Eastertide
May 18, 2014

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died. And Saul approved of their killing him. — Acts 7:55-60; 8:1a

Even one of the greatest evangelists of the church got it wrong at times. We know him as Paul, who described himself as a late coming apostle. At Stephan’s stoning, he was Saul holding faithfully to what he believed and acting on it. He was a leader of the synagogue who had done all the right things according to tradition but suddenly the paradigm shifted mightily and it took a direct encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus for Saul to make the transition.

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace was a slave trader making a mint off of selling humans when he was struck by how out of synch he was with God and totally turned his life around. Chuck Colson was one of the Watergate 7 known as the “hatchet man.” In his mind, He was only doing what everybody else in politics were doing, whatever it took to get his candidate elected and keep him in office. Colson was sent to prison for his white collar mischief. While in prison, he came to terms with his life and became a great witness to the grace and love of God.

Discerning the will of God for our lives is particularly hard when it has to compete with our own misplaced desires.  Communing with God requires our letting go of false senses of wellbeing so that we can experience being who we really are.

Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. –Psalm 51:10

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.