May 9: Acts 11:1-10

Key Verse: Acts 11:9
The voice spoke from heaven a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

Devotion:
I wonder, how many times have you neglected to tell someone about Jesus because they annoyed you or they said some very strange things which you did not agree with? When I first started out teaching teenagers about Jesus, I was petrified because I knew what it had been like bringing up teenage children – I knew what they were capable of! Starting teaching them was a liberating experience which allowed me to get to know Christ even more!

When I was first asked to go with a group of people to help teach a fringe society about Jesus, I was scared because of the things I had heard about them; but standing amongst them was a very humbling experience. So when God told me to move to another community which was neglected and rough, I obeyed Him. Yes, it was my third time too!

I used to look at the stories involving Peter and wonder why things always seem to have to happen three times before he took notice – then I started looking back in my life and realised God had to ask me a few times before I would obey Him too.

We grow up in societies or communities which are different from others. We get used to that way of life and we start to believe the stories about other societies and communities which are often not true but based on the stories told by others instead. The Jews had built up this image of the gentiles being unclean and even barbaric; I’m sure some of the gentiles looked at the Jews in similar ways too! God wants us to love our neighbours – which often means loving the different people just the same as we love the people we have grown up with!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are different from people in the next village or community?

Have you tried using the common ground of Jesus to bridge the gap?