Nyepi is the holiest.. - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 2:1-2

Nyepi is the holiest Hindu holiday in Bali. It is the first day of a new year and is supposed to be a new beginning in as much purity as possible. On the day after, Balinese people visit each other and ask for forgiveness in order to start the new year purified. Many of them rub their bodies with mud from the mangrove forest on this day and then bathe in the sea to wash away everything bad: like mud, negativity, and mischief. Great fun - but with a serious background!

Is it enough to ask forgiveness from other people to be pure? What about the guilt I have accumulated against God? "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity" (Isaiah 59:2-3). From this Bible text it becomes clear that every offence is also directed against the holy God. And only God can redeem this guilt. His Son Jesus Christ paid for it. He died so that we can be accepted by God.

No one can undo or erase evil thoughts, words and actions. But if we expose them before God and sincerely repent of them, He gladly forgives us. Why can He do that? Because He is "faithful and just": faithful, because He has said so and He stands by His word; just, because His Son Jesus Christ has already been punished. He has become the sacrifice for my sins. His blood has been shed and this precious blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7).

Today's reading: Numbers 24:1-13 · Matthew 13:51-58