These are two of the ten commandments the Lord gives to Moses.
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth below or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deut. 5:7-10)
Music blares from a temple speaker. A young woman cracks open a coconut and pours the juice over little figurines. The man beside her murmurs some prayers, lays down flowers, and bows down in front of temple. Idol statues cover the shelves of a home we enter. Women have shaved heads because they have sacrificed their hair at a temple. These are some of the everyday evemts we experienced in the village.
The Hindu religion believes in hundreds of millions of gods. On one online site I read that there is not a difference between worshipping an idol or the god; that they are the same, the idol is the god, the god is the idol.
(Habakkuk 2:18- 20) “Of what value is an idol since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, “Come to life!” Or to lifeless stone, “Wake up!” Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”
Our goal this last month was to help partner with a pastor and to start up a church in the village, Thadivallipall (a fun name to say!). There was a lot of freedom in how we wanted the month to look like; it was pretty much whatever we wanted to do. It was an awesome final month of the Race to get to use a culmination of the things we’d learned this year and step out in our new giftings.
Lots of home visits were made, giving encouragement, sharing the Gospel, LOTS of prayer (it seemed at times you couldn’t take a step without someone asking for prayer), a showing of the Jesus film in their language, the guys playing 5 Stones with men in the village, children’s programs, worship nights, church services, feet washings, and three baptisms! One of my favorite moments this month was when after sharing the Gospel a woman with tears streaming down her face said, “Jesus loves me so much!” She said it as though it were a revelation, like she had never known it before. I don’t think I will ever forget that moment.
There were two challenges we faced a lot this month. First, Hindus believe in Jesus, however He is just another god to them, not the ONLY God. One of our focuses when we were sharing with people was to emphasize that we only believe in Jesus. The second challenge was getting people to show up when they said they would. Like most countries this year, time has little meaning, so telling people we are having a service at 6 really was pointless. Rather we found if we stood in front of our house, a crowd would gather. In all of it I was reminded God is in control and He’ll bring the people who are meant to come. He certainly did great things this month, and with us in little control, it was easy to give Him all the glory! Some days we would just sit back and say, “Well, that’s not how I was expecting today to go… but it turned out for the better!”
” You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations…” (Deut. 29:17-18)
While the Race is coming to an end, this month was good practice for all of us. What are we going to do with the time God has given us? He gives us the freedom to choose. Some of us are going back on the mission field, others are returning to jobs, others are still seeking what is next. No matter what it is, my prayer is that each of us would make every day and every second count. Our actions, our words have huge impacts on the people around us. This style of living isn’t only meant to be done abroad, but in the States too.
