Written by: David Booker

Acts 10 v 34-36
Peter began to speak: “I really understand now that to God every person is the same. In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right. You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people! 

Notes
God is bigger than we think!

For Peter the penny had suddenly dropped. He realised that God was not his own personal property. God didn’t just care for him and people like him from his race, culture and country. For Peter this was a massive change in thinking. His whole life (until meeting Jesus) he’d been taught how fortunate he was to be born into God’s special chosen people who were simply better than anyone else. Now he had to look at God and people in a whole new way.

We too can think God is only for people like us who do things our way. Other Churches may do things we don’t understand or do things that leave us cold, but we need to make sure that we don’t write them off just because we don’t like it.

However there is the equal danger of thinking God is nice so it doesn’t matter what you believe. Peter didn’t fall from one extreme into the other and nor should we. Have you ever heard it said ‘a loving God would understand and forgive so if we are sincere it doesn’t really matter what we believe’. If you’re tempted by that idea you better read the passage again……’peace has come through Jesus Christ’. God doesn’t play aerostats but he calls all people from all nations to worship and find him though his son Jesus. In our attempts to see the good in everyone we can forget this truth. Ultimately the Bible only promises one way to know God the Father, that is through the work of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit.

God is bigger than we think but Jesus said the path to him is a narrow one. Which sincerely wrong person will you pray for today?

Acts 10 v 37-41
You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after John preached to the people about baptism. You know about Jesus from Nazareth, that God gave him the Holy Spirit and power. You know how Jesus went everywhere doing good and healing those who were ruled by the devil, because God was with him. We saw what Jesus did in Judea and in Jerusalem, but the Jews in Jerusalem killed him by hanging him on a cross. Yet, on the third day, God raised Jesus to life and caused him to be seen, not by all the people, but only by the witnesses God had already chosen. And we are those witnesses who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead. 

Notes
Peter did not make up the story of Jesus. He lived alongside him for 3 years, seeing lame people walking, tasting the wine at the wedding feast, visiting the tomb where the body should have been and sharing breakfast with his risen Saviour on the beach. He knew it was true because he’d lived through it.

We can easily be jealous of those first followers who touched and ate, laughed and wept with Jesus. Surely it must have been easier for them to believe because they were there in the action. Maybe so, but they paid a cost for their faith that few of us who read this will ever have to. Most of us will not die for being a Christian although some people who read this are in countries where they could. Take a moment to pray for them now, for those in various countries where being a Christian means much more danger than being laughed at.

Think again about your own life. You may not have eaten with Jesus but there will have been moments when you have felt his close touch. Maybe through tears or maybe through laughter. Thank God for those moments and ask him to help you live in the light of them.

And if you have never known God to be close ask him today to make himself known to you. He is not far away and your experience of his touch can be just a real as Peter’s. 

Acts 10 v 42-43
He told us to preach to the people and to tell them that he is the one whom God chose to be the judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets say it is true that all who believe in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins through Jesus’ name.”

Notes
Do you believe in Jesus? Really believe in him? Do you trust him and lean on him?

Then you are forgiven! Not ‘you might be’ or ‘you can hope to be’ or even ‘you have been’ but you are forgiven right now! The clean start is here now today as you read these words. Some of us need to really start believing that we are forgiven. Too many Christians carry around with them a ton of pain and regrets from yesterday that keeps them tied in knots today. If that is a description of you its time to start thanking God that you are forgiven and stop living in the shadows of the past.

Does that mean all the pain from past hurts disappears? Does it mean we don’t have to put things right and try to change? Of course not! If I burn myself on the cooker the pain is still there when my hand is no longer on the heat, but as I run it under the cold water it recovers even if the pain lasts a few days and leaves a mark. 

I have no idea what pains may burn you as you read this today but this I do know. The Holy Spirit of God washes and heals our pains. He forgives us and restores us when we let him in and allow him to. You have been forgiven by Jesus, now let him in to bring healing to those places that still hurt. 

This might mean spending time alone with Jesus, or finding a friend or minister to talk and pray things through with. However you do it let Jesus in today, God wants to heal our hurts and pains, to see us restored, the way he created us to be, in relationship with him.

Acts 10 v 44-48
While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been given even to those who were not Jews. These Jewish believers heard them speaking in different languages and praising God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we did!” So Peter ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Notes 
Being a Christian is not about working hard to be good. However hard we try we never manage to live up to being a ‘good Christian’ and there will be someone around to tell us how we have failed!

In today’s reading we see how God steps in to help these new Christians do this impossible feat of living for him. God longs to pour out his Holy Spirit to help us in living for him. Being a Christian is not an exam that God marks at the end of life to see if we have passed or failed – it’s a journey through life with him.

Sometimes we can get very hung up about ‘being baptised’ or ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit. We can think that unless we have had a certain experience or do a certain thing we are on God’s sub’s bench, not a full part of the team. The Bible teaches that we can’t even say ‘Jesus is Lord’ without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Can you say it? Then the Holy Spirit is at work in you!

Don’t go thinking that is the end of the story though. The Bible teaches we are to go on being continually filled by the Holy Spirit – because we all leak it needs to be an ongoing process of coming and asking for a fresh touch of God’s Spirit to keep living for him. It’s no good looking back at what has happened, we need to be filled now not just yesterday.

Take a moment now to invite the Holy Spirit to come and fill you afresh so you can live for Jesus today. Once you have asked believe God has done it and thank him. After all he promises to give when we ask!

1 Samuel 1 v 1-2
There was a man named Elkanah son of Jeroham from Ramathaim in the mountains of Ephraim. Elkanah was from the family of Zuph. (Jeroham was Elihu’s son. Elihu was Tohu’s son, and Tohu was the son of Zuph from the family group of Ephraim.) Elkanah had two wives named Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

Notes
Welcome to the book of Samuel. It was written about the period of time when Israel moved from being ruled by the Judges to being ruled by a king (around 1050-950 B.C.) the main characters we’ll meet are Samuel, Saul and David. For Jews the time when David was King was the ‘golden age’ when everything was right, but we’ll discover that very human people with very good and very bad points are at the heart of the story. You may even see parts of yourself reflected over the next few weeks.

The book opens the stage with an introduction of the first conflict. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. To those who first read this, the meaning was clear –Peninnah was blessed and good but Hannah was out of favour with God and to be pitied. If you know the story you’ll already know it doesn’t turn out that way in the end, if you don’t know it you’ll discover over the next few days what happens

There is a good point for us here. From the outside it looked like God favoured Peninnah and not Hannah. The culture at the time had crept into religion and meant people jumped to assumptions about God’s blessing. We all live in culture, we can’t escape it, but we need to recognise how it affects the way we see the world and our faith. 

Some churches are against dancing, many used to be against the cinema and there are widely differing views about alcohol in different parts of the church. Some things are simply wrong and sinful, while others are matters of taste or responses to excess. We need to learn the difference, to take scripture seriously, and not adapt it to our way of seeing the world.

1 Samuel 1 v 3-6
Every year Elkanah left his town of Ramah and went up to Shiloh to worship the LORD All-Powerful and to offer sacrifices to him. Shiloh was where Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, served as priests of the LORD. When Elkanah offered sacrifices, he always gave a share of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to her sons and daughters. But Elkanah always gave a special share of the meat to Hannah, because he loved Hannah and because the LORD had kept her from having children. Peninnah would tease Hannah and upset her, because the LORD had made her unable to have children. 

Notes
Compassion is a great gift. Rather than turn his back on Hannah and love his other wife more, Elkanah loved her and had a special place in his heart for her because of her pain and disappointment. If he had given Hannah the cold shoulder treatment everybody around would have understood no one would have felt bad about it.

He is a demonstration in being counter cultural! Its easy to love the nice people, the ones who like what we like, who see things the way we do, who its easy to be with. But Christians are called to be spotters of the lonely, the rejected and the misfits. 

Who do you know who stands out like a sore thumb at work, college or church? That person who is awkward to be around because they put their foot in it or simply don’t catch on. Maybe its time to go against the flow and give them the time of day. After all who would Jesus hang out with during a break you or the misfits? 

Take the risk and you’ll be in for a surprise, you’ll find Jesus is already there with them and in meeting them you’ll get to know him better. Don’t believe me? Then try it………and let us know what happens.

1 Samuel 1 v 7-8
This happened every year when they went up to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. Peninnah would upset Hannah until Hannah would cry and not eat anything. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you crying and why won’t you eat? Why are you sad? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

Notes
Ever been bullied? That is what was happening to Hannah, plain and simple bullying. You can almost hear Peinnah singing ‘I can do something you can’t do’. And it broke Hannah’s heart.

Poor old Elkanah did his best to say the right thing but some wounds don’t have any words that can touch them. She hurt and she could not be comforted. You can tell a lot about a person by how they react when hurting. Some people close up, others get angry and lash out; some cling to God and plead with him for comfort.

Guess which is the best response! If you have a wound words can’t touch take it to Jesus. An old hymn puts it way better than me……

What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sin and grief to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
O what peace we often forfeit
O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry 
Everything to God in prayer

Have we trails and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Can we find a friend so faithful?
Who will all our sorrows share
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Are we weak and heavy-laden?
Cumbered with a load of care?
Jesus is our only refuge,
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do they friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee
Thou will find a solace there
(words by Joseph Scriven –1819-86)

There is no safer place for us than in the arms of Jesus. Put yourself and your pain in those arms today and you will not be let down.

word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes