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Acts 7:59–8:1 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

The Apostle Paul had been an enemy of the church. He was an accomplice when Stephen was murdered by a mob. He was so convinced that Christians had to be stopped that he made it his business to persecute believers and drag them to prison in chains. He did everything in his power to put an end to Christianity.

But what happened on the road to Damascus changed things. The one who had been an enemy of Christ and a persecutor of God’s people was called by God and dedicated himself to proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Savior. He then faced obstacles and hardships, including the same kind of persecution he used to dish out. He was attacked by mobs, beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned. He endured emotional stress, criticism, and opposition. How was he able to continue in the face of all this?

Paul had lived a life of hatred, murder and evil. How he must have shuddered when he remembered watching the stoning of Stephen, one of God’s dearly loved children. Think of the guilt that must have weighed on him when he recalled how he had treated Christians.

But Paul also knew God’s great love for him. That is why he could write in Romans:

Romans 7:24-25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul had personally experienced the love and compassion of God in his life. He knew Jesus paid his debt, rescued him from his sin, and delivered him from death. That was the confidence that enabled him to move forward and share the love and compassion he received with others who needed it. He shared the message of how Jesus earned our forgiveness, life and salvation. Because Christ died for all, this message is for all and should go out to all. That is what drove Paul in his ministry,

It is the love of Christ that makes it all possible. It enabled and empowered Paul in his mission. And that same love of God in Christ makes it possible for you to continue in faithfulness and share Jesus with those you encounter every day.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15  For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

God’s love for fallen mankind was profound enough for Him to give what has to be termed as the ultimate sacrifice, His only Son. God the Father was willing to do this to secure you a spot with Him for eternity, a fellowship with God that begins now and continues forever.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves.

Isn’t that a neat little summary of what is wrong with most of the world? …that those who live should no longer live for themselves. Most of the people in this world are concerned with nothing other than living for themselves. And that includes those who are followers of Jesus Christ. We get so wrapped up in schedules, appointments, finances, relationships and hobbies that we forget to keep the main thing the main thing. We have a difficult time putting the needs of others ahead of our own. They call that being egocentric, which means I put myself at the center of my universe. The world revolves around me. I put the satisfaction of my needs at the center of my life. It is played out on the personal level, to be sure, but this goes beyond that – the neighborhood, the community, the state, the political party, the nation. Wars are waged as parties seek to defend their own interests. And it all has as its root the same thing: SIN, the desire to live only for self, with self at the center. It is interesting to note that one of the first words children speak with utter conviction is “MINE.” Our world caters to this kind of thinking. Advertising is geared toward it: do more for yourself, you deserve the best, indulge yourself more.

 Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. We need to be concerned about ourselves and taking care of our needs. That is not the problem. The problem comes in the way we let that self-concern become supreme, overriding our concern for our neighbor, the good of others, and even the will of God. That is when jealousy, dishonesty and greed slip in and show themselves in harmful behavior. In fact, if you were to examine all the sinfulness and violence and hatred in the world, it would all boil down to this: love for self above love for God and our neighbor.

Thanks be to God that His love is not like that. His love is beyond self-love. His love is so profound that He provided the means for us to overcome the sin so deeply rooted in us. He sent Jesus to take care of it for us. We are convinced that one died for all. All are in the same boat we are, spiritually dead and in need of help. And that is what God gave us in Jesus. He lived a perfect life for ALL. There is no sin so great that His death did not take care of it. We sometimes have a hard time believing that God would still love us and forgive us, especially when a particular sin is bothering us. But He died for all. His salvation gives us the means to get beyond selfishness when by faith His death becomes our death for sin and His resurrection becomes our resurrection.

You and I need to know and feel God’s love the same way that Paul did. When Paul felt that love, he was able to live not for himself, but for Christ. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Why are you here? Most people ponder that question at times. So many never find an answer, they see life as meaningless. Problems discourage and disorient them. Nothing seems to make sense. And sometimes life happens in such a way that it cannot be explained. But you can be confident that God has your lives in His hands, even if you cannot explain what is happening. You have this confidence because of the love He has shown you through a cross and an empty tomb. That love becomes a compelling force, giving meaning and direction and purpose to your life. That love leads you to live in service to God and uour neighbor, which is what your life should be about.

Just a few days ago I spent some time sitting next to a watering hole in West Texas with a good friend of mine. We were dove hunting. Eight years ago I had a detached retina in one eye and a torn retina in the other, requiring seven surgeries in a year’s time. My right eye was damaged significantly, but – praise God – my left eye was repaired to the point where I can still live a fairly normal life. I tell you this because I have always shot right-handed. I have only tried dove hunting a couple of times since all that happened with very little success. My right eye just doesn’t work well enough. So I made the decision to try to hunt left-handed.

My friend knew this was something new for me, so he sat right next to me, which is not what you usually do when hunting doves. Normally you spread out to cover more area, but we sat next to each other that day. He wanted to help me figure out how to shoot left-handed. He gave me pointers and encouraged me. And we also had the chance to visit and catch up on each other’s lives.

We talked about our families, our children and our grandchildren. We talked about some of our previous hunting trips, which included by father-in-law who is now in heaven. We talked about him and shared memories and spoke about how much we both miss him. We enjoyed the time we were able to spend together.

Friends are important. We should cherish them and never take them for granted. Especially not our best friend.

John 15:13–15 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Our best friend has given us what we need more than anything else: the guarantee of life forever because He paid for our sins. And He showed us how to be a friend as well.

Cherish your friends and be sure to take time to be with them.

P.S. I only shot at nine doves that day, and I got four of them.

I have mentioned before that my musical taste is eclectic. One of the artists I have enjoyed immensely is Randy Travis. His style was old school country music in a time when the genre was moving a different direction. I loved his smooth, deep vocals with that distinctive drawl. That beautiful voice was silenced in 2013 when he suffered a stroke.

Earlier this year, he released a new single, “Where That Came From.” No, he did not regain the ability to speak and sing. It was done by AI, Artificial Intelligence. Another artist recorded the song, which was then analyzed by computers using previous recordings of Randy’s voice to create a recording that sounded very much like Mr. Travis himself had sung the song. It was not as artificial as many of the AI impersonations you hear online. It was actually very good. But it was not quite as good as the real thing.

While there are certainly good and beneficial uses for AI, there are also a myriad of ways this technology can be abused. Political ads purport to play a recording of a candidate saying something he or she never said. College students use AI to generate an essay on a topic without doing any research or learning anything. Hackers use AI to steal personal and financial information online.  And because it is developed by humans, there is the potential for bias to an individual’s point of view.

Something we should recognize about Artificial Intelligence should be obvious by the name. It is artificial. It is not genuine, not the real thing. It has the potential to deceive and lead people astray. Consider this: one of the synonyms for “artificial” is “false.”

Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

The Greek word translated here as “watch out” can also mean “beware” or “be careful.” There are things out that there sound good but are in fact not true. They are rather leading you away from the truth.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the real deal. Knowledge of and faith in Him is the intelligence you need. He showed Himself to be genuine by having His actions match His Words. He told us He came to do the will of His Father, and He did that by living without sin and offering Himself to pay for the sins of the world. He enables us to be forgiven, having done all that is required in God’s Law. He is the only way for us to have life. Those who put their faith in Jesus have the certainty of complete forgiveness, life with Him now and life with Him forever. Don’t settle for any artificial substitutes. There is only one real Savior, and it is Jesus.

Luke 15:1-10 ¹Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. ²But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ <sup>7</sup>I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.  <sup>8</sup>“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? <sup>9</sup>And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

“Use it or Lose It.” Someone has probably shared that bit of wisdom with you somewhere along your journey through life. And it is accurate. You can lose what you don’t use. I know that to be true in my life. I studied German for four years in High School and College. I made high grades and was conversant in the language. But by the time I had finished Seminary, it was almost completely gone. I had not used it, and I lost it. Because I have a couple of trips to Germany coming up in the not-too-distant future, I’ve started the relearning process using an app on my phone. While I don’t pretend to believe I will have mastered the language, I hope to restore a basic vocabulary, enough to make myself known and let the people there know I made an effort to learn their language.

God gave us His holiness when He created us. We lose our holiness by our sin. When we play follow-the-leader with Adam and Eve rather than God, we lose the holiness He gives us. Every time we sin, we lose something. When we lie we lose honesty. When we steal we  lose integrity. When you misuse sex you lose a two-become-one-flesh relationship. We perpetuate the sins of our ancestors by continuing to live by our own knowledge of good and evil rather than by the holiness of God.

Our God does not want us to be lost, so He seeks us out. Lost sheep do not find their way back to the shepherd. A lost coin flip itself back into the coin purse. And a lost sinner does not go looking for God. When Adam and Eve first sinned, did they recognize their mistake and go looking for God? No, God came looking for them, but they were hiding from Him.

Christianity is different from all other religions because it is not man’s search for God, but God’s search for lost sinners. That is the beauty of what God has told us in His Word. He sent prophets with a message of repentance and forgiveness to His people. He sent angels to give His people direction. His Word was with His people. But still they hid from Him.

od didn’t give up. He did not forget about all who were lost. He sent His Son to give back to us what we had lost. The Son of God became human to bring the rightness of God to us. When He died on the cross to pay for sin, He took away the guilt that made us want to run away from God and hide. He picked us up and carried us back to God when He defeated sin and death by His rising back to life on the third day. Look at the cross to see what Christ has given you. That which we had lost has been found.

Live in the certainty of the forgiveness you have for Jesus’ sakel Hold on to the holiness Jesus earned and gives to those who put their faith in Him. Use it in your life to be assured and to comfort others who need to hear this good news. Don’t lose it or cast it aside. Use that forgiveness Christ has given you to forgive others. Use the goodness Christ has given you to do good to others.

We are spending some time under the theme “Making Plans” on the basis of 1 Chronicles 28. Yesterday I mentioned that David made plans to build a temple for the Lord, but God told him that would not be done by him, but by his son, Solomon.

28:6 He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. 7 I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws, as is being done at this time.’ 8 “So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. 9 “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”

These verses are a promise and an admonishment. Things started out well enough for Solomon. He got His wisdom and built the Temple and Israel thrived. But in good times the people would fall away from the Lord, as though they no longer needed Him. This would lead to division of the nation and hardship and exile. But that is further down the road. Getting back to this chapter, David publicly announces the promise to Solomon and the leaders, and reminds them all to be faithful to the one true God.

11 Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. 12 He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. 13 He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the Lord, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service. 14 He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: 15 the weight of gold for the gold lampstands and their lamps, with the weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for each silver lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand; 16 the weight of gold for each table for consecrated bread; the weight of silver for the silver tables; 17 the weight of pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers; the weight of gold for each gold dish; the weight of silver for each silver dish; 18 and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

This was the plan that David passed along to his son, plans that he said came from the Spirit of God, plans that the Spirit had put into his mind. And you may be wondering why I aked you to read all the boring tedium about the weight of gold and silver for lampstands and lamps and bowls and forks and tables. There is a lot of details in there, like you find in Exodus and Leviticus, the kind of stuff that might easily put you to sleep. But here is the reason you should read this: A good plan pays attention to detail.

 God paid attention to every detail in carrying out his plan for our redemption. When the fullness of time had come…  Everything was just right to bring Mary and Joseph to the town of David, through whom the Messiah would come. He fulfilled every prophecy made by God, did everything necessary to pay for the sins of everyone so that we could have forgiveness and salvation instead of our deserved punishment. He was pierced for our transgression, he was crushed for our sins, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by His wounds we are healed. And after he paid the price for sins, he rose in triumph and victory for us. It was all part of the plan. Every little detail was carried out.

More on 1 Chronicles 28 tomorrow.

Among his fellow sailors, John Newton was known as “The Great Blasphemer.” He later referred to himself as an “infidel and libertine.” He was captain of a slave ship, transporting fellow human beings from their homes in Africa across the sea in chains to lives of servitude—if they survived the crossing. Newton was known to mock God and any who expressed their faith in God. Yet, whenever he got into a close scrape and narrowly avoided death—this happened on several occasions—he would try for a time to live a better life. This wasn’t out of any love for God; he was just trying by his own efforts to avoid damnation. But one close call was different. Moments after he had left the deck of his ship during a violent storm, the man who replaced him was washed overboard and drowned. Newton said it was then that he began to realize his own helplessness. He began to read the Bible. In time, he became a different man. He turned to Christ. He got married. He even became a minister and an active opponent of the slave trade. He also wrote these words:

Amazing grace—how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see!

God opened John Newton’s eyes and set his heart on fire for Jesus Christ. He may have been a blasphemer and a slaver, but he was no more sinful and no blinder by nature than any other human being. Toward the end of his life, Newton wrote, “When I was young, I was sure of many things; now there are only two things of which I am sure: one is that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Christ is an all-sufficient Savior.”

Luke 24:31-32 “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’”

The disciples on the way to Emmaus could not “see” Jesus, even when He was right under their noses. Their faces were “downcast” when Jesus asked what they were discussing as they walked along the road (Luke 24:17). These two disciples weren’t unbelievers or ignorant. They knew who Jesus claimed to be. They even knew about the report from the women, that they had been to the tomb and it was empty. Still, they were downcast. And what does Jesus say? “He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

God opened the eyes of the Emmaus disciples so that they could see Jesus and realize who had been talking to them and teaching them, and who was ready to eat with them. How did they react? They looked at each other and said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  They then ran seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell their friends that they had seen Jesus! It was already night, but they didn’t even wait until the next day. That’s how excited they were. God had used His Word to set their hearts on fire.

 By His grace and mercy, God has called us out of the darkness through the power of the Gospel. For the sake of the holy life and the innocent suffering and death of His Son, Jesus Christ, and sealed by Christ’s resurrection, we are God’s forgiven people. Our eyes have been opened. Our hearts should be on fire to help others have their eyes opened, too, by sharing what we know about Jesus.