Ministry here in India has been wonderful! We have been able to partner with local churches and pastors to preach the good news. Most night we arrive in a village or street corner and because we are Americans a crowd quickly builds. So we start by singing a few goofy songs followed by worship songs, next one of us will share a testimony while one of the pastors translates, after that someone gives a sermon, and finally we pray for hundreds of people. Our team has collectively laid hand on roughly 600 people. It is assumed that 9 churches were planted from this! Praise the Lord!
For this each one of the team members has either shared their testimony or given a sermon. I have loved watching each one of the team members search through the Scriptures, pray and prepare messages for the people here in India. I was also given the opportunity to preach one Sunday morning, and I taught on Acts 17: 16-34. It was truly remarkable at how this passage was completely relevant for India. Throughout history and through postmodernism a common topic has been the relevancy of scripture. The Word of God is powerful and completely relvant for today.
I have created a side by side comparison of the ancient city of Athens to the city we were visiting in modern day India.
India Athens
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The town we are in is a city full of Idols. An old satirical assertation written by Pertonius claims “that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens”
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Acts 17:16 “Paul’s Spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of Idols. |
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Many people we come into contact with are clearly very religious. In most cars we ride in the driver has a few gods on the dashboard, and there are always people outside the temples. |
Acts 17: 22 “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious” |
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We were driving in a bus one day and a man has a folder with pictures of many different gods in it. He flipped through them and prayed to specific ones, however there were many he passed over. There are many gods here that many people are unaware of or unknown to them |
Acts 17: 23 “to the unknown God”
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Friday night was a Hindu holiday here in India, and every temple we drove past had a large number of people worshipping these Idols. The temples are decorated with elaborate colors, silvers and gold and are often times much nicer than all of the houses in the area. These Idols are built by men in large shops and they mass produce Idols for anyone to buy. These temples and Idols are clearly man made, and they host a very dark precense. |
Acts 17: 24 “the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man.” |
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After ministry one day our host took us to the ocean. We swam is our full clothes, just like everyone else. It was pretty weird. At one moment we notices hundreds of people carrying idols over their heads and walking them far into the ocean. We even saw a group of ten people carrying a rather large idols into the ocean. When swim out as far as they can they say a prayer and place the Idol in the water. This is an act of service to the gods. This act shows that the people are trying to serve the gods in some fashion. |
Acts 17:25 “Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything…” |
This is one message in the Bible that is relevant for this city here in India. However their is so much more to be said about how applicable the message of Truth is for today generations. The Gospel message carries the same weight it did 2000 years ago. What a joy to serve a powerful God who continually works through his Word and through his people, to reach the ends of the earth!
