It’s always good to look for faith-sharing opportunities at work.
For you never know how the Lord might use a newly converted co-worker.
That seed you plant and that the Lord germinates might actually sprout into a ministry partnership that changes the world.
That’s certainly what happened, in a sense, with a man named Cornelius.
Acts 10 tells of how Cornelius was a Roman centurion, which meant he was an officer in charge of 100 soldiers.
Though he was Gentile by birth, Cornelius was drawn to Jehovah by inclination and was very supportive of the Jewish people in his town, Caesarea. The Bible describes him as devout, God-fearing and generous to the poor.
This was quite uncommon among the Romans.
Even more uncommon had to have been the sharing of faith in Jehovah between a centurion and one of his subordinates. Yet that’s what had happened with Cornelius.
When God wanted to once and for all convince Peter that Gentiles were to be included in God’s promises just as were the Jews, God sent an angel to Cornelius with a message to invite the Apostle Peter to his home.
Being a good soldier and understanding the importance of obeying orders, Cornelius called two of his servants “and a devout soldier” to him and instructed them to go find Peter in a town called Joppa at a house specified by the angel.
It’s a good story to read regarding God’s love and man’s biases. What intrigued me most in this story was the reference to the devout soldier.
I don’t believe that was an accident.
I believe instead that either Cornelius became faithful through the example and words of the soldier, or vice-versa.
They weren’t Christians yet, so this wasn’t a matter of them both listening to a gospel message from a traveling evangelist.
They WERE God-fearing, though, and were seeking the Lord according to the Old Testament information that they had from Jews they knew in their community.
If you’ll read Acts 10 by clicking here, you’ll see how God uses this sequence of events to set the stage for a major expansion of Christianity as the apostles later embrace the truth that God wants ALL people to be saved.
Listen, look for every opportunity to plant seeds of faith with your co-workers. You can’t control if and when that person will embrace Christ, but you can control if and when they see and hear about your faith.
And if they see a faith that has transformed your life for the better, he or she just might turn to the Lord in the belief that Christ can transform his or her life.
When that happens, God will be able to do amazing things to expand the gospel as you two work together for His sake.
Acts 10 proves it.
As always, I love you
Martin
