11:18 - I think in every authentic
believers life, there comes a time when you realize that the
gospel really is for everyone, and it is a wonderful and
terrible experience at
the same time. It is wonderful to see the scales fall f your eyes/the calluses fall away from your heart as you open yourself to loving people you never
thought you could. It is a terrible experience as you look back with shame on the years jaded by hidden internal hatreds. This verse really jumped out at me because the disciples fall silent (shame), yet they glorify God as they finally understand His love is for all.
11:26 - If you have a huge timeline of Christianity tacked up on your wall, here is where you mark, "First called Christians."
11:29 - When the first Christians saw that famine was coming, they immediately acted...no excuses...no empathy, followed by instantly forgetting...just action. Am I doing everything within my resources to address the famine issues in the world, whether they be spiritual or physical? No. How do I act? What is my next step?
1 comment:
Two things: They were called Christians first at Antioch. Antioch was the location Luke describes as a place where several Greeks(Gentiles) came to know Christ. It's interesting to me how a bunch of Gentiles were the first to be called Christians...
The other thing that stands out: when Peter is retelling the story of his dream, he makes a statement: do not call anything unclean that God has made clean. The context of this, of course, is talking about Gentiles and them receiving the Holy Spirit. But I believe this is also appropriate when we fall to sin, and as a result degrade ourselves. When we sin, and we talk about how worthless we are and we allow it to minimize our effectiveness for Christ, we are calling unclean what Christ has made clean. Sanctification is a lifelong process. We need to be continually getting better, but the fact that we stumble does NOT give us the right to take value from ourselves. Christ has set a value for us, and when we let sin affect our opinion of how valuable we are, we are "calling unclean what Christ has made clean"...
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