As many of you know Vietnam is a closed country, meaning it is illegal to share the gospel here. The predominant religion is Buddhism, and almost every home practices some sort of ancestral worship.
While we were staying in Da Nang we had the opportunity to visit two very popular sites around the city, San Tra Peninsula and Marble Mountain. We entered in to temples and caves filled with shrines and reeking of incense. I watched as people put their hands together and bowed their heads before statues of stone. I had an urge to scream the truth of Psalm 115 : 5-8 across the courtyard at them, though they would not have understood a single word.
” [Your] idols are merely things of [stone], shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell. They have hands but cannot feel, and feet but cannot walk, and throats but cannot make a sound.”
If only they would take their eyes off their idols long enough to turn around, because in the other direction is a view so astounding they might never desire to turn back. The intricacy of the sand, the majestic sculpture of the mountainside and the power of the ocean waves only reveal a fraction of the God who made them all. A God who listens, speaks and moves. He walks alongside us, and His hands transform lives through many miracles.
In Vietnam the idols are visible everywhere, it is human nature to worship what we can see, to idolize people for their achievements. In North America our idols are very different, but still visible. They are giants in our living rooms tempting us with constant distraction and entertainment. They hide in our pockets, consuming every spare moment. They are the people we turn to with our problems and fears, seeking affirmation instead of first seeking God.
I challenge you to take a step back from what your eyes are fixed to, and see if God doesn’t have something much more beautiful for you, just out of sight.
