Common and Unlcean

Entrance to a Balinese home, the gate and walls in
the entrance are  reminder to gather your thoughts before
entering the home

Bali.
Bali.
Bali.
Oh my goodness Bali.
Bali  has literally stolen my heart and i don't want it back, i want to move with it...to Bali. Bali is not only beautiful, it is authentic and raw. I think the beauty comes from the culture itself. Bali is 90% Hindu and everyone lives in villages. Within these villages are houses that multiple families live in, each with their own temple. Bali therefore, has over 1,000 temples because of it. The Hindus strongly acknowledge the presence of good and evil spirits, they therefore, leave multiple offerings daily to the spirits. If they want to give praise to the good spirit they will set the offerings (made of grass, flowers, even cigarettes, anything they value) on the high shrine and If they want to keep the bad spirits happy for protection, they leave the offerings on the floor. While i was in Bali something i was convicted by was my desire to tell our guide Madee about the Lord. However, i have never felt more out of place doing so. I think it was easy for me to completely dismiss the idea of sharing the good news with this man due to his strong hindu beliefs and my lack of belief that i had any place to. The Lord made me aware of this by once again leading me to Acts. Let me set up the scene…

A woman making offering's

There lived a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea; a pagan city. Cornelius, a gentile and godly man, desired to know God, he gave alms to the Lord who therefore came to Cornelius in a vision. In this vision he told Cornelius to "send men to Joppa, and send for simon whose surname is Peter." (10:5) Peter was a jewish man who lived in the city of Joppa. Peter fell into a trance where where he saw "all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air." (10:12) Then a voice told peter to kill and eat of the meat which Peter refuses by claiming it "common and unclean" (10:14). Peter, being jewish, had always followed the strict laws on clean and separate foods, he therefore could not imagine going against past scriptural and his known ways. The Lord told peter however, that "What God has cleansed you must not call common." (10:15) Peter eventually went to Caesarea with the men to speak with the gentiles (it was against the law for jews to to associate with gentiles). Peter shared the truth of Jesus to the gentiles present, how he had broken the old laws and that "God shows no partiality." (10:34) and the Holy Spirit fell on all the gentiles present!

Our guide made (maud-ay)

Peter was used to doing things in the way he had always done them until the Lord commanded him otherwise. By the blood of Jesus we have all been made clean and what God has cleansed is by no means common. I think there is so much about this chapter that can be unpacked and beautifully applied, but in in my experience it had everything to do with Peter setting his ideals and ways aside and following God. God who "shows no partiality." Everyone despite who they are, what they believe deserves to hear of the good news and i am no one to put my own excuses in front of that.  I think it is easy to quiet our responsibility of doing by the loud voice we hear of excuse and  inadequacy. What a beautiful thing it is that there is no limit to who truth can be told to, however we make it limiting by placing our own barriers on it, the barriers Jesus came to take away. Yes the Hindus are religious, yes they acknowledge a God, yes they give alms to this God, but they have not acknowledged salvation just like Cornelius.  Like Peter, I think it's time to stop justifying and start evangelizing.