The Spirit Caught Philip Away

Acts 8:39-40 says:

39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. 40Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the city of Azotus! He preached the Good News there and in every city along the way until he came to Caesarea.

This story in a nutshell is this (Chris' paraphrase) Philip was walking down the road when the Holy Spirit tells him he should walk over next to this carriage where an ethiopian eunuch was reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah. Let me stop here for just a minute. Dude was reading aloud the word of God. I wonder what kind of keys this holds. Reading aloud the words of God!!! Ok, moving on. When Philip heard this he asked the dude, "do you know what that means?". The eunuch said, "man how am I supposed to know unless someone tells me?", then he begged Philip to sit with him in the carriage. Philip then preached the Good news to the eunuch and the road past a body of water. The eunuch said "why can't I be baptized?". Philip was like.. sure man lets do it.. Here we come upon verse 39 where it tells us that the Spirit snatched Philip away.
So what does it mean? I don't know but I can think of two things. The logical says to me that Philip was just called away so he just simply walked off... but the word says something different, something that doesn't make sense logically. I imagine that the Spirit caught him up or there was a swoosh and in a flash Philip was gone and found himself somewhere else. Man that is some powerful Spirit there. Beam me over God... swoosh.. how cool?
Something else I want to briefly note here is the witnessing that is happening in this text. Did Philip walk over to this guy and try to befriend him? NO. Did he walk over to him and sugar coat anything? NO. Did he do anything short of preach the Good news to this guy. Share with him his witness? It seems here that Philip just walked over to this stranger and struck up a conversation and kept it there. Philip was also led there by the Holy Spirit. If we are faithful to God in the reading of His Word and the praying to him and the obeying his every command then the Holy Spirit will strike you to where you can't say: "I think I will just live today without God". What ever man, you just won't be able to do it if you are in Christ!!!

Stephen preaches his last sermon

Today I was reading in Acts 7 a story about a guy named Stephen. This dude (sorry he is a dude isn't he?) had people lying about him shortly before this chapter which placed him in jail. They said "We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God." So the next day "the high priest asked Stephen, "Are these accusations true?" Stephens response was a sermon starting with the stories of Abraham and such. He went straight through the bible in warp speed and talked about Moses and about Jesus and how he was born from their lineage. Then he hit them with the punch line. He took a while getting to this. Eric, mentioned to me that he could just see the counsel sitting there saying.. yup I remember that story, I remember that too... Then the punch line hits in verse 51:

51"You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? But your ancestors did, and so do you! 52Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One--the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53You deliberately disobeyed God's law, though you received it from the hands of angels."

Dang!!! Could I be that bold in my faith? Heck I have problems keeping my mind pure. I have problems resisting just normal thoughts. But to be bold like this is a faith like I have never seen or heard of before now! The story then continues. The Jewish leaders were infuriated (wouldn't you be?).
Lets read the rest straight from the text... it is just to powerful for me to paraphrase it.

54The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they shook their fists in rage. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. 56And he told them, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand!"

57Then they put their hands over their ears, and drowning out his voice with their shouts, they rushed at him. 58They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The official witnesses took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60And he fell to his knees, shouting, "Lord, don't charge them with this sin!" And with that, he died.

What would it look like if I had faith like Stephen? What would it look like if I were bold like Stephen?
Something to note here.. Stephen was "filled with the Holy Spirit". If I could get my life totally right with God to the point where He was more and I truly was less and I was able to truly accept the Holy Spirit in my heart and truly let it rule my life where on earth would God take me? Where would He take you? How much joy would we have in life? Imagine us not getting upset over parking places, menial things, stupid jobs, stupid working partners, the mundane things in life. Just pure joy gifted from the Holy Spirit!!!
Thank you Stephen and more so thank you Jesus!

mp3

My good friend Ryan Gill has recently aquired a new imac as well as some other items like garageband and one of those mAudio keyboards. Anyway long story short he has created some cool mp3's and this is one he calls "Carolyns Song Remix". Carolyns Song **Remix**