Acts 10:30-33 (NIV) Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us."

God is a God who works in supernatural ways. That's why we can never figure out exactly how He does things. His thoughts and His ways are way beyond our understanding. With that in mind, how do you think that God would teach Peter that His plan of salvation included the Gentiles as well as the Jewish people? Supernaturally, of course. He sent an angel to appear to a Gentile, Cornelius, who was devout and God-fearing, but who didn't know God's plan of salvation through Jesus. The angel told him to send for Peter and even told Cornelius where to find him so that Peter could share the good news of the Gospel with him and his family. But if we think about this for a moment, why didn't the angel just share the good news about Jesus with Cornelius himself? You would think that if the Lord was going to go through the trouble of sending an angel to Cornelius, that He would just have that angel take care of the whole situation. Who better to share the good news than an angel sent from God? Why bother to send for Peter?

The answer lies in the previous statement that God's thoughts and ways are beyond us. But more than that, God's plan to advance His Kingdom includes you and me. He has made it so that if anyone is going to have an opportunity to hear the Gospel, it's going to be from one of us. It's going to be with His faithful followers who are living the good news every day. Since the time that He purposed to save us, God decided that it would be through the light of Jesus that this salvation would produce in us that the world would see His Light. Through your testimony and mine, we would be in charge of telling others about Jesus, our wonderful Savior and Lord. It is a partnership that He has ordained. So much so, that even when we share the good news about Jesus, it would be His Spirit in us anointing our words with power to save the lost. Such a revelation is too awesome to fully understand, which is why we should count it as such a blessing and privilege to be able to do so. He also works in us as He uses us to share His message. Peter was radically changed and had his understanding of God's love amplified, while learning through the process that God is so pure in His love for the people that He created that He would even make salvation available to the "vile Gentiles." He learned that no one has any claim through their own merit to what Jesus has done for anyone who will receive Him as Lord and Savior. God has done His part, and now it's up to us to do ours.

Pastor Joey Vazquez