In order to review the text for a message I was preparing, I opened my Bible to a familiar passage in Acts chapter 10. In my pastoral ministry I had been preaching through the Book of Acts, so the story of Cornelius was vivid in my memory. But before I could get into the body of the text, the first five words almost seemed to jump off the page at me. It was as though they were written in bold print and capital letters: “THERE WAS A CERTAIN MAN.”

My mind was suddenly flooded with the realization of the extent of the love of God for man, and the individuality of it. There must have been a lot of people living on the earth during the time of Cornelius, but God was interested in this certain man. I am sure there were many things that could have captured God’s attention at that moment, but He was interested in him.

It made me think, with all the things going on in the world today, that we can lose sight of what is important—but God never does. He is interested in our lives and desires to be involved in them. God is so great that even with all the trials and turmoil we experience in life we can pray and He will hear our prayers. And He doesn’t just hear them, He is also concerned with our well-being.

You may think that Acts 10 is just the story of how God used Cornelius to illustrate the breaking down of the middle wall of partition in the flesh, and the transition from God’s kingdom program to His program of grace. That’s true, but this story also shows that God is concerned with individuals. He wants all men to be saved.

But that’s not the end of His involvement. He also wants men to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). The more truth we can know about Him, the more we can trust Him. He wants a personal, intimate relationship with you. He loves you and is sensitive to your needs (Heb. 4:15).

So when the trials of life get you down and it seems that all hope is gone, remember: you are a certain man or certain woman, and He cares for you.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.