Forgive me, I'm still stuck on Cornelius. The more I meditate on his story the deeper the well becomes.

Six months after I came to a saving knowledge of Christ, my wife got saved. Both of my daughters (12 & 18) each have a personal and productive relationship with our savior. Beyond these three, the most important three individuals in my life apart from Christ, mind you, there are no others that I could say with any certainty who were led to Christ through me by the Holy Spirit.

For the longest time, this bothered me. I lost sleep at times wondering why I was so unproductive for my King; what was wrong with me?

Leading others to Christ was my sole metric for determining my value before the One I served. If I wasn't doing that effectively then I must be a terrible Christian. I've grown up a lot since then and have come to know better. Sadly, there are many many churches around that continue to hold to this standard.

Understand please, I recognize that evangelism is important, I'm not denying that in the least. We're commanded to make disciples. I'm simply saying it's not our sole metric nor is it a metric that we should hold in a higher place than any other.

Reading Cornelius' story is yet another reminder that Christ hasn't the slightest need for me or anyone else in order to bring men to Him. It also humbles me in regards to the above mentioned because I know now that my previous mind set was all about me and what I could do and had very little to do with Christ.

Peter, as I'm sure we can all agree, was a great man. Spiritually blessed in amazing ways and an incredibly successful servant of Christ. Nonetheless, he was completely unnecessary in regards to the salvation of Cornelius, Cornelius' entire family or Cornelius' closest friends. Christ clearly called Cornelius to Himself long before Peter ever arrived on scene. As a matter of fact, as I've mentioned previously, Peter never even finished what he was saying.

The whole situation gives every indication of having been used by Christ for His glory!

The hero of the story is Christ, not Cornelius; not Peter. Cornelius did nothing beyond respond to Christ's call, which was required and irresistible. Peter did nothing but learn a valuable lesson and involuntarily gain further insight in the the mysteries of salvation.

In this, I believe, lies the primary metric to apply in all situations: has Christ glorified himself in this; or that; or me?