And there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angles fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not enough, and they lost thier place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Revelation 12:7-12)
A beautiful picture isn’t it? A place of majesty. A place of architectural genious. A lie! Please don’t be naive! This building is a temple. A place to worship the many idols that have passed this way. Today we visited this temple in south western Vietnam in our cultural excursions outside of Ho Chi Minh City. We watched as many people came to the temple to meditate and spend time with these idols before them.
When I entered the temple I was immediately burdened with a deep heaviness upon my head, shoulders, and chest. I could sense the cloudiness all around me. It was demonic. It was not the usual “nice little worship place for a non-Christin religion”, but a place of lies. A place of deceit. As many of us onlookers stood on the overlooking balcony watching the worshipers, Ruby and I couldn’t understand why we shouldn’t just start shouting in the name of Jesus. It was like watching sheep being guided into a slaughter. People were wasting their time and lives for this hour be bowing down to a few idols. Mere symbols. No power, just symbols. These symbols were Buddha, Jesus, “the eye”, and many others. We were confused. I came out with the understanding that they worshiped all of the different gods so that non would be displeased with them. Vietnam has been ruled by China and France, so I’m assuming that’s why there were Catholic symbols as well as Buddha and other eastern ones.
So in this all, what was stopping us from shouting out the Name of Jesus?
We wanted to, but a sign said, “no talking”. That shouldn’t stop us, should it? Then a thought of the Crusades came to my heart. We need to love our friends here, not condemn them. We can’t call them out when we should respect them for who they are. We need to get involved in their lives and invest in them. We need to pray for them. We need to share with them. We need to let them choose, and that may take alot of patience. I have seen this all over the world this year. From Muslim strongholds in Malawi to Buddhist extremists in Thailand, to the devout Roman Catholics in Peru.
This world is caught up in religion. I look at the church today and reflect back on my journey through the years. I may have been blessed by the opportunity to grow up in a Christian church, but I have still been trapped by the religion of it all. I went to church on Sunday mornings, thats it! What makes that different than these Buddists, Muslims, or even Catholics I have met this year? What makes them any different? None of us have Jesus as our center if we live just to sit in a pew on Sunday mornings! It’s so much more than that!
Our faith shouldn’t revolve around our lives, but our lives should revolve around our faith!! That’s the Jesus I have met this year. He’s not a saviour that wants me to choose him over any other god or idol to worship once a week. He wants me to live alongside him. He wants me to follow him. He wants me to praise him for who he is! that’s the TRUTH.
Many of us in America don’t bow down to even the Lord in humility to him. Sometimes we don’t even raise our hands. These people give their whole lives to this idol, and we give part of our lives to the TRUE God. Either way, unless we’re on our faces worshiping God with every inch of our being, we are no different than these deceived people of south western Thailand! Our view of Satan’s fury isn’t what we think it is. It’s not necessarily the killing, the hunger, and the war. It’s keeping those who Jesus is calling to go out and love to stay back and forget their true call to love others. It’s deceiving those who think they are living for God who truly are only giving Him an hour on Sunday morning!
