For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Peter told them, "You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean."

—Acts 10:28

It’s very easy to rail against someone caught up in a certain sin until we personally know one of these people. It might be a close friend, or it might be a family member. Maybe we know someone who has a child who has gone astray. Maybe our own child has gone astray. And now all of a sudden when it is on our front porch, it isn’t the same. Now there is a face attached to the sin. And it is much more difficult to be so disconnected, austere, and sharp.

I am not suggesting the sin is any less a sin. But I am saying that when it is connected to someone we know, we suddenly see it a little bit differently. There is a little more compassion for that person, and we want to help instead of simply condemn him or her.

God called Peter and the rest of the apostles to take the gospel to the whole world—not just to the Jewish world. But after six years had passed, this new group of believers was pretty much staying within the confines of Judaism.

This was not God’s plan, because Judaism was pointing to the fulfillment of Jesus as the Messiah. Everything found in the Old Testament, including the animal sacrifices, was pointing to something yet to be fulfilled—and that something was Someone. Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. He did that at the cross and His resurrection.

May God help us to go where He wants us to go, to whom He wants us to go, with the message He wants us to bring. So many have not yet heard the gospel. May we be the instruments He would use to bring the gospel to them

[square butte]

Amen to this - May it be so

[USMC87]

Amen, Right on track.

[Boaz]

Thank you , a good start for the day !

[Blackwater]

Wow! How true! "And now all of a sudden when it is on our front porch, it isn’t the same. Now there is a face attached to the sin." It's so EASY to criticize others, and stand in judgment over them, UNTIL it's someone we care about! Then, it suddenly becomes "different!" But it's not. Not really. It's only OUR view that's changed. No principle can apply in such a willful way, which is why I believe the Lord advised us to be VERY slow in judging others, and in fact, to leave that to HIM, and His perfect understanding. We are FAR too flawed to really sit in judgment over others, except maybe (?) in cases like Hitler, Musolini and a few others. But it's not OUR job to judge anyone. That job belongs ONLY to our Lord, and I personally thank God for that! Our judgment is so often willful, and aimed at serving our own sensibilities, and NOT at what Christ advised us to consider!

How hard it is to be a mature Christian! We have to constantly defy our own mortal tendencies! And so often, we let our judgmentalism separate us when no such separation was necessary nor desirable nor functional for the True Church! I think this is one of the reasons why humility is so essential to becoming a mature Christian. That's my take on it anyway, FWIW?