Removing Prejudice

3/2/11                               Exodus 35-36; Acts 10  

S: Acts 10:28 Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.”

O: Peter was a product of his upbringing – a devout Jew, he looked down at all non-Jews and considered them unclean. But God taught him to overcome his prejudices.

Other passages show that his prejudices still reared its ugly head when he was under peer pressure from the Pharisee Christians – Paul had to rebuke him for it. So it’s not a one-step process, this removing of prejudices.

A: Because I have been taught this truth a long time ago, I’ve got a lot of the typical racist prejudices removed from my attitudes already, though there’re still some lingering effects.

However, it’s not just race that we can be prejudiced against – I tend to be prejudiced against smelly dishevelled people. So that’s something I still need to work on.

And there’re still the lingering racial prejudices.

P: Father, help me to overcome my remaining prejudices. Open my eyes to even things that I didn’t mention here because I’m currently as yet blind to them.