the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Acts 6:1-15
Already the harmonious picture of Acts 2:42 has become clouded. A murmuring (a complaint that they dare not voice aloud) has arisen among the disciples. Let us be on our guard to silence such murmurings of discontent and jealousy in us because through them the "destroyer" tries to disturb the communion of God’s children (read 1 Corinthians 10:10).
In order to remedy this state of things deacons are chosen. We would not have thought that, just to serve tables, they would have to be "full of the Holy Ghost" (v. 3). Well! this is the normal state of the Christian and it can be ours if we desire it but not, as some believe, by asking for a new indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He is already in the believer. But we must let Him have complete control of the temple of our hearts.
With Stephen, in particular, the Spirit shines out in His three characteristics: of power, of love and of a sound mind (or Wisdom of Solomon 8:1-21; Wisdom of Solomon 10:1-21; cf. 2 Timothy 1:7). The works (v. 8) and the words (v. 10) of this man of God silence all his adversaries and they are reduced to hiring false witnesses against him (cf. Matthew 26:59). But already his face is radiant with heavenly beauty (v. 15).
