Can you repeat that God? I know You are speaking, I just don't know what you are saying.

I read Acts 10 this morning, another great story about God reaching and transforming people.

Two things got me thinking this morning:

The first is God's use of a vision to speak to Peter. (You might want to read Acts 10 to hear the story). Peter is up on a roof praying and God gives him a vision about a sheet and all sorts of animals. These animals were considered unclean by the Old Testament Law, so when God tells Peter to "Get up...kill and eat them," you can imagine his confusion.

Peter replies that he has never eaten anything unclean. God responds with, "Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean." Then God repeats the same vision to Peter three times.

See, in hindsight, I know that this vision deals with Peter telling the Gentiles (unclean people) the Gospel. All of this vision sequence was God's way of communicating with Peter that he should go to the Gentiles with the Gospel. But why didn't He just say that?

Later on in the story, it says, "Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision..." Clearly Peter didn't understand the vision at first. I think God wanted Peter to understand the vision- He did show it to him three times. But why did He give a cryptic vision to Peter when a plain message would have been clearer? Why didn't God just say once, "I'm sending you to Cornelius' house. He is a gentile, but I am declaring the gentiles clean."

I don't know the answer to that question for sure, but I think it has to do with trust and dependency. By giving a vision that was puzzling, and giving it 3 times, I think Peter understood this is something important that God wants him to get. I believe that this puzzling vision actually made Peter more attentive to God. It made Peter ponder what God was saying. It made Peter ask God to help him understand what He was saying. It is like Peter heard God whispering, knew God was saying something important, but couldn't quite make it out. So Peter leaned a little closer to God, listened a little more attentive, and said, "what are you saying?" And God gave Peter understanding.

In my mind, that's why God gave a puzzling vision. At first it might seem like God doesn't want to clearly communicate, but in the end, I think those "messages" place us in a place where we are more likely to hear and understand.

The second thing was God's heart for those who have never heard. You know the argument- what about the people who have never heard about Jesus...will God send them to Hell? I think this story reveals God's heart and actions for people who have never heard.

First, it is important to remember God (as David Platt points out in his book Radical) does not condemn people to Hell for not knowing Jesus but for rejecting God first. Read Romans 1. People have no excuse for not knowing God...God makes Himself known to all through Creation, but all have rejected God and that is the cause of their condemnation. But God is a God of grace, love, and mercy. He doesn't want to condemn. He wants to save, so He sends Jesus. And then He sends His church to tell the world about Jesus, so that they can be saved.

The story of Cornelius is a perfect example. Cornelius didn't know about Jesus as Savior, but he knew about God. In fact, he was a God-fearer. He lived in a way to please God as best he knew how. So God sent Peter to Cornelius. In fact, God sent an angel to Cornelius first telling him to send for Peter. He sent Peter a vision, preparing Peter to be open and ready to go to Cornelius. And then Peter proclaimed the Good News about Jesus and they were saved.

This just caught my attention about what lengths God goes so people will be saved. If people are open to God, like Cornelius, it seems God does everything imaginable so that they can hear about Jesus. God knows how to get His message about Jesus to those who are open.

Jesus, thank you for speaking and for causing me to become a better listener. Keep me open to reaching those that You know are desperate for You.