Tag Archives: Acts 7:1-29

June 09, 2015 Bible Study — Telling Our Stories

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 16:28-30

    A word here, a short sentence there is all it takes to start trouble, if we listen to and spread gossip. There are people who think it is clever to stir up strife with subtle digs and comments they can disavow if confronted. Let us not be like that and, more importantly, let us not empower such people by spreading the gossip they start.

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Psalm 127:1-5

    No matter how well-intentioned your actions, no matter how strongly you desire to serve God, if you do not first make sure that what you are doing is what God desires, you will fail. It is the same whether we are building a house, or attempting to protect the inhabitants of a city, we will only have success if God is working with us. Or to put it more correctly, we will only have success if we are working with God.

Tulips (13)

Acts 7:1-29

    Stephen was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. False accusations were made against him. When he was asked if these accusations were true, Stephen did not reply directly. Instead he started by telling an abbreviated version of the story of the people of Israel. There was a reason for this. He did this in order to lay out the common assumptions which he shared with the members of the Sanhedrin. In addition, it is not possible to explain Jesus’ teachings, nor His death and resurrection, without giving the background of what God had already done throughout history.
    We often make the mistake of trying to explain what we believe without first laying the groundwork. In a world that believes that a man can become a woman by declaring that he is one, there is a lot of explaining necessary before Christianity makes sense. This is a world where people believes the statement, “Well, that may be your reality, but it is not my reality,” is considered a rational statement. If we want people to understand Christianity, we have to tell them our story, making sure to include the parts with which they can sympathize.

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1 Kings 5-6:38

    I always struggle to find meaning when I read the description of the building of the Temple. However, this time I was about to write a short paragraph to that effect when I read the passage one more time. Early on in the construction God sent a message to Solomon, and the people of Israel concerning the Temple, “…if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands,… I will live among the Israelites and will never abandon my people Israel.” God does not need, nor does He desire, a fancy building for us to gather to worship Him. God desires that we keep His decrees and regulations and obey His commands. There is a time and place for fancy buildings, but we must never let them distract us from doing God’s will.

June 9, 2014 Bible Study — Finding Common Ground

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 16:28-30

    Those who stir up strife and conflict are troublemakers and perverse. They mislead their companions and plot evil. Watch out for gossip because it can cause a divide between even the closest friends. Those who are always planning mischief and looking for ways to stir up controversy are not good people to be around. They cause trouble for those who associate with them. Let us not be one of them.

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Psalm 127:1-5

    When we make our plans, when we work to accomplish our goals, let us never forget the first verse of this psalm:

Unless the Lord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good.

If we put our effort into God’s plans and God’s projects, we will have great success. In addition, we will not have to work every waking hour, because God does grant rest to those who love Him.

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Acts 7:1-29

    When Stephen was confronted with false accusations, he did not begin by immediately answering the accusations. He started by giving background on what he believed. Stephen established the basic premises which he shared with his accusers. This is an important thing to remember when having a discussion or debate with non-believers. Before you can make any progress in witnessing to people, you must find common ground in what you believe about how the world works. Stephen started out his defense before the council by describing the areas where they shared a common belief. It was only after he had established common ground with those who was addressing that he began to talk about the areas where his beliefs differed.

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1 Kings 5-6:38

    When Solomon built the Temple, God made him a promise that applies to any project we work on. If we keep God’s decrees and regulations and obey His commands, He will live among us and bless the projects we undertake. In what ways are the projects we are working on bringing glory to God? Solomon built a great monument to the glory of God when he built the Temple. Let us build a similar monument with the way we live our lives so that others may come to glorify God as well.

June 9, 2013 Bible Study — Stephen’s Testimony

     I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

Magrat rolling in the grass
Magrat rolling in the grass

1 Kings 5-6:38

     When King Hiram of Tyre learned that Solomon had succeeded to the throne of Israel he sent messengers to Solomon. Hiram had always been a friend of David. Solomon replied to Hiram’s messengers with a request for cedars from Lebanon to be used in building a temple for God. Hiram and Solomon reached an agreement for Solomon to pay Hiram for the cedar that Solomon wanted for the Temple. Solomon also had stone quarried and began work on constructing the Temple. It took seven years for the Temple to be constructed. When completed, the Temple was 90 feet long by 30 feet wide by 45 feet high. There was a 15 foot entrance room that ran the entire width of the Temple at the front of the Temple. The Temple itself was 2700 square feet. This compares to the average new house in the U.S. today of around 2400 square feet. A house of that average size would be multistory (I would expect it to be two floors), so it would probably have dimensions about 1/3 of that of the Solomon’s Temple (not counting the courtyard and the rooms built against the outside of the Temple walls).

Another shot of Magrat rolling in the grass
Another shot of Magrat rolling in the grass

Acts 7:1-29

     Taking up where yesterday’s passage left off, the high priest asked Stephen if the charges made against him were true. Stephen did not directly answer the question. Instead, he began recounting the history of the Jewish people starting with Abraham. Stephen recounted the records of God’s promises to Abraham. He went on to tell how Isaac gave birth to Jacob and Jacob sired the twelve Patriarchs of the Israelites. He then told how Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt to prepare for his father, his brothers and their families to escape the famine in Canaan. He continued to tell how the Israelites increased in number and the Egyptians enslaved them. Today’s passage ends with Stephen talking about how God provided for Moses to be adopted into Pharaoh’s household, which led to him being educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The last thing mentioned in today’s passage is the failure of Moses when he attempted to relieve the suffering of the Israelites under his own power.
     There are other things that can be taken from this passage, but what connects for me today is that Stephen laid the groundwork of common understanding by laying out the things that both he and his listeners agreed upon. Everything that Stephen said up to this point would have had those on the Sanhedrin who were listening nodding their heads in agreement. This strikes me as an important thing to keep in mind for two reasons. The first is that when we preach the Gospel to people, if we do not make sure to lay out the groundwork, they may take what we have said and layer it on top of some very different understandings of how the world works. The end result might be someone who thinks they have followed the Gospel, but have missed it entirely (this is why reading the Old Testament is important, it lays a solid foundation about how God works). The second reason is that by laying the groundwork of common understanding we can discuss where our views diverge.

Magrat resting in the mud
Magrat resting in the mud

Psalm 127:1-5

     No matter what we do and how hard we work, if it is not according to God’s will it is a waste of time. Contrary to what some have said, children are not a punishment, but rather they are gift from God.

Magrat stalks something in the weeds
Magrat stalks something in the weeds

Proverbs 16:28-30

     The first of today’s proverbs warns us against gossip. We should strive to neither spread nor even listen to gossip. This can be a hard thing to follow. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between gossip and news. The most important question to ask yourself is this, would you be interested if the information reflected well upon those in the story? If the answer is no, then it is gossip.
     The second proverb tells us that those who choose violence mislead others. There are many stories throughout history of leaders who got others to support their use of violence using deception.

June 9, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

1 Kings 5-6:38

     In this passage, king Hiram of Tyre sends envoys to Solomon to discover what relationship Solomon would have with him, since he had always been friendly with David. Solomon’s response to Hiram indicates that Solomon intends to rule in a different manner than his father David. David started out as a bandit/raider (In 1 Samuel 27 we have an account of how David raided neighboring peoples while he was living among the Philistines). As he grew in power, he suppressed bandits and lived off of merchants providing him with tribute to suppress bandits. Even before he went to live among the Philistines he had done bandit suppression (see the story of David and Nabal in 1 Samuel 25). Considering that many of the peoples in that area lived by raiding merchant caravans, it is likely that bandit suppression played a significant motivational role in David’s wars of conquest. In his response to King Hiram, Solomon indicates that rather than receive payment from merchants in order to suppress bandits within the area he controls, Solomon intends to sponsor trade. The merchants passing through his lands will work for him.
     Upon making this trade deal with Hiram king of Tyre, Solomon begins building the Temple. Solomon conscripted close to two hundred thousand men to work on gathering the materials to build the Temple. This reflects some of what Samuel had warned the Israelites about when they demanded he anoint someone to be their king. The description of the Temple that Solomon built is very impressive with wood paneling on all of the interior surfaces and gold plating on much of it. It is impressive that he was able to get this built in seven years without using any modern machinery.

Acts 7:1-29

     When Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin on charges of blasphemy, the high priest asks him if the charges are true. Stephen responds by giving an exposition on the history of the Jewish people. He starts by talking about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He talks about how God made promises to Abraham and gave him the covenant of circumcision. Stephen goes on to point out how God prophesied both the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt and His freeing of them. At this point the members of the Sanhedrin are probably listening with rapt attention and agreeing with everything he is saying. Then he starts talking about Moses. He points out that Moses was special from birth and was called by God to rescue the Israelites. He tells how Moses killed an Egyptian overseer for abusing an Israelite. Then he says that Moses thought that the Israelites would see that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. Stephen illustrates this rejection by telling the story of Moses’ attempt to reconcile two Israelites who were fighting. I do not think his audience perceived where he was going when he got to this point. I think it is clear that Stephen was using Moses to show how the people of Israel had repeatedly rejected God’s messenger to them. That this rejection of Moses was a precursor to the rejection of Jesus.

Psalm 127:1-5

     The psalmist tells us that no matter what we work at, if it is not the Lord’s will for it to come to fruition we are laboring in vain. No matter what we work at, we will not have success unless the Lord works with us toward that end. We should acknowledge that all of our successes are a gift from God. They are not a credit to our hard work. The psalmist goes on to say that children are a blessing from God. This goes directly counter to what is taught in our society today, which is that there are too many people on this earth and having many children is irresponsible. I do not think it is wrong for a couple to limit the number of children they have based on what they believe are their ability to properly raise them. However, the argument of those who disagree is rather compelling. If children are a blessing from God as the Bible teaches and I believe, why would you deny yourself a blessing? Is it not somewhat sacrilegious to deny yourself a blessing which God wishes to give you? I do not have an answer for that, but I do not agree with the starting point of those who say that we should limit the number of children we have because the earth is overpopulated. I do not believe that the earth is overpopulated and I do not believe that God will allow the earth to become overpopulated.

Proverbs 16:28-30

     We have today three proverbs that tell of three types of people who create trouble. The first is the troublemaker who spreads gossip in order to create conflict among others, often merely to amuse themselves watching other people fight. The second is the person who justifies using violence to resolve a dispute with someone else. Finally, is the person who conspires to make trouble for others. If you are involved with someone who is like this you should be careful because you may be their target next and, even if not, is their ends really worth the pain and suffering that they cause to others?