Experience: S2 - Day 20

The risk of stepping out of your comfort zones

Acts 11:1 Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2 But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. 3 “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.

4 Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. 5 “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. 6 When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. 7 And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’

8 “‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’

9 “But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ 10 This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.

11 “Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. 12 The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. 13 He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 14 He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’

15 “As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. 16 Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with[e] water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

18 When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”

I absolutely love the turn of events in chapter 11.  At the beginning of the chapter, it sounds like the Jews back in Jerusalem were going to deny the sharing of the gospel to the Gentiles.  They had criticized Peter for entering the home of a Gentile and eating with them.  But when they heard Peter’s story, they “stopped objecting and began praising God.” Oh how I wish this would always be our response, even when we don’t understand everything God is up to at the time.

Remember how the Jewish people were “amazed” in Acts 10 that the Holy Spirit was poured out onto the Gentiles?  That means that they didn’t understand it, but in Acts 11, they chose to celebrate instead of continuing to criticize what they didn’t understand.

I gotta speak for myself here in saying that I so want to be a part of a church that errs on the side of celebrating instead of explaining everything away or trying to make everything and everyone fit into my box of understanding.  I want to keep my heart open to all the ways God works and all the people God can choose to work through, even the ways and the people I would least expect.  And when I don’t understand everything there is to understand, but I can tell that God is at work, then I want to be able to dance.

So, how can we tell if God is at work or not?  Well, the clearest teachings were given, other than whether or not Jesus is celebrated and lifted up is the fruit of the Spirit.  Is there more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control in and through a person or a movement than there was without them?  If the answer is yes, then I can celebrate that God continues to move and work even in mysterious ways.  I can rejoice and be glad that God’s Spirit depends on my understanding.

I pray that today, you and I could be open to all the wonderful ways God may work in and through the people around us, even when we don’t understand it all.  And I pray that when we see it, we can praise God.

Questions:

1. When was the last time you witnessed God truly at work in your life and/or in the lives of the people around you?
2. What was the last thing you celebrated in your own faith journey?  How about in the journey of your faith community? 
3. Why do you think we sometimes find it easier to criticize rather than celebrate?