Acts 11:1-18

              who am I that I should withstand God?

            Peter is seems, needed a fair amount of confirmation before acting, but once he had it, he was true and faithful to God’s directions.  He recognized that trusting God—doubting nothing—was a key to obedience. 

            Obviously there are situations where this may be easy to do.  But just two steps out of our normal comfort zone and a little bit of confirmation can go a long way!  Sometimes God’s love and mercy are so extravagant that our senses are offended.

            This seems to have been the case for the brethren in Judea who had heard about what occurred in Cornelius’ house.  Gently and graciously, Peter recounts the details leading up to the experience.  He does not enter into prideful argument or judgment against those who do not understand.  Quite the contrary!  He identifies with their sentiments noting that he too had been thinking along their lines when God redirected him.  He shares his own story.

            Being a Christian does not mean that we have life all figured out.  It does not mean that we understand and have nice tidy answers for big hard questions.  Being a Christian means that we, like Peter was, are in process.  We are learning how the truth, mercy, and grace of God play out in the world.  We are learning how we are to be part of the stream of living water which courses into the lives of those who are parched, longing for pure love.

            Part of God’s enjoyment seems to be the process of revealing mysteries to people.  Some past revelations have offended human mindsets because they burst out of the box in which people had set God.  I suspect that is still happening today.  When it happens, we would be wise to follow Peter’s example:  humbly obey what we know to be true and right, and state the obvious, “Who am I to withstand God?”  

Read and Pray:  Deuteronomy 29:29, 1 Chronicles 29:9-14, Philippians 3:15-16