Die With Your Boots On (Acts 7)
Been trying to share one key idea or application from that day’s chapter from the reading plan some of us are doing together, but I’m gonna share a bunch of quick thoughts from today’s reading (Acts 7). If you haven’t read today, you might want to do that first…
- When you give your life to God, He can make lemonaide out of your lemons: I love how Stephen says Moses was a man strong in speech. Moses stuttered like p-p-p-porky pig! So was Stephen wrong? No, Moses was strong in speech, because he gave his weakness to God.
- If all else fails, pull a Sixth Sense on them: Stephens sermon is wild. For 48 verses he recounts the history of Israel in a way that must have made the Jewish priests listening shake their heads with great approval. Then, faster than you can say M. Night Shyamalan, he completely flips the script and puts a verbal knife in the belly of his audience.
- Stephen wanted his best life later: Pretty obvious that Stephen didn’t give a rip what happened to him now, but wanted to experience God’s best for all eternity. As Francis Chan puts it, he wanted his best life later.
- If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on: If a bunch of people started attacking me with rocks and I realized it would soon end my life I think I would either (a) Scream like a little girl, or (b) Run like Carl Lewis. But Stephen does neither, he dies in the footsteps of Jesus. He forgives those killing him (as Jesus did), and he commits his spirit, his eternity, to God (as Jesus did). Note to self: Time to man up. No more wimpering in a fetal position when bad stuff happens.