Come as you are

Read Acts 15:1-21

I'm going to go back to the theme from last year here. And we're going to focus on who God loves. Of course, He loves everybody. It does not matter who you are or where you come from. You can not earn God's love and you also can not escape from it. This is what part of the passage is focusing on.

The other part of the issue that Christians were dealing with was circumcision. According to the custom, if you were not circumcised, you could not be saved. Now that is just not fair. Not fair in the sense that people would consider you “unclean” and therefore “unholy.” The awesome thing about this uncleanliness issue is that it was a thing of the past, the old covenant. We are now under a new covenant through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus came before us, and showed us the right way to do things. For Jesus chose several Gentiles to be his closest disciples. He did not discriminate by separating Jews from Gentiles.

Reread 15:7-11

“After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Thank God for his wonderful love, because we are so unworthy of it.



Friday: Pray for the Church (Big C) (the universal church - all believers)

Pray for Christian based organizations (ex. Feed my starving children) and their role in helping bridge the Big C Church