Whenever I find myself walking the halls of a high school, I always gravitate toward the trophy case. I\u2019m drawn in by the brass cups and tarnished medals, surrounded by snapshots of smiling faces taken at someone\u2019s moment of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I nod my head in understanding…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hard work gets rewarded.
Pedigree propels us forward.
Elbow grease and effort come with ribbons and cheering crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since we were big enough to earn a gold star, this is what we\u2019ve been taught. It\u2019s why, in part, God\u2019s gift of grace can feel so slippery inside our hearts. A system where salvation is earned through sacrifice and good choices makes sense to our task-minded brains. The idea that heaven is a club with membership requirements seems reasonable, especially since our sinful hearts can convince us that we have the spiritual r\u00e9sum\u00e9 to be charter members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the right-side-up-way of Jesus is that no one deserves to be reconciled to God; still all are welcome who put their faith in Christ (Romans 3:23\u201324). This is the miracle that God has baked into human history and told in His Word since the days of Abraham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, there was a chosen people. God hand selected a tiny nation to live set apart for Him, but the point of their existence wasn\u2019t to highlight their specialness. It was to display that the gospel is for the rest of us too\u2014those who have neither the spiritual pedigree nor the perfect record required to live in unbroken fellowship with the God of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This \u201cgood news\u201d must have been disorienting to Peter. When the Spirit gave Peter a vision of animals he\u2019d always been forbidden to consume and commanded him, \u201cGet up, Peter; kill and eat\u201d (Acts 10:13), Peter responded with (self)righteous indignation. \u201c\u2018No, Lord!\u2019 Peter said. \u2018For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean\u2019\u201d (v.14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, it didn\u2019t take Peter long to understand this wasn\u2019t about food, animals, or keeping the rules. We hear this truth move the eighteen inches from Peter\u2019s head to his heart, in the sermon he preached to a room full of Gentiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I truly understand that God doesn\u2019t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.<\/em> Through his obedience to the Spirit, Peter pulled the pin on a grenade that exploded grace on the whole world, not a select few. All of us who are in Christ, in every era and pocket of the world, remain in the blast zone today. May we never get over the awe of it. May we respond like the Jews in the room did the day Peter preached his first sermon to a room full of \u201cothers\u201d who weren\u2019t chosen people but still chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.<\/em> Jesus, thank you that we are all trophies of your grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever I find myself walking the halls of a high school, I always gravitate toward the trophy case. I\u2019m drawn in by the brass cups and tarnished medals, surrounded by snapshots of smiling faces taken at someone\u2019s moment of success. I nod my head in understanding… Hard work gets rewarded.Pedigree propels us forward.Elbow grease and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":72917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acts26"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[73104],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"GOOD NEWS FOR GENTILES<\/b> Whenever I find myself walking the halls of a high school, I always gravitate toward the trophy case. I\u2019m drawn in by the brass cups and tarnished medals, surrounded by snapshots of smiling faces taken at someone\u2019s moment of success.<\/p> I nod my head in understanding...<\/p> Hard work gets rewarded. Since we were big enough to earn a gold star, this is what we\u2019ve been taught. It\u2019s why, in part, God\u2019s gift of grace can feel so slippery inside our hearts. A system where salvation is earned through sacrifice and good choices makes sense to our task-minded brains. The idea that heaven is a club with membership requirements seems reasonable, especially since our sinful hearts can convince us that we have the spiritual r\u00e9sum\u00e9 to be charter members.<\/p> But the right-side-up-way of Jesus is that no one deserves to be reconciled to God; still all are welcome who put their faith in Christ (Romans 3:23\u201324). This is the miracle that God has baked into human history and told in His Word since the days of Abraham.<\/p> Sure, there was a chosen people. God hand selected a tiny nation to live set apart for Him, but the point of their existence wasn\u2019t to highlight their specialness. It was to display that the gospel is for the rest of us too\u2014those who have neither the spiritual pedigree nor the perfect record required to live in unbroken fellowship with the God of the universe.<\/p> This \u201cgood news\u201d must have been disorienting to Peter. When the Spirit gave Peter a vision of animals he\u2019d always been forbidden to consume and commanded him, \u201cGet up, Peter; kill and eat\u201d (Acts 10:13), Peter responded with (self)righteous indignation. \u201c\u2018No, Lord!\u2019 Peter said. \u2018For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean\u2019\u201d (v.14).<\/p> But through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, it didn\u2019t take Peter long to understand this wasn\u2019t about food, animals, or keeping the rules. We hear this truth move the eighteen inches from Peter\u2019s head to his heart, in the sermon he preached to a room full of Gentiles.<\/p> Now I truly understand that God doesn\u2019t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.<\/em> Through his obedience to the Spirit, Peter pulled the pin on a grenade that exploded grace on the whole world, not a select few. All of us who are in Christ, in every era and pocket of the world, remain in the blast zone today. May we never get over the awe of it. May we respond like the Jews in the room did the day Peter preached his first sermon to a room full of \u201cothers\u201d who weren\u2019t chosen people but still chosen.<\/p> The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.<\/em> Jesus, thank you that we are all trophies of your grace.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"16","scripture":"Acts 10:1-48, Isaiah 52:7-10, Galatians 3:27-28","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2014Acts 10:34-35<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014Acts 10:45<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\r\nby Erin Davis<\/i>
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\nPedigree propels us forward.
\r\nElbow grease and effort come with ribbons and cheering crowds.<\/p>
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\u2014Acts 10:34-35<\/em><\/p>
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\u2014Acts 10:45<\/em><\/p>
\r\n