Although they are fundamental Charter rights, the banners of Christian liberty are meeting stiff headwinds in our day in Canada. While multiculturalism is publicly affirmed, Christians often seem to be mocked in the media, and our social policies seem orchestrated to manufacture the slow death of a Christian society.
Read More persecutionSaul’s transformation from a man who persecuted Jesus’s followers to being counted one of them is blindingly swift. After the short period of several days with the Lord’s followers in Damascus, he is publicly preaching the same message he had sought to stop. Soon after, he does the same thing in Jerusalem, and he attempts to join the followers.
Read More gentiles, encouragement, gospelMost of us have grown up being told to make our beds. It is a chore. But it begins the day with a small accomplishment, restoring order to the chaos of the bed on which we rested the night before.
Our God is a God of order and distinction, separating the day from the night, the land from the sea, male from female.
Read More renewal, Kingdom of God, order
In Acts 1:8, Jesus had told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come upon them and give them power to fulfill the great commission, beginning first in Jerusalem, then in all Judea and Samaria, and finally everywhere in the world.
Saul (Paul) has just been sent out informally to the Gentiles from Jerusalem.
Read More gentiles, inclusionAs they humble themselves to pray, a keen awareness of God’s orchestration of events now dawns upon his people.
It is important to see what underlies their discernment. Both Cornelius and Peter were men who made it their regular habit to pray, and we have a written record of the Lord’s extraordinary answers to them.
Read More grace, prayer, discipline, habitThe revelation is given to Peter in the context of his sleep (Acts 10:10). Deep sleep signifies a transformational moment in the workings of God towards mankind. We see it in deep-sleeping dreams to Adam (Genesis 2:21), Abraham (Genesis 15:4), and Daniel (Daniel 7:1).
Cornelius, the God fearing centurion, is a man who has made it his habit to be in the presence of God through prayer.
Read More clean and unclean, Unity, harmonyThe Lord draws the whole episode to a conclusion. Two strangers, the one a Jewish apostle the other a Gentile captain, find that they have been united in the presence of God. They stand together as a sign of a deeper spiritual unity in Christ.
It took time, but their faithful obedience has finally clarified things.
Read More obedience, faith, revelation, Jesus’ message, prophets“False friends” is a term used in linguistics for pairs of words in two languages that look and/or sound the same, but have different meanings. Being embarrassed in English means something rather different than to be embarazada (pregnant) in Spanish.
We live in an age when many mistakenly think that the essence of Christianity is inclusiveness or “unconditional love.”
Read More covenant, inclusiveness, circumcision, blamelessFrom the beginning, the spread of the faith came at God’s initiative, and although the church leaders have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the signs of God’s leading precede and exceed their plans. Just as was the case at the cross, it is clearly evident that as the faith spreads, the work of the gospel remains God’s work.
Read More gentiles, ordinary people, Holy Spirit, kingdom