OzThoughts –Thursday 11th September 2008

OzThoughts –Thursday 11th September 2008

There has been some comment in Australia in recent days about whether people from different countries and having different religions and cultures are fitting into Australian society. It is an interesting thing to look at the way Jesus reached out to individuals from minority groups of people. Jesus lifted up children, women, Samaritans, the sick and disabled, tax collectors and others whose lifestyle, etc., placed them outside the mainstream society.

The challenge of Jesus came again to the leaders and people of the early church. God’s challenge to Peter (Acts 10) was not only about eating food which was not kosher. Peter was being prepared for something much bigger. Peter was being prepared to break boundaries. They were boundaries that had stood between Jews and non-Jews or Gentiles for years.

Peter had got a clear message that he was not to consider unclean the things that God had cleansed. Peter soon learnt that this included people. The story takes a couple of minutes to read but it is exciting stuff that Christianity breaks through the barrier that the Jewish religion had seen so clearly. God works in wonderful ways and breaks down barriers we see so clearly and accept so firmly as being correct.

PRAYER;

Heavenly Father, I thank you that I can read in the Bible stories like this. I pray that you will direct my life as clearly as you directed Peter. As I read and meditate on this story I wonder what the barriers are that keep me from serving in the name of Jesus. Help me to see your way more clearly.

[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4437.mp3 ]

In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?

Wherever he may guide me,
No want shall turn me back;
My shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh,
His sight is never dim;
He knows the way he taketh,
And I will walk with him.

Green pastures are before me
Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o'er me,
Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path to life is free;
My Saviour has my treasure,
And he will walk with me.
Author: Anna Laetitia Waring (1823-1910)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 736

[This is a long reading – but worth reading at least twice and thinking about it and what it means for us , today]
Acts 10 (The Message)

Peter's Vision
1There was a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea, captain of the Italian Guard stationed there.
2He was a thoroughly good man. He had led everyone in his house to live worshipfully before God, was always helping people in need, and had the habit of prayer.
3One day about three o'clock in the afternoon he had a vision. An angel of God, as real as his next-door neighbour, came in and said, "Cornelius."
4Cornelius stared hard, wondering if he was seeing things. Then he said, "What do you want, sir?"
The angel said, "Your prayers and neighbourly acts have brought you to God's attention.
5Here's what you are to do. Send men to Joppa to get Simon, the one everyone calls Peter.
6He is staying with Simon the Tanner, whose house is down by the sea."
7As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two servants and one particularly devout soldier from the guard.
8He went over with them in great detail everything that had just happened, and then sent them off to Joppa.
9The next day as the three travellers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon.
10Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
11He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground.
12Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. 13Then a voice came: "Go to it, Peter--kill and eat."
14Peter said, "Oh, no, Lord. I've never so much as tasted food that was not kosher."
15The voice came a second time: "If God says it's okay, it's okay."
16This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.
17As
Peter, puzzled, sat there trying to figure out what it all meant, the men sent by Cornelius showed up at Simon's front door.
18They called in, asking if there was a Simon, also called
Peter, staying there.
19Peter, lost in thought, didn't hear them, so the Spirit whispered to him, "Three men are knocking at the door looking for you.
20Get down there and go with them. Don't ask any questions. I sent them to get you."
21Peter went down and said to the men, "I think I'm the man you're looking for. What's up?"
22They said, "Captain Cornelius, a God-fearing man well-known for his fair play--ask any Jew in this part of the country--was commanded by a holy angel to get you and bring you to his house so he could hear what you had to say."
23Peter invited them in and made them feel at home.
The next morning he got up and went with them. Some of his friends from Joppa went along.

God Plays No Favorites
24A day later they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had his relatives and close friends waiting with him.
25The minute Peter came through the door, Cornelius was up on his feet greeting him--and then down on his face worshiping him!
26Peter pulled him up and said, "None of that--I'm a man and only a man, no different from you."
27Talking things over, they went on into the house, where Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come.
28Peter addressed them, "You know, I'm sure that this is highly irregular. Jews just don't do this--visit and relax with people of another race. But God has just shown me that no race is better than any other.
29So the minute I was sent for, I came, no questions asked. But now I'd like to know why you sent for me."
30Cornelius said, "Four days ago at about this time, midafternoon, I was home praying. Suddenly there was a man right in front of me, flooding the room with light. 31He said, "Cornelius, your daily prayers and neighbourly acts have brought you to God's attention.
32I want you to send to Joppa to get Simon, the one they call Peter. He's staying with Simon the Tanner down by the sea.'
33"So I did it--I sent for you. And you've been good enough to come. And now we're all here in God's presence, ready to listen to whatever the Master put in your heart to tell us."
34Peter fairly exploded with his good news: "It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favourites!
35It makes no difference who you are or where you're from--if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.
36The Message he sent to the children of Israel--that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again--well, he's doing it everywhere, among everyone.
37"You know the story of what happened in Judea. It began in Galilee after John preached a total life-change.
38Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.
39"And we saw it, saw it all, everything he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem where they killed him, hung him from a cross.
40But in three days God had him up, alive, and out where he could be seen.
41Not everyone saw him--he wasn't put on public display. Witnesses had been carefully handpicked by God beforehand--us! We were the ones, there to eat and drink with him after he came back from the dead. 42He commissioned us to announce this in public, to bear solemn witness that he is in fact the One whom God destined as Judge of the living and dead.
43But we're not alone in this. Our witness that he is the means to forgiveness of sins is backed up by the witness of all the prophets."
44No sooner were these words out of Peter's mouth than the Holy Spirit came on the listeners.
45The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on "outsider" Gentiles,
46but there it was--they heard them speaking in tongues, heard them praising God.
Then Peter said,
47"Do I hear any objections to baptizing these friends with water? They've received the Holy Spirit exactly as we did."
48Hearing no objections, he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Then they asked Peter to stay on for a few days.

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