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Feb 10
Today’s entry will not have the humor as yesterdays. I mentioned on twitter that we were 2 hours late getting starting and attributed that to culture, flexibility, and traffic in my mind. The reason for the delay was that one of the church planters along with 40 of his members were detained overnight in the police station. They were one of the two buses that did not make it to the baptism. They were detained until 3:00 pm the next day. Ramesh went and got the church planter out of jail that morning and brought him with us to the youth conference. He later returned with an attorney to get the release of the 40 remaining. Some of their neighbors who oppose Christianity turned them in and they were accused of forced conversion. There is freedom of religion in this country as a law. As in our country, there is a national government and a state government. The state government in this state has become more opposed to Christianity and basically tolerates the persecution of believers and even participates on a local level of at least harassment and intimidation like our baptismal candidates experienced.
All of this greatly convicts me of what I perceive as a watered down, me-first, make me comfortable, make it convenient kind of Christianity that so much of the world knows nothing of. While no one was beaten or lost their life in this episode, many of the 40 were young people on their way to be baptized. Those of you who are parents, what kind of impact would being detained for 24 hours in a police station with no food and being intimidated have upon your children. While we design flashy backgrounds, looks, and programs to entice and draw people (adults, youth, and children) to an old rugged cross; it almost doesn’t fit.
The Gospel is about how God became a man described by the prophet Isaiah as a man that “has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despeised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Back to the youth conference, it started at 10:30 am and we did not arrive until after 12:30 pm, they were still singing and sang some more after we arrived. Mike sang beautifully “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” He shared his testimony and a word about discipleship. Then I preached to these young people a message I shared with our young people about “Don’t Waste Your Life”. . .whoever seeks to save his life will lose and those who lose their life for My sake will save it. . .over 50 young people committed their life to take the Gospel to their nation regardless of the cost. They knelt on a hard concrete floor while chairs were removed throughout the jam packed room to make room for their kneeling. Mike and I laid hands and prayed for every kneeling person individually and personally. By the time we finished, they had been in that non-airconditioned room for over 4 hours. For some reason, I believe that they were serious about their commitment to Christ and losing their life for His sake.. . .those are just my thoughts. . .until next time.