What a contrast! I’m sitting in an... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

And they gnashed at him with their teeth. But Stephen … gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God. … Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord … and stoned him.
Acts 7:54–58

What a contrast! I’m sitting in an aeroplane and watching on the screen how a man wants to jump with a parachute from the highest waterfall in the world. It isn’t a feature film but a documentary: the man is attempting what others have risked before him but have ended up paying for with their lives. I then turn to my Bible and read how another man risked his life. But he wasn’t accompanied by television cameras or good wishes: he stood in the midst of a raging crowd ready to stone him.

I wonder why the waterfall jumper would risk his life. Is it the thrill of testing the limits of his abilities, of pushing himself to the edge? Is it an ego trip? I don’t know. But I do know why the other man, a Christian named Stephen, was willing to defy people and their opinions. He wasn’t foolhardy, or tired of life, or addicted to sensation – he was a follower of Jesus Christ and was full of devotion to Him. He considered it an honour to die for his Lord and Saviour.

The parachutist made it, by the way, the cameras catching his fist clenched in victory and his broad grin. Stephen, on the other hand, died. But even as he died, the heavens opened and he saw the glory of God. He no longer saw the hateful faces of the people, nor looked towards his approaching death, but he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, the one who had prepared an eternal home for him.

Both men risked their lives – but what did they really gain?

Today’s reading: Job 22:1-30 · Acts 13:1-12