Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”
Acts 10:30-33

Dear God, I love how grateful Cornelius is: “…and it was good of you to come.” For this Roman captain to be so humble in front of Peter is impressive. A life submitted to you is humble. Am I that humble?

I was also thinking about how I would have felt if someone like Cornelius said to me, “Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.” At this point, Cornelius doesn’t know about Jesus. He has no idea what message he’s in for. For all he knows, Peter is just a Jewish prophet who will be your mouthpiece to him. But if we read ahead, what we know is he’s about to experience something he never imagined. But that’s tomorrow’s story.

There is so much wonder in this story. Cornelius and the men who are helping him, as well as the rest of his family, are in wonder at what is going on. Peter is in wonder at what is going on. You are breaking paradigms everywhere and at all levels. What joy! What bliss!

I don’t know if this has anything to do with anything, but I was listening to a former pastor, John Mark Comer, who now helps people with spiritual formation speak yesterday. It was on the Russell Moore podcast. He was describing living on the West Coast, both in Los Angeles and in Portland, Oregon. He described Portland as possibly the most liberal city in the nation. There was part of me that started to wonder if I wouldn’t like living there. NOT because I am liberal—far from it—but because It would be an opportunity to stand out as a witness for you. In my current deep red-state environment, I sometimes find myself actually pushing back against conservatism because I think it is going to far in trying to take advantage of its majority and imposing its will on others who do not agree. It doesn’t feel like what Jesus would do. But if I were in an environment where being a conservative is a severely minority position, I might find myself feeling free to just love others and spread your “gospel” to them. Could yesterday have been the first time I was ever attracted to a mission field?

However, as I thought about it more, I got to thinking that the religious environment Jesus was in was not that dissimilar to the one in which I currently live. He wasn’t converting the non-believers. He was convicting the churched but spiritually dead.

Father, I will encounter many Corneliuses today throughout my day. And I’m no Peter, but I might be as close as some of them experience. Give me your words for them. Give me your love for them. Give me your patience. Give me wisdom and words. Give me insight and action. Give me courage. And help me to simply rest in you. You are my vine. Help me, Holy Spirit, to fully attach my vine to the Father, Jesus, and You.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen