Let me tell you Dorothy Sue's story. She married a guy, and his job took them to Europe, to Italy. That storybook beginning had a nightmare ending. His job required him to travel. There was nothing odd about that. But he stopped telling her where he was going or when he was coming home. At first, that seemed awkward. Then it felt mean. Finally, she felt threatened. He also had another odd habit. He stopped paying U.S. taxes.

His behavior also became threatening toward her, when she demanded to know where he was going or when he would be back or why he didn't pay taxes. She began to feel trapped and fearful. You may well ask why she didn't just leave.

I would answer that you have to appreciate how invested a woman can get in a man's life and how paralyzing fear can be. And we shouldn't understand how limited a person can feel in a foreign country, where language barriers and ignorance of how the system works can intimidate a person into silence. She also feared that if she came back to the U.S., the IRS might hold her accountable for all those back taxes.

As this nightmare scenario unfolded week after week, month after month, she began to feel like a prisoner in her own rooms. Fear turned to terror. The nights were the worst of all. You have to picture her alone, trapped, terrified, increasingly doubtful that she could ever escape or even survive.

Then, one night, relief came from a most unexpected quarter. Relief came in the form of an assurance of protection and of courage to leave Europe and return to the states. It happened like this.

Dorothy Sue had gone to bed. She may have fallen asleep. Something startled her awake. She said that in the dark there was someone standing at the foot of her bed. She froze. She didn't know what to do. Was it her husband? Was it a stranger? She didn't scream. She didn't speak. She didn't move.

Neither did the someone at the foot of her bed. A long time passed, and nothing happened. She began to wonder if she were dreaming, but she wasn't. When the presence at the foot of her bed made no move to touch her and no move to leave, she began to wonder what or who it was.

As she told me this story several years later, she said that the feeling began to come over her that this presence not only mean her no harm but was there to protect her. The presence never spoke and did not go away. Her fear began to go away. She never moved from her place on the bed, but she felt increasingly comforted and protected by the mysterious presence. Finally, the Presence made her understand that He was Jesus Christ, and he would protect her. At last, she felt peace, and the Presence left her.

Within a few days, she left Italy, returned to the U.S., divorced the man, and never heard from him again. Her experience that night had never happened before and to my knowledge never happened again. In the U.S. she followered her brother, sister and parents in becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

I tell you this story for two reasons. First, as the emotional strait-jacket that on Western Civilization has loosened in the last 40 years, stories like this have begun to emerge. People are less embarrassed to tell the odd experiences they have had. The new pastor responsibility is to help people evaluate these experiences in a biblical way. I'll take another stab at doing that today.

The second reason I opened with Dorothy Sue's story is because we are going to find a point of contact with it in the story of Acts 10 that we encounter today. So, without further ado, let's turn together to Acts 10.

Synchronicity and Divine Providence
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. In other words he was a Gentile. That is crucial to Luke's story. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing. Make a note here. The word God-fearing in the book of Acts labels a category of people. They acted the one God of Judaism. They went to the synagogue, but they refused to become proselytes to Judaism. Cornelius was one such person.

Luke goes on to say of Cornelius that he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. Here is the first point of contact with Dorothy Sue's story. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"

Cornelius stared at him in fear, just like Dorothy Sue. "What is it, Lord?" he asked, unlike Dorothy Sue, who was too scared to say anything.

The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God." He wasn't a Jew, and He wasn't a Christian. What was God doing, listening to his prayers? "Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea."

When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier (like Cornelius) who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, as if God had synchronized watches with the angels, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. Here is our second point of contact with Dorothy Sue's story.

He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the eart and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." You and I read that and wonder what the big deal is.

Peter, a Jew, felt otherwise. "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." Many Old Testament laws governed what animals Jews could eat and which they couldn't. The forbidden animals were considered unclean.

The voice spoke to him a second time. "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." This happened three times, and immediately the shee was taken back to heaven. That's a weird experience. Like many weird dreams, it seems to mean something, if you could only figure out what it meant. Peter couldn't figure it out either.

While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do no hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?"

The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." The Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. That's unheard of, unthinkable, but Luke doesn't explain yet. It's related to Peter's vision.

The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived iin Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. "Stand up, " he said, "I am only a many myself." Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.

He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. That's the meaning of Peter's vision. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"

Cornelius answered: "Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.' So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us." The visions got Peter and Cornelius together for what happened next.

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right." That's huge. That's extraordinary. That's right up there with Peter's confession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.

Verse 36: "You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached - how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

"We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen - by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Peter must be thinking, "These people are not even Jews, and they are having the same experience we had on the Day of Pentecost."

Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. But they haven't been circumcised. They haven't jumped through the rest of the hoops to become Jewish proselytes.

Peter on the Hot Seat
Word got out. Look at Acts 11:2-3. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."

From verse 4-16 Peter repeats the story we just read, and in verse 17 makes his point. "So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"

Verse 18 is stunning. When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has even granted the Gentiles repentance unto life." They did not begin to understand the ramifications of that statement. They didn't have a clue as to what to do next. But the Holy Spirit did, as we shall soon see.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
The book of Acts tells the story of how Christianity began as a small, exclusive Jewish sect in the city of Jerusalem. Gentiles needed not apply. Acts tells the story of how Christianity became the faith for all humanity. The story of Peter and Cornelius that we read today provides one of the milestone events that brought about that change; and that story turns on two simultaneous, paranormal experiences.

We are much more open to such stories, because we are much more open to such experiences. Let's have a go at some rules for making sense at the paranormal. In all the biblical examples of dreams and visions that I recall God takes the inititative. Wait for God to give.

The hankering to experience the paranormal may indicate a spiritual malady. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 the Apostle Paul wrote this. The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths. Focus your efforts on the scriptures. If God wants you to have an unusual experience, He will give it to you.

Second, if God gives you such an experience, it will lead you, as it led Cornelius, to Jesus Christ. From Abraham and Joseph to Cornelius and the book of Revelation all the biblical examples of dreams and visions that God gives draw people into God's eternal purpose for salvation. So, if you have one of these experiences, see what it does to you. Does it draw you closer to Jesus and scripture and the Church, or does it make you hanker for more odd experiences?

The occult in all its form does not point people to Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind. Psychic readings, Tarot cards, Ouija boards, channeling, astrology, and satanic rituals do not point people to Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind. Neither do they nurture our ongoing relationship with Christ.

Third, if you have a paranormal experience, don't be completely surprised. The New Testament document, called Hebrews 13:2, says, Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels unawares.