Believe It 4

Thursday, August 30

Acts 10:44-48

The random actions of the Holy Spirit are not limited to times and places. The Holy Spirit is also random in the selection of people. How often have we seen individuals turn themselves over to God and we have said “I can’t believe God called him!”

In Acts 2 Peter was preaching to the Jews. In Acts 10 Peter is preaching to a group who has gathered with a centurion named Cornelius. What happened? What was particularly unusual about this? How did the circumcised (Jews) know the Holy Spirit was working?

What did Peter want to do? What did he do?

The Jews were the chosen people of God. He made a covenant, an agreement with them going back to the days of Abraham. Because they were the chosen people of God, God sent Jesus to offer salvation to the Jews. Some accepted it; some rejected it. Then Jesus spread his message among the Gentiles – the non-Jews.

The early church followed the same path. The first believers were those Jews who had accepted the message of Jesus. But then, mostly through Paul, the message began to spread to all people everywhere.

Naturally, this caused some division – a type of “we were here first” attitude among believers. Sound familiar?

Peter preached to a crowd of Jews and non-Jews, and suddenly the Holy Spirit was working among the non-Jews. To mark this sudden change, this alteration of their lives, they were baptized. A new life was beginning.

What about at your church? Does your congregation or do you as an individual welcome the ability of the Holy Spirit to change the lives of strangers? Can you celebrate a change in someone who is not like you? Do you see all of us as sinners saved by grace, or do you rank some sins as worse than others with those people being pushed out of your church?

DAILY CHALLENGE: Think of someone in your church who you feel is least likely to be used by the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Spirit will work in that person.