Afraid to see the man of the heavens opened

Icon of St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Stephen had to come before the High Priest and the religious leaders after he had been arrested and charged made against him because he never ceased to speak words against the holy place and the law …” (Acts 6:13) he was not afraid to tell about the truth and what we should believe.

Still today lots of Christians are afraid to accept what Jesus told about himself and his heavenly Father. They prefer to continue in the thought of the early Christian leader Athanasius who many years after the disciples of Christ castrated their ideas.

Looking at Stephen his process we may find comparisons in more recent centuries with the persecution and killing of those who spoke to expose the false teachings the churches developed about humans having an immortal soul and the teaching of the Trinity, a word foreign to Scripture. It was Athanasius, who is celebrated in many Christian communities today as a saint, who in various writings defended the teaching that the Son and the Holy Spirit were of equal divinity with God the Father and so shared a three-fold being. (See Athanasian Creed)

Stephen was one of those men who was not afraid to give a reply and gives those gathered around him, a long history lesson of all the follies of belief and actions in the past and how God worked through faithful men to fulfil his purpose.

Like him we should show others how God has sent a man to the world to declare the Works of God. But this son of man who is the son of God was killed like other prophets, who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, were persecuted and killed. (Acts 7:52).

Like today we can see that mots people think only about themselves and want to have all the advantages the world has to offer, and as such exclude the world of God, the reaction of the accusers of Stephen was totally human, totally self-centred! Their minds were blind to the ways of God.

The Holy Spirit gave Stephen a vision of “… the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said,

 ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (verses 55,56).

How long before we see such a vision – and then realize it is more than a vision: it is reality – and the words of the two angels to the astonished disciples we read in Acts 1 come true,

 “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (verse 11).

Our minds cannot comprehend this event, yet it will happen, over 200 scripture passages testify to this.

Finally look at what we read on April the 27th, in chapter 3 and Peter’s testimony about the return of Jesus,
 “whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Acts 3:21).

Stephen and his friends did believe in the man he had followed and which we also should follow and believe, because only by accepting who he is and what he did we shall be able to come under the grace of salvation.

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”.

For the Gentiles God offered also a solution to become children of God, becoming part of the people of God who may enter the Kingdom of God. for being able to come under that blessing they only have to accept this sent one from God, who is the son of God. He gave his life as a lamb but was taken out of the dead as an example for what can happen to us. His resurrection is there to look at as our liberation out of death and the Way to a new life for us all. We should be pleased to find him now sitting at the right hand of God, being a mediator between God and man. His intercession for us even now before the throne of God The Father should convince us of his importance for us and how heavens are opened for us.

Dare to step away from the false teaching of a three-headed god and come to the same believe as St. Stephen and the early followers of the Nazarene teacher Jeshua, the son of man and son of David who, when the heavens opened up above him after his baptism, God declared to be His only begotten beloved son.

During May we will start reading the heart-stirring prophecies God gave through Isaiah – some of these will enable us, in a spiritual sense, to “see the heavens opened”. How long now before we literally see this?

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Preceding article: It happened on May 2nd 295

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Grace and beloved by God

“My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ
and I have done nothing to earn or deserve it. ..
Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.
This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion. ..
How glorious the splendour of a human heart that trusts that it is loved!”
“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark.
In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means.”
“There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face
and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.”
all from Brennan Manning

English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 God has given His beloved son to the world and was willing to accept the offer by His son. In case Jehovah God had not accepted the action of Christ Jesus as a buy out for humanity, the ransom of Jesus Christ would have been to no use for us. Only because God the Father did want to accept the death of His son Jeshua (Jesus Christ) and was willing to take His son up in heaven as a mediator between Him and man, we are offered the Grace of Saving and have the chance to be redeemed.
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No Other Name (But Jesus)

What do you think of this?:

“No Other Name (But Jesus)” in which he gives a quick example of how Christ is in every book of the Bible: “God has promised He will never leave us nor forsake us.  In Christ, God has revealed His faithfulness to us from the beginning of time.  In Genesis, Jesus is The Ram at Abraham’s Altar.  In Exodus, He is The Passover Lamb.  In Leviticus, He is The High Priest.  In Numbers, He is The Cloud by Day and Pillar of Fire by Night.  In Deuteronomy, He is The City of Our Refuge.  In Joshua, He is The Scarlet Thread Out Rahab’s Window. In Judges, He is Our Judge.  In Ruth, He is Our Kinsman Redeemer. In 1st and 2nd Samuel, He is Our Trusted Prophet, and in Kings and Chronicles, He is Our Reigning King.  In Ezra, He is Our Faithful Scribe.  In Nehemiah, He is The Rebuilder of Everything That is Broken, and in Esther, He is The Mordecai Sitting Faithful at the Gate.  In Joel, He is Our Redeemer That Ever Liveth.  In Psalms, He is My Shepherd and I Shall Not Want.  In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, He is Our Wisdom and in The Song of Solomon, He’s The Beautiful Bridegroom.  In Isaiah, He’s The Suffering Servant.  In Jeremiah and Lamentations, it is Jesus That is The Weeping Prophet.  In Ezekiel, He is The Wonderful 4-Faced Man, and in Daniel, He is The Fourth Man in the Midst of The Fiery Furnace.  In Hosea, He is My Love That is Forever Faithful.  In Joel, He Baptizes Us With The Holy Spirit.  In Amos, He’s Our Burden-Bearer.  In Obadiah, Our Saviour and in Jonah, He is The Great Foreign Missionary That Takes The Word of God Into All the World.  You go on and you see in Micah, He is The Messenger With Beautiful Feet.  In Nahum, He is The Avenger.  In Habakkuk, He is The Watchman That is Ever Praying for Revival.  In Zephaniah, He is The LORD Mighty To Save.  In Haggai, He is The Restorer of Our Lost Heritage.  In Zechariah, He is Our Fountain and in Malachi, He is The Son of Righteousness With Healing In His Wings.  In Matthew, Thou Art The Christ; The Son of The Living God.  In Mark, He is The Miracle Worker.  In Luke, He is The Son of Man and in John, He is The Door By Which Everyone Of Us Must Enter.  In Acts, He is The Shining Light That Appears To Saul On The Road To Damascus.  In Romans, He is Our Justifier.  In 1st Corinthians, Our Resurrection.  In 2nd Corinthians, Our Sin-Bearer.  In Galatians, He Redeems Us From The Law.  In Ephesians, He is Our Unsearchable Riches.  In Philippians, He Supplies Our Every Need.  And in Colossians, He is The Fullness of The God-head Bodily.  In 1st  & 2nd Thessalonians, He is Our Soon-Coming King.  In 1st & 2nd Timothy, He is The Mediator Between God and Man.  In Titus, He is Our Blessed Hope.  In Philemon, He is A Friend That Sticks Closer Than A Brother.  And in Hebrews, He is The Blood of The Everlasting Covenant.  In James, it is The Lord That Heals The Sick.  In 1st & 2nd Peter, He is The Chief Shepherd.  In 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, it is Jesus Who Has The Tenderness of Love.  In Jude, He is The LORD Coming With Ten Thousand Saints.  And in Revelation, lift up your eyes, Church, for Your Redemption Draweth Nigh.  He is KING of KINGS & LORD of LORDS!”  Nice intro to the song!

From:Don Moen in Oman: Update