Seasons Change
An Acts 10 Devo and a Fond Farewell
So about a month ago when I wrote my last Pushing Buttons with Stephen article, I had this sense of completion wash over me. It was as if the Spirit was saying to me that this Morning Thoughts thing that I was doing was over.
I shook my head. That didn’t make sense. I mean I was only beginning my journey through Acts. I love writing. I’m a trained teacher. I love studying the Bible and sharing what I learn. It seemed that this Morning Thoughts journal was designed for me to do. So, really, it did not make sense that I would put it aside.
And yet, I heard, “I called you out of teaching.”
Maybe I was just tired, I thought. I mean, I’ve had long covid for 2.5 years. I’ve been pretty much exhausted for most of that time. And yet, I thought that this journal writing was going to be a good thing that came from this illness. And it was. But no. I felt this sense of this season being over. Of something new or perhaps a return to the old just ahead. A sense that it was a time to be quiet.
Maybe I just needed to pause and regroup. Surely, that’s all that was needed.
And so, I sat with this feeling that this season of writing Morning Thoughts journals was over for a couple of weeks before I ever mentioned it to anyone, and, now, it has been almost a month since that sense of it’s time for something new first came over me.
I’ve prayed about it. Talked to a couple good writer friends about it. And yet, that feeling has not gone away.
I argued with God about it – which is when He told me that I had been called out of teaching.
And just this morning when I was putting off writing this and listening to a five-minute overview of Acts chapter 11, I was still thinking about how weird it was for me to stop proclaiming God’s truth in this way. I mean, it doesn’t fit with how we’re taught to do things. Does it? Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?
And that’s when the application portion of the video said:
“You know the Jews were really caught off guard when God invited the Gentiles to be part of His kingdom. Peter, himself, was a little bit caught off guard, but I think there’s a lesson for us in the way that they responded once they realized that this was God’s intention. God doesn’t always work in the ways that we expect, so we need to be ready to accept His plan when it’s different from our expectations.” (from Acts 11 in 5 Minutes by 2BeLikeChrist)
So today, I’m going to share the final Morning Thoughts journal entry that I wrote for Acts 10 with you and then, as you and I step into reading Acts 11, I’m going to heed that voice that is telling me that it is time to change. This season is done. A new one is beginning.
Perhaps one day I’ll be back. Perhaps when I am, it will look very different. Perhaps it will be the same. I don’t know. That is up to God.
For now, let me just say that I have appreciated all who have followed these posts. Creating them has been such a blessing and healing activity for me. I pray that at least something in them has also spoken to you.
May you continue to seek God and put your faith (trust) in His goodness.
Keep walking humbly with your God (aka Keep filling your place), my friends. Even when the instructions for doing so seem to go against expectations. :)
Annilee
And here is the final short journal entry from Acts 10 called “What’s Up With All Those Threes”:
As I was reading Acts 10, I noticed some things:
At about THREE in the afternoon, Cornelius has a vision to send men to Joppa to bring Peter to him.
So, he sends THREE men.
The next day, Peter is praying and has a vision that is repeated THREE times.
While he is still thinking about the vision, the THREE men from Cornelius arrive and the Spirit tells him to go with them because He had sent them.
Peter goes with the men and when Cornelius starts to relate his story to Peter, he mentions that he sent men THREE days ago.
In Peter’s message to those gathered at Cornelius’ house, Peter mentions that Christ rose from the dead on the THIRD day.
That’s a lot of three’s! Is it mere details and coincidence that there are so many of them?
Maybe.
But I don’t think so.
You see, when I was reading Acts 9, I noticed that Paul was blind for three days, and it brought to mind the fact that Jesus was dead for three days. And that got me wondering:
Why three? Why couldn’t it have been two or four or ten? Why three? Is there some meaning to the number that a Jew of that day would have understood, but I don’t?
So, I asked Google and Perplexity.ai what the Hebrew understanding of the number three is.
WOW. There’s definitely significance to that number – from creation and new life, to completeness and harmony, to permanence and strength.
I found that according to the Jewish law, once something is done three times, it’s considered a permanent thing.
And that’s the detail in what I read about the number three which stood out to me as connected to this chapter of Acts.
God was doing a new thing. His Spirit was dwelling with people. He had commissioned the disciples to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the world – the whole world, not just their Jewish neighbours.
We’re told that after the stoning of Stephen, persecution erupted on the followers of Christ. Headed up, at least in part, by Saul of Tarsus.
Due to this persecution, the believers were scattered, and the message of Jesus Christ was carried from Jerusalem to Judea, into Samaria, and we even see it being sent to the Ethiopia, which, according to a message I heard on Acts 8 by Skip Heitzig, was considered by the Greeks and Romans to be the outer limits of the world.
Do you see Acts 1:8 in that?
I do. God’s plan is in play, and He’s about to confirm a new level, if you will.
In Acts 10:14, we hear Peter refusing to do what the voice in His vision told him to do. The voice had told him to “kill and eat.” But the selection of animals to eat from were not ones on the clean list. They were animals that the Law of Moses forbade Jews from eating, and Peter followed the law. He had never eaten anything unclean.
The voice then says: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10: 15 NIV)
This scenario repeats itself two more times, for a total of three proclamations of the same message. Did Peter understand the significance of this having been done three times? I’d say he did. He knew that what God was saying in this vision was of a permanent nature.
Then, God’s Spirit tells him not to hesitate in going with the men who had come to get him, and when Peter arrives at Cornelius’ house, we hear the connection between Peter’s dream and the spreading of the gospel.
He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising my objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” (Acts 10:28-29 NIV)
Cornelius tells Peter about his vision, and Peter comments that “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35 NIV)
And as Peter is sharing his message with the gathered people, the Holy Spirit is poured out on them all – even the Gentiles (v. 45).
What was happening was about new life; it was about the uniting of two opposites (Jew and Gentile), and it was a permanent thing. The good news was not just for the Jews. It was given to them first, so that they could share it with the rest of the world – that the whole world could be blessed through the descendants of Abraham just as God had promised back in Genesis. So, while the way in which this promise was being fulfilled was new, the plan wasn’t new.
And, that, my friends, to me, is the significance of all those three’s in Acts 10. The restoration of all that was lost in the Garden is permanently underway as it restores all of creation, and we – everyone who fears God and does what is right – are the ones to whom God has entrusted this good work.
Wow, I wrote this article a week and a half ago, and as I’ve just reread it now while getting it ready to post, I’m floored by the way this fits in so well into this final journal entry. But then, God is pretty cool like that — connecting the dots and revealing new levels of things as they are needed.
I mean, doesn’t that seem such a perfect way to end this Morning Thoughts adventure? With a reminder to go forth and restore?
Carry God’s goodness into the world however you have been given to carry it — as a teacher, as a nurse, as a mom or grandma, as a wife, as a friend, as a lawyer or musician or politician or cashier or librarian or whatever.
Wherever you are and whatever you do, be the light of goodness shining in a world of darkness.