I love sleep. It is seriously one of my favorite things. I love getting a good night’s rest and I love taking naps. I used to hate them, as a kid, like most, I suppose. But as a mature adult in the professional world, with a business and a family, I think naps are spectacular.
When it comes to sleep, there’s nothing better than sleeping in your own bed, except sleeping in your own bed in clean sheets!!! Don’t you love crawling into a freshly made bed with just laundered sheets? I think it’s a universal feeling of ecstasy and serenity. It makes us feel that everything is ok in the world at that moment.
But how many actually love MAKING the bed and putting on those clean sheets? Maybe one in a million? We all love climbing into new sheets, but we sure don’t enjoy the process of that change.
It takes major fitness to accomplish this feat. It takes remarkable mobility, agility, strength, endurance, grit and determination to wrestle that fitted sheet around all four corners, navigate the close quarters of the bedroom furniture, tucking the hang-over of sheet and comforter under the mattress, and heroically stuffing the pillow into its case while superman holding it under your chin.
Sheets make a difference. There is another sheet that revolutionized the life of an apostle and changed history for the church.
For this we check out Acts 10. Here we see Peter, one of the 12 disciples and now a front runner in the advancement of the first church, taking a nap! He’s hungry and lunch isn’t ready. You know how much hungrier you get you can smell the food, but it’s not done. This is where he’s at.
Peter goes on the roof to get some fresh air, maybe planning on taking a nap, who knows. While napping he has a dream (a vision). A sheet is lowered down from heaven and all kinds of ‘unclean’ animals are on it. The LORD says to Peter, “Get up, kill, and eat.” Peter replies with, “I’ve never eaten anything unclean according to our Jewish laws.” The LORD calls back immediately, “Do not call anything UNCLEAN that I have made CLEAN.” The sheet then went back into heaven.
This happened three times. Peter woke up and thought what a weird dream. And he wondered what it could mean.
This is really significant because shortly after that, 3 guys show up for Peter. A Roman centurion, captain in the Italian army, who was a follower of Jesus, had a visit from God saying to send for Peter. Peter was a Jew and Cornelius was a Roman. Since Cornelius was a soldier, he would have likely been a part of the crucifixion in some capacity, so there was probably a bad taste toward his kind from Peter and fellow Jews.
When the men came for Peter, he went with them and the results were astounding.
In Peter’s vision he couldn’t eat even though he was so hungry because he wasn’t comfortable breaking the religious constructs of his personal, deep, and fruitful Jewish faith! His current perspective kept him from following the instruction of God leaving him “empty.”
When Peter made his visit to Cornelius and all who were there he told them what he had learned. “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. God accepts ALL who fear him and do what is right.” And this led to all those gathered with Cornelius receiving the Holy Spirit, meaning they were filled with the very power and presence of God as an active force wherever they went!
Today, as you think about taking a nap, I want you to think about Peter, who needed his vision expanded. I want you to realize, that no matter where you are in your journey, changing your sheets is NEVER a ONE TIME THING. We need to constantly be willing to do the hard work of making our bed. It may mean the difference in just going to sleep and someone’s restoration of wholeness, or even yours!
SO, what do our rules keep unclean, unholy, defiled, common, incapable of being holy? How do our traditions prevent us from seeing the rest of the world, other people, as God intended us to see them, as God sees them?
Before I finish, I need to make sure I point out something else. It could be you just need to know that God is in the business of making things new, of setting apart and the redeeming the defiled. Just like Cornelius, you’ve been considered beyond repair, far from redeemable, and you’ve let your sin, your situation, or your shame determine your status. And today, you need to know there’s a clean sheet with your name on it!
When’s the last time you changed your sheets?
Brett
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