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Bible Hero of the Week - Cornelius
You can find this story in the Bible in the book of Acts, chapter 2 |
Cornelius was a Roman soldier, a centurion. A leader of men. He was definitely not Jewish, but Cornelius believed in the one true God and prayed regularly. One day God spoke to him - “Send for Peter, one of those Christian guys. He’s in Joppa just now.”
God was also preparing Peter for this meeting. He showed Peter a vision in which there were lots of birds and animals for Peter to eat. Peter said they were unclean and he would not eat them. God said in no uncertain terms, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
To be sure Peter really got the message, God repeated the vision three times! (Peter could be kind of dim sometimes.) Shortly after this, some men from Cornelius’ household arrive and ask Peter to go with them.
So Peter goes to Cornelius’ house and tells him about Jesus. Cornelius believes and the Holy Spirit comes, just like He did at Pentecost. It was a great day! The doors of Christianity were wide open for Gentiles as well as Jews.
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What does this mean to me?
Many Jewish Christians thought they were God’s only chosen people. God used Cornelius to show them that He loves all people everywhere. We sometimes need to be reminded of that today.
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