Thursday, December 29, 2016

You're a Christian Because You're From Galilee

And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” (Luke 22:59)



While I don't know that this is a common extrapolation from this text, it got me thinking about geographical location, and Christianity.

They knew Peter was out of place, noticing something about him that told them he was from Galilee, like Jesus.  "You're only a Christian", they will say, "because you grew up in a land mostly Christian, to a Christian family and Christian influences."

Why do you think Peter was a Christian?  It's an important question with an important answer that the world will scoff at.  Was he in Galilee because that's where God needed him to be when he would be a Christian when Jesus met Peter there, or was Peter a Christian because Peter just happened to be in the right place at the right time by mere luck when Jesus showed up on the scene?  Lucky Peter.  While those who accused him were correct that he was indeed a follower of Christ and from Galilee, the cause of his Christianity was not because of his location... and neither is anyone else's.

The world will try to tell you, "You're just a Christian, because you're from a Christian land, and you had Christian parents!  You could be Muslim or Buddhist if you were from somewhere else."

Wrong.  You greatly underestimate the power of this God.  If God wants me to be a Christian, He will put me in the exact place he needs me geographically, at the exact moment in time it is needed when He calls me.  In Peter's time, that place was Galilee.  Perhaps in your time, that place is America.  I suspect that is the case for most people reading this.

Your encounter with the Living God is not by luck.  He put you where He was, exactly when He needed you to be there, and then He called you.  It is not being a Galilean that will cause you to respond, and many from Galilee will not heed the call.  Those who know Jesus understand that Jesus was no mere Galilean.