Greetings,
Today I am in Lisbon, Portugal after another great week in Angola, Africa. I am on my way to Nevada to see my family for some days of family connection. I am looking forward to some great days. The people of Angola were very hungry, willing, and teachable. The presence of God was wonderful, and God’s love was evident in all that we did. It was good to see what God is doing.
The Day of the Lord is not just a day to come in the future. The Day of the Lord is for all who choose to embrace a life in Christ. For those who choose not to embrace the Day of the Lord in this life will have to face it when this life is through, but for those who choose Him in this life are given the ability to choose His life in all things. We were once darkness, but now we can become the light of God in Christ. In Christ we are children of the Day and not the night, so we must walk as children of light. We must embrace living as children of the Day and we must let go of the way of the world. The ways of the world are ways of darkness. God does not condemn the darkness, but He brings light to transform it to light. Changing our ways won’t make us children of the light but being children of the light will empower us to change our ways. If we do not let the things of darkness flee from our lives, we are not fully embracing the light.
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
When the Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius and his family, they began to speak in tongues as the anointing of the Holy spirit came upon them. Cornelius was not someone who had been trained in the ways of God. He just simply wanted God; whoever He was and in whatever way He wanted to reveal Himself. Cornelius was not a man of God’s ways, he was a Gentile. He was a man who had lived according to the culture of his day. At that time many Gentiles started speaking in tongues and confess God’s love. God’s presence of love in and upon their lives didn’t mean that God was blessing everything they were doing in their lives. It simply meant that God loved them, and they were invited to be transformed by His love. The apostles met in Jerusalem trying to figure out what to do. They were looking for some rules. There was a need for a change in their ways and that is what the power of God’s grace does. It is not just a moment of transformation, but a way of life in Christ that continually and increasingly transforms the ways of men. The apostles knew that God loved these Gentiles, but they also know that God wanted to change their ways. What should they tell them? How should they act? I don’t know if there needed to be rules, but they thought there had to be some sort of boundaries. It was obvious to them that God had granted those people repentance unto life. They were alive unto God! They knew that God wants people to act godly, to act the way God desires. They knew that law wasn’t the answer. They didn’t want to put the entire torah law system upon them, so they gave them some simple boundaries. They were not to drink blood, a symbolism of seeking the life that is found in the flesh. They were not to be fornicators. They were not to seek relationships that were legitimate and could not produce the life of true covenant. They knew that relationships that don’t come out of covenant lead to dysfunction and death. They were not to worship other gods. The apostles knew that only worshipping God can bring the life-transforming power of God into human lives.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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