WHAT DO ETHIOPIANS AND ITALIANS HAVE IN COMMON???
Ethiopians and Italians share one common thing that no other ethnicity can take claim to!!! What they have in common makes them extra AWESOME!!! And I'm NOT just talking about our love for coffee and our good looks!!! Hee, hee! ;) Ethiopians and Italians share something more...HUNGER!!! Yes, yes, we are a very hungry people, But I'm not talking about pasta and injera, I'm talking about hunger for God!!!
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Because the Ethiopian man was the first black man and a Italian man was THE FIRST gentile, fully non-Jewish, to receive the gospel message of salvation. Before them, it had been exclusively brought to the Jews. Although it was passed the Samaritans, the Samaritans, although looked down upon by the Jews because they were mixed, were still considered somewhat Jewish people.
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In Acts chapter 8 we read about and Ethiopian man that was so hungry for the gospel message, that God brought a preacher to him!!! "And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert." (Acts 8:26) This man was HUNGRY for God. When Philip found him, he found him studying the scriptures. He was searching, he was seeking. God knew that this man was hungry and he brought someone to him. "Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." (Acts 8:35) This man's hunger got him what he wanted from God. And when the Ethiopian man heard the truth, he did not question it, he simply obeyed and was baptized. "And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing." (Acts 8:39) This Ethiopian man is the first recorded Gentile man to be baptized...HIS HUNGER GOT HIM THERE!!!
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Meanwhile in Caesarea, there was another Gentile man hungry also for God.
"There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band" (Acts 10:1) (Its after this scripture that my mom usually starts shaking her tambourine...bahaha!!!) Cornelius was a hungry man and although the Bible doesn't specifically say what he was seeking God for, I imagine in my mind that he had heard about these Jews that had gotten the Holy Ghost and he wanted WHAT THEY HAD!!! The Bible says that he sought God daily until one day God said today is the day your going to get what you have hungered for. "And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." (Acts 10:4)
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Meanwhile, God was telling Peter, the man of God, the preacher to go to Cornelius. Peter didn't want to go, Peter the man that preached on the day of Pentecost, was a prejudice man. He thought that this Holy Ghost was only for them. But God told him, "And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." And Peter even told this to Cornelius in verse 29; "And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean." Then Peter began to preach that same gospel message, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." (43) And the Jewish people were ASTONISHED at what happened next... "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." (44)
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The Jews couldn't believe it, to think that this gift REALLY was for everyone!!!
"And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" (Acts 10:45-47)
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You think about how these two men didn't stop their circumstances and their places in life stop them from getting what they wanted from God. You don't hear them griping and complaining, Its not fair that the Jews got it and I didn't! That's wrong! Its because of the color of my skin and I'm not a pastor's kid, they're playing favorites, and blah, blah, blah... NO! The Ethiopian just kept reading the scriptures, Cornelius just kept on praying. They simply, despite man's perception of them, HUNGERED after the things of God. I imagine them, God we know we're not Jews, but would you do it for us?
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And I just want to say that your circumstances don't matter if you'll truly HUNGER after God. If you decide that no matter what so-and-so said, no matter what man did me wrong, your not going to rant and vent, your simply going to FIND a place to seek God. God's not seeing what your last name is or what you look like, he's saying, NOW THERE IS A HUNGRY PERSON and TODAY, i'm going to fill them!!! "...God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34)
Those times when your so hurt and your so confused but you just say, God no matter what, I want YOU! Its YOU that I want Jesus! I've GOT to HAVE you God! I've got to have your touch! I've got to have your favor! I've got to have your blessings! I've got to have your anointing! I know i'm not worthy, but God don't pass me by! Your hunger will NOT go unnoticed by God. Your hunger for God will change life circumstances.
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Two hungry men, one Ethiopian and one Italian, CHANGED the course of history, so that we to can now have this precious gift. You want to see things happen???? Stop griping and complaining...GET HUNGRY!!!
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."
(Matthew 5:6)
