Thursday, June 13,
2013, 6:06 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Great is The Lord!” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your
servant is listening. I read Acts 10
(NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010&version=NIV
God-Fearing
A non-Jew, named Cornelius, and his family were devout and
God-fearing people. One day God, via one of his angels, appeared to Cornelius
in a vision. God had noticed Cornelius’ prayers and his gifts to the poor. They
came up as a memorial offering before God, i.e. they were like acceptable sacrifices
on an altar before God, and God remembered them. So, God had Cornelius send for
Peter so that Peter could share with him and his family the gospel of Jesus
Christ. So, Cornelius sent two of his servants and a devout soldier to Joppa to
get Peter and to bring him back to Caesarea and to the home of Cornelius.
About
noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city,
Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to
eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw
heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its
four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as
reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
“Surely
not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The
voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has
made clean.”
This
happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
While
Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius
found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out,
asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
While
Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon,
three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to
go with them, for I have sent them.”
I love the way God works, don’t you? I just love how he
coordinates everything together so beautifully. He knows all the ways of mankind
(humans). He knows more what is in our hearts than we do. I’m having one of
those emotionally (female probably) confusing days today where I am just asking
the Lord to show me what’s going on, because he knows, but I don’t. He knows me
better than I know myself. And, he knew these two men better than they knew
themselves, too. I’m so thankful that God knows me inside and out.
These were both God-fearing men, who loved the Lord, and God
honored that in their lives, and so he brought the two together for God’s
ultimate purposes in both of their lives, and in the lives of all the people their
lives would touch and impact for Jesus Christ. In order for God to do that,
cultural and religious boundaries had to be crossed, and prejudices removed. Cornelius
had to be willing to risk rejection of a Jew, and Peter had to be willing to
forsake cultural and religious upbringing in order to do what was right and
loving toward this man and toward his family. And, both men acted in love and
obedience to God.
The Good News
Cornelius invited his friends and relatives to come to his
house to hear what Peter had to say, i.e. to hear what message God had to give
to them through Peter. When Peter went inside the house, he thus saw a large
crowd of people gathered together. He was completely transparent and honest
with them regarding his previous beliefs concerning the Jewish law calling for non-association
of Jews with Gentiles, yet how God had changed his heart and mind and had
showed him that he should not call any people impure or unclean just because of
their heritage, race or culture. Awesome! The gospel of Jesus Christ is about
changed hearts and minds, including opening our hearts and minds to reject
previous prejudices, culture, human traditions, and/or former religious
practices if they are not done in love for (obedience to) God and love for
others. We all need to have such open and receptive hearts to God Almighty to
be willing to have our thinking changed if it is not right.
When Peter heard Cornelius describe his vision from God,
Peter at once recognized the hand of God upon this man’s life, and how God was using
this man to help teach Peter that God accepts people from all nations who fear
(respect, honor, worship and value) him, and who do what is right in His eyes. So,
with that understanding, Peter began to tell them about Jesus Christ. He
acknowledged the fact that they had some prior understanding and/or knowledge
of who Jesus was and the kind of life he lived before the people. Then, he went
on to tell them of Jesus’ crucifixion and of his resurrection from the dead,
and then how Jesus had commanded them to “preach
to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of
the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who
believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
The people in his hearing obviously were convicted of their
sins of the Spirit of God, and they believed in the Lord Jesus for forgiveness
of their sins, because while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came on
all who heard the message. It says that the circumcised believers who had come
with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out
even on Gentiles. Their astonishment goes again to their religious upbringing,
yet their acknowledgment that these Gentiles had indeed received the gift of
the Holy Spirit showed that they were willing to accept that salvation had now
come to the Gentiles, for it was undeniable. Yet, that fact would not keep all
from rejecting Gentile believers, nor would it keep some from trying to convert
Gentiles to Judaism and/or to its practices, too. There will always be those
who think we have to follow a certain set of religious practices and rituals in
order for us to be genuinely saved. Yet, that is not the Good News.
The Good News says that we must believe in Jesus Christ in
order to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. That word “believe” is
much disputed, and the interpretation swings all the way from a causal
acknowledgement of what Christ Jesus did in dying for our sins to an
understanding that belief means death to sin and self, and new life in Christ,
completely and radically transformed in heart and mind and attitude of the
Spirit of God, as we cooperate with that work. Jesus said that if anyone would
come after him, he must deny (disallow) himself (his self-life), take up his
cross daily (die daily to sin and self), and follow (obey) him. This is the
crux of the gospel. He said if we hold on to our old lives of sin, we will lose
them for eternity, but if we die to our old ways of living for sin and self, we
will gain eternal life with God. This is not works-based salvation, for it is
the working of the Holy Spirit of God in transforming hearts and minds to be
more like Jesus, yet it requires that we fully cooperate with that work (see Lu.
9:23-25; Ep. 4:17-24; Rm. 6; Gl. 2:20, et al).
My Take Away
My take away from this lesson is that God knows all the ways
of man, for good or for evil. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He
knows what is in our hearts, and he responds to that knowledge either in
further instruction, blessing, encouragement, rebuke, correction and/or an
honoring of our commitment to him via giving us wonderful and awesome
opportunities to share his love and grace with others, et al. Man looks on the
outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. Peter saw what he considered
and had been taught was unclean, and his immediate response was to reject it,
yet he pondered in his heart and mind what lesson God had for him, and he was
willing to have his thinking changed (transformed) in order to do what was right
and loving towards mankind.
I think sometimes we miss what God has for us and all the
many awesome blessings and opportunities he has for us to impact the lives of
others with his love and grace because of our religious hang-ups, prejudices,
ingrained beliefs and practices, and culture and traditions of man. So, we end
up looking at other people through the opposite of what we call “rose-colored
glasses,” i.e. we end up seeing things differently than they really are, and so
we judge others by mere appearances and our own cultures and prejudices,
instead of allowing God to transform our thinking and to see others through his
eyes, as he sees them.
When we allow human thinking to rule our hearts so that we
reject those whom God may send our way, we may be in danger of rejecting Jesus
Christ himself, for scripture teaches us that the way we treat his “little
ones,” i.e. his true followers, is how we treat Jesus. May we have open hearts
and minds like that of Cornelius and Peter to see past our former prejudices,
beliefs, cultures and traditions so we don’t miss out on the blessings God has
for us, and for the lives he would have us to touch with his love and his grace.
Great is The Lord!
/ An Original Work / June 12, 2013
Based off Various Scriptures – Ps. 57:10; 89:1; 145:3;
Jer. 32:19;
La. 3:22-24; Da. 9:4; Lu. 21:27; Ep. 1:19; Tit. 2:13; 1
Jn. 3:1 (NIV ’84)
Great is the Lord!
He has done wondrous
things.
Great is His love
Reaching up to the
heav’ns.
His faithfulness
reaches
Up to the skies.
Of His great love,
I will sing evermore.
Great is the Lord
And most worthy of
praise!
Truly His greatness
No one comprehends.
Great are His
purposes;
Mighty His deeds.
His eyes are open
To the ways of man.
Great is the Lord!
His compassions ne’er
fail.
Great is His
faithfulness.
I’ll wait for Him.
He keeps His covenant
Of His great love
With all who love Him
And do what He says.
Great is the Lord!
He is coming in pow’r.
His saints will wait
for Him;
Their hope secure.
How great His love
He has lavished on us,
That we should be
called
The children of God.
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