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TODAY'S EPISODE Today, October 19th, our journey through Scripture takes us into Job 5, Psalm 108, and Acts 10–11.
In Job, Eliphaz continues his attempt to explain the suffering of his friend. His words contain familiar religious wisdom, but they also reveal the danger of assuming we understand the reasons behind another person's pain.
Psalm 108 calls us to trust in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God, a love that reaches beyond the heavens.
And in Acts, we encounter one of the most extraordinary moments in the early church. Peter receives a vision that challenges his understanding of who is clean and unclean. When he enters the home of Cornelius, a Gentile, he discovers that the Holy Spirit has already been at work.
What Peter once considered outside the boundaries of God's people, God has already welcomed.
Today's readings invite us to lay down our assumptions, reconsider the boundaries we have inherited, and discover the beautiful freedom of the gospel. God's love is wider than we imagine, and his grace is always moving toward us.
TODAY'S DEVOTION You Are Already Welcome
There's a wonderful moment in our reading today that I think we need to pay attention to.
Peter has a vision. A sheet is lowered from heaven, filled with animals that Peter has always understood to be unclean. And he hears a voice telling him to get up, kill, and eat.
Peter objects. He knows the rules. He knows the boundaries. He knows what is acceptable and what is not.
And then he hears these words: "Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean."
Now, that's quite a statement.
And as the story unfolds, Peter begins to understand that this vision isn't ultimately about food. It's about people. It's about the way he has learned to see others. It's about the boundaries he's been taught to maintain between himself and those who are different from him.
And suddenly, those boundaries are being challenged by the living God.
Peter goes to the home of Cornelius, a Gentile, someone he would not ordinarily associate with in this way. And as he shares the good news of Jesus, the Holy Spirit falls upon everyone gathered there.
Before Peter can establish a new set of requirements, before he can determine whether these people qualify, before he can decide whether they belong, God has already acted.
And Peter is left with a remarkable discovery.
God shows no favoritism.
Friends, I wonder how often we find ourselves standing where Peter stood.
We have our categories. We have our traditions. We have our convictions about who is in and who is out. And sometimes, without even realizing it, we begin to imagine that the love of God is confined within those boundaries.
But then Jesus comes along and opens our eyes.
And we discover that God's grace has been at work in places we never expected.
I think this is one of the beautiful things about the gospel. Jesus doesn't come to persuade a reluctant Father to love humanity. Jesus comes to reveal the Father who has loved us all along.
In him, we see the heart of God laid bare.
And what do we see?
We see the One who moves toward the outsider. The One who welcomes the stranger. The One who touches the untouchable. The One who sits at tables with people others have decided don't belong.
We see a God whose love is not something we manufacture through religious performance. It's a gift. It's the very life of God, shared with us in Jesus Christ.
And here's something else I love about this story.
Peter isn't the one bringing God to Cornelius. God is already there.
Peter is simply discovering what God has already been doing.
That changes the way we see the world, doesn't it?
Perhaps our calling isn't to decide who deserves the grace of God. Perhaps our calling is to recognize where that grace is already at work and to join in.
To become people who see others through the eyes of Jesus.
To become people who open doors rather than close them.
To become people who welcome, because we ourselves have been welcomed.
Maybe you've spent a good portion of your life wondering whether you really belong. Maybe you've been told, directly or indirectly, that there's something about your story, your past, your questions, or your life that places you outside the reach of God's love.
If that's you, I hope you'll hear the good news in today's reading.
Look at Jesus.
See the Father's heart revealed in him.
The God who...
