My eyes hurt

This week in Acts we talked about the stoning of Stephen at the end of Ch 7, and all the things that he said about Jesus that got the Sanhedrin so riled up that they wanted to kill him. We talked about the fact that he probably wasn't pelted to death by small rocks, but that he was most likely bound hand and foot, placed at the bottom of a cliff, and was crushed under the weight of a large boulder that was pushed off of said cliff. About the fact that Stephen looked into heaven and saw the glory of God, something that Moses asked to see, but was never allowed to. And how Stephen is the only person to ever see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Everybody else always saw Christ seated by God, never standing. We pondered whether Jesus was standing to welcome Stephen into eternity, or whether he was standing in wait to pronounce judgement on the Jews. We agreed it was probably both of those things.

And then we went back to how being bouldered to death is a bad way to go. And how we have more advanced ways to kill these days. And then Dr. Fowler made a comment that has stuck with me all day. Something to this effect; that as Christians, we are guilty of killing people with our words almost daily. And then I got this mental picture of rocks flying from cold, calculating mouths all over Christendom, and how we aim our words like deadly stones at the redeemed and lost alike. And how we are so quick to give voice to what is essentially a murderous heart. We rush to pronounce judgement on someone, to lay waste to their intrinsic value as an image bearer, without a second thought to the fact that in the eyes of Jesus, when we do this, we are no better than the murderer waiting for execution on Death Row. Crazy. Kinda makes me feel like crap when I realize how much I am guilty of this, of playing the destroyer. It certainly flies in the face of ideas like being known for our love, and bearing each other's burdens, and having speech seasoned with salt and grace.

Another thing. Sometimes, in our never-ending fundamentalist quest to not be swayed by every wind of doctrine, we find ourselves neglecting to practice the fruits of our supposed beliefs. Orthodoxy is much more common these days than orthopraxy. And I think God is more concerned in the grand scheme of things with right living than with right belief. Belief isn't really belief at all unless it works itself out in real life, in our thoughts and actions. We don't really believe what we say we believe unless we live what we say we believe. Well, I have a 9:20 class tomorrow. Good night.