Thailand has many beautiful temples throughout the country. The ornate temples are dedicated to Buddha, to whom (or what) most of the Thai people worship. The incredible detail that you’ll find in Angkor Wat (an ancient wonder of the world located in Cambodia) as well as the more modern temples is amazing to see. I can only imagine the amount of time, energy, and money that was spent on these places of worship. We did a prayer walk throu
gh some of the Buddhist temples in Bangkok, Thailand. At one of these temples, I witnessed a woman on her knees, bowing to a golden Buddha statue. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was praying about in that brief moment. Did she believe that Buddha was listening? If she did trust that that the statue could somehow read her thoughts, did she really believe that this god had the power to do anything? I would guess ‘yes’ for both questions since she appeared to have this ritual nailed down fairly well. It is disturbing to me that people are placing their faith in something created by human hands. And for people to spend so much time, energy, and money molding these statues and constructing these fantastic buildings for a god that doesn’t exist… What a huge waste.
Lately, I’ve been reading through the Old Testament of the Bible. There are a number of Scriptures that identify Israel’s struggle with idol worship. God’s chosen people, the Israelites, desired a tangible object to which they could worship. Apparently, the parting of the Red Sea, receiving bread from Heaven, and eliminating their enemies from the Promised Land (to name a few) was not enough evidence that THE God was real and was in their midst. You can sense God’s frustration with His people in Isaiah 46:6-11…
“Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god,
and they bow down and worship it.
They lift it up to their shoulders and carry it;
they set it up in its place,
and there it stands.
From that spot it cannot move.
Though one cries out to it,
it does not answer;
it cannot save him from his troubles.
…I am God, and there is no other;
I am God and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
From the east I summon a bird of prey;
From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that will I bring about;
what I have planned that will I do.”
In writing this blog, I was struggling with what point I was trying to make. Am I sending this message out to give an awareness of what some cultures have substituted in the place of God? Do I want to correlate the idol worship seen here in Asia to the idols that Americans have back home that are just as pointless and yet harmful? Things such as money and power? I think the point I want to make is something that you and I both need to hear: God is real, He knows everything about each one of us, the good and the bad, and He wants to have a relationship with us. This desire for a relationship was made very clear when God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to take upon himself all the sins of the world and die on a cross in our place. Thereby, the sin that once separated us from having that direct link to God was restored by Jesus’ blood shed 2000 years ago.
God is just as real today as He was when He created the entire world in the beginning. God has always been and always will be. There is no equal or substitute.
Please pray for God to remove the spiritual bondage that exists in Thailand. Please also pray for God to strengthen the Thai believers as they share the Gospel with their family, friends, and neighbors.
