December 5 - Acceptance without Favoritism

Today's Reading:
Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20
Acts 10:24-48
Psalm 57:7-11
Click on Text Link to Read Online

Focus Verses:
Acts 10:30-35
³⁰ Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me ³¹ and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. ³² Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ ³³ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” ³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

Insight:
God accepts anyone who has faith in him and reverence for him. Faith and reverence are lived out through honoring God and doing what is right. The testimony of all the prophets, Peter said, is that "everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name." Through this amazing God-ordained encounter, God was not only showing himself to Cornelius and his household, he was also helping Peter to know and understand him in fuller way.

Response and Action:
 I am so glad that God's mercy and love are available to everyone regardless of ethnicity, language, nationality, or religious background. Those who believe in God and humbly seek him will find him.

My faith in God and reverence for him must be lived out in my daily life. I will seek God with my whole heart. I will continue to expect God to help me know him more completely and deeply. I will be ready and willing to help others know and respond to God. I will also be ready to learn new things about God. The more I know Christ the more I will be able to share him with others. The more I share Christ with others, the more I will know him.

O God, thank you for loving us and for making a way for us to have forgiveness and life through Jesus. You have promised that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. May all who seek you find you, O God. May all who know you freely and boldly share your love with everyone around them. Help me to know you more and more each day. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: 1 John 5:11-12
¹¹ And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Resources: 
One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches
by George A. Yancey