You Don’t Have To Wash Yourself
The World Race is a very smelly season of life. You stink, sometimes you feel cleaner without a shower, and pit stains are a norm. We hike long distances in the heat to tell people about Jesus, we prayer walk up 230 steps to Buddhist temples, and we sweat all through the humid night on thin mattresses. Some days we get peed on by children, some days we get splattered by mud from a stuck Tuk Tuk, and other days we’ve worn the same dirty shirt for the third time in a row.
One day as my team and I were sitting at the top of a mountain in Kampong Cham, Cambodia, we were invited to come inside a Buddhist temple. It was there that we sat next to Buddha statues and burning incense singing about Amazing Grace and Broken Chains to a God these people don’t know. Two monks sat and observed.
There’s nothing quite like singing about Broken Chains in a room full of them.
Last month my Buddhist friend explained to me a bit about the Buddhist belief. Buddhists believe that you must break your own chains to save yourself. You have to wash yourself clean to be holy. You have to find your strength somewhere inside of yourself.
Next we hiked up another mountain to read the book of Jude and pray.
As I read, I noticed a monk from the corner of my eye. He was dumping a bucket over his head, washing himself, repeatedly. The more and more I read each word of Jude, watching this man dump water on himself, I began to cry.
“But we weren’t meant to wash ourselves.” I thought this thought over and over.
I simply wanted to run to the edge of the mountain and shout “you don’t have to wash yourself!”
I respect these people. Man, they are dedicated. They go to great heights (literally) to dedicate their bodies and lives to this idol belief. This is generation after generation of lives devoted to their breaking of chains and washing of self.
We are dirty, and I’m not just talking about the sweaty, smelly World Race life kind of dirty. I’m talking about the flesh-obsessed, self-seeking, idol-worshipping, sin-induced kind of dirty. It’s in our nature. It’s what we chose from the beginning of humanity. But God sent His own perfect Son into a dirty world to cleanse us white in His own blood that He willingly shed for us.
God doesn’t say to cleanse ourselves before approaching Him. He says “come as you are.” In His demonstration of His own love for us He says “while you were still a sinner, I died for you.” He also says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works.”
It took everything in me not to get up and run through the mountains proclaiming this.
But I just sat and watched this man wash himself. I’ve seen this countless times all over the world. It just looks different from culture to culture. From person to person. But the best news? A Savior came for each and every one of us. And His name is Jesus and He broke the chains of this earth and cleanses us. You don’t have to do it yourself. And He’s already conquered. He’s ready for us to walk in that. Will you take that step?
Prayer need:
As my time in Cambodia comes to an end, my team and this ministry are praying for local workers. We are praying that the children we pour into will grow up to preach the Gospel to their people. We are praying for willing Khmer speakers. We are praying for lives devoted to making His name known on these islands. This is an unreached people group and we are believing for God to use His devoted people to fill this place with truth.
