Mountain Moving! Where Faith Meets our Little Shovels!

Read: Acts 10:1-48

I love hearing testimonies. Those precious stories that tell about God's reaching into lives to make people new! The ones that we read in the Bible are also thrilling. Each transformed life is a miracle of God, and tucked into many of the stories is a person who God has used to play a part in His miracles. I was thinking about these things after being reminded of a truth. Faith moves mountains, but God often hands us a shovel.

That truth doesn't negate God's wondrous seeking and saving nor does man receive glory for what God alone can do. He brings people who are dead in sin to life, Ephesians 2:1-4, but isn't it an amazing thing to think about the fact that God gives His people a part in His seeking and saving work! With that in mind, let's be reminded about Cornelius' story in Acts 10. After that, we'll see the way God put together a plan for author Amir Psarfati and how he used every day circumstances and ordinary people's lives in His plan to stir a heart and make Himself known to Amir.

First Cornelius. A Roman centurion. He was what was known as a God fearer, but he was nonetheless lost. One day he was praying, and a miraculous thing happened. He was visited by an angel who had an awesome message. Cornelius had been observed by God, and his prayers and good deeds had not escaped the notice of the Holy One. As good as these laudable things were, Cornelius was still lost. He didn't know it, but he needed a Savior. He was in the same boat that many find themselves in today. That was a mountain in this Roman centurion's life. One that man could not move. As is always the case concerning salvation, for this man to be forgiven and cleansed, God had to do the impossible; however, he used the actions of a man. Peter. The man who would, reluctantly at first, pick up his little shovel and go when prompted by the Lord. Peter's prompting started in a very ordinary way. He was hungry and he was waiting for the lunch bell to ring. A simple part of a day. That is until the apostle was told that a visitor was coming and he was to go with him. Yes, they were Gentiles, but God had a plan and Peter would be His vehicle to share the most important truths anyone can hear.

He was to introduce Cornelius to Jesus. Yes, God could have done this work through an angel or other means too numerous to count, but He chose Peter. What a privilege; therefore, when Peter did arrive at Cornelius' home, there were many prepared hearts ready to receive the truth. God had been at work in not only the lives of the one who was chosen to share His truth, but also in the lives of those who were waiting to receive his words. Perfect timing that only God could orchestrate.

Having looked briefly into Cornelius' story, let's spend a bit of time in the present. What does it look like when people nowadays add their little shovels of dirt together with the miracle power of God? It is time to look at how the Lord wooed the author Amir Psarfati.

Amir was raised in Israel. He did not know his mother or father and spent most of his early life in foster care. Sadly, one of his early foster homes was an abusive one from which he and his siblings needed to be rescued. For the next ten years, Amir lived a life marked with sadness and confusion. He was ready to end it all, but decided to give the world one more try. Here in his own words is what happened in Amir's life that next week after he made that decision. the story of the ordinary people and the simple circumstances that God combined with the precious work of His Holy Spirit to change Amir's life for eternity:

Jews Behaving Strangely, ‘That was the week I discovered my best friend in school was a Messianic Jew, a believer in Yeshua (Jesus). I went to his house to study for one of the final exams in high school, and when we sat around a table for lunch, everybody was holding hands and closing their eyes, and they all prayed.’ Amir thought this was very odd because Jewish people don’t hold hands and pray over their food. Some Jews who are particularly religious might pray over their food, but they would not hold hands around the table. ‘Here, they all held hands and ended the prayer with the Hebrew phrase B’shem Yeshua, which means in the name of Jesus. This caused me to start asking many questions,’ said Amir. ‘I felt these people had an amazing connection with God, a God I did not know personally. I used to go to synagogue on holidays, as a Jew. I would enjoy the festivals, but I never really connected with what was going on there. I was looking at a dead religion.’

Amir was full of questions about Yeshua. His friend’s family answered them all the best they could and then suggested Amir ask God who Yeshua is. Amir had no idea how to pray, but that night, he prayed, asking God to show him who Yeshua was. Nothing happened, and he went to bed disappointed. ‘The next day, after I prayed and asked God to show me who Yeshua is, I went to work before school for my foster family. One of the things I did was to put together the different parts of the morning newspaper before the customers came in,’ said Amir. ‘As I was doing that, I flipped through the pages to read the newspaper and saw a big one-page advertisement with the word Yeshua on the main page of the highest-selling morning newspaper in Israel.’ Amir was astounded. The advertisement was promoting a film titled Yeshua being put on by Campus Crusade. The film was only showing for two nights at a movie theatre in Jerusalem. It was shot in Israel with actors speaking Hebrew, rather than subtitled in Hebrew. Because the locations and language in the film were familiar to Amir, it was very real to him. ‘I went to watch the movie, and everything clicked. I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior that day,’ said Amir.

Praise God for people who picked up their little shovels and therefore were able to participate in the wondrous work of salvation. Praise God for an ordinary meal where people simply were themselves. Praying together and encouraging their friend to call out to God when Amir had questions. And praise God for opening Amir's heart just as He opened the heart of Cornelius.

Lord, help us to be faithful. Picking up our shovels and participating with You as You move mountains.