32-34. “This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us, for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt – we do not know what happened to him.’” v. 37-40. They preferred a golden calf, Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, v. 41-43. They weren’t worshiping God…“‘It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel?’” v. 42. And then David. “David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob…However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet; what kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which made all these things?’” v. 46, 48-50. Can we consider every created thing Creator God has made? It cannot be numbered! “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep. v. 51-60. This Saul becomes Paul when his zeal for God gets channeled in the right way by Jesus, the Son.

Why are we so resistant to the truth of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit? Can we note that Stephen, as he was being stoned to death, saw Jesus – not sitting, but standing at the right hand of the Father. The flat rock is still skimming over deep waters even now. We are the children of Creator God and for this we were born. How much more of the history of us before Jesus, the Son, Creator God, returns? That isn’t for us to know. What we can know is that Creator God IS. His will is being done and we can turn to Him in trust – and in faith worship Him in spirit and in truth as the Holy Spirit leads us forward. Our choice to resist the Holy Spirit – or – to let Him into our hearts and lead our spirits into His truth. The truth of His love is real and vital and needed. As we listen to God, we begin to see and marvel with awe at how beautiful and infinite is the Creation He created. Our starting point to worshiping not ourselves but He who IS Creator.