Sunday 6th October
Read Psalm 77
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
A Rhetorical question knows the answer but still puts the question and in the middle of this Psalm the writer puts a number of questions about God and his people – “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favour again?” They come after feeling down at heart because he has been crying to God for help in a time of distress, being too troubled even to speak (v4)z, but he does know God hears. If you have ever been like that look at Psalm 77. He turns to the past, to his knowledge of what God is like and how the history of his people always showed that He was good, going as far back as their deliverance from Egypt under Moses. It is matched in the New Testament with “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ….No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35,36). If you ever feel lost, pick up your Bible and ask God to speak to you.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible the best way to go about it is to Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Acts 9:26-31
Having escaped Damascus Saul arrived back at Jerusalem, he was a changed man from the one who left but the Christians were exceedingly wary of him because they didn’t believe he was really a disciple now. However there was one man who came to his aid and it was Barnabus who we heard of in Chapter 4 as a generous giver to the Church after being converted. He took Saul under his wing and explained his story to the Apostles. It is always good to have someone take our side or indeed to be the kind of person who can stand alongside others in support. We should always attempt to do this whatever the circumstances.
At any rate Saul became accepted moving about freely in Jerusalem probably because the powers that be thought he was on their side until his new teaching gradually became heard. The Hellenistic or Greek Jews found themselves trounced in debate by him as he spoke of Jesus and it was their hostility that say him have to make another escape from a city. The Jerusalem Christians took him down to the port of Caesarea and he sailed for Tarsus.
After this a period of tranquillity reined for the Church not just in Jerusalem but throughout the area and numbers were added to the early believers.
Tuesday Acts 9:32-35
Peter began to take on a travelling role visiting the young Church wherever it was and we find him as the person God used to heal Aeneas from a paralysis which had been with him for eight years. In some ways the healing almost mimics the healing of the man who Jesus told to ‘take up his bed and walk’. We notice that Peter was not healing through some power of his own for he said to the man, “Jesus Christ heals you”
We cannot imagine that a mere copying or repeating of something Jesus did will bring about a similar result as though there was just a method to be learned. God loves variety and likes to do things differently but what we must do is always to seek to do things in the name of Jesus, learning how his authority can work through us. If we do that we may see wonderful things.
Wednesday Acts 9:36-43
Believers in Joppa heard that Peter was still in Lydda, which wasn’t too far away, and they sent two men to him to ask for help, A noted woman in Joppa called Tabitha (Dorcas in Greek) became sick and died. Her body had been washed and placed in an upstairs room, she hadn’t been buried, which gives the feeling that they thought even death might not be an impossibility for Jesus to do something through Peter.
Peter must had had thoughts pass through his mind on the way there that he was going to be asked to bring her back to life, after all hadn’t Jesus done this for Martha and Mary by restoring Lazarus to them? When he arrived he found great grief and sadness on the part of widows who showed him articles of her great work. He sent them out of the room – reminiscent of Jesus at the time of Jairus daughter – and then got down on his knees and prayed, then turning to the dead women just said her name and asked her to arise.
Miracles such as this are not common and where they do occur it is at a crucial point in the history of the gospel’s spread. After this happened a great faith swept through the town with many believing in the Lord.
About 30 miles up the coast from Joppa was Caesarea and a centurion in the Italian Regiment lived there by the name of Cornelius. He was the head of a household who were “devout and God fearing” which probably means he had a close relationship with the Jewish community and probably went to their synagogue and talked with them about their scriptures. In the vision he had one afternoon an angel came and called him by name telling him to summon Peter from Joppa, telling him whare he was staying.
Once again we see miraculous events in the emergent early Church where specific things were told certain people. As mentioned earlier, things like this aren’t the every day experience of believers but we should still not close the door on them occasionally happening.
We note that one of his servants was also a devout follower and he sent him with two soldiers to Joppa. Its difficult to know what they thought of this but they went anyway. Sometimes we have to move forward with what might be God’s leading even though we may not be entirely sure.
Friday Acts 10:9-18
It would take a good day’s journey for the men from Caesarea to reach Joppa but when they did they would find Peter had had an experience which was new to him but was a fitting experience for the time. He had been up on the roof of the house where he was staying and had become hungry during his time of prayer. Whilst a meal was being prepared for him he had this vision of all kinds of animals with the invitation to rise, kill and eat. In other words he was given a menu of food of all kinds but being a strict Jew he had only eaten ‘clean’ animals all his life. This was based on the laws given in the Old Testament (e.g. Leviticus 11) about some animals listed as ‘clean’ and others as ‘unclean’. It was to do with purity for the ritual of worship – only those who had abided by certain physical acts could be right for spiritual worship. The reason for this was not because of health issues, otherwise why would Jesus allow all types of food (Mark 7:18-19), and Paul followed s similar open practice for Christians (1 Corinthians 8), but to give Jews specific ways to live that would remind them to be holy or special for God. Ritual purity in food laws emphasised the importance of purity in all matters, e.g. moral matters too.
What happened over the years however was that the Jews began to consider the people who did not follow their ritual matters as being ‘unclean’. It was this cultural ingrained belief that God was now going to rid them of and Peter’s vision was one place where it started. He was about to be summoned to meet with Gentile people who were to hear the gospel from his lips.
Saturday Acts 10:19-33
Peter was still sorting out what his vision was meant for when the three from Cornelius arrived at his door. He told them that it was him they were looking for and asked them into the house where they stayed overnight. He must surely have quizzed them about Cornelius and they gave a good report of their master.
When he arrived Cornelius was waiting for him. In this story people are waiting for things just as they come to happen. Cornelius has also gathered a large congregation of his family and friends, all Gentiles, and Peter knew that his background in the law would have him separate from such people but because God had told him not to call anyone impure or unclean he went in with them.
Cornelius then tells Peter why he had sent for him because three days ago (just the same time as Peter’s vision) he had been praying and a shining figure told him to send for a man called Peter living in Joppa, In both cases the men did what was required of them right away even though they weren’t quite sure what it might lead to. Sometimes we might sense something to do which might be of God, but even if it is not our desire to do what we feel is of him, is commendable.