David Bahn - Reflections

When God gathers people into a worshiping assembly eventually they will want to gather in a building. Whether a house or an awe-inspiring cathedral, the issue is not the building, but the hearts in which God dwells. There is the kingdom of God: the gracious reign and rule of Jesus in the hearts of believers - no matter what building they may be in.

Thank God for those who have gone before us and done the hard work of organizing service projects, coordinating evangelistic efforts, building church buildings, and anything else that has sustained the mission of God and furthered the growth of God's kingdom. Their hard work in the good old days is testimony to the work of God's Holy Spirit and a blessing for which we may rightly give glory to God.

The high priest and Jewish leaders were riled up against Stephen - God's good and faithful witness to the truth of Jesus Christ. It did not accomplish the good things God desires. When we get riled up, we need to keep in mind that God's will is done in people's hearts. God's kindness leads to repentance. We don't scare people into belief in Jesus. God's power is made perfect in weakness. When we are weak, we are strong. 

I'm going to try to be riled up in grace, truth, love, and faith. How about you? Let's see how God uses that!

All the trials, missteps, misunderstandings, and failures - those things that didn't work - will be forgotten in The End. Tears will be wiped from our eyes. And we will be forever with our Lord, having learned how truly good, gracious, and glorious he is. One day we'll learn it fully!

All the attributions of greatness given to Moses were meant to point people to him as God's chosen leader. Even those who considered him their great leader failed to follow him as they should. Even we who put Jesus above all others fail to follow him as we should. 

But we try to follow Jesus because he redeemed us, and forgives us when we fall short. That's something Moses could not do - at least not to the full extent that Jesus did. Jesus' cred includes his miracles, teachings, faithfulness even to death, and his resurrection from the grave. He has shown himself to be worthy of all honor and glory, faith and love, trust and obedience. 

Consider how you think of God. Is he one to be followed, trusted, obeyed, and honored? Or is there a place in your life that you reserve to yourself, thinking that God is only ruler and judge. Do you see God as good and gracious, just and loving? Or do you think of him as aloof, judging, and condemning; one to be appeased. The way you think of God will shape your willingness to fear, love, and trust him. It will determine whether you call on God in humility, awaiting his answer, or you cower in fear and do all you can to stay out of his way, and off his radar.

Stephen's testimony is clear: in spite of God's deliverance through Moses, the people rejected him and decided they wanted to go back to Egypt.

I guess that shouldn't surprise me either. We're living that dream now 3500 years later. We have been delivered from sin, death, and damnation by the curtain-splitting death and earth-shaking resurrection of Jesus. We've been saved. But we too want to go back to Egypt. We give in to temptation. We yearn for the forbidden fruit. We are a broken people who need Jesus, but too often we look to other redeemers and rulers.

Yet there is no other. We must not return to Egypt, but rather return to our Lord. For in Jesus alone is found true refreshment, satisfaction, comfort, peace, and joy.

Humans may have good ideas. I may need to speak with someone. I may need even to contradict what they are saying. But if it's God, I'd better be doing more listening than speaking. And as I listen, I must listen with fear and trembling, faith and love, humility and trust. For God may have an assignment for me. In fact he does. His assignment for all of us is to love him first and most, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As his children, we are also sent - not to Egypt, but wherever we go - with the message of his grace and truth in Jesus. Let's listen well, fear, love, and trust him, and obey when he calls.

PS: I'm writing this at Camp Lone Star just outside of LaGrange, Texas. Twenty-two years ago I was here for this same conference when I saw the jets fly into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. It's a solemn memory that is vivid yet today. Lord have mercy and heal our world from this evil.

The stories Stephen is recounting are of eternal consequence. They are part of the grand sweep of the story of God's redemption. That grand story is rooted in real people, over real time, facing real challenges, and serving to advance a narrative that would climax in the birth, life, teaching, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Stephen will get to that soon.

This story is all one long woven tapestry stretching from the first moment of creation when God said, "Let there be light," to the final day when Jesus returns and restores all broken, lost, and fallen things to their full beauty and glory. This story is not only true, or even most certainly true, it is eternally true and of the most profound significance of any story ever told. It's not just the same old story.

Let's lean in and listen well!