Acts 10:1-48 - Corps Notes - April 29, 1976
Acts 10:1-48 April 29, 1976 God sort of softens people up. Do you know that? He did it for you, I think. For instance, had you been in on a real heavy session the first time, you most likely would have not come back for a while. But God just sort of prepares people. He keeps moving and moving. When you begin to see that in the Word, it builds a lot of patience in your life, and a lot of grace and a lot of understanding, a lot of forgiveness of others. Because all through the Word God just kept working away with people. Well, that’s all He’s got; those who believe Him. If they believe that far, He’s thankful and that’s all He’s got. Somebody else believes that far and then He has that individual. He keeps working, building, and here He’s building Peter. Peter was a real human individual like most of you are--all of us I guess. You know, I learned long, long ago that you have to have a lot of patience with people and you have to have a lot of love. Nobody gets too much of love. Nobody is ever too patient. Sometimes I too get impatient. Whenever I get impatient that’s sin. So then I’ve got to tell God “I’m sorry I’m so stupid and so impatient,” because He’s been patient with me. So if He can be patient with me, I’ve got to afford to be patient with others. Love you never get too much of. You know, possessive love and that kind of junk is counterfeit. But the real, genuine love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, that tenderness, you never get too much of that. You can always take an extra ounce. So the Word of God is like that. I do not believe that you can ever get too much of the Word of God. Every time you come back to that Word and work that Word you get excitingly alive on the inside and just so dynamically effervescing that sometimes you wonder if it can get any better. The next time you’re in something it’s better again. I was thinking yesterday how the fellows were saying that that experience in the Holy Land was the greatest thing that ever happened t
From this work
- a leader of a hundred Acts 10:2 “a devout man” - not freaky, but somebody who was committed, who was devout. You would sometimes hear people say “religious” - really concerned. “feared” - respected, reverenced “with all his house” - that is a tremendous orientalism. In the oriental culture, whenever the head of the house accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, everybody else did. In other words, if the father of your family made a decision, the whole family fell in line with it. If the father got converted, everybody got converted. That’s why this record in here says he reverenced God with all his house. “gave much alms to the people” - shared abundantly “prayed to God alway”- see, he wasn’t just a bad man. If there was any one man who didn’t need salvation it’s this fellow. He’s a good fellow. He would have made a nice, tremendous church member, wouldn’t he? He had all the qualifications. If