It is amazing to me how God can teach you a new lesson from an old story, I recently signed up to be a small group leader in the youth at our church- big jump from Pre-k but I sat down today to study my lesson and I found it a story I had used in Prek to teach my kids to welcome everyone, but I had never read it in the context I did today so bare with me. In the story God come to Peter in a dream and offers him what the Jews considered unclean animals and told him to choose one to eat….Peter resist because obviously this is very against what he follows as God’s laws. So I think he resist because he thinks he is doing the right thing, but God says to him ” do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Woah God thanks for that slap in the face. So following that men are sent to his home- Gentiles (now Jews and Gentiles do not associate- a Jew would never enter their home or invite one in ) God urges him to go with them because he has sent them. So imagine God tells you to go with people to their home that you would not dare associate with, would you resist? How many times in our lives does God set someone before us to reach out to and we decline because it is beneath us, or not someone we wish to be seen with, someone who sins differently than we do? Peter goes, and people say to him why would you do this? why would you go in his house? What a huge leap of faith to follow God, and what a lesson? God does not show favoritism but accepts people from every nation. So today I had to ask myself, am I showing love to everyone no matter their background…and just like that a child’s bible story comes to life in my adult world…. God welcomes everyone- no one is impure that God has made clean. I wish someone had taught me this lesson so much earlier in life but today I stand grateful to learn it now.
K
Camp Run-A-Muk 