Acts in 28 DaysSample

Acts 11: 1 - 18

Imagine you were born into a family from a country far away. This country has different customs, traditions, and laws. They dress in different clothes, and they eat different food, all because their God has given them these things to live by. They believe that it is His will that life is lived like this. Your people have lived like this for centuries. It is so embedded in your culture that everything else is frowned upon.

Your parents are raising you according to those customs, traditions, and laws. Not because they must, but because they believe that this is the best way for you to live your life. They are living proof of that, just as their parents before them, and their parents before them. They do this out of love for you and your people.

Now imagine you are a grown up. You have been raised in this culture your whole life; you don’t know anything else. For you, this is how life is supposed to be lived, and you cannot imagine it being any different.

One night you have a dream, a dream from God, who tells you that you may eat something that is against all the rules. All those rules that God himself taught your people centuries ago. “This cannot happen”, you think, “How? Why?”

This is exactly what we read about in Acts chapter 11. Peter is a Jew, and as you might know from the Old Testament, the Jews were given very specific rules about how they should live their lives; what to wear, what to eat, when to rest, when to celebrate; the list goes on. Suddenly, God is telling Peter that he is to forget all of that and eat whatever he wants! What is that all about?

From verse 11 onwards, we read what the meaning of all of this is. So far in the Biblical story, God has been exclusively involved with the Jews. Of course, there were exceptions in the Old Testament, but this is something else: God is doing something new here. God is including non-Jewish people into His family. Not just one or two people, but whole families and, later, whole communities.

GO DEEP

God is doing something new here in this story, something people did not expect. Reflect on your own life and ask yourself when you experienced God in shocking new ways. Pray to God that you may experience Him in bigger ways than you thought were possible.

BE BOLD

Who do you know who is not yet included in God’s family? It may be someone who is looked down upon, or who you don’t particularly like. Still, God is calling everyone to Himself, even that person. Pray for them and ask God to help you share with that person that God’s welcome is for everybody.

MEMORISE IT

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.” - Acts 11:15