To Do or To Love?

[Passage]: Read Acts 7 and Psalm 119:165

I remember once during my high school days, happened a fight. Now before I go on to elaborate on the fight, one thing that you must first understand is the crumble of the racial wall between my batchmates. Those in my batch were really 1Malaysia. We had Indians, Chinese, and Malays all eating together, playing together, and were really on buddy terms. Now this fight happened in a class that was predominantly Malay with one Indian and one Chinese in the class. It was a fight that was instigated by the Chinese classmate. Now, the disciplinary teacher found out about the fight and called one of the Malay boys to the office. In actual fact, this Malay boy was not involved in the fight. In the office, the teacher asked the Malay boy to divulge who was involved in the fight. The Malay boy refused to reveal who was involved. When threatened that he will be punished, he still kept mum. In the end, he received a caning from the teacher. When he came back to class, he looked at the Chinese classmate, smiled and said, "You owe me one, dude..." He had sacrificed himself to save another simply because of his love for his friend.

Psalm 119:165 writes, "Those who love your law are completely secure; nothing causes them to stumble." Note that this was written during the Old Testament times. Note also the usage of the word "love". The psalmist refers to those who love God's law, not those who keeps the whole law (which was reflected by the Pharisees during Jesus' time of keeping the law without loving it). Those who love God's law will be COMPLETELY secure. They will be unwavering and unshaken, and as the psalmist puts it, "NOTHING causes them to stumble". A good biblical example of this principle would be Stephen.

As we all know, Stephen was one of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles over the church. If you take it a step further and read Acts chapter 6, you would realize how powerfully used Stephen was. Acts 6:8 writes, "Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and miraculous signs among the people." In terms of ministry and what he was doing for God, he was uber effective! But the principle of Psalm 119:165 is reflected in Acts 7. As we all know, Stephen was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin council. It was here that Stephen delivered his sermon. It was here that Stephen showed his love for Christ. It was here that we see that Stephen was not only doing ministry because he was called but rather because he loved what God had called him to do and he loved God. Even before the Sanhedrin council, staring death straight in the eye, Stephen still delivered a message of rebuke. And when he was dragged out and being stoned, he still did not blame God nor hate the calling. In fact, he asked for God to forgive them of their sins.

[Response: Are you doing your 'Christian duties' out of religiosity? Are you doing 'Christian stuff' like praying and reading your bible just because you HAVE to do it being a Christian? Or are you doing it because you love Christ and love praying, reading His Word etc. Ponder about it and respond to God in prayer.]

[Action: Take some special time apart from your daily devotion to pray. Use this time to not pray for other items - as you can do that during your devotion prayer - or anyone else, but use it to just open your heart to God. Wearing no masks, come to Him and just pray for Him to ignite that love once again. Then, just simply fall in love with Him again. After that, encourage another Christian that you know of and spur him or her on to fall in love with Jesus again.]