Friday, May 6, 2011

Just Thinking

I was reading today in Act 9-10 and I really liked what God was doing in two people in these chapters. The first was really in verse 9:36 where Peter comes to Joppa and he hears about this woman who had just done so much for all the people around her that when she had died the community was shaken up by her. Two things that stuck out to me about her were that it was said of her in verse 36 “this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.” She really lived such an example that people really praised and saw what she did. She really made such a difference in her community. The second is later on in it talks about what the widows thought of her in verse 39, “And all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.” She really knew how to reach the people around her! She saw something she could impact, and she did so much when she died the people begged Peter to raise her again. I pray that we will be people that make such a difference in the people around us! That God will show us how to impact the people around us. We have a friend here in Greece named Yana. She really reminds me of Dorcas, because she really sees the needs of people and really does whatever she can to help. I really look up to her! She really makes a difference here in Thessaloniki. I believe we all have things/people in our lives we can impact or make a difference in! Whether it is a neighbor or a people group… I pray that God will show us all individually!
The other person was Peter when he had the vision about the meat in chapter ten. Act 10:9-16 “On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.’ Again a voice came to him a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’ This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.”
The verse that really hit me was verse 15, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” When I was in intern in Virginia, we talked about this. I think sometimes we are really hard on each other and ourselves! Whenever we think of people in our lives we should see them how God sees them. I think it was neat when Dorcas was talked about in Chapter nine she was talked about the things she had done. They did not mention the mistakes she had ever made. They did not talk about her as whatever she looked like. They talked about the positive influence she made on the people around her! That is how she was remembered and talked about! I like how Jesus uses people in the Bible who have had pasts, but He sees every single one of them as “holy.” We all have an opportunity to “see people as holy!” We have an opportunity to see ourselves as “holy.”
It has been really such a good opportunity meeting new people recently! God has been bringing new people in our lives here in Greece. One person asks frequently do you mind when I do such and such. Is this ok to do so and so. She then said the other day, “I want to learn the rules of your religion.” God has really given me a heart to see this person and others as holy. I told her the rules God has is to love Him and love others! Over time God will take care of everything else. The such and such, and the so and sos will be ironed out as she walks with God!

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