How Could I Argue with That?

It’s about us. Take your time here —

The leaders and friends heard about it—heard that “outsiders” were now “in.”

When Peter got back, some of his old associates called him on the carpet: “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, doing what we’re not allowed to, and ruining our good name?”

So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: “Recently I was praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in.

“Then I heard a voice: ‘Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher.”

The voice spoke again: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.

“Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked.

So six friends and I went to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, ‘Send to get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’ll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.’

 “So I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?”

Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!”

— I hope you recognized that. It’s about us.

It’s Acts 11:1-18.

Let’s come back here.

Later.

Today, let it simmer.

Let it simmer in your soul.

In fact, I’m gonna re-read that.

You, too?