Stephen takes over the Book of Acts and gives a noteworthy reprise of the history of the Jews. Then he tells an unpleasant truth. Apparently it was a stoning offense.

St. Stephen, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

  “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Acts7:51-53 ESV Bible Gateway Link

Historical Reprise: Acts 7:2-50

This is one of the eternal conflicts in the Bible. If God loves us why is Satan going "to and fro upon the earth." Job encountered him to devastating effect. So have we all. Take courage, he's a coward and as James 4:7 advises: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

 

And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Job 2:2 (ESV)

James 4:7

I find it ever amazing how often in the Holy Bible, ancient history pops up to inform events more current. This was a simple edict: Jews were allowed to defend themselves.

 

Mordecai and Queen Esther (Lilian Broca)

Esther and Mordecai were in Iran where all but a remnant of Jews had been exiled. An officer in the King’s court ordered all the Jews killed because Mordecai wouldn’t bow to him, and otherwise followed God’s law first, not the King’s. Events and Queen Esther intervene and suddenly Mordecai has power. 

 But you (Mordecai) may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.”

Esther 8:8 (ESV) Bible Gateway link 

And he (Mordecai) wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king's service, bred from the royal stud, saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods,

Esther 8:10-11 (ESV) Bible Gateway Link

Peter and John were supernaturally released from prison. The religious officials felt threatened and wanted to kill them. But a law school professor gave the officials some advice, which I have used in my own life.

 “But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.”

Gamaliel: “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.”

Acts 5: (ESV) Bible Gateway Passage link:

This passage always makes me think of the 'God things' in my life. In the scheme of things, my own story is like a puff of breeze, but here it is regardless.

In my early 20's I was working on a story for KQED the Public TV station in San Francisco. The work brought me to the East Coast, where I was only a quick train ride away from Washington DC. I'd never been there so I got on the train. I wandered out of Union Station and saw the Capitol building. The thought occurred to me "I could live here." Thus enfolded a series of events, like a glide path, where everything fell into place for me to move from my origins on the west coast to the country's capital.  I got a job in my field at a local TV station,  and a place to live. Eventually, I found myself, I found the love of my life, and married him and I found the work of my life. Once God made it clear to me that I was finished with that work, I had the time to really study my beloved Bible and I found a deep and abiding love in God's presence, which is ever growing.

The lovely, orphaned Esther, the ward of her relative Mordecai, a Jew in exile. Her story of saving her people, starts here. It is the story of how God uses the most unlikely, fragile and unimportant people to carry out his will. Also she was responsible for cutting taxes!

 the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.

Esther 2:17-18 (ESV) Bible Gateway link to passage

Communism doesn't work! The evidence is overwhelming. The reason? It goes against human nature. This is a perfect example that nothing is impossible with God.

 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Acts 4:32-35 (ESV) link to Bible Gateway passage

Censorship! It's difficult enough to suppress misinformation. It's almost impossible to successfully censor the truth.

Peter and John heal a lame man

Rulers and elders and scribes in Jerusalem:) …“What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened.

Acts 4:16-21 (ESV) Bible Gateway passage

In my unfolding relationship with God, I’m starting to understand that all my stuff is pretty much worthless. My faith and the fact that I have access to the Holy Spirit are my true wealth.

 

The Lame Beggar healed

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Acts 3:6 (ESV) Bible Gateway Passage

"What are these feeble Jews doing? (Neh 4:2)" This is ever the question from Israel’s enemies. Having returned from exile, the Jews were rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.

 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

Nehemiah 6:15-16 (ESV) Bible Gateway link

This admonition could not be clearer. He will scatter, he will gather and in between, his people need to keep his commandments. Oh, and do them. This applies to all, but his name dwells in Israel.

 

Nehemiah’s Prayer

 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”…

Nehemiah 1: 3-11 (ESV) Bible Gateway link

I have to post this. It is just too lovely not to. Bless the late Frederick Buechner.

Job JOB WAS THE RICHEST MAN AROUND, but in a single day he was wiped out. The Sabeans ran off with his asses and oxen and slaughtered the hired hands. Lightning struck his sheep barn and burned up the whole flock, not to mention the shepherds. The Chaldeans rustled his camels and made short work of the camel drivers. And a hurricane hit with such devastating effect the house where his seven sons and three daughters were having a party that there wasn't enough of them left in the wreckage to identify.   What happened next was that Job came down with leprosy. And what happened after that was that he cursed the day that he was born. He said that if he had his way, it would be stricken off the calendar entirely and never so much as mentioned again. He prayed to die, but his heart went on beating. He prayed for the sun to go out like a match, but it kept on shining. His wife advised him to curse God and then go hang himself, but he stopped just short of that because he was a very good man and a very religious man and there were some lengths to which, even though he was almost out of his head with the horror of it all, he couldn't quite bring himself to go. And that was the crux of his problem—the fact that he was a very good and a very religious man and knew it. Why had God let such things happen to him?   He had four well-meaning but insufferable friends who came over to cheer him up and try to explain it. They said that anybody with enough sense to come in out of the rain knew that God was just. They said that anybody old enough to spell his own name knew that since God was just, he made bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. They said that, such being the case, you didn't need a Harvard diploma to figure out that, since bad things had happened to Job, then ipso facto he must have done something bad himself. But Job hadn't, and he said so, and that's not all he said either. "Worthless physicians are you all," he said. "Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom" (Job 13:4-5). They were a bunch of theological quacks, in other words, and the smartest thing they could do was shut up. But they were too busy explaining things to listen.   Eliphaz the Temanite proceeded to make a few helpful suggestions about some of the bad things that Job must have done and then let slip his mind. He must have robbed a few beggars of the rags on their backs, he said. He must have refused food to some poor soul who was starving to death. There must have been several widows and orphans he'd ground his heel in the faces of without stopping to think what he was doing. But Job didn't even dignify these charges by refuting them. He talked about God instead.   There had been a time when God and he had been like that, he said, holding up side by side what the leprosy had left of two fingers. There was a time "when his lamp shone upon my head," he said, "and by his light I walked through darkness. When the Almighty was with me, and when my children were about me" (29:3,5), and then he had to stop for a few minutes and blow what was left of his nose before going on.   The question, he said once he'd had time to pull himself back together, was where was God now? He had looked for him in front, and he had looked for him in back; he had looked for him to the right, and he had looked for him to the left; but he wasn't anywhere to be found. If he only knew where God might be keeping himself, he'd go tell him his troubles and get an explanation at least, but God had made himself scarce as hen's teeth, and looking for him was like looking for a needle in a haystack.   "God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes," he said, too miserable to worry about mixing his metaphors. "I cry to thee, and thou dost not answer me," he said, "and with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me" (30:19-21). It was the closest he had come yet to taking his wife's advice and calling him a sonofabitch. "My skin turns black and falls from me," he said (30:30) and then took advantage of a long speech by a friend named Elihu to change a few of his dressings.   Elihu went over many of the same points his colleagues had already ticked off and then added the idea that the destruction of all Job's property, the death of all his children, and his leprosy were probably just God's way of helping him to improve his character and sharpen his sensitivities. "He delivers the afflicted by their afflictions," he explained, "and opens their ears by adversity" (36:15), but Job had no chance to respond to this new and comforting insight because at that point another speaker made himself heard, and this time the speaker was God.   Just the way God cleared his throat almost blasted Job off his feet, and that was only for starters. It is the most gorgeous speech that God makes in the whole Old Testament, and it is composed almost entirely of the most gorgeous and preposterous questions that have ever been asked by God or anybody else.   "Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?" he asked. "Where is the dwelling of light? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or has the rain a father? Can you bind the chain of the Pleiades? Who has put wisdom in the clouds or given understanding to the mists?" (Job 38 passim). And by this time he was just starting to get wound up.   "Is the wild ox willing to serve you?" he asked. "Will he spend the night at your crib? The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder, who says among the trumpets 'Ha, ha!' and smells the battle afar off? Does the hawk fly by your wisdom and stretch her wings toward the south?" (Job 39 passim).   There was obviously only one thing for Job to say, and he said it. "Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer thee?" he said, coming out with that one frail question of his own. "I will proceed no further" (40:3-5). But God wasn't through yet.   You can think of God as a great cosmic bully here if you want, but you can think of him also as a great cosmic artist, a singer, say, of such power and magnificence and so caught up in the incandescence of his own art that he never notices that he has long since ruptured the eardrums of his listeners and reduced them to quivering pulp. "Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?" he asked (40:9), and then he launched off into a devastating aria about Behemoth, the hippopotamus he had made, and Leviathan, the crocodile he had made, challenging Job or anybody else, if they thought they could, to take them for walks on leashes or pierce their armored hides with cold steel.   You feel that God had only paused to catch his breath when Job saw his chance to break in again at last. "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know," he said (42:3). And then he said something else.   All his life he had heard about God, about his glory and his holiness, about his terrible wrath and his great mercy, about the way he had created the earth and all its creatures and set the sun, moon, and stars in the sky so there would always be light to see by and beauty to gladden the heart. He had sometimes thrilled and sometimes trembled at the sound of these descriptions, and they had made such an impression on him over the years that not even the terrible things that had happened to him or the terrible question as to why they had happened or the miserable answers to that question proposed by his friends could quite make him curse God as had been suggested, although there were a few times when he came uncomfortably close to it. But now it was no longer a matter of hearing descriptions of God, because finally he had heard and seen him for himself.   He had seen the great glory so shot through with sheer, fierce light and life and gladness, had heard the great voice raised in song so full of terror and wildness and beauty, that from that moment on, nothing else mattered. All possible questions melted like mist, and all possible explanations withered like grass, and all the bad times of his life together with all the good times were so caught up into the fathomless life of this God, who had bent down to speak with him, though by comparison he was no more than a fleck of dust on the head of a pin in the lapel of a dancing flea, that all he could say was, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (42:5-6).   But God didn't let him despise himself for long. He turned to the garrulous friends and said, "You have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has" (42:7), with the clear implication that Job had been right in standing up to him, if only because it showed he was worth listening to, as his friends preeminently were not. And then he gave back to Job more riches than he had ever had before together with his health, and Job lived to have a whole new set of children and to see them through four generations before he died old and full of days.   As for the children he had lost when the house blew down, not to mention all his employees, he never got an explanation about them because he never asked for one, and the reason he never asked for one was that he knew that, even if God gave him one that made splendid sense out of all the pain and suffering that had ever been since the world began, it was no longer splendid sense that he needed, because with his own eyes he had beheld, and not as a stranger, the One who in the end clothed all things, no matter how small or confused or in pain, with his own splendor.   And that was more than sufficient. Originally published in Peculiar Treasures and later in Beyond Words  Frederick Buechner (pronounced Beekner)

I know nothing about what God is up to! I do know that trying to be obedient and humble brings me peace. I try to be alive to his Word, align my will to his and just do my part.

The Ascension of Jesus

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

Acts1:6-7 ESV Bible Gateway Passage

God's will is the ultimate in creativity. He used the King of Persia, now Iran, to release exiled Israel to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. The king was divinely inspired.

King Artaxerxes of Persia

 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

Bible Gateway Passage: Ezra 27: 7-8

Truth again. Thank you John for being there and thank you for writing down your eyewitness account. We are so fortunate you knew Scripture and could bring the Old and New Testament together so we can honor both.

 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

Bible Gateway passage: John 19:35-37 ESV

Hello Again!

 

I stopped blogging on Vine and Branch because I lost the ability to distribute it to my email followers. After a two year break, I pray you can receive my emails again. I also post on X @humekim.

I have continued to read the Holy Bible every day,  and I hope this blog is a way for my branches to bear fruit. May yours bear fruit too.  Please share or post if something resonates with you. I think of it this way: if one single person hears something they need to hear it is worth the effort.

Bless you all, and Welcome back!

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Bible Gateway link: John 15:4-5 (ESV)

One of the few good Kings, Josiah, was restoring the ruined Temple in Jerusalem. The workers came across, what was essentially the long lost Bible. Josiah was distraught by all that had been lost and renewed his kingdom by following the Book of the Covenant. I think we’re due for another Josiah.

  And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2Chr.34.31&version=ESV

I spent my work-life as a journalist trying to follow truth. It was complicated but not hopeless. When I started studying the Bible, it didn’t seem that hard.

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

John 18:37-38 (ESV) Bible Gateway

To what gods today are we sacrificing our unborn sons and daughters? Is it economic comfort, maybe freedom of movement, career? Climate Change? How about social standing or fear or just plain selfishness. Why do we think we know better than God? How can he forgive us? He does.

 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.

He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

Bible Gateway passage 2 Chronicles 28:1-3 (ESV)

Link: The Valley of Hinnom and its significance in both the Old and New Testament

We could all hope for a military leader as strong as Uzziah. But he made the mistake of thinking he earned his greatness, when it was just borrowed from God.

  And Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging. In Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. 

And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

2 Chronicles 26:14-16 ESV

Obviously, this is my signature verse. I am adjured to bear fruit, and can’t do anything without him. I also don’t want to be thrown away, withered and burned in the fire.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

Bible Gateway Passage: John 15:5-9 (ESV)

I don't have blood children. I secretly worry I'll be alone, unable to take care of myself. Silly me, if I follow instructions God will be living with me.

 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep
my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Bible Gateway Link: John 14:23 (ESV)

This is the definition of a sacred responsibility. The Judeo-Christian ethic didn’t come out of thin air. We ignore it at our peril.

  He (Jehoshaphat) appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges,

“Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment. Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes.”

Bible Gateway Passage 2 Chronicles 19:4-7 (ESV)

“Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” This is step one in every endeavor. We assume God has the same outcome in mind as we do. That’s a bad assumption. He has THE plan, and it is rarely what we think it is.

 

Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah,

“Will you go with me to Ramot-gilead?” He answered him, “I am as you are, my people as your people. We will be with you in the war.” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.”

Bible Gateway Passage: 2 Chronicles 18:3-4 ESV

As I age, it is clear, the more light I have the better I can see.

  And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

Bible Gateway passage John 11:44-47