Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10:1-11:18)

PRAY: Practice prayer meditation. Find a quiet time and place, clear your mind of everything else, and allow God to speak to you in the silence.
PONDER:
God communicates with Peter and Cornelius through dreams and angels (literally, messengers). Who else in the Bible hears God’s Word in this way? What does God communicate with them?



Does God still communicate like this? How does God most often communicate with you?



What is Cornelius doing when the angel appears to him? What is Peter doing? What do you think they might have been praying about (would they have been expecting this)?



Do you have a regular routine and / or place for prayer? What do you pray about?



What can we learn about prayer from this story? How, if at all, does it change your expectations?



Peter responds to the Lord’s command to eat by saying, “I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean” (Acts 10:14). What do you know about Jewish food laws? (see Leviticus 11) What was the purpose of these laws?



What sort of “purity laws” do we practice (consciously or unconsciously) in our culture?




DO: Talk to somebody you wouldn’t ordinarily talk to (or better yet, whom you would ordinarily avoid). Show kindness and hospitality to this person (Acts 10:23).