A Passion for God
Acts 7:54-60 [54] When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. [55] But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, [56] And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. [57] Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, [58] And cast him out of the city, and stoned him : and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. [59] And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God , and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. [60] And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
We see here the stoning of Stephen. I often think about the peace he had to have in order to ask God, “lay not this sin to their charge.” We too often get upset if someone doesn’t want to take our tract or shuts the door in our face. Yet here was someone who was passionate about Gods Word and was willing to teach regardless of circumstances. If we were to be gnashed on as Stephen was in vs. 54 we would more than likely stop teaching and beg them to stop, but here is Stephen in vs. 56 still talking about God. He displayed a tremendous passion to do Gods work regardless of circumstances. We’ve seen over last few weeks many protests over things that people are passionate about. There are times it’s even difficult to carry on a conversation with people because they are so passionate they almost just want to argue. I’m not saying to argue but where is that same passion for God? Think about a few things that go on during a protest. Compare that to how we treat our work for The Lord and see if you truly show a passion for God.
1. People will travel for miles to demonstrate, yet we won’t travel a short distance to go to church.
2. They will demonstrate for hours, yet we can’t go to anything but a Sunday morning service cause we think that’s all we need.
3. Demonstrators will hold signs to get their point across, but we’re afraid to pass out a tract and “offend”somebody.
4. Those signs are made up because they believe they are trying to help others. We claim we want to see people get saved yet can’t be bothered to pray for God to send lost people our way or even pray for God to save them in our services.
See we will argue and get very passionate about things that are personal to us, but have nothing when it comes to the things of God. We just go thru the motions at church, won’t obey His Word, and don’t attempt to spread the Gospel. What’s it going to take for us to be as passionate about God as we are our sports teams, hobbies, or our jobs?
God bless you today. Bro. Josh Richardson