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[Hide] (69.8KB, 800x1066) >And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And having said this, he fell asleep.
Now the man who performed this foul deed was the same one who would later write the words that the Holy Spirit said, "Awake, sleeper; rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" and the same one who later was faithful unto death, seeing his head removed from his shoulders for the sake of the one whom he previously worked to destroy, whose servants he murdered. Make no mistake, Charlie Kirk died a martyr, not merely because he was a believer who was murdered but because he was murdered for proclaiming the Christian worldview to a wicked and rebellious generation. These people hate the gospel, they hate you, and they hate Christ; they killed Charlie, why wouldn't they kill any one of you? "All who hate me love death".
We are being given a special blessing and responsibility which has not been granted to most Christians for some 500 years. Now is the time to be focused and to make no mistakes. We must do our duty to our Lord, and to that we must be firstly bold and secondly humble. Bold, lest we should be intimidated into silence by the very real threat of persecution and death, nor for any other reason; do not deceive yourself with pride that you cannot deny Him, or else you will deny Him three times before the cock crows. Nothing holds you up but the Holy Spirit. Therefore pray with the apostles, "And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your slaves may speak Your word with all confidence". But be humble, lest you should respond in the flesh and do a disservice to Christ, who does not conquer by the sword but through the preaching of the cross. Therefore, I suggest that we should pray for Charlie Kirk's murderer and for all who celebrated, that they may come to know Him whom they persecute. Such is what that old persecutor would have you do, whom God was even powerful enough to bring to repentance, who wrote "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth."