Broadcast<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Saints of December -- Stephen\n Acts 7:59-60\n 12\/26\/2025\n\n\n 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out,\n ``Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.''\n 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud\n voice, ``Lord, do not hold this sin against\n them.'' And when he had said this, he fell asleep.\n (ESV)\n\n The first martyr of the Christian Church, Saint Stephen, was\n a deacon, a layman appointed by the apostles to take care of the\n secular aspects of the congregation. We commemorate his death on\n December 26. As a committed layman, Stephen read and studied the\n Scriptures. He debated a number of Jewish converts from several\n synagogues in Jerusalem.\n\n Saint Luke, writing in Acts, said of Stephen: ``And Stephen,\n full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among\n the people.''[1] When those he was debating could not refute his\n arguments, they falsely accused him of teaching false doctrine\n and insurrection. Stephen could have retracted his statements,\n but rather he stood up and accused the ruling council of the Jews\n of the murder of Jesus Christ. The council members rose up as\n one, grabbed Stephen, and put him to death.\n\n Saint Luke recorded:\n And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ``Lord\n Jesus, receive my spirit.'' And falling to his knees\n he cried out with a loud voice, ``Lord, do not hold\n this sin against them.'' And when he had said this, he\n fell asleep.\n\n\n Thus, Stephen stands as an example for all Christians. He\n commended himself to Jesus in death, even as he served Jesus in\n life by serving other people. He forgave those who killed him or\n consented to his death, including a pharisee named Saul from the\n city of Tarsus.\n\n May our Lord grant us a faith like Stephen, willing to serve\n God by serving our neighbor, willing to forgive those who sin\n against us. Amen.\n ____________________\n\n 1. Acts 6:8 (ESV)<\/code><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"December 26, 2025 Broadcast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-turn-your-radio-on-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4229,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions\/4229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}