PLACES WE WILL NEVER GO

Have you ever had the experience that God takes you somewhere you thought you would never go. It could be a location like Thailand or Lubumbashi, Congo (look it up). But more often, God might take us to an experience or to a person we might have thought of as unlikely or impossible. You might even say “I would never (fill in the blank)”. But when we are listening for God’s voice and asking his Spirit to guide us, it happens. God takes us to places we would never think to go, or want to go. That is what happened to Peter in Acts chapter 10. I read the passage last night and tried to put myself in Peter’s shoes. He was a devote Jew and in those early days of the Church, the first believers thought that salvation through Christ was first and foremost for the Jewish people. Peter was on a road trip to visit Jewish believers in Jesus on the Mediterranean coast.

God gave him a vision that it was OK to eat animals forbidden in the Old Testament law. “What God has made clean, do not call impure”. Peter wondered what it meant but found out right away when men arrived from another coastal city looking for him. They were not Jews and came representing Romans. Jews did not associate with non-Jews and especially not with Romans. But Peter had a strong sense that God wanted him to follow the men.

They arrived at the home of a Roman military man, a centurion. These were the people that executed Jesus on the cross. The Centurion explained that an angel had come to him and told him to send for Peter, by name at the very house where he was staying. This must have confirmed things even further for Peter. Then Peter shared the message of Jesus sacrifice and salvation through faith. To top it off, the Holy Spirit came to all of those that believed, they spoke in tongues and asked to be baptized. Peter must have thought, this was a place, an experience, and people he never thought he would go to.

The lesson here is that Peter was tuned in to where God might be leading. He was willing to reconsider his long held beliefs and convictions. He set aside his bias, perhaps bigotry, concerning the people God put before him. Then he shared the most precious information in the universe with people that he would have avoided at almost any cost the day before.

God can take any of us to a place we never expected. But when he takes you to experiences that challenge your convictions how will you react? First we need to be willing to question our own assumptions. We need to ask God to help us see the world through His eyes. Who knows, you might catch of vision of the future, of what should be, and then follow someone you don’t know into a ministry you never imagined possible.