Good day, dear ones
It just turned noon, so it’s too late to reference morning.
I’m thinking I’m a little better today—but not good enough to get very active. The area around us was all white with snow again this morning. The sunshine ablaze around us sure combines to make a pretty site. It’s kind of frustrating to finally be getting good snow conditions on the mountain—and I can’t go! Oh well.
One thing I’ll need to do right away is to haul in a load of firewood. We heat exclusively with wood. Yes, there’s work involved with this style of heating, but there’s something wholesome about it—and we still prefer it over the options.
Blessings on the rest of your day. Ray.
Why indeed? Of course it’s a rhetorical question that none of Stephen’s antagonists ever steps forward to answer. Although Stephen hints at the answer within the body of his discourse, I will presume to offer my own Bible-based answer.
Before doing so, allow me to raise another question. If you have read this great message by Stephen then you know that he gives a clear integrated historical overview of Israel, showing their origins with Abraham and their perpetual delinquencies and hard heartedness over the centuries. In view of all that, here is my question: Was Israel a worse and more depraved people group than all other nations or cultures? My best answer is, NO. Their rotten history only serves to make them representative of all other histories—all other people groups—all other individuals in bondage to the NATURAL SIN NATURE—all desperately needing to be BORN AGAIN and TRANSFORMED by allowing the Holy Spirit to renew and reprogram their minds so they can actually live pleasing before their Maker (Romans 12:1-2). In other words, Israel represents us all.
As we will see in the reading for tomorrow, there is not one shred of evidence that any one of these religious professionals made even a peep of agreement with anything Stephen said—even though I cannot identify a single idea presented in his speech that was false or inappropriate. It presents to me another compelling warning against the inherent deceptiveness and destructiveness of RELIGIOUS FORM AND TRADITION without a HEART AFTER GOD. That is so glaring to me that I’m tempted to rate that kind of RELIGION as being on a par with the NATURAL SIN NATURE—maybe worse.
It’s amazing to me to learn how well-known and popular the song is, AMAZING GRACE. I guess that’s good. But I worry that many, if not most, people who sing it never really connect the dots of meaning when they so indifferently sing—“…that saved a wretch like me.” I think many people can sing those memorized words but never really get it—never really see the wretchedness of their own dirty hearts. But that is exactly where we all begin. I’ll go ahead and admit it—ON MY OWN BEFORE A HOLY GOD I AM A WRETCH. It’s crystal clear to me that this admission before God is absolutely essential to ever being benefitted by His AMAZING GRACE.