Why did God Choose Cornelius?

In Acts 10, we have the intriguing account of the centurion Cornelius and his family coming to faith in Christ. My question is, why did God choose Cornelius?

We may be tempted to respond with the following reasons:

He was godly 2
Fear to God 2
The family was Godly 2
He did many alms. 2
He always prayed 2
He had an affect on his servants and fellow soldiers 7

Even the angelic visitor highlights his prayers and alms!

Later in verse 22 other qualities are mentioned:

Righteous man
Feared God
Good testimony in all Jewish nations

Verse 33 mentions

that he had called the family and were ready to hear and do everything the Lord commanded.

This guy deserved an angelic visit, didn't he? He was like Abraham, and Noah or Moses, who were men who deserved to be chosen. Right? Wrong! As it is written, there is no righteous one, none (Romans 3:10).

We have an unscriptural view when we think that a human being deserves to be chosen by God. We do not deserve anything from God. However, God in his grace, and mercy, grants salvation. He chooses people for his purpose and Cornelius was one of them.

The fact that Cornelius was all these good things, I am sure, helped the Jewish believers to see that when Cornelius and family received the Holy Spirit, these Gentiles were being saved just as the Jews had been saved ten years earlier. There didn't seem to be any tricks going on as it seems to happen with the "conversions" nowadays. Cornelius and his clan became the first Gentile converts to Christianity. Which is so important for us Gentiles. God opened the heart of this family in a special way and he does the same today. However, don't expect to get an angelic visit or one from Peter either!

Comments

The Twenty Buck Challenge

Well I went and done it! That's bad grammar I know. But I done it anyway. We've been having a Bible study with Esmano and Genesie and their two kids Jennifer and Jadson, for about seven weeks now. This week Jennifer threw out a challenge. "Let's memorize a verse!" I thought that was a great idea. I told them that if they did memorize the verse that I would give them each an American coin. Esmano, their dad usually sits in on the study but he hasn't really been a part of it. When I mentioned the coin idea his eyes lit up a little. I then reached into my wallet and said, "If YOU memorize that verse I'll give you $20 bucks! His eyes really lit up then! Was it a good idea? I doubt it. No one has ever offered me money for memorizing verses. However, this will be the first verse that this man has ever memorized. If he does it. It is not a conventional way of doing memory work and it could cost me a bill for nothing. But if God uses this simple chall...

What About the Property?

Some of you have been asking about the land purchase. In fact I got a note from my friend Tom asking about it just this morning. So, I decided to respond to Tom's question and send the note to everyone on my list. Tom Funny that you should ask about the property. We talked about it last night in our team meeting. We see three options. We could buy a piece of land near the neighborhood and build. We could buy a couple of houses that are side by side and remodel or We could buy just one house and expand as we grow. We have R$37,000 ($22,000) available to choose our option. We decided last night to pray and ask God for specific guidance as we proceed. We plan to talk to a man next week about option one . There is a huge piece of property next to our neighborhood and we will be asking him to sell us a 600 meter square piece. If he does we will have our land but no money for construction. If the man say, "No" we will consider that God is closin...

If this is the kingdom of God, do I really want it?

If this is Kingdom Living, Do I Want it? Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. In a study of the Sermon on the Mount to this point we might be tempted to say, “I don’t want to be that happy!” If this is Kingdom living then I want to go to Disney World. This place is depressing. What Jesus describes here seems to highlight all of the ...

jewellpage.com

Search This Blog