30 “Forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush in the wilderness near Mount Sinai.31 Enthralled by the sight, Moses approached to get a closer look and he heard the Lord’s voice: 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Trembling with fear, Moses didn’t dare to investigate any further. 33 The Lord continued, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have clearly seen the oppression my people have experienced in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning. I have come down to rescue them. Come! I am sending you to Egypt.’ 35 “This is the same Moses whom they rejected when they asked, ‘Who appointed you as our leader and judge?’ This is the Moses whom God sent as leader and deliverer. God did this with the help of the angel who appeared before him in the bush. 36 This man led them out after he performed wonders and signs in Egypt at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness. 37 This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ 38 This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. He is the one who received life-giving words to give to us. 39 He’s also the one whom our ancestors refused to obey. Instead, they pushed him aside and, in their thoughts and desires, returned to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will lead us. As for this Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him!’ (Acts 7:30-40,CEB)
This story is of Moses and the burning bush that led Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and to the promised land, this is all part of the history lesson Stephen gives to those who are wanting to put him to death for his belief in Jesus as Messiah.
Stephen is the first martyr for the faith and is stoned to death with Saul holding the cloaks of those who do the stoning.
Do we know the history of our faith well enough to tell it to those who do not believe? Stephen was able to retell the stories of the Hebrew Scripture in a way that made them come alive as the story of Jesus. These stories are our story and are our family history. We should know them and be able to tell how they tell of us and the way God loved us from the very beginning.
Learn your story. And love as you go.
Love People, Love God.
aSacredRebel 