Acts 10

The verse that stands out to me today is verse 15: "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy". For some reason, this verse shows me a revolutionary way God interacts with His creation. In the past, God gave out rules and commandments. It was do this or do that. Don't eat animals that chew the curd or split the hooves or don't do any work on the Sabbath. These seemingly simple commandments can turn into monstrosities when people try to interpret them. What is considered work? How much contact with blood will make you unclean? Throughout the Jewish history, there has been constant changes in the interpretation of His laws. (Feels almost like congress.) But here in Acts, it is evident that God has changed the way He's speaking to us. He no longer gives us written rules or commandments to follow, but we are to follow the commandments in our heart. We no longer have to use our mind and logic to interpret what He's trying to say, rather the Holy Spirit interprets His Words for us. At times, it can be incredibly frustrating. It was especially hard when I was a new believer. After I was baptized and gave my life to God, I felt like there should be some kind of change in my life. So I did the only thing that I knew, I imitated others. Whatever the older brothers and sisters did, I tried to copy. The way they talked, the way they acted, I thought this was how a Christian was suppose to be. From the things I read and the movies I saw, I had this idealized picture of a Christian. They're always happy, always joyful. Never angry, never frustrated, never offends other people. This was the kind of person I aspired to be, and I was constantly disappointed. Try as I might, I still lost my temper, I still felt sadness and frustration. Soon, I almost wanted to give up. There's no way a perfect Christian could exist! Thank goodness that God doesn't demand us to be. What I had wrong was my definition of a Christian. A Christian isn't someone that inspires hope in others, that never criticizes other, that never gets provoked. A Christian is someone who follows God. I was trying to make myself more perfect than even Christ was. Even Jesus Christ was angry when he found people trading in the Temple. He also argued constantly with the Pharisees and many times won. What I did was throw away all the grace and mercy that Christ gave us and picked up the rules and regulations of the Old Testament. Don't get me wrong, often the Lord will want us to be even more perfect than what the law says. In Matt 5, Jesus said that the law may have said you cannot commit adultery, but if you even look at a woman lustfully, you have already committed adultery with her (paraphrased...alittle). But whatever He demands of us, He gives us the strength to complete. It's incredibly liberating. Once again, God shows us how much He wants to have a real relationship with us.

Be liberated today!