{"id":27037,"date":"2023-06-21T22:34:52","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T05:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-name-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-06-21T23:04:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T06:04:51","slug":"2023-caesarea","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-caesarea\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesarea By The Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p>Caesarea by the Sea is one of the more breathtaking ruins in Israel. Located right on the Mediterranean Sea, one can still see the layout of Herod the Great\u2019s palace, which was built in 22 bc when he was the king of Judea. A longtime Roman stronghold, Caesarea was different from the city of Jerusalem just a few miles away. It was more Gentile than Jew and more Roman than Hebrew.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27038 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The book of Acts relates that a Roman army officer named Cornelius lived in Caesarea. A few miles south of the city was Joppa, the town where the disciple Peter was staying. Peter and Cornelius could not have been more different, but they would be called by the same God to change the way Jews and new Christians saw the Gentiles . . . and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27040 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-3.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-3-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A great divide had existed in the early church between believers who came from a Jewish background and those who came from a Gentile background. But as you will see in this session, a miracle was about to happen that would forever break down the walls between who was considered \u201cin\u201d and \u201cout\u201d of God\u2019s kingdom. These events would forever prove that Jesus\u2019 message was for everyone. His love was for everyone. His sacrifice for everyone.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27039 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-2-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The spirit of Peter and Cornelius\u2019 mission is alive and well today. How many of us have had to change our minds about someone or an entire people group? How many of us have experienced prejudice or felt prejudice toward others? It\u2019s a common symptom of the human condition\u2014to judge and ostracize rather than welcome. This is the good news. No one is beyond Jesus. No one is beyond forgiveness. No one is beyond acceptance into God\u2019s family.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27041 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-4.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Caesarea-4-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":27038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-27037","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27042,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27037\/revisions\/27042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27037"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=27037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}