“and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
~ Acts 11:26
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like changes? Would you like to be able to live in different places? Ask your dad if when he was a kid if he liked moving to and living in different places? Do you like seasonal changes? Your grandmaa and grandpaa grew up in places in the United States – your grandpaa in South Dakota and your grandmaa in Delaware, where there are seasonal changes. Both South Dakota and Delaware have snow in the wintertime and will get very hot in the summertime. Your grandpaa likes spring’s wakeup call when plants, shrubs and trees put on their green finery and brilliant blooms. Your grandmaa likes fall’s painted landscapes when trees and shrubs say goodbye to another year of life on planet Earth. What time of the year do you like the most? What time of the day do you like the most? Your grandpaa likes to get up early in the morning. Your grandpaa likes to listen to the sound of chirping birds as he watches the morning sky and clouds welcoming with an ever changing color performance the arrival of the sun as it peaks over the eastern horizon. Your grandmaa likes to stay in bed later in the morning than your grandpaa. Your grandmaa sleeps the soundest about the time that daylight makes its way back again to her part of planet Earth. What kind of meat do you like to eat? Your grandpaa enjoys eating all kinds of meat but when he can choose what to eat in a restaurant, your grandpaa often chooses some type of seafood or fish to eat versus choosing steak, pork chops or chicken to eat. Your grandmaa and grandpaa last evening went to a restaurant with a Guatemalan couple who are Equipo SEPAL missionaries with your grandmaa and grandpaa. Your grandpaa shared a dinner with Hector. Hector is your grandpaa’s right hand guy here in Guatemala. The meal that your grandpaa shared with Hector is called a parillada. Parillada means a selection of meats. Your grandpaa really liked the parilladas that can be found in restaurants in Bolivia. A parillada in Bolivia has on it the organ meats of a cow or steer – such as pieces of heart and liver, whole kidneys, slices of udder, braided lengths of milk ducts, intestines, blood and spiced sausages, a steak and . . . your grandpaa used to be able to eat an entire Bolivian parillada. Parilladas are taken to a table on a small hibachi type grill. The small grill has hot coals under it which continue to fry and keep the meats on the grill hot. The meal last evening that your grandpaa and Hector ate together was a different kind of parillada. The very first thing that your grandpaa ate from the parillada that he and Hector had last night was an octopus tentacle. There were also four large shrimp, a large piece of fish, a lobster that had been cut right down the middle, a thick piece of steak and a butterflied chicken breast. Your grandmaa likes to eat prime rib. Your grandmaa also likes to eat breaded kinds of meat – such as steak or chicken that has been pounded thin and flat that is called milenesa.
What kinds of guys, gals and kids do you like to be around the most? Do you like to be around other kids the most or do you like to be around guys and gals the most? What ethnic or racial group of guys, gals and kids do you like to be around the most? Do you like to be around just white kids or guys and gals the most or are you okay with being around other kids and guys and gals who have a skin color that is different than your skin color? There was a time when God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids could only eat the meat of certain animals. When God gave the Mosaic laws to Moses when He met with Moses on the top of Mt Sinai, God gave Moses a list of animals that were okay for His specially chosen guys, gals and kids to eat. God also gave Moses a list of the kinds of animals that His specially chosen guys, gals and kids were never to eat. God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids only ate for about 1500 years the meat that God said that they could eat. Everything changed when God gave Peter a dream. The dream that God gave to Peter had a sheet in it. Peter saw every animal imaginable on the sheet. Peter heard God tell him three different times that it was now okay for His specially chosen guys, gals and gals – who were the people group of guys, gals and kids who had become known as Jews, to eat any kind of animal – as there were no longer any impure animals that God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids could not eat. God gave Peter the job of telling and convincing His specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the guys, gals and kids who were known as Jews, that it was now just fine for them to eat an animal like a pig, a reptile like an iguana and a bird like an owl.
God for about 1500 years did not want His specially guys and gals to have anything to do with guys and gals who were called Gentiles. Everything changed after an incarnated guy – who was God the Son – Jesus Christ, died on a cross to defeat death through having His body suffer and to give hope of eternal life through having His blood poured out which washed away the sins of His specially elected guys, gals and kids which includes Gentile guys, gals and kids. God’s specially chosen guys and gals almost overnight had to make a life change from only eating certain kinds of meat and interacting with only their own ethnic group – the guys, gals and kids who were known as Jews, to being able to eat any kind of meat and to have it to be okay to interact with disliked, dirty guys and gals who they called Gentiles. It did not take long for groups of Gentile guys, gals and kid to begin meeting together. One place where this happened was in Antioch. Luke wrote about this time in Acts 11. Verse 26 says, “and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids are from ethnic or racial groups of guys, gals and kids who can be found living in every corner of planet Earth.
Acts 11 (388)