Day 307, or November the 3rd. I'm glad you asked
that. Our thoughts today are rooted in Acts chapter
7, verse 2. To this question, Stephen 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
Haran. And now the big picture surrounding this
verse. Luke takes the trouble to give us a full
précis of the Old Testament in one chapter,
then continues the story of the early church
spreading to the Samaritans, and then to a passing
Ethiopian who was converted and baptized before
resuming his journey back home to Africa. And
now today's action step. Our text for today seems
a strange way for Stephen to respond to the false
charges of blasphemy brought against him before
the Sanhedrin, shortly after the death and resurrection
of Jesus. Remember, he was addressing learned
religious Jews, and he was a recent convert to
Christianity who was probably a Gentile, or at
least he had a Greek name, as did all his fellow
deacons. There is an important basic concept
here for all of us to learn. Stephen didn't assume
his hearers knew the whole story, and he didn't
simply want to proclaim the remedy to the world's
ills before making sure that the world's ills
were clearly understood. So often Christians
recommend Jesus as the answer before their hearers
have even thought of the question. When John
Wesley preached he would wait until he saw heads
being bowed in recognition of their sin, and
then he would declare Jesus as the answer. Stephen's
hearers thought they were right, and he was an
extremist who was wrong, or even worse, mad.
I have found responding to questions or obvious
interest is far more productive than simply witnessing
blind. Of course there is no formula for success
but choosing to use the method of responding
to interest seems the best option to me your
job now is to raise levels of interest by your
lifestyle so that people will ask you questions