Boy, I haven’t done one of these in awhile. As you may (or may not) recall I’m going through Beth Moore’s Fruit of the Spirit Bible study with my small group on Saturday morning’s. I’ve been through that before and actually blogged about a few topics. I don’t like to rehash lessons from others’ too much but there is a verse that has stayed with me for two weeks now and I feel like I must share.
In Acts we read of Stephen, a Christ follower who had false accusations thrown at him and who was eventually stoned to death. The actual stoning is covered at the end of Acts 7
54When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.
In her study Beth points out that Christ stood up for this occassion. It was worthy of his effort, time, attention, care and concern. The questions I can not get out of my head…What caused Christ to stand? Was it out of respect? Worry? Praise? How often has Christ stood instead of sat at the right hand of God and most importantly…Have I ever done anything worthy of Christ standing to His feet? My immediate and unwavering answer is a resounding no. But I want that. We all look for God to say well done, my good and faithful child one day. Call me selfish but I want that now. I want to do something for the cause of Christ that makes Him get on His feet. And the cause of His standing? I hope it’s a standing ovation.
