Acts 11:17 “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?”

Man. God is so amazing. I know that. Sometimes it just bowls be over though. Last week I felt totally convicted and spoken to by 1 Corinthians 12. The whole chapter. I did a blog on a particular scripture from it, but really – the whole chapter just jumped off the page at me. I read it several times because it was just such good stuff. Last night at small group, the passage of scripture we had for our “assigned” group reading was 1 Corinthians 12. What?!! Yeah. How cool is that.

Today’s devotional reading from Acts 11 gave me just another layer of what God has been talking to me about for the last week. Peter is dealing with the coming together of two groups of people (Jews and Gentiles) that, in his culture, absolutely were not to have anything to do with each other. Gentiles were considered unclean. In Acts 10:28 Peter actually talks about it being against the law for him to associate in any way with a Gentile. He had some major hurdles to overcome – but he believed what God was showing him, that he shouldn’t be calling anyone impure or unclean. That the Lord’s gift of salvation and forgiveness was for everyone…not just the chosen few.

I think sometimes in life we insulate ourselves inside our own little christian world. We don’t want to get dirty. So we don’t associate with people who have a little mud on their jeans. Even for those inside the body of believers, we have classifications. There are those who don’t drink, don’t swear, don’t watch certain kinds of movies or listen to particular varieties of music. We have the “good christians” who are regular church attenders, the tithers, the prayer warriors etc. I think there’s always the danger of thinking somehow you’re better than others. Don’t have as many issues, problems or struggles. That in some way, your behavior means God didn’t have to save you quite as much as the next guy. Really we’re all fooling ourselves if we compare our “bad stuff” with someone else’s. Bottom line, we’re all complete failures in need of a savior.

Like God showed me last week in 1 Corinthians, and again today in Acts, who am I to say I don’t need another member of the body? Who am I to disparage those God has called me to be connected to? I’m nothing. Nothing without the saving grace of Jesus. Just like you. I have no claim to being more pure than you. Because underneath the outter layer I keep clean and tidy for everyone else to see, God sees the yuck, mire, goopy mess that is my heart. He knows my thoughts. The ones I wouldn’t want to share with anyone else. The harbored resentment, the ill wishes, the parts of me that are very vindictive and spiteful sometimes. Parts of me I don’t want to admit exist, not even to myself. So what right do I have to distance myself from another goopy, messy, yucky human? None. Zero.

Like Peter asks, “Who am I to oppose God?”. The Lord has given me relationships. He has put me in the world. Being a Christian doesn’t somehow exempt me from having to deal with all the yuck. Thankfully, God didn’t leave me here to figure it out on my own. He gave me the Holy Spirit as a guide. When the going gets rough, the road gets muddy and I’m getting dirty, I’m thankful the Lord is always there with a clean towel. So let’s dive in and yucky it up.