Households that Change the World!

Home is where the heart of God lives! In Acts 10 there is a record of a remarkable family. They were gentiles, living and serving in Caesarea. Cornelius, the head of the household was a Roman soldier and chose to worship God instead of the pagan gods of Rome.

In Acts 10:2 it is recorded about his life that he was:

A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

The word 'devout' is used to describe 3 people in the book of Acts, Cornelius (Acts 10:2), one of his soldiers (Acts 10:7) and Ananias who ministered to Paul (Acts 22:12). According to E.W Bullinger in A Critical Lexicon and Concordance To The English and Greek New Testament, the Greek word 'eusebes' from which devout was translated from is defined as "reverence for God which shews itself in actions, practical piety of every kind, the energy of piety in the life, reverence well and rightly directed".

Cornelius was a man of practical action. In other words he lived a life with an integrity that exemplified his beliefs. God wanted Cornelius to have the full measure of the faith of Jesus Christ and he had him send for Peter. At the very same time God was preparing the heart of Peter to minister to the Cornelius household and some of his friends. All activities flowed together with the beautiful synergy of God to give Cornelius the answer to his prayers.

In II Peter 2:9 it says,

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly (eusebes) out of temptations,

What does that mean for us? We, too, can have the answers from God that we need and God's timing is always perfect. Just as in Cornelius's life, it will have an affect on those around us. We just have to trust him like Cornelius did!