Acts 10:1-8\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0At Caesarea\u00a0there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.\u00a02\u00a0He and all his family were devout and God-fearing;\u00a0he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.\u00a03\u00a0One day at about three in the afternoon\u00a0he had a vision.\u00a0 He distinctly saw an angel\u00a0of God, who came to him and said, \u201cCornelius!\u201d\u00a0 4\u00a0Cornelius stared at him in fear. \u201cWhat is it, Lord?\u201d he asked.\u00a0 The angel answered, \u201cYour prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering\u00a0before God.\u00a05\u00a0Now send men to Joppa\u00a0to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.\u00a06\u00a0He is staying with Simon the tanner,\u00a0whose house is by the sea.\u201d\u00a0 7\u00a0When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants.\u00a08\u00a0He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>At Caesarea\u00a0there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 The word regiment used here is probably better translated as \u201ccohort.\u201d\u00a0 A cohort consisted of about six hundred men.\u00a0 The cohorts were subdivided in groups of one hundred men and led by a leader called a centurion. They were called the Italian Regiment because they were all, or mostly all, Romans and not foreign conscripts.<\/p>\n \u201cHe and all his family were devout and God-fearing;\u00a0he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 It is amazing that this Roman officer was a man who was faithfully and ardently fearing and seeking God.\u00a0 He was a Roman and the Roman belief in many gods, and their deification of their Caesars, is well known.\u00a0 Yet here is a man who had no interest in the false beliefs of Rome, but who cried out to God to know who the one true God was.\u00a0 This truly is amazing that he could stick his head out of the stench of the morass of false beliefs. But he did.\u00a0 In fact the original language used indicated that he was crying out to God because of the lack of something in his life.\u00a0 That lack was the knowledge of God, who he was sure existed.\u00a0 Cornelius not only desperately sought God, but he also taught his family to do so.<\/p>\n Another thing to note is that Cornelius was a good man who was generous with the needy.\u00a0 This is noteworthy because as is shown in these scriptures, he was not on his way to Heaven.\u00a0 Being a good person who sought after God was not good enough.\u00a0 If so, God could have left Cornelius seeking Him and doing good deeds and then brought him to Heaven.\u00a0 But God did not.\u00a0 The truth is, this man who was a good deed doer and ardent prayer was on his way to hell.\u00a0 We know that good deeds don\u2019t get us to Heaven, we only get there through Jesus.\u00a0 Displaying God\u2019s heart to save all who will come, Jesus is about to be taught to Cornelius.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day at about three in the afternoon\u00a0he had a vision.\u00a0 He distinctly saw an angel\u00a0of God, who came to him and said, \u201cCornelius!\u201d<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 God will do whatever it takes to save souls.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t the fact that He sent His Son Jesus to be born a man, to suffer die and rise from death evidence enough that God will do whatever it takes to save a man?\u00a0 Even today we hear of Jesus appearing in visions to people to save whole tribes.\u00a0 Yet too many people say that God doesn\u2019t work that way.\u00a0 They need to open their eyes and see that the love of God will do whatever it needs to save souls, or even, one soul.\u00a0 Perhaps the doubter needs to understand that doctrine that remains in the head, but not the heart, is of little value.\u00a0 Jesus is in the business of loving and saving souls.<\/p>\n \u201cCornelius stared at him in fear. \u201cWhat is it, Lord?\u201d he asked.\u00a0 The angel answered, \u201cYour prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering\u00a0before God.\u00a05\u00a0Now send men to Joppa\u00a0to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.\u00a06\u00a0He is staying with Simon the tanner,\u00a0whose house is by the sea.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 When Cornelius called the angel lord, it was likely that he was not addressing him as Lord, like Lord God, which the angel would have corrected.\u00a0 Only God is Lord.\u00a0 He was more likely speaking respectfully to this emissary with great power, like we might address someone as Sir.<\/p>\n The angel told Cornelius that God had heard his prayers and was now answering them.\u00a0 He gave him orders to send men to bring Peter to him.<\/p>\n Peter was staying with Simon the tanner.\u00a0 That is significant because Jews typically eschewed tanners because they handled things that were dead.\u00a0 Yet Peter was staying with this tanner.\u00a0 Perhaps the Lord, having Peter minister to the Samaritans, was using him with the Samaritans for their sake, but also in preparation to open up the eyes of Peter that Jesus planned to bring the Gospel to the whole world and not just the Jewish world. \u00a0The Lord was about to show Cornelius to narrow his search for God and also was about to teach Simon to broaden his search for recipients of the Gospel.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants.\u00a08\u00a0He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 As soon as the angel was gone Cornelius did as he was instructed.\u00a0 He sent two servants and a trusted soldier to Peter.\u00a0 Cornelius was about to receive all he had wanted.\u00a0 He was about to receive what he knew was lacking in his life.\u00a0 He could hardly wait to finally get the answer to his prayers.<\/p>\n Cornelius was no different than every person who was ever born.\u00a0 We were all born with a lack.\u00a0 The lack was Jesus in our lives. Family, thank Jesus for all He has done for us.\u00a0 He filled the void, He has provided the lack so that we have received what we most needed, and that is, to become God\u2019s family.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 We belong to God!\u00a0 Now let\u2019s share the good news and keep loving and praising God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 10:1-8\u00a0\u2013\u00a0At Caesarea\u00a0there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.\u00a02\u00a0He and all his family were devout and God-fearing;\u00a0he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.\u00a03\u00a0One day at about three in the afternoon\u00a0he had a vision.\u00a0 He distinctly saw an angel\u00a0of God, who came…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,94,17],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1612,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/1612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}