Acts 10:44-46 “While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.” Today's episode talks about how God is in charge, and we are not. Why do we judge who we think is worthy of God's love, peace, mercy, and forgiveness? It also talks about how great it was if we were more focuses on bringing Jesus to others than we were bringing others back to church. What if we just focused on helping everyone to know the Love of God? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Who Are We To Judge?
Acts 10:44-46 “While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.”
I think this verse is an important one to talk about because often, we can impose our own ideas on what God can and can’t do. This verse is a great reminder that we are not in charge; God is. This verse comes to us in a very interesting way. This story shows how God prepares our hearts and minds for what is coming. There was a man named Cornelius who was a centurion and he feared god with all his household. He gave alms liberally to the people and prayed constantly to God. One day Cornelius saw in a vision an angel of God telling him to send men to Joppa to bring Simon Peter to him. So Cornelius did as he was told and sent his men out to fetch Simon Peter.
At the same time as this is happening, Peter is on the housetop praying, and he becomes hungry. However, while they are preparing the food, he falls into a trance. While in the trance, Peter has a dream where the Lord tells him to eat animals previously thought to be unclean. While Peter is refusing to eat unclean animals, the Lord tells him, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” Peter was confused as to what this dream might mean, and while he was pondering it, Cornelius’s men showed up looking at him. The Holy Spirit told Peter to rise up and go without hesitation with the men.
When Peter gets there, he tells Cornelius that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation but that God had shown him that he should not call any man common or unclean. Then he asked why Cornelius sent for him. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. Peter went on to proclaim the Gospel, and then we get to the verses above. While Peter was still talking, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And those who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
This is a message of utmost importance for each one of us. Peter's words, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (Acts 10:34-35), challenge the notion of exclusivity. It was unlawful for Jews to associate with or visit anyone from another nation. Yet, God showed Peter that this isn’t what he desires. God wants us all united. He doesn’t want us to separate ourselves from those groups of people because we have labeled them, out loud or in our heads, unclean and unworthy. Instead of focusing on bringing our loved ones back to the church, why not focus on helping them know and love Jesus more?
Why do we judge people and decide in our minds who is worthy of God’s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness? Who are we to judge? We are not perfect. We don’t have it all figured out. I mess up every day, and I rely on God’s mercy and grace to help me make it to the next day. We can all learn a lot from this passage. God gets to decide who is ready for the Holy Spirit. God will lead us and our loved ones to the next step. Cornelius was a great man, and when he was ready for more, the Lord guided him to Peter. God will guide our steps to grow closer to Him as well. It might not be as clear as sending an angel, but He will show you what the next step is if you are open to his promptings.
God has really been putting it on my heart lately that we are so focused on bringing our family members back to the church when the church might not be the right place for them right now. If they have been wounded by the church, or offended by the church, then they may go to church but not be open to hearing the messages. What if we just started by trying to get our loved ones to know they are loved by Jesus? Let them know that He is always there for them. Let them know that He loves them just as they are. So many people are lacking love in their lives. They don’t know God as the loving Father He is. They see Him as someone who is sitting on his throne in heaven, just waiting for them to mess up so he can pass judgment on them.
What if instead of trying to bring everyone back to church, we started by just bringing Jesus to them? What if we just started trying to help everyone feel loved and accepted? Did you know you can accept someone for who they are even if you don’t like something they are doing? You don't have to agree with their choices or condone their behavior to love and accept them. God loves and accepts us for who we are. He doesn’t love everything we do. I am sure we break his heart often. Yet He still loves us just as much. He doesn’t continually point out all we are doing wrong that offends him or that He disagrees with. He just keeps lavishing His love on us until we realize how much He loves us, and we realize we don’t want to keep hurting Him.
We can do the same with our loved ones. They don’t need us to keep telling them all the ways they are letting us down. Trust me, they know. What if we just started pointing out all the reasons we love them? What if we keep telling them how much Jesus loves them? How about if we accept them for who they are instead of who we want them to be. If your loved ones are doing things that you feel are putting their soul in mortal danger. Bring it to God. He is the only one that can change their heart. That is not our job. Our job is to love them and show them the love of Jesus. How can they believe that Jesus loves them unconditionally when they have never known that kind of love? We must be Christ’s love to all we meet. If they encounter His love through us, it could change their whole life!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode. Lord, we ask you to help us to show your love to all those we meet. We ask you to help us bring others to you. We ask that you show us how to love our loved ones in a way that shows them your love for them. Help us be an example that others want to follow. Help us to be so full of the Holy Spirit that others look at us and want what we have. Help us live with the joy of the Lord. Help us live with the peace of Christ. Help us live with a trust in you that is unlike anything in this world. We want to be your hands and feet, Lord; show us how. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to remind everyone that mentoring is tomorrow night. If you would like to join, I will place a link in the show notes. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in December 2023 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or about these words, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I come into your humanity so that you may come into my divinity."