Today’s reading is Acts 7: 21-40

Yesterday Stephen goes through the Old Testament stories to show how God was always reaching out to His people. God was (and is) always at work to draw His people back to Himself.  He is a God of grace, of mercy, of forgiveness. That is who He is.

Today, though, we see another part of the story. We see human rejection. We see that yes, God reaches out to people, but we see that people will reject what it is that God is trying to do.  People will turn away from God’s grace and cling to selfishness and pride and greed and all matter of sin.  Because we are imperfect people.

Yes, God reaches towards us. And yes, we turn away. But as the communion liturgy of the United Methodist Church says:

You formed us in your image
and breathed into us the breath of life.
When we turned away, and our love failed,
your love remained steadfast.
You delivered us from captivity,
made covenant to be our sovereign God,
and spoke to us through the prophets.

God reaches out, even when our love fails.  Never forget that. Be aware of where you are turning away from God.  And be aware of God’s love always, always, always reaching out to us.

ink to their level. Respond with the grace that only God can give.  God will see, God will act.  God will respond.  Let Him stand His ground.  In that, we have nothing to fear.

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