Coming Attractions

I read a magazine article the other day. It was about the Inner Hebrides Islands off the west coast of Scotland. The pictures were breathtakingly beautiful.
I'd love to go to Scotland one day.
Today at work, I was outside cleaning some equipment when I noticed a large butterfly on the ground. It was beautiful. It had a mixture of dark greens and blues in these amazing patterns.
There is so much beauty in the world. Sights that one would never get tired to seeing.
I have much difficulty in understanding how an atheist could see these things and not be moved to explore the possibility of a Creator.

Father, thank You for the beauty that you have put here for us to see. Thank You that it moves us to praise You and Your glory. Thank You that Your creation bares witness to Your very existence. And thank You for the knowledge that it is nothing compared to what is to come. You are indeed awesome!

The Beast Feast

We were having a neat conversation at church the other night. My pastor had posed some very thought provoking questions concerning Jewish dietary restrictions.

The wheels in my little head began to turn, as they sometimes do. Here's what fell out:

In Leviticus 11, God sets the rules on what kind of animals are good to eat and what kind are not. This is one section of the Law of Moses that seems to have been very strictly (or religiously) followed.

Fast forward a few thousand years, and we find Peter on a roof top having a vision. (Acts 10:9-16) God is preparing Peter for something huge. Something that Peter cannot fathom. He is perplexed by his vision. In the vision, God opens a cloth that is filled with every kind of animal. He brings forward an animal that Peter knows is on the 'unclean' list in the law. God tells him to eat it. Peter refuses. This happens three times. After Peter refused three times to eat an unclean animal, God tells Peter not to call something unclean which He has cleaned. Which, by the way, seems like a typical exchange that we would see between Peter and Jesus in his disciple days.

Something happened. Something awesome happened. Once again, God provided a way. He was bringing to fruition a promise. In Hosea 2:23, God promised that He would call to Himself a people who were not His people. (Romans 9:23) He was extending His grace, holding out the hope that is in Christ Jesus to the gentiles.

But there was that law. And there was the prohibition against associating with gentiles. They had to hear the gospel, they had to be taught. Someone had to sit down with them, associate with them....eat with them.

Gentiles were not under Jewish law. They ate whatever they wanted to. The preachers and teachers were going to have to eat what the gentiles served.

God is so awesome! He made a way. He is, after all, God. He simply released His ambassadors to the gentiles (Jews) from the dietary restrictions. Genius!

God is AWESOME!