OzThoughts – Tuesday, 16th June, 2009

OzThoughts – Tuesday, 16th June, 2009

Today we think about Acts Chapter 10 which is the story of Peter at Joppa. Not that the place is important. The most important thing is what happened to Peter. Peter was brought up with the strictest food rules. In fact he was brought up pretty strictly about a number of things.

He was bound up by his culture. His culture which included his religion, of course, affected not only his food but what he did and who he associated with. When we think about it someone somewhere in the world probably eats any possible thing whether it be animal, vegetable and mineral. Peter knew the rules.

In the dream, Peter is told to take and eat the creepy, crawly things that are in the sheet. He refuses. It is against his rules. These animals are unclean. God challenges him to eat things that he has cleaned and not to call them unclean. Peter is challenged to move away from his culture to listen to and obey God.

It is a challenge that we all face. Our personal devotion and commitment to God is challenged by the world around us. We are trained by our culture, the society in which we live to live differently to God’s way for us.

Again Paul’s words to the Romans rise high in my moments of meditation on this theme of culture verses God’s way for me.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12. 1, 2. The Message)


PRAYER:

Father, help me to live my life listening to you. Speak clearly that I may hear. Sometimes it seems I need you to paint a picture so I understand your simple words. It could be that like Peter I need a vision to show me clearly what you want. Father, give me a vision of what you would have me be. I ask you this through your son, Jesus who showed me so much of how to live pleasing you. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Acts 10 (The Message)

Peter's Vision
1There was a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea, captain of the Italian Guard stationed there. 3He 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.

They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God;
Both the rich and the poor,
the despised, the distressed,
They'll sit down in the Kingdom of God.
And none will ask what they have been
Provided that their robes are clean;
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.

They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God;
To be met by their Father and welcomed and blessed,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.
The black, the white, the dark, the fair,
Your color will not matter there;
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.

They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God;
Out of great tribulation to triumph and rest
They'll sit down in the Kingdom of God.
From every tribe and every race,
All men as brothers shall embrace;
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west.
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.
Author: John Gowans
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 170

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