How Then Shall We Live?
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, April 20, 2016
Acts 11:1-18—a paraphrase
Now the leaders and the believers who were in Pure Small Town, where The Blueprint was followed faithfully and all believers were vegans and had a small home and a large garden, heard that the Big City Urbanites, who lived piled on top of each other in apartment buildings and ate unconsecrated store-bought food, had also accepted the word of God. (!)
So when Joe Believer went up to Big City, the Pure Small Town believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to Big City and eat with them?”
Then Joe Believer began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in Pure Small Town praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw dairy products, GMO-defiled foods, refined sugar, and even meat and fish. I also heard a voice saying to me, `Get up, Joe; buy and eat.’
“But I replied, `By no means, Lord; for nothing unhealthful, profane, or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time the voice answered from heaven, `What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’
“This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three people, sent to me from Big City, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.”
Joe gestured to some others who had been called on the carpet with him. “These six brothers and sisters also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, `Send to Pure Small Town and bring Joe Believer; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’
“We could hardly believe it! Just as I’d had a vision about them, they’d had a vision about us! So I began to tell them about Jesus, and as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, `John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
“If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”
When they heard this, the Pure Small Townfolk were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Big City Urbanites the repentance that leads to life.”
Disclaimer: I have a small house and large garden, and grow nearly everything I eat. Do not take me to mean that healthful living is not important! You can fill in the “unapproved” activities that fit your own situation (since we don’t seem to care much about circumcision anymore.) Have you gone where God sent you, and then been reviled for it?
