Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 7:1-7 (October 20, 2025)

October 20, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 7:1-7

I pray that this beautiful desert morning has lifted your spirits, or no matter where you may be, that the witness of Stephen in our texts today, and for several studies of this part of the Acts of the Apostles, finds you comforted in your faith.

Please continue praying for Kandice, Lisa, and Alexis.  Kandice continues in hospice care at home, and is very near to her triumph in Christ, and her entry into His heavenly kingdom.  Pray too for Larry and his RN wife as he undergoes a procedure on Wednesday to remove cancer material from his esophagus so that his quality of life with terminal cancer might be improved.  Pray too please for Becky in Eagan, MN as she regains her strength after a battle with extreme weakness.  Cause yet unknown.   And one more today.  Please continue to pray for Teri as she regains strength and mobility after her surgery.  Our prayers span large areas of our city, state, nation, and world.  Please know that our prayers bring healing and hope for their recipients. 

Before my vacation last week, we met Stephen in the text of that study.  He is a man of grace and energy for the work to which the Gospel has called him.  But now, those who detest the good work that he does, and the positive things that he says, have lied about him, and he has been called, yet again, to trial before the Sanhedrin.  Of course, the Sanhedrin has been ready to condemn someone from this new Christian church in their midst.  I really think that Stephen would have been a man after the heart of Martin Luther in the 15 hundreds.  Stephen could easily say, "Here I stand, I can do no other."  What Stephen has to say before the Sanhedrin is the fullness of the truth of God's historic actions on behalf of the Jews throughout their history, and also to powerfully claim the story of the Christ of God, recently brought to trial, whose death was requested, in fact shouted out, before Pilate, so that Pilate would cause Jesus to receive punishment, even to the point of death on a cross.  So, as Stephen stands before the very first question from the judges of the Sanhedrin, "Is this so?" (that you have blasphemed about God?)  Stephen stands boldly and confidently before them all as he begins to recall the journey of the faithful ones, from Abraham forward.  It is a story which nearly immediately begins by talking about the ways in which the chosen ones have fallen away from God throughout history, and even right at the beginning of their relationship with God.  Though it was not Abraham who fostered such difficulty with God.  Instead, Stephen makes it clear bout Abraham's new relationship with YHWH.

1. Abraham came out of the land where he was living at the command of the Holy One.  At this very beginning Abraham was obedient to YHWH.  In combination with God's command, it must have certainly been true that Abram (his name before God renamed him) had a truly adventurous spirit.  And since he responded completely to God's request of him to relocate, he must also have had the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart.

   I can really find myself in touch with this after making a cross-country move to a city in which I had only had a few days’ experience.  I came with a spouse, children, pets, and belongings to a city in which both I, and a new parish, were filled with hope.

2. This was Abraham too.  He was a man filled with hope, just like so many people whose heritage we carry, came to this country filled with hope for a better life, and even more, that very same thing is the reason for the by far largest majority of immigrants who are looking to a new land with hope.

Even though Stephen would lose his life, he had the faith of the Spirit of God that everything that Christ had assured his disciples would come to be, including life, forgiveness, and salvation were already theirs.  Though Stephen was not going to see it happen in this life, he was about to discover its Holy Truth in the next life with Christ in Heaven.

Thanks for being with me today.   I will be back tomorrow morning as we move forward with Stephen’s brave and bold retelling of the real story of how everything in which he now believed had come to be in the Savior of the world.

Pastor Kim