Today we read mostly about Peter’s dream, where God tells him to wake and eat after he’s fallen into what I assume was a God-induced trance, and Peter responds reflexively with a “No, I don’t eat that” (it was an unclean animal that he was being called to eat).

As is often the case with dreams and visions reported in the Bible, the scholars from my study Bible go to great lengths (which I enjoy and appreciate) to try to explain and reconcile all of what is said in a very scientific manner.  For me though, it seems pretty obvious that God was communicating with Peter in a way to instruct him to change his paradigm, and to stop seeing the world through all of the classifications the Jews had for it; to see that God calls him to love everyone, and that there is a new order set forth by Jesus that frees him from the bondage of the law.  We gets these reminders based on Peter’s actions and words and thoughts at various times that he was trying to move in the direction of this new covenant, but that the traditions of the old were still front-of-mind and occupying his conscience.

This story illustrates in a beautiful way how God can personalize His interaction to deal with our own situation.  It also shows how God can orchestrate things of which we would otherwise be completely unaware.  A few chapters ago, God arranged a meeting between Phillip and the eunuch, and here God does the same thing between the Centurion and Peter.  And, in Peter’s dream and prayer, God was preparing his heart for what was to come.  I can pick on Peter about struggling to get past the Jewish law and push on towards being a Jesus-follower, but Peter responds here, he does as God had commanded, and he leaned into what God said.  So, in this instance, we could say that Peter passed the test.  He did as he was called to do by God.  As a result, his ministry (as we will see happening with Paul’s) begins to expand outside the bounds of the Jewish Christians and to the rest of the world.  This was a bit of a ‘coming out’ for Peter’s ministry - or at least the start of it, as we’ll read tomorrow.

This story reminds me how personal prayers can be.  It reminds me how God can and does customize His response to me.  It reminds me that I, as Peter, have a calling in God’s story.  Peter found his.  Paul found his.  Most of us are not actually called into vocational ministry like them, so our mission is to find God’s calling in a non-vocational manner.  This can sometimes be harder to do I think, because we are still called to be Jesus-followers, and to influence others by the way we live our lives to follow Jesus.  But, without making ministry our professional life, we must be intentional about making it a part of our identity.  When people say, “What do you do”, I will likely never respond with “I am a minister”.  But, really, that is still one of my titles.  It is still one of my roles.  I must find a way to weave that into my identity in the marketplace, in the home, among friends, and everywhere else.  And then, like Peter, I must respond to prompts from God to leverage my opportunities to further His kingdom, for His glory.