At our
previous church there was a room at the back of the Sanctuary called the parlor,
an attractive space with nice sofas, armchairs, bookshelves and a
fireplace. Unfortunately, most of the
time the room was not used and the curtains were kept closed making the room
dark and uninviting. I asked why the
curtains had to be closed so often. The
answer was that many in the church did not want the carpets to be faded by the
sun. It was more important to them that
the room be kept in good condition than to be used as a place of welcome.
The
attitude of preserving a church intact, preventing any changes that might alter
the way it is, is nothing new. In Acts
10 there is a story of Roman centurion named Cornelius who is led by God to
seek out Peter. Peter responds and
visits Cornelius and his family.
What
was the response of the believers (Acts 11:2-3)? What vision does Peter relate? What was Peter’s first reaction to the vision
(verse 8)? What does God say?
Being a
Roman centurion meant that Cornelius was a foreigner to Judea. Cornelius was a soldier, a member of the
oppressing force in Israel, a man from Italy.
He was not Jewish. But God
recognized the faith this man had and urged him to find the disciple Peter so
that his faith might move forward.
At the
same time Peter was given a vision from God.
A sheet holding all manner of animals was lowered from heaven and Peter
was told to kill them and eat them. This
was a violation of the food laws of his faith and Peter resisted. But God told Peter that he should not call
anything “unclean” when God has made it clean.
The
vision was God’s way of removing the food restriction that had been in place
for thousands of years. God was
declaring that all that He had made was now religiously clean, suitable for
consumption if a person chose to do so.
But it
also meant that all people were now welcome in the house of God. Belief in the Lord, salvation, a relationship
with God was now no longer reserved only for the select few. God was opening the door to all people.
We can
be like so many of the early believers.
We can take the attitude that we want to keep our place of worship clean
and pure, not just physically but also with the people. So many do not like new people coming to “their
church” and changing things. But we need
to remember the words of God. To God all
people are welcome, all people are made clean – that is, they are worthy to
enter into His presence.
DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you open the doors to your church?
