OzThoughts – Friday, 19th June, 2009

OzThoughts – Friday, 19th June, 2009

Peter had had a great time in Joppa and an even better time in Caesarea. In Joppa God gave him a strange vision and then turned “food laws” upside down. Then Peter knew God had also turned relationships with people upside down.

This was confirmed when he went to Caesarea and met with Cornelius a centurion in the Italian band. He not only had an opportunity to tell his story to Cornelius and his friends but The Holy Spirit fell on them just like he did on the Day of Pentecost.

Now Peter has to go back to Jerusalem were he is questioned about his new experience and that he had accepted outsiders into the group. Of course, Peter related the whole story and told how the Holy Spirit had sealed the deal. We read Petr then said:

“So I ask you: ‘If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?’" (Acts 11:17 The Message).
What was the reaction of Peter’s old friends?
Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. "It's really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!"( Acts 11:18 The Message)
Are we open to the revealing of God’s will and ways for us today?
[Listen: Band: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_977.mp3
or: Congregational song:
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/songs/songs_208.mp3

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run;
His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till suns shall rise and set no more.

People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on his love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their young hosannas to his name.

Blessings abound where'er he reigns,
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains,
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.

Where he displays his healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more;
In him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.

Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again
And earth prolong the joyful strain.
Author: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 160


Acts 11:1-18 (The Message)
1-3 The news travelled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it—heard that the non-Jewish "outsiders" were now "in." When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: "What do you think you're doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?"
4-6 So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: "Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in.
7-10 "Then I heard a voice: 'Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.' I said, 'Oh, no, Master. I've never so much as tasted food that wasn't kosher.' The voice spoke again: 'If God says it's okay, it's okay.' This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.
11-14 "Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, 'Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He'll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.'
15-17 "So I started in, talking. Before I'd spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus' words: 'John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?"
18 Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. "It's really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!"

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