God has made clean

The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane”.                                                                                            Acts 10.15

Peter has received a vision from God. It is obvious that God desires Peter’s attention and wishes to show him something of great significance.

What Peter sees is a large sheet coming down from heaven and containing all kinds of four-footed creatures, reptiles and birds. Peter is encouraged to eat from what is offered, but he recoils. He remonstrates that he has never eaten anything that is profane or unclean. It is then that God reminds him that He has made things clean.

The trance illustration seems to be about food but it is clear that God extends his cleansing power to mankind as well. When Peter addresses the Roman centurion Cornelius and his friends and relatives he tells them, “...God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”

As I read of the vision Peter received in his trance, I see, in my mind’s eye, an enormous sheet being lowered from heaven containing all manner of human life – all races, all social classes, law-abiding and otherwise, privileged and abused, healthy and not so healthy, and all denominations – and I hear a voice from heaven saying, “These are my beloved. Go into all the world and love them as I have commanded you.”

Peter’s vision resulted in the first salvations among the Gentiles. What, I wonder, will my vision lead to? I don’t think I need to know. I simply need to be obedient, to be willing to go where He sends me, and to do His full and perfect will. O yes! Hallelujah!

Lord God,

I am mindful that You have made me clean. Your love has cleansed me. Your love continues to purify me, for I surely continue to get myself dirty.

I look to You for vision. And I look to You for the outworking of any vision You would give me. I want to serve You and I want to do so with all of my being. But, like Peter, I am likely to recoil. In my weakness, then, I offer myself. Take me, show me and lead me, in Jesus’ name I ask.                                                                                                                                   Amen.