Food Distribution
At Some Point... Everyone Gets Hungry...
Revival1 [noun]
an act or instance of reviving: state of being revived: such as
renewed attention to or interest in something
a new presentation or publication of something old
a period of renewed religious interest
an often highly emotional evangelistic meeting or series of meetings
restoration of force, validity, or effect (as to contract)
Tucked away within the islands just north of the content of Europe lies the United Kingdom of Britain, a coalition of several nations, “North Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales.” Wales is a country seemingly overlooked among its more well-known European neighbors like England, France, Germany, and Spain; a nation in lockstep fidelity to the British Crown. Can you name anything significant about this tiny country nestled in the southwest of England? It has nothing to do with size either, Belgium is another small country, and even though it is small everybody knows they have waffles. But, roughly a hundred and twenty years ago, Wales was in the middle, of what we in the kingdom, call a revival. In fact, this was to be one of the more notable Jesus movements worldwide in the history of humanity. Here’s what our old friend Wikipedia has to say about the2 Welsch Revival:
The 1904–1905 Welsh Revival was the largest Christian revival in Wales during the 20th century. It was one of the most dramatic in terms of its effect on the population and triggered revivals in several other countries. The movement kept the churches of Wales filled for many years to come, with seats being placed in the aisles in Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Swansea for twenty years or so, for example. Meanwhile, the Awakening swept the rest of Britain, Scandinavia, parts of Europe, North America, the mission fields of India and the Orient, Africa, and Latin America. The Welsh revival has been traced as the root of the megachurches in the present era.
…Etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed through history. Let’s look at the etymology of the word decide….
Decide3 (v.) late 14c., "to settle a dispute, determine a controversy," from Old French decider, from Latin decidere "to decide, determine," literally "to cut off," from de "off" (see de-) + caedere "to cut" (from PIE root *kae-id- "to strike"). For Latin vowel change, see acquisition. Sense is of resolving difficulties "at a stroke." Meaning "to make up one's mind" is attested from 1830.
de-4
active word-forming element in English and in many verbs inherited from French and Latin, from Latin de "down, down from, from, off; concerning" (see de), also used as a prefix in Latin, usually meaning "down, off, away, from among, down from," but also "down to the bottom, totally" hence "completely" (intensive or completive), which is its sense in many English words.
As a Latin prefix, it also had the function of undoing or reversing a verb's action, and hence it came to be used as a pure privative — "not, do the opposite of, undo" — which is its primary function as a living prefix in English, as in defrost (1895), defuse (1943), de-escalate (1964), etc. In some cases, a reduced form of dis-.
-cide5
word-forming element meaning "killer," from French -cide, from Latin -cida "cutter, killer, slayer," from -cidere, combining form of caedere "to strike down, chop, beat, hew, fell, slay," from Proto-Italic *kaid-o-, from PIE root *kae-id- "to strike." For Latin vowel change, see acquisition. The element also can represent "killing," from French -cide, from Latin -cidium "a cutting, a killing."
…the word Decide… means to kill completely, there is a violence, in deciding to follow Jesus…
The one who has Decided... Rejects all chance for spirituality outside of the kingdom of heaven [Religion]... Rejects methods to acquire for greed in place of provision from Jesus [Economy]... Rejects man’s rules of relation in: Marriage, Race, Life, and Logic [Government]... Rejects the evil flow of information costing time and treasure [Entertainment]
It is on the mission fields of India in the region of Assam, that one of the most loved songs in the kingdom of heaven was written, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” Forged by faith and fire; a Man and his wife, and his two children were converted to belief in Jesus by a Welsch missionary. Previous to this man's conversion to Christ, the missionaries were not being welcomed and this particular mission seemed fruitless. As the story6 goes the leader of the village was enraged so he called the man, his family, and the whole village together to give the family a choice. Reject their faith in Jesus in front of the whole town or be executed in front of the whole town. Think about it, this man is not only facing the reality of the earth, but he is holding the key to that reality being exercised on his wife and his two children. With just a word he could reject Jesus and that would save his family from death. What would you do in this scenario, with everything you love on the line, how would you respond? It is at this moment, that the man gave his answer to the chief, and in the face of losing everything he sang a phrase from heaven to an old existing Indian melody. “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back.” I’m not sure what happened to that man, but we have this story as a matter of record of that event. I’d like to think he made it out alive but history is full of people who gave their last full measure of devotion to countries, kings, and beliefs. This phrase made in faith and fire exists now in the public domain, slightly amplified, yet no less effective and equally powerful.
I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus No turning back, No turning back.
Though none go with me, I still will follow Though none go with me, I still will follow Though none go with me, I still will follow No turning back, No turning back.
The world behind me, The cross before me The world behind me, The cross before me The world behind me, The cross before me No turning back, No turning back.
I tell you this… if you decide to follow Jesus then the fight is on… It is going to happen… you will be confronted… there will be conflict…
Would to God, the words, “No Turning Back” would echo in your heart and your mind, in that moment of conflict. The kingdom in which you are a citizen is for you and the king is on your side. Remember, you are an ambassador for Christ, you are not alone, you are just on the front line at the edge of the battle. The fight for your mind, will, and emotions; the fight for the healing of your body and the salvation of your soul. The Luciferian Counterculture is in full effect on the earth and its main mission is to assault your senses to get access to your mind and control what and how you think. It is ready to assault your willpower through entertainment and pressure you economically, to distract you from the mission at hand. The culture is like a roaring lion, ready to rip into you and tare you to shreds emotionally, only so it can swoop in and play the “hero” after reducing you to nothing. If you have decided, then honestly there is no turning back, sell out to the reality of the kingdom of heaven and live. Before I answer the question from the last article, “how do we get your people into the kingdom of heaven before their time on earth runs out”, let’s look at a couple of events in the history of the church7.
A quick run-through of the first five chapters of Acts… hold on tight!
The risen Jesus literally ascends into the sky and into Heaven.8
The disciples returned to Jerusalem and go the upper room of a two-story building they frequent.
11 disciples are mentioned by name, Mary, Jesus’s mother and his brothers, and some other not mentioned women; let’s say, per Luke’s account roughly 120 people.
Peter ties all the pieces of the story together so people could wrap their minds around what just happened, and as a result, they essentially “took bets"9 on adding a new disciple, who had been with them; Matthias was chosen by the disciples.
There was a specific holiday happening and on that day the disciples were in the upper room
Individual bits of fire appear in the room where they are, and literally, the individual fires rest on each one of the disciples. They get “filled” with the Holy Spirit [More on this Later], and as a result, they start speaking in a completely different language; this is because of the Fire = [Holy Spirit].
This holiday brings thousands of Jewish people to Jerusalem, these people are coming from nations like Eygpt, Cyrene, and Mesopotamia; they all speak different languages, and apparently, there were about 16 different nationalities.
They could all hear what the disciples were saying in their own language, and since the disciples were from Galilee, this was super weird. The people visiting the city think the disciples are drunk. But the disciples were speaking in all of the languages of the people present. [This sounds like something supernatural… no matter how much alcohol one consumes… if you don’t know French… it again gonna come out of your mouth]
Peter takes a moment to tell these people what’s up, he runs the whole story back to front about Jesus’s life, death, burial resurrection, and ascension.
He then proceeds to tell all of these people from all of these countries, they killed Jesus, but Jesus was raised from the dead by God. He quotes King David, who’s been dead for 1000 years.
He commands them to repent and get saved… and wouldn’t you know it…3,000 people become Christians that day and believe in Jesus.
The Church believes the same beliefs, they eat together, and they pray together.
They shared all their resources so that no one was poor or needy.
People were becoming Christians every day.
The Apostles keep doing miracles; Peter keeps preaching… It starts getting dangerous.
A couple of the Apostles go to prison for teaching people and doing miracles….
Chapter Six
There are thousands of believers at this point, from different social and ethnic back grounds.10
Specifically the greek christians are being discriminated on by the hebrew christians.11
The church has be sharing resources and taking care of the widows and orphans, but the greek widows were not getting the same kind of provision; this was discrimination was coming from hebrew believers.
Seeing this, the 12 disciples called a community wide meeting, Created a position to handle the food distribution and make sure there was no discrimination.
They needed to focus on demonstrating the kingdom, teaching the gospel, and praying; “not running a food program.”
The people choose 7 men:
Full of the Spirit
Full of Wisdom
Respected among the all the people
Stephen “full of faith and the Spirit”, Phillip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch
The Discples lay hands on the 7 people, pray for them, and name the position “Deacon”, now they were incharge of the Food Distribution among the whole church.
As a result:
the gospel spreads
the number of believers increases in Jerusalem
and Jewish preist were converting and believing in Jesus
Why does any of this matter?
It so happens that one of those seven deacons was unafraid of the fight and ready to tell people the truth about the world. Stephen was more than a steward of food distribution he was a brand ambassador. From time to time the non-christian Jews would debate the Christians and one of these occasions is recorded for us in the book of Acts. The Jews were hurling ideas and concepts at Stephen but because he was so wise and full of the Spirit, they could not contend with him and they totally lost the argument. In what seems like an effort to gain some of their pride back they made up a lie about Stephen, saying that he was “Cursing Moses and God”; they involved Jewish religious leaders, and record keepers of the law, which led to his being arrested. Because they got their pride hurt, they made up a lie, and Stephen was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. |The Sanhedrin was essentially the governing body of the Jewish people a quasi-” religious/legal” system.| It’s also the same group of individuals to whom Jesus was brought, who convicted Jesus and sent him to the Roman government to be executed, suffice it to say it’s not looking good.
… Here it comes… the conflict… It is inevitable…
What happens next is hard to imagine, but Stephen is standing in front of the Sanhedrin for a crime he did not commit and needs to give an account of the situation from his point of view. To put it in terms that we can understand, this is the modern-day equivalent of standing before US Congress, and being asked to give an account of something that never happened. Honestly, to me, it seems like the Jews went with the nuclear option in this case. But Stephen takes the opportunity to tell them a story, he begins with God appearing to Abraham12, and he tells the story of how the nation of Israel was formed. How they came to Egypt and the process of how they were enslaved by the Egyptians. How they were delivered by God through Moses out of captivity and how they conquered the territory that was promised to them and defeated their enemies. How they were lifted up as a people and took hold of the promise of the lord from Joshua to king David to David's son Solomon, who built the Temple for God.
Let's hear the last part of his speech in his own words:
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’ 51“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 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, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”13
…Even if you don’t know everything that is being said here… it doesn’t take a degree in rocket science… these are fighting words…
The person writing the story feels that is abundantly necessary to let us know that they felt that the collective “character” of the Sanhedrin had been assassinated; how dare this “Christian” speak to us in this way… simply put they were enraged. At that moment Stephen was full of the Spirit and he locked eyes with heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, “Behold, I see the heaven opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."14 It was this bit that got Stephen in trouble with the Sanhedrin and they reacted very poorly to that last line of commentary. Basically, there was screaming, they covered their ears with their hands, and they rushed him and chased him out of the city of Jerusalem. Again this would be like someone standing before the United State Congress, ticking off the Congress, and being run out of Washington, DC by the Congress and their whole entourage. It is honestly a super surreal scene, and anyone watching would have been impacted by it forever. It was there outside of the city where members of the Sanhedrin collectively picked up stones and began to throw them at Stephen; this was an execution, lawfully permitted by the governing body of the Jews. The people who originally falsely accused Stephen were witnessing the stoning and either because they were hot from the chase or because they wanted to get comfortable, they took their coats off and set them at the feet of a young man watching the execution; that young man’s name was Saul. As the rocks were being hurled at Stephen’s body he prayed, “Lord, Jesus receive my spirit”, then he fell to his knees and said, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin”, and then Stephen died. With his last breath, Stephen forgave the people who were literally actively ending his life.
… Stephen the Martyr… Stephen a Believer... A man who was widely respected among the thousands of people in the church… Stephen, one of the seven guys chosen to make sure that the widows who needed food were able to get what they needed without discrimination…
… Stephen, just a regular guy who decided to follow Jesus and who refused to turn back from his love and devotion to him… full of the Spirit…full of wisdom…
… I believe there are only two ways to live life in the kingdom of heaven on earth, you can either sell out or you can buy in… all we know in this family is the fight…
Stephen sold out to Jesus, he sold out to a new way of living. He sold out loving people and he sold out loving God. That is how you are going to get your people, into the kingdom of heaven before their time on earth runs out… you’re gonna have to sell out! Just like the man in India in the region of Assam, Stephen made a decision to follow Jesus. With his accusers present in the middle of the conflict he refused to turn back. Both Stephen and the man from Assam had their lives on the line, but they were unafraid of the ones who could kill the body. They put to death any other hope for life outside of eternity and time, and even in the face of death, they both refused to turn back. May that be the cry in the heart of the one who believes in Jesus. Truthfully Stephen was martyred, “murdered” because he sold out to the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Have you decided to follow Jesus? What if no one else follows with you, will you still follow? Completely killing the hope of “normal” living for the hope of glory, will you follow? No turning back… No Turning Back.
- A Real Concerned Citizen
“I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”, Short History To be fair to history we believe that there are 2 possible persons that this story is attributed to, but the story itself is accurate.
So much more to say on this later. Church. → What role does the church play in the Kingdom? What exactly is the church? How come so many of them exist? What is the purpose of it? Honestly, we have a lot to talk about…and we are gonna do just that!
This makes some sense when you take a moment and look at the power structure in the region. The entire country of Israel and many other nations in the area arse being occupied by the Romans. They are literally being ruled by Greek culture, and now all of a sudden the greeks in some way are equal or subservient to the Hebrews. In effect, Jewish Christians were getting the big head. It’s a natural problem, it definitely needed fixing, and it was not justified; especially since we are talking about widows. We need to take care of the weak among us and there should be no discrimination in the church.
The entire Jewish race and many Middle Eastern Nations trace their ancestry back to Abraham; more notably known as the Father of the Nation of Israel.
To be clear it is recorded that Stephen, was one out of seven people chosen out of thousands of Christians to solve a practical problem happening in the church. Who was widely respected for being a person of faith in Jesus, full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, stated as a point of fact, that he could see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. | We don’t have the time we need to unpack this, but we are definitely going to come back to this moment and break it down| But so you understand being at the right hand of God, means Jesus in the power position → they just crucified this person, so the last thing the Sanhedrin needs is the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven let loose in their community.