Today's DB Acts 11 w/ Lena's Journalin'

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Acts 11:1-30 -
Peter Explains His Actions
1Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers F52 in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, some of the Jewish believers F53 criticized him. 3"You entered the home of Gentiles F54 and even ate with them!" they said.
4Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. 5"One day in Joppa," he said, "while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. 6When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of small animals, wild animals, reptiles, and birds that we are not allowed to eat. 7And I heard a voice say, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.'
8"'Never, Lord,' I replied. 'I have never eaten anything forbidden by our Jewish laws. F55 '
9"But the voice from heaven came again, 'If God says something is acceptable, don't say it isn't.' F56
10"This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven. 11Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying. 12The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry about their being Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon arrived at the home of the man who had sent for us. 13He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, 'Send messengers to Joppa to find Simon Peter. 14He will tell you how you and all your household will be saved!'
15"Well, I began telling them the Good News, but just as I was getting started, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. 16Then I thought of the Lord's words when he said, 'John baptized with F57 water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to argue?"
18When the others heard this, all their objections were answered and they began praising God. They said, "God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of turning from sin and receiving eternal life."
The Church in Antioch of Syria
19Meanwhile, the believers who had fled from Jerusalem during the persecution after Stephen's death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the Good News, but only to Jews. 20However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to Gentiles F58 about the Lord Jesus. 21The power of the Lord was upon them, and large numbers of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.
22When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw this proof of God's favor, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. 24Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And large numbers of people were brought to the Lord.
25Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to find Saul. 26When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching great numbers of people. (It was there at Antioch that the believers F59 were first called Christians.)
27During this time, some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings to predict by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.) 29So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters F60 in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. 30This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
FOOTNOTES:F52: Greek brothers. F53: Greek those of the circumcision. F54: Greek of uncircumcised men. F55: Greek anything common or unclean. F56: Greek `What God calls clean you must not call unclean.' F57: Or in; also in 11:16b. F58: Greek the Greeks; other manuscripts read the Hellenists. F59: Greek disciples; also in 11:29. F60: Greek the brothers.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
I love this chapter. I love change, because God calls for us to change and the more we change the more we get to look like and be like He is, the more we lose ourselves in His image. I love it when we find out we were incorrect in our thinking it is so refreshing to know we still have time to change it and correct our pathway, the direction we were headed in and veer off correctly that we’d not go off some cliff somewhere and ask God to save us from the place we found ourselves sin. It is such the grace of God to tell us of an area we need to change in, to save us from cliffhanging experiences ahead of time. I love God’s word. I love when he shows me about change.
Then there’s the notion of staying put, staying put is great if we have changed and are staying put in God’s image and likeness. It is terrible to have that same idea about staying put in a bad place, wrong attitude, or an incorrect direction. You will be guaranteed to go off cliffs and then you will be the one who will need to swallow the pride that placed you there as you call out for his grace to now save you. He is so faithful, as long as you are still alive and will call out to Him, he will save you from whatever place you find yourself in.
Having a strong will is only great when it is the same will as God. If it is ones’ own will do be or do something, that strong will, will take you far from God’s kingdom plan for life.
Peter was a strong willed and opinionated person. He was great for God, but his insistence needed to be steered towards God’s will. It is funny we all do what he did here. We insist on what we’ve known as true, before we ask if it was really true. We’ve had ideas that have come from organization or tradition, but just because they were passed down to us does not mean they were God’s truth.
This new truth presented Peter came against a principle that was passed down to him for ages, just ages. His thinking really had to change. Tradition takes a back seat to the voice of God, but one must be in a place to hear that voice!
The laws of God were implemented till faith came. Peter knew that time as a child, but as a man peter had met faith, now he needed to realize that this is the truth the word spoke of, in His time , in His day and embrace it’s changes by faith.
'If God says something is acceptable, don't say it isn't.'
Oh boy, this is such a hard one on tradition. I use it as a gage. If the word being preached to me offends me initially, like I rise up immediately (as Peter did) and want to contest the words I’m hearing. I wait on it, I take it before the Lord, I ask Him to give me the new truth, that I must not have seen before. I use this as a gage for the recognizing of the need for change. The flesh rises up against the knowledge of God, if I feel my flesh rise up against the knowledge of God I know something is in need of adjustment, so I ask God to help me adjust.
We’re all somewhat as Peter is, remember his name means Rock and on this Rock Jesus will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it! Amen!
Being, believing, receiving, changing by faith in His word, and in His voice. That’s how to live this spirit filled life!

Daily Repetitive Verses:

John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.