It will help if you read Acts 10 before reading any further and have it open in front of you. Either use your bible or, if you don’t have one, go here
http://www.biblica.com/bibles/chapter/?verse=Acts+10&version=niv Now firstly I want to focus on verses 10-16, Peter’s vision. God tells him to kill and eat, and Peter, maybe thinking this is God testing him, responds by saying that he has never eaten anything that the law forbids. Now I find this really interesting because if you flip back a few books to Mark 7 v 15-19 Jesus himself says that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out from him. In this he declares all food is clean, that all food is permitted; Peter was there when this happened, how quickly he forgot this message. Now if we go back to Acts 10 and now focus on verses 34 and 35 we see Peter’s interpretation of the vision; that the gospel is for all people, not just the Jews. Yet again Peter seems to have forgotten the example Jesus set. If you look at Mathew 15 verse 21-28 we see Jesus healing a gentile woman’s daughter. If you read John 4 up to verse 42 we see Jesus’ discussion with a Samaritan woman, a Samaritan was someone of mixed race and despised by the Jews at the time. We see that he offers her salvation, and then he stays in her village and preaches to them all and many believe. Jesus didn’t restrict his message to the Jews. After he is resurrected Jesus gives the disciples the task of telling ‘all nations’ the good news. This surely tells them quite clearly that the gospel is not restricted to the Jewish nation but is for all of mankind. But as with all of us, Peter needs prompting from God to get out of old habits. How often God tells us to do something and we are so busy with what we’re doing now that we forget, and God has to remind us. More often than not it’ll be the call of the lifestyle we left behind when we made the commitment to follow Christ, after all old habits die hard. We can quite easily find ourselves slipping back into old routines if we don’t keep our eyes fixed firmly on God. We know that Jesus calls us to a higher standard, just like Peter knew that Jesus had declared all foods clean, but quite often certain aspects of that truth get filed away in a dusty corner of our minds and we suddenly find ourselves living our past lifestyles but with Jesus thrown in there somewhere. This is not what God calls us to. The Christian lifestyle isn’t your old one with Jesus as some sort of get out of jail free card, but a call to leave that all behind, to turn away from our old lives and head in the opposite direction, following Jesus into eternity. And if you’re honest while you’re living the ‘get out of jail free’ lifestyle there’s that little voice at the back of your head telling you you’re called to something higher, it’s that little voice coming from that dusty corner of your mind where you filed away the higher standard God has for you. A similar thing can happen with dreams or visions God puts on your heart. It may be a call to serve God in full time ministry, or a vision of seeing your whole school/university/workplace come to know Christ or helping the homeless, or even something as small as bringing a friend to know Jesus. But the busyness of life drowns it out very quickly and you forget it and carry on as normal, but, as with all things from God, it’ll still be there, niggling in the back of your mind. Time and time again in the Bible God calls people to do things and we either forget like Peter or we run away like Jonah did because we’d rather not do them. But look at the results when we do listen to God and act on his instruction, Peter preached to the Gentiles and before he even had a chance to get them near a river to baptise them they were receiving the Holy Spirit. When Jonah went and told the people of Ninevah to repent, they did and the whole people residing there were saved from God’s judgement. God’s way is always the best way and as Christians we should not only be diligent in listening carefully for God’s voice, but also acting on what He tells us. We should always remember the example Jesus gave us of total obedience to God. Jesus was so obedient to God he went to the cross to take our punishment for our sin. Imagine if Jesus had decided that He’d rather not go through with it and run away whilst praying in Gethsemane, where would that leave us. We’d all be condemned to God’s judgement. So if God is calling you to turn from an old habit, do so. It’s easier said than done and will involve daily turning from it to head in the direction God has set before you, but you can take strength from the knowledge that God works all things for good and has plans to prosper you, not to harm you. If God is calling you to reignite an old dream do so, chase after it, don’t let it out of your sight. God will bring it to fruition. And do all things to the glory of God and the furthering of His kingdom. Leumas
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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