Bible Prayers

Acts 7:59-60 As they kept stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he dropped to his knees, crying loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Having said this, he slipped into sleep. © 2015, Mary Harwell Sayler prayer-a-phrased today’s reading in Acts from several of the many translations on Bible Gateway. For a longer version of this episode, read “ Stephen prays for his murderers .” …

Background: As the early church greatly grew, people from diverse backgrounds had to find ways to connect with the Body of Christ. Since Jesus and the Apostles belonged to the Jewish faith, the church began as part of the Temple and local synagogues, which meant that the early Christians had to discern whether to keep Jewish rituals, customs, and traditions or openly welcome peoples from the Hellenist (Greek) community. God made it clear that all peoples who accepted Jesus as their Savior were to be included in the Body of Christ. Nevertheless, Christians from the Greek community felt they weren’t being given as much as Jewish Christians, so they complained to the Apostles in Jerusalem. Wisely, the Apostles advised the Hellenist Christians to select seven Spirit-filled men with good reputations to be in charge of food distributions and other acts of service. Stephen, one of the seven, had so much wisdom and power that he caught much attention, including negative attention that jea