I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism (Acts 10:34b).
Read Acts 10:34-48
Have you noticed that in many paintings, Jesus often doesn’t look like he is from the Middle East? A few years back I saw a wonderful painting of the crucifixion in which Jesus and all those involved were from Papua New Guinea. I think you can guess the nationality of the artist. I believe it is important that we embrace the fact that Jesus lived, died, and rose again for all those in our culture (including you and me!). The Bible teaches that God became one of us, and adopting Jesus into our culture is one of the ways to proclaim this.
However, this can lead to problems if we overlook that the gospel is for ‘all nations’, not just my nation. We see this with Peter and his colleagues. After Peter’s sermon, which was eagerly anticipated by the Gentile listeners, we have a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit. These people did not need to give up their Roman ways and become Jews. They put their trust in Jesus, received the Holy Spirit, and were baptised. They were as fully Christian as any in the Jerusalem church.
Our God so loved all of us – regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, etc – that he sent Jesus to live the life of obedience that we all fail to live; to carry all of our sins upon the cross so that we all rise to life eternal through his resurrection.
This is probably a good time to examine ourselves (and our churches) to make sure that we are not excluding those who are different from us. For those of different backgrounds within your congregation, maybe you can find ways in which you can celebrate and experience that difference. Look into ways you can support organisations that spread the gospel, in word and deed, throughout different countries.
Father, you are our creator, sustainer, and redeemer. May any barriers to the spread of your gospel be removed. Through your Holy Spirit help me to show your love to my friends and family, as well as to those who have different backgrounds. Help me to see people as you see people. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Glenn is the Pastor of St John’s Lutheran Church in Esperance and also looks after St John’s Lutheran Church in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Karen and he have been married since 1985 and have two grown sons – and have recently become grandparents.
We are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us (Acts 10:33b).
Read Acts 10:17–33
Yesterday we saw the Holy Spirit preparing Peter to bring the gospel into a Gentile’s home. However, the Holy Spirit was already at work in Cornelius back in verse 2. As we start today’s passage, the men Cornelius had sent (following his encounter with the angel of the Lord) arrive, as Peter ponders his vision. Cornelius had responded to the Holy Spirit by being devout and giving generously. He responded to his encounter with God by sending the men to Peter. How will he respond when he hears the gospel?
Peter arrives and enters Cornelius’ house, showing that the repeated vision has made an impact on the apostle. He discovers not only that Cornelius and his household are waiting for him, but that the centurion has invited family and friends to be there. For Cornelius seeking the Lord was not a solo adventure, rather it was something to share with those around him. I get the feeling that Peter was quite surprised at the size of the crowd of Gentiles waiting to hear from him.
As a pastor, I am blessed to have many in my congregation who respond as Cornelius does in verse 33. We should be coming to our time of worship acknowledging that we are in God’s presence, eager to hear what the Lord has commanded the preacher (or lay reader) to tell us. Encourage your pastor or lay reader by letting them know of your eagerness to hear the Lord through them.
Perhaps like Cornelius we too could invite family and friends to come with us?
O Lord almighty, increase my desire to enter into your presence so that I may hear your word, that I may sing your praises and that I might enjoy the fellowship of fellow believers. Give me the courage and the words I need to invite others to come with me. I need your help to do this. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Glenn is the Pastor of St John’s Lutheran Church in Esperance and also looks after St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Karen and he have been married since 1985 and have two grown sons – and have recently become grandparents.
by Pastor Glenn Crouch
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The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean’ (Acts 10:15).
Read Acts 10:1–16
In Acts 8, we saw that the gospel was breaking down barriers: Samaritans were welcomed into God’s kingdom, and an African was now a follower of Jesus (and we can imagine what the Holy Spirit would do through him when he got home). This week, we will see the lengths the Holy Spirit will go through to bring the gospel to the Gentiles (which, for most reading this, is ‘us’!). The Ethiopian continued home and thus was not a part of the church that was growing in Israel. That church was completely Jewish. So, how was the gospel going to be spread to the non-Jews, if the Jewish Christians could not associate with them (for example, share a meal, enter their homes, etc.)?
In today’s reading, we see that Peter has a big problem with this. Did you notice how many times the Lord had to send him that vision? Peter needed to move well out of his comfort zone to fulfill what Jesus had commanded in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20), which was to go and make disciples of all nations – not just the Jews.
There wasn’t a meeting held in those early days to discuss how they were going to proclaim the gospel, let alone how Gentiles were supposed to ‘fit in’ to the church. Did they need to become Jews first? Were there to be two separate gatherings? We really don’t understand what a big step this was for Peter and the church – but the Holy Spirit did and was already at work!
Perhaps it is a good time to examine ourselves – examine our church – to see whether there are things we are declaring to be ‘impure’ that God has made clean.
Gracious and forgiving Father, do not let me be a barrier when it comes to the spread of your gospel. Rather help me to hear your Spirit within me, and to follow him. Persist with me as you did Peter. Help me, Lord, in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Glenn is the Pastor of St John’s Lutheran Church in Esperance and also looks after St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Karen and he have been married since 1985 and have two grown sons – and have recently become grandparents.
Start or finish every day in God's word
by Pastor Glenn Crouch
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As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognised Jesus (Mark 6:54).
Read Mark 6:30–34,53–56
Our section from Mark’s Gospel bookends the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the water. Though these miracles are wonderful stories that show us who Jesus is, they are not our focus today. Rather we are looking at the people who are chasing after Jesus.
Imagine yourself as one of those in the crowd. You are eager to hear Jesus’ words as you’ve heard about the authority with which he speaks – how his very words change people. Perhaps you or a family member (or friend) need healing, and if you can just bring this need to the attention of Jesus then all will be well – or maybe just get close enough to touch his cloak. It is hardly surprising that crowds formed wherever Jesus went.
Through prayer and Scripture, we have access to Jesus today. Through baptism, we die with Jesus in his death and are raised with him in his resurrection. As we receive holy communion, we receive his body and his blood.
But do we chase after these things? Are you drawn to Jesus? Do you seek out others so that you can pray to him together? Do you cross great distances to hear the gospel preached and to share at his table? We have easy access to the Bible on our phones – are we using them to learn more about Jesus?
I think we need to look again at those people in the crowds. We need to hunger after Jesus. We need our churches, our prayer meetings, and our Bible studies to be overflowing. We need to listen afresh to the Holy Spirit as he draws us to Jesus!
Heavenly Father, you have supplied me with an abundance of resources, yet I barely use them. Through your Holy Spirit, make me like those in the crowds – make me desperate to follow Jesus. I know I need to spend more time in your word, in prayer, in fellowship – help me! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Glenn is the Pastor of St John’s Lutheran Church in Esperance and also looks after St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Karen and he have been married since 1985 and have two grown sons – and have recently become grandparents.
by Pauline Simonsen
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The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing (Psalm 23:1).
Read Psalm 23
Psalm 23 is my go-to comfort in the small hours of the night when sleep eludes me. Maybe for you, too?
When worries assail me, I find great comfort in the direct, simple declaration that the Lord is my shepherd, tending, protecting and guiding me, and I lack nothing. I often repeat this line to myself, over and over. Whatever I have been anxious about is answered by those powerful statements of reality.
These truths, those words of life, enable me to release my taut self to him. And then he makes me lie down in the green meadows of my imagination and relax; he refreshes me beside quiet waters of rest; he restores my ragged soul. My Shepherd brings me to these places of shalom because he is good and he is love.
The 23rd Psalm is so honest about human existence. The valley of the shadow of death is here – the times of deep darkness in our lives. Even though we walk through them, you and I need not fear evil because our Shepherd accompanies us every step of the way with his stout staff.
My enemies are present, the devil, the world, my sinful nature – and yet my Shepherd prepares a feast for me! He serves up abundance amid the battle! He is not concerned with the enemies (they are defeated). He wants me to feast on his life! And so my head is anointed with blessing, and my cup overflows with the wine of his joy.
With such a good Shepherd leading me throughout my life, what have I to fear? His goodness and loving kindness will follow me and you all our lives, until he leads us home to the house of our Father.
‘So do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms … I am going there to prepare a place for you. And I will come back and take you to be with me (John 14:1–3).
Loving Good Shepherd, I lean back now and rest in your arms. You have my back; you have my life. Breathe your shalom into me. Hold me and carry me home. Amen.
Pauline Simonsen is the dean of Emmaus, a Christian training provider for adults in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Pauline is also a spiritual director and enjoys leading retreats or guest speaking for the wider Christian church. She is married to Roger, and they live with two much-loved cats in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand.
by Pauline Simonsen
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Peter said to him, ‘Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat’. Immediately Aeneas got up (Acts 9:34).
Read Acts 9:32–43
‘I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done’, Jesus told his disciples in the upper room on the night before his death.
Peter takes this instruction to heart! Much later, after Jesus’ ascension, after Pentecost, the apostles are taking the word of life abroad: Philip to the Ethiopian official and to the coastal towns; Saul to Damascus and Tarsus; and Peter around Judea.
Today's reading shows Peter imitating his Lord, repeating miracles that Jesus did first. Using the words that Jesus used to the paralysed man in Mark 2:11, Peter tells paralysed Aeneas, ‘Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat’. And Aeneas walks! As with Jesus’ healing back in Capernaum, the miracle profoundly affects the townspeople.
Peter is called on to Joppa, where a dearly loved believer named Tabitha has died. Peter remembers how his Lord raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, and so he copies Jesus (in Mark 5:40–42), putting all the mourners out of the room, commanding the dead body: ‘Tabitha, get up’. Like Jairus’ daughter, Tabitha sits up, alive! As Jesus did, Peter takes her hand, helps her up, and gives her back to her loved ones. Peter has literally ‘learned from the master’, and trusting in the power of Jesus’ name, speaks the words of his Lord to heal people.
Paul also learned this principle of imitating, passing on to others what he had received from the Lord Jesus. ‘Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me’, says Paul to the Philippians, ‘put it into practice’ (Philippians 4:9). And to the Thessalonians: ‘You became imitators of us and of the Lord … a model to all the believers’ (1 Thessalonians 1:5–7).
And so the word of life, spoken by Jesus, is passed on and on and on, as God’s people learn from their forerunners in the faith, and in turn pass Jesus’ words and ways on to those who come after.
Who have you heard the words of life from? Who taught you the ways of Jesus, the Master? Thank God for them now.
And who are you passing the word of life on to?
Father, thank you for giving us your word of life in your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you to those who spoke your word of life to us. Continue to plant your word in us, and grow us in the pattern of your Son, so we bear the word to others. Amen.
Pauline Simonsen is the dean of Emmaus, a Christian training provider for adults in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Pauline is also a spiritual director and enjoys leading retreats or guest speaking for the wider Christian church. She is married to Roger, and they live with two much-loved cats in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand.
by Pauline Simonsen
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At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished (Acts 9:20,21).
Read Acts 9:19b–31
What to do with the new Saul? He confounds everyone.
Instead of enforcing strict Judaism in the synagogues of Damascus and breathing murder against Jesus’ followers, Saul sits in the synagogues preaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God!
Instead of hounding down Jesus' followers, he baffles the Jews with proofs from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah!
How quickly things change when the Lord Jesus speaks his powerful word. Saul has made a radical u-turn, a metanoia or mind-transformation. He is no longer the darling of the Jewish leaders. Rather he is a walking challenge to every group he encounters.
The Jews of Damascus conspire to kill him, and he must escape in a basket over the city walls.
The Christ-followers in Jerusalem are too frightened to meet him, expecting the old Jesus-hating Saul. It’s only with Barnabas’ endorsement that they accept him.
As he preaches in Jerusalem, the Grecian Jews try to kill him. The believers get him out of the city and send him back to his birthplace in Asia Minor.
Saul has become like his Lord Jesus, rejected by his own people, too challenging for everyone, and nowhere to call his home. This will be his path for the rest of his life, walking a pilgrim road of suffering with Jesus.
But for the young church, Saul’s conversion ushers in a new season of peace and growth (Acts 9:31).
And we Gentile Christians know the fruit of his life, for we have the gospel largely because of Saul’s ministry.
And for Saul himself, this pilgrim path was his greatest joy:
I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ … I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings (Philippians 3:8–10).
As Jesus keeps calling you and me daily to follow him, he doesn’t promise us a path of roses, but a narrow path, often marked by suffering.
But as we walk it with him, he works his fruit through our lives and gives us peace and joy in his company!
Lord Jesus, keep us walking our pilgrim lives with you, knowing joy and fulfillment in your presence, even when the road is hard. When we feel rejected by others, remind us that we are hidden in you and that you are working your fruitful purposes through us. Amen.
Pauline Simonsen is the dean of Emmaus, a Christian training provider for adults in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Pauline is also a spiritual director and enjoys leading retreats or guest speaking for the wider Christian church. She is married to Roger, and they live with two much-loved cats in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel (Acts 9:15).
ReadActs 9:10-19a
Meet one of my Bible heroes: Ananias!
This is the only time we meet him, ‘a disciple living in Damascus’. Later Paul describes him as ‘a devout observer of the law, highly respected’ (Acts 22:12). Most importantly, he knows and loves and follows the Lord Jesus.
And what a world-changing task his Lord gives him! To Ananias, it’s a terrifying task: go to Saul of Tarsus, and lay hands on him to heal his blindness.
Ananias knows about Saul: he is the bogeyman of Christ-followers everywhere, come now to persecute Jesus’ people here in Damascus. Surely the Lord wouldn’t send Ananias to this man – into the very mouth of the lion?!
The Lord’s response to Ananias’ profound misgivings is direct. ‘Go!’ God has chosen Saul as his strategic vessel to carry Jesus’ name to the Gentiles. And now Saul will suffer much for Jesus’ sake.
Ananias has a choice. He could ignore this fearful command; pass the vision off as a crazy dream; talk himself out of what he is hearing. It would certainly be the sensible, safer option.
But Jesus’ powerful word speaks courage and compassion into Ananias. Without further argument, he goes to Saul, right into the house, right up to the bogeyman, places his hands on him, and calls him ‘brother’. Wow! That’s the love and grace of Jesus, flowing through Ananias to shattered Saul, who has been praying and hoping for this Ananias to come to him.
Imagine if Ananias had said no? He would’ve missed this empowering by Jesus’ Spirit, this flow of boldness and mercy. He would’ve missed this extraordinary encounter of grace. Thank God for Ananias, the obedient man who did as his Lord commanded and brought God’s grace and healing to broken Saul. The scales fall from Saul’s eyes – he sees clearly, physically and spiritually. He is baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit. He is reborn into the life of God, for ministry.
Ananias fades from the picture. But the world is changed because of his faithful obedience.
Only God knows how through history the quiet courage and service of his unknown disciples have enabled the great works of God to be done.
When you hear his word to you, no matter how challenging, let that word fill you and hold you and empower you for whatever he calls you to do.
It might change someone’s world.
Open my ears to hear you, Lord Jesus, and my heart and will to receive your word to me. Help me to obey you, whatever and whomever you call me to. And when I tremble, speak courage to me! Amen.
Pauline Simonsen is the dean of Emmaus, a Christian training provider for adults in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Pauline is also a spiritual director and enjoys leading retreats or guest speaking for the wider Christian church. She is married to Roger, and they live with two much-loved cats in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? … I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:4b,5b).
Read Acts 9:1–9
If ever a man needed a powerful intervention in his life, Saul did. His whole existence was built on passionate adherence to Judaism. He lived and breathed it, and when it was threatened by the surviving followers of Jesus of Nazareth, Saul opposed them with every fibre of his being. Read Acts 22:3–5! Carrying letters of authority from the high priest himself, Saul takes the purge into other cities, to Damascus. He is a merciless foe to Christ-followers everywhere.
Imagine him on his two-week walk to Damascus. The single-minded focus, the fierce determination. Refining his murderous plans for the days ahead. His absolute certainty of the rightness of his purpose and actions.
Did he converse much with his fellow travellers? As he recited Old Testament scriptures to himself, what did he pray?
And then, the risen, ascended Lord Jesus intervenes in Saul’s life. His travelling party is all struck down by a light from heaven, brighter than the noonday sun. Saul hears a voice speaking in Hebrew Aramaic – words only Saul needed to understand. ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? … I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’
Can we even begin to imagine the impact of those words on Saul? His utter confusion and disbelief? The appalling realisation that if Jesus is alive, is God, then Saul has completely misunderstood everything. His world is shaken to its very foundations.
Blinded Saul is led by the hand into the city, vulnerable, humbled, and shattered. For three days he is like a dead man, not eating or drinking, not seeing.
But beginning to see.
Seeing how all his certainty was quite wrong; how his religion has blinded him to his God. Beginning to see Jesus. Three days in the grave, as his old life dies around him, in him.
The shattering of Saul always sobers me. I remember the times when I have been convinced of my rightness, utterly sure of the correctness of my way – only to discover with shock that I was plain wrong. Or misguided. Or didn’t have all the facts or know the whole story. And in my judgement of others, I was judging Jesus.
So the Lord Jesus speaks into my life, shining his words of truth into me, and I die again to my ego. And am reborn into grace, and his life.
Lord Christ, forgive me when in my blind certainty I have judged and condemned others – and so hurt you. Shine your truth and grace into me, Lord Jesus, and save me from myself. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.
Pauline Simonsen is the dean of Emmaus, a Christian training provider for adults in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Pauline is also a spiritual director and enjoys leading retreats or guest speaking for the wider Christian church. She is married to Roger, and they live with two much-loved cats in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand.