To be cynical is “the belief that people are motivated in all their actions and motives only by selfishness and to therefore deny the sincerity of their motives and actions.”  (Webster)  I suppose it comes with age but I fight this temptation regularly.  Over the years I have heard people say many things that their actions simply didn’t support.  People say they love God but then refuse to obey Him.  People say they love the church but then quit attending.  People say they are earnest in prayer but are also eager manipulators.  Talk is easy.  Action is proof.  This is not a new problem.  Stephen pointed this out in his speech to the Sanhedrin recorded in Acts 7.  These elders, scholars and experts in the law gave lip service to their appreciation of Moses and their worship of God but their hearts were far from both.  They were no better than their forefathers who rebelled against God and disregarded Moses from the day they left Egypt.  They made their history a lot better in their minds than it was in reality.  Stephen was not so duplicitous.  Stephen reminded them that their history was shot through with rebellion and unbelief and that they often rejected the very ones that God sent to deliver them.   Of course that had most recently been the case with Jesus Christ—the Ultimate Redeemer and Deliverer.  Their previous heroes had been sign posts pointing to the Real One.  As their fathers before them, they missed Him too.  Let’s join Stephen in looking at our past with honesty and then run to Jesus for forgiveness of sins and obedience to life.  Jesus Christ really is the Way, the Truth and the Life…choose LIFE!