The Most Amazing Conversion

In the book of Acts there are many amazing stories of life change...people who did not know Christ, heard the Gospel and had their worlds radically turned upside down. One of them is in chapter 10, where we see Peter guided by the Holy Spirit, lead Cornelius and his entire household to the Lord. The surprising part of this story is that Cornelius was a Gentile... a Roman military leader, to be specific. Now to this point, all of the converts to the Way (Christianity) were Jews. But God first changes Peter's mind regarding clean and unclean through a vision, and then He pours out his Holy Spirit out on a room full of non-Jews so as to leave no room for argument.

Amazing, right? But not the MOST amazing...

The most amazing conversion actually happens in the next chapter. Very soon, the people who had already accepted Christ (all Jewish) hear about what happened and when Peter comes back to Jerusalem, they jump him. Those who are already in the club aren't so sure that these new people really belong. Well that never happens today, does it?

But Peter explains everything thing that happened and then...

• the deacons decide to pray about it, or maybe
• it gets added to the agenda for the next board meeting, or
• the congregation votes on whether to accept the Gentile believers or not, or...
  

you fill in the blank. What have you seen happen when God is moving in a new way and those who are open to hearing from God get to a certain point before the rest of the "circumcised believers" do?

After Peter explained how God was moving, verse 18 reads, "When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God..."

Now maybe I'm too cynical, but that was the most amazing conversion ever!

May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.