Welcome to the last day of the month. It is Wednesday, January 31, 2024. I remember an extremely introverted young lady who attended our youth group for a year. She sat in the back row without contributing much and never amounted to much. Then, she left, and we lost contact with her … until I visited a McDonald’s in a nearby town two years later. There she was, the store manager! Ronald McDonald believed in her potential more than I had! Today, we see another example reminding us not to hold people to their pasts. When you see them at their worst, hold on. It just may be that God isn’t finished with them yet. Read on…
Today's Reading:
Exodus 28,29; Acts 7
Scripture
"Then the high priest asked Stephen, 'Are these charges true?' To this he replied: 'Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you…’" (Acts 7:1-2)
Observation
I would encourage any follower of Christ to read this one chapter. It is the most concise summary of the Old Testament in 59 verses. Stephen’s commentary encapsulates, in one singular treatise, the context of the promised Messiah. However, as eloquent and precise as this compendium was, it didn’t end well. The members of the Sanhedrin, who were in the crowd, exploded into protests, and in the riot, Stephen was stoned to death.
However, within this Old Testament Survey class taught by Stephen lies an ironic twist. In verse 58, we find this: "the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a man named Saul."
This man named Saul was the coat checker at this lynch mob event. However, in two chapters, a supernatural event will alter his whole future. Saul will become “Paul” on the road to Damascus, and through him, half of the New Testament would be penned!
Application
If we freeze-dried the scene, Saul would have gone down in history as just another criminal in the mob scene. However, God was not done with him yet. Later, he would suffer much for the sake of Christ, and from being a Pharisee, he would emerge as an apostle and pioneer of today’s Christian movement. Millions upon millions of lives have been transformed through the Bible that he was graced by God to write. I must not be too quick to dismiss people whose actions I dislike. God may not be done with them yet. They may soon face a Damascus Road event where they will encounter the very One they despised.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I pray for the ones who are reticent, as well as the rebellious partakers in the mob. Don’t let me judge them too impetuously so that You feel it necessary to use a Ronald McDonald to remind me. May I never pass by a coat checker and think they won’t amount to much … they may be just the ones that You have been eyeing to become an apostle. Grant me Your heart and Your eyes today.
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