Stephen

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! ¹⁰For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:1 - 11 (NIV)

Pastor Daniel read this passage out before he prayed on Sunday. And yes I think it is one of the most beautiful passages Paul has written. In fact, I think the whole book of Romans is beautifully written. But this passage reminded me that God knows our struggles. We may feel that we've let Him down by our daily transgressions; indeed we have. But this isn't news to Him. He knows our struggles and deeply wants us to come before Him with a contrite heart and confess our sins and sorrows to Him and He will make us whole again -- as He already did when He died for us. We've received reconciliation with God through Jesus. We should rejoice in that!

The message that Sunday was extremely challenging to me. From Stephen's life and death we can learn at least 3 lessons. These 3 are perhaps some of the answers to the question: "So you've been saved by Christ. What difference does that make to your life?"
(1) When we commit our life afresh to Him, we become recipients of His grace.
What's Grace? It's God's free gift given to an individual, the dynamic force which gives us the desire and the power to understand and accomplish God's will. God's grace draws us to Himself.
(2) We are revived with God's power.
Sin will always rob us of the power that God wants us to have as effective believers. Let's commit ourselves to God as our source of power to fight sin in our lives.
(3) We become reservoirs of God's peace.
Peace is the absence of inner conflict, coming from a deep abiding rest in the strength of God. As the hurricanes of life come charging at us, we can be peaceful because we know the One who knows peace and we have Him in our hearts.

Even as Stephen lay bleeding to death after his tragic stoning, he saw Jesus standing by the right hand of God. That's a picture of Jesus's urging him on, and welcoming him with open arms into His kingdom, encouraging him through all his struggles.

"But [Stephen], being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'" Acts 7:55-56 (NKJV)

For those of us who know Christ already, He's constantly encouraging us, and accompanying us through our triumphs and tribulations. There's a HUGE difference in our lives once we know Him. Let's live with that difference, committing our struggles to Him because He knows them and encourages us to run the race towards Him.