Withstanding the torrents in life

In God We Trust

In God We Trust

Bhojraj Bhatta (August 21, 2009)

The national motto of the most powerful nation on earth reads “In God We Trust”.  Out of the ashes of a terrible civil war, this nation longed for some sense of hope and security and this motto first appeared on the United States’ coin in 1864.   Nearly a century later in 1956, President Eisenhower approved this motto into a law passed by the US Congress to provide a calming assurance from the looming danger of communism and a new kind of imperialism hiding behind the shadow of cold war.  The congress insert reads:  “In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, it is proper to remind all of us of this self-evident truth that as long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail”. ^*1

            The wisdom and the commitment to recognize human limitations in the affairs of a nation by the historical leaders of the United States has stood the test of time, and today the nation reaps the reward of their faithfulness.  God said to Moses in the second commandment that he will punish the children for the sins of their father until the fourth generation but he will show love and kindness to a thousand generations of the righteous.  Psalms 33:12 says “blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh”.  In spite of the carnality and heathenism that we see coming out of the United States of America, this nation still has a divine hedge built around it because God is ever faithful to his promises made in covenant with his faithful servants.  The carnal children of the US still benefit from the faithfulness of their forefathers because their forefathers chose to trust God, individually and nationally, and left behind a blessing for a thousand generations.

            The same story can be repeated for many of the European states whose forefathers trusted God and the children still reap the blessings of peace, prosperity and freedom which the world is in great need of.  China and many of the Islamic nations are now wealthy and prosperous but with great cost to peace and human freedom.  God created man with free will but in these nations the free will of man has to be regulated by manmade rules.  Man has become the master in these nations even though there is plenty of prosperity.  Japan and South Korea have enjoyed peace, prosperity and freedom; thanks to their association with a nation that carries God’s blessing.  It is the American money, manpower and prayers that have made what these two nations have become.  The rest of the nations in the world has a long way in recognizing Yahweh as their God and thus deprive their citizens of the blessings of peace, prosperity and liberty.  They have lived in misery for thousands of years and will continue to do so until they recognize the Lordship of Yahweh. 

            Now, as a citizen of a nation like Nepal, what hope do I have?  What blessings can I expect from my forefathers who broke the very first and second commandments of God and worshiped the creation instead of the creator?  The first book of the Bible is named Genesis, which means “beginnings” and in the very beginning of this book, Satan is represented by a snake that deceived the first man.  The Bible also tells us that Satan fell from heaven because he refused to worship God; he wanted to be God and wished the angelic beings to worship him.  He wanted to set up his throne higher than God’s.  But God cast him down and replaced him by the creation of man.  But we see him in Genesis chapter three as a snake and today there is no household in Nepal (except Christians and Muslims) on whose doorpost they do not post a picture of five, seven or sometimes nine snakes entangled together.  Every year on Nag-panchami (Day of the snake god), the Hindu households will replace these pictures with the worshiping ceremony of the snake god.  The snake posters will be posted on the top horizontal post of the door frame so that when a person goes out of the house, the head has to be a bit bent down to worship the snake and the same thing when one enters the house (traditionally, the doors in a Nepali house are slightly shorter than the average height of a person so that one has to bend the head to enter in and out of the house and therefore, the best place to put the snake god).  In a devout Hindu home, every door in the house must have one of these snake posters.  This tells us that what the Bible symbolizes as evil, Nepal worships as its main god.  In Egypt, the blood of the lamb that symbolized Jesus Christ was put on the doorpost for the deliverance, but today Nepal replaces the blood of the lamb with the symbol of Satan itself.  What blessings will we hope for?

            On the national level, there is no hope now for Nepal.  Unless the rulers and the general population turn to God and repent from the generations of violating the very commandments of God; our nation has no hope of prosperity, peace and freedom.  The atheistic Maoists might be able to bring economic prosperity (that is because in my assumption, God prefers an atheists than an idolater), but this economic prosperity might come with a high price of peace and human freedom.  In their pursuit of absolute power, they will not be hesitant to kill any number of people and once they have the power, there will be no liberty left for the common man.  But because poverty is such a terrible task master, the general public might be happy to live under the political tyranny than the tyranny of poverty.  So, there is no hope of a national blessing for Nepal.

            But on the individual level, there is hope.   There is hope because God in Jesus Christ transcends the national and collective boundaries and brings his blessings to every individual.  Any Nepali who has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior from sin and satanic bondage has the power to break free from all generational curses.  If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he or she becomes a new creation (2Cor.5:17) and Jesus has covenanted with such people a new covenant by his own blood (Luke 22:20).  He has become the lamb that was slain and his blood on the doorpost of their hearts protects them from the angel of death and destruction.  They are born again and all their past has been wiped away and now they are free to create a new genealogy for their posterity that will last for eternity in the blessings of God. 

            But this new beginning has to begin by trusting God just like Abraham trusted and he was declared a friend of God (Romans 4).  Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”.  David says in Psalms 40:4 “blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust”.  This picture of blessedness is beautifully painted by Jeremiah in the context of a man who trusts in man.  The one who trusts God is “like a tree planted by the water…does not fear…leaves are always green…has no worries…and never fails to bear fruit” (17:7-8).  But “cursed is a man who trusts man…will be like a bush in a wastelands…will not see prosperity…dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (17:5-6).  This is a very scary picture the prophet paints for the man whose trust rests on man.  But the one who trusts God, he or she shall be free from lack, fear and worry and will live in the land of prosperity.  This land of prosperity does not have to be some other nation or geographical location.  In fact, regardless of a national boundary, one can enter into this blessedness on the basis of one’s trust in God, and therefore, Nepali followers of Jesus Christ do not have to bear the burden of generational curse from their forefathers.  God in Jesus Christ is able to come to their aid and bless them spiritually, physically and materially. 

            But have we seen all these blessings (spiritual, physical and material) come to us in the last 50+ years of Christian history in Nepal?  Yes and no.  Yes, because, first, many Nepalese have come to the Lord and spiritually they have received eternal life.  With the handful of Christians in 1960s, today some estimates claim that there are a million Christians in our nation.  So, let’s say that all of these one million Christians have received the forgiveness of sin and eternal life; that is the greatest spiritual blessing we can ever imagine.  The Nepali church is strong in preaching the message of salvation; Jesus Christ saves.  Second, we also have received physically blessing of healing.  The highest cause of the growth of the church in Nepal is physical healing.  Even the cessationist Baptist and Presbyterian ministers in Nepal are still preaching that healing is possible when they pray (in their seminaries they teach that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased after the death of the apostles).  So, the church in Nepal preaches that Jesus saves and Jesus heals, but the third aspect of the blessing, which is material, is the biggest issue now.  Salvation is not possible apart from Jesus Christ and they trust him for that.  Healing is also not possible apart from Jesus Christ and they trust him for that.  But for the material blessings!  Because, right from the early days, Christian leaders found out that man can meet their material needs and because of that, this faculty to trust God for material blessing never developed in their newly formed spiritual brain.  Because the leaders did not have to worry for their material needs (their needs were met by outside donations), they did not know how to teach their members to trust God to meet their material needs. 

            The Christian population even today comes from the lower end of social stick and they have tremendous needs.  They cannot send their children to school, they never have the luxury of seeing a doctor when they become sick, and they do not know what it is to have a vacation in life because if they do not work for the day, there would be no food in the evening.  Life in this world to them becomes a burden from which they wish to be free and that’s why they trust the Lord Jesus for their eternal rest.  But unfortunately, they have never been told that God has the ability to give them the glimpses of that blessed rest from the tyranny of poverty right here on earth if they could exhibit the same trust that they have for salvation and healing.  Until today the Nepali Christian leaders have blinded the Nepali believers from trusting God for the material blessings by demonstrating that without the outside financial  help, Nepali church cannot exist.  But, like the motto of the US, it is not the money that would give us the rest and peace and freedom in this world, but it is our trust that puts us in a higher plane of life where every need is met by the power of God.  And therefore, Nepali believers need to learn to trust God to carve their new course for their own lives as well as for their posterity by placing their trust in God’s goodness and his ability to bless them and meet their needs.  The God who is able to save them and heal them is able to meet their material and financial needs; and thus individual Christians can be free from the national curse that comes from breaking his commandments.

[*1] Steven B. Epstein, “Rethinking the Constitutionality of Ceremonial Deism”, Columbia Law Review, vol. 96, no. 8 (1996), 2083-2174.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust.

Withstanding the torrents in life (June 26, 2011, Click on the picture to listen)

Withstanding the torrents in life

Sermon preached at Daejeon Onnuri English Ministry

Geert Wilders is a voice we must not ignore whether in the West or East

Is Money The Answer For Everything?

Is Money The Answer For Everything (Eccl. 10:19)?

Bhojraj Bhatta (June 22, 2011)

"A feast is made for laughter,

and wine makes life merry,

but money is the answer for everything"

Have you ever taken the time to reflect upon the claim Jesus made when he said "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14)?  What must he be thinking when he said this?  Does it have any relevance for us today as we face daily challenges of living a life in a world that is so hostile to everything we wish or desire?  The world and its system appear to be at odd with the kind of life and living we desire; if you don't fight and strive for the quality of life in this world, the life you desire would simply not come to you.  The very things that would have added quality and meaning to a life in this world, if left unchallenged, will eventually take life away from the living.  Things such as wealth, property, power, knowledge, pleasure, fame, freedom, security, love and such have great potential to make life worth living in this world; and they can also be the cause of destruction of life.

            According to the author of Ecclesiastes, "money is the answer for everything" (10:19), and how true it is in today's world!  Money does answer a lot of things, it does make life easier to live.  It can help you add material things or property to your life, it can give you power, it can even provide you the opportunity to increase your knowledge, it can bring you health and pleasure and even give you fame, it has the ability to give you freedom and security and even love and friends; there are so many things money can do.  Stephen Hawking can live and do what he is doing primarily because of the power of money and the opportunities it provided him with the scientific advancement because he was fortunate to be born in an affluent nation.  Had he been born in one of the poorer nations, we might have never heard his name; he might not have had the chance to live even the quarter of the length of life he has lived so far. 

            As much as money is the answer for good things in life; it can also be the answer for bad things.  Osama bin Laden became such an icon for the Islamic Jihadists primarily because he had the power of money at his disposal when he began his terrorist pursuit, and even after his death, his terror group continue to run havoc once a while because they still have the flow of money from their sympathizers.  But LTTE (Liberation of Tamil Tigers Elam), once a fierce terror group, saw itself disappear from the face of the earth because the flow of money was cut into it.  As long as the flow of money was on, there was no way of controlling its activities.   Therefore, either for good or bad, money is the answer in this world.  Money can do a lot of good and it can also equally do a lot of evil.  Most of the evil that is in the world appears to be due to the human desire to have money as it promises to give life, liberty and dignity. 

            Jesus also recognized the power and the place of money in human life when he said that man can only serve one master, he said "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matt. 6:24).   Jesus never says that money is evil, but he recognizes the power of money.  Money can meet almost every material needs in life and thus blind a person so much that he or she will start worshiping it, loving it to the end where one will be willing to forfeit even the eternal life if it requires one to give up money.  The best example is found in the life of a rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking as how he could inherit eternal life and when Jesus told him to give up the money, he rejected the offer of life and went away sad (Matt. 19:16-22).  One is willing to give up eternal life instead of money because money appears to be the answer for every issue in life, but unfortunately the life that money can give is life without the "truth" and the "way".   It may meet the material needs, but when it comes to the questions of eternity and spirituality; man is left without the instructions and the way forward.   As there are no instructions to the way of life, no commandments to guide his path, no absolutes to rule his mind; man is left at the mercy of his fallen and sinful nature to tell him how to live and for what.  Because he loves the money, he hates the truth and the way God has provided for him.  Instead of turning away from evil, he devises evil plans to gain more money and eventually his evil gets to him and is destroyed.  Thus, the Bible becomes right when it says "love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1Timonty 6:10).

            Bible never says that money is evil; nor does it say that money can give you life.  It only says that money can be the answer for many things in life and recognizes the positive side of having it in one's life.  Bible has never hesitated in appreciating the power of money in life so long as the money was not the object of one's worship and devotion.  God is and ought to be recognized by all who believe in him to be the ultimate source of everything in life, including money.  When Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life" he said this in the context of comforting his disciples whom he was about to leave in the world.  He asks them to live between the two ages; one is the present age and the other is the age to come.  He was going to prepare a place for them and then will come back to take them there.  While they were in this world, they had to walk in the way he has shown them, live by the instructions he had given them and by living according to his words, they were to live in him.  This was the only way to live for the disciples of Christ.  He promises them the Holy Spirit who will help them live this life in Christ and encourages them to pray whatever they need and he will hear.  In fact, he promises them that they will be able to do greater things than what he had done while on earth.  They were to live a life that is marked by supernatural provision and power.

            In Matthew 6 when Jesus said said "no one can serve two masters", he told his disciples that they were not suppose to worry for the material things in this world; not because they won't need, not because they should live in lack and need and poverty, but because their heavenly father knows what they need and he will supply all that they need or ask from him.  Thus, for the believers, money is not the source, God is the source and money is a means.  God will provide the money so that a believer will be able to live a life that is marked by truth and lived in Christ as he or she journeys in this world until his second coming.  As money is the answer for everything in this world, Jesus promises to provide everything to the disciples who would live in "the way and the truth and the life".

            Apostle Paul also has left us with no doubts about God's intentions regarding this divine provision when he said "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2Cor. 8:9), "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2Cor. 9:8), "you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God" (2Cor. 9:11).  The ultimate purpose of God's provision in this passage is that we might become generous on every occasion.  God wants us to live a life that is marked with generosity and thus he promises to provide whatever we need; specially the financial needs.  The Bible does not promise the financial blessings for the purpose of being generous only, it also takes into account our personal needs and wants.  Paul says "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1Timothy 6:17).  God is a father who delights in his children's happiness and thus he provides us with every good things so that we can enjoy life.  There is nothing wrong for the believers to enjoy life because God intends us to live a life that is filled with joy and peace and love.  Once we have found the joy of life in God's blessings, then we become generous as Paul continues to admonish the rich to be rich in generosity and good works.  He says, "in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life" (1Timonty 6:19).  The true life is a life that will keep on living long after we are gone from this world and money is unable to give us that kind life; only God can give us.  But at the same time, money will not be able to hinder us to enter that life if we allow God to rule our life.  If Jesus is the way for us to walk, if his word guides our affairs in this world, then money, instead of becoming a curse, it can become a blessing, a means to lay up treasure in heaven.  God desires that we live in this supernatural provision and financial liberty in which we are free to be generous in every occasion.  If you lack your basic necessities for life; it is hard to be generous and thus you cannot experience the joy of being generous.  As a child of God one must know what it is to be generous and for that to happen, one must come to a place where God meets all the urgent needs so that there is something left to give to those who are in need.

            Material poverty is not a sign of spirituality; it is a sign of sin and curse resulting from individual or corporate sins.  When Jesus said "blessed are you who are poor" (Luke 6:20), by no means did he bless the state of poverty as a universal human condition.  Neither the Old nor the New Testament sees poverty as a preferable state to be in compared to the wealthy state.  In fact, poverty or wealth is meaningless without God.  However, Jesus knew what it is to be poor right from the birth and thus in God's provision we are told that as he lay in a manger as a son of a poor man, three wise men from the east had to travel with gold, precious incense and myrrh.  This tells us that God had provided all that Jesus needed from the birth to death.  He would need gold to live, healing aroma of incense for a baby and mother to be of good health and myrrh for him to be used when he would eventually die and be buried for three days.  Joseph and Mary might have been poor in the eyes of the world, but the God they believed was a God who keeps his promises and thus we must get rid of the mentality that Jesus was a poor teacher longing for a meal and a place to lay his head at night.  He was the only sinless man who walked on the face of this earth and he was free from the curse of poverty; yet he took that curse upon himself so that through his poverty all mankind could also come into the life of blessings he knew.      

            Most of the nations that are poor today are poor because of the rampant corruption and stealing from the people and as a result the multitudes are living a life that has lost all color; there is no dignity in begging for a bowl of soup, there is nothing desirable in distributing food to the multitudes who can't afford a meal a day.  Such a charitable work done by many Christian nations and organizations (most of today's humanitarian INGOs are or were founded by Christians) is a shame on the face of a world that is greedy and wants everything for self.  A world that knows nothing about being generous and is willing to let its people starve to death while the corrupt rulers enrich themselves.  Ironically most of these rulers are very religious and it turns out the more gods and goddesses they worship the deeper in sin they sink, the more corrupt and cruel they become to their subjects.

            Thus, poverty was a curse, is a curse and will always be a curse if the issue of sin is not settled first.  It takes away dignity, respect and quality of life for many in this world.  The only solution is to repent from personal and corporate sins and turn to him who became a curse for us so that we might receive the blessings that God has intended for us (Galatians 3:13-14).  Once we turn to Jesus, he becomes our way of life, his word becomes our guide and we begin to experience the life that is truly life. 

            When a person tastes the true life in Christ; even as he or she stands in line for a bowl of soup in some sub-Saharan nations, he or she does not stand in that line with disgrace and humiliation but with dignity and self-respect knowing that it is just a matter of time when Christ will set him or her free from the bondage of poverty and curse.  Such a person's eyes are opened to the reality of what God has done in Christ and the person begins to realize that the source of the soup that he or she is holding in his or her hand is not the donating agency but God himself.  God had ordained that such an agency would be there at such a time to provide a means to survive and if God was able to command an agency to come to meet that need at that time, he can also do so without being forced to stand in line with humiliation and disgrace; God can meet that person's need supernaturally and give him or her the ability to experience such blessings naturally. 

            But, first, the issue of sin in life has to be addressed and confessed.  Any amount of blaming the rich, the fate, and the place of birth will not help.  Any amount of lamenting won't help.  The only thing that will set a person free from the grinding curse of poverty is the turning away from sin filled life.  Turning from sin and turning to God will lead that person into a quality of life whose needs are supplied from heaven's gates.  In Malachi the word of the Lord comes from the prophet that God is willing to open the floodgates of heaven to pour out a blessing that one cannot contain if the people would turn from their wicked ways and honor God their creator (Malachi 3).  Such promises of God are not relative to certain nations or continents, but they are relative to a nation, a continent and a person that will turn from sin and turn to God.  God gives us true life and that life ought to be lived here and now as a sign that we are on the pathway to a greater life in the age to come.  Sufferings and sorrows are part of this life here in this world but the Lord promises to carry us through them all!  God never promised to leave us in our misery; he promised to bring us out of our misery and our later life will be better and greater than our former when we make Jesus as the Lord of our life.  Spiritual transformation will also result in our physical and material transformation and a wealthy believer in Jesus Christ will be a blessing to many around him or her while he or she herself will rejoice in the quality of life that money brings because a believer will always be aware of who the true master is.  Thus, to answer the question, is money the answer for everything? No, money is not the answer for everything, it is only a means to everything; Jesus is the answer.  He is the way the truth and the life that will never perish and while we are here in this world, he will provide all that we need in order to live a generous life.

We are not the judge (Luke 6:37-45)

From this day!

"From this day on I will bless you" (Haggai 2:19).

For whom is the Short Term Mission Trip?

As I sit in the staff meeting of one of the most influential churches in the world; I see leaders of various summer outreaches (short term mission teams) to different nations reporting to the senior pastor about their success stories.  Video clips and slides, with fitting music, of their spoils in foreign lands are projected to the meeting with intermittent clapping of hands by the members of the meeting in celebrating their victories.  The slides and video clips take us in a ride with them to the place they have just conquered for the glory of God (wonder if it is really for God's glory).  We start with them in their cameras from the very beginning till the end; the departure from the church, the bus to airport, the plane, the welcoming in the foreign land by their resident missionary along with some local helpless hands who are forced to present the bouquets to the incoming dignitaries.  As the team moves from the airport; the pictures and the clips continue to take us to the house settings of the missionary in the land, and gives us a sense of visiting some mansions of multimillionaires of the land or to the corrupt politicians because the economy of these nations tells us that life in these mansions is only possible with extra-ordinary amount of money which is only available to the multimillionaire businessmen or to the corrupt politicians but now it appears that we can also add certain missionaries in that list. 

As the team enters the mansion, almost every member is seen falling on the knees as if they have entered the most holy place on earth.  The mansion has enough space for 10 to 15 members who start unpacking their bags; some start putting the local outfits in order to be able to touch the local population within the period of time they have in their hands; one week or 8 days at the most.  As they move in and around the compound of the mansion; they run into the drivers, watchmen, gardeners and other servants of the missionary and immediately start putting to the test the language they had learned while they were preparing for this mission trip back in their homeland.  These workers of the missionaries are very kind to these ignorant, foolish and gullible team members who cannot comprehend whether they are being treated with kindness or craftiness; they cannot tell whether they are treated with kindness because of who they are or what they can leave behind for these people when they return.

Soon, some of the local church member (leaders) appear at the mansion and with the pleasant smile on their faces start familiarizing with the team.  Together, they begin to give a final touch to important aspects of their missions to the nation; worship dance with various cultural elements, stationeries, balloons, some gift items for every member who will be attending tomorrow's church worship.  They also have brought some boxes of old clothes, medicine, and some musical and electronic materials but these things are handed to the missionary who can use his or her discretion as what to do with them. 

Its time for the church; local people begin to pour in regardless of whether they are Christians or not and otherwise half empty hall, today it is jam-packed.  You could tell the difference between believers and non-believers the way they behaved.  The believers had some kind of a depressing look on their faces and mostly kept their heads down, either praying or avoiding the cameras whereas the non-believers were smiling and making sure that their faces were in as many pictures and videos.  Most of the members are shabbily clothed; only the leaders and missionary's workers have some good clothes on them; these are the most active members in the church.  They never sat in worship; they were busy in helping the mission team to perform. 

The worship began, fewer songs today because the visiting team also has to sing, they had been practicing these songs and dances for weeks if not months; but these songs are not in the local language, no one understands except the team and the missionary family.  The leader of the team preaches, local pastor is not seen in the pulpit today (may be he was told to cook); the missionary introduces the speaker and then translates the sermon but the look on the face of the believers tells that there is nothing to be blessed with that message but the non-believers continue to smile and even respond with "Hallelujah" and "Amen"!  In the children's worship, there is much fun; candies, toys, balloons and some stationeries and even a school bag!  As the worship is over, the visiting team is already at the door standing in line; handing something to every church member as one leaves the hall; it is a small towel with the name of the church printed!  There is food today in the church; everyone appears to be having a great fun and the major part of the mission trip done!

The next day the team heads to an orphanage; hands over some clothes, balloons, and toys.  They even venture outdoor evangelism but local people give them some quirky looks and move on.  The day is done with that; team takes rest and the missionary then takes them to an exotic restaurant in town for the dinner.  As it is now too late at night, the team crashes because tomorrow they have to teach to the local leaders that the missionary has invited from various churches; some of these leaders the missionary supports financially because they have lately joined him along with their congregations and others are invited with the possibility of future support if they bring their little congregations with them and join the missionary's growing church planting ministry.  As the training session ends, with only about 25% of teaching being understood; the local leaders who are surviving on missionary's mercy claim that they had been greatly blessed with such a great learning experience!  When they begin to say goodbye (some of them had come from very distant and remote areas of the country) to the missionary; they tell him "please when the next mission team comes, bring that team to my church"!  The missionary gives them a look of appreciation and thanks them for being such a faithful bunch of followers and promises them that he will try to bring the team to their churches as soon as possible. 

After two days of sightseeing, the team is back to the homeland and ready to edit those videos and pictures to be presented to the main church and also the the members who helped them financially for their mission trip.  After the reporting, senior pastor is greatly pleased and asks everyone in the meeting to thank God for such a great success of his church's outreach!  I also slip out of the room and start writing this blog!

Three questions to Nepali Christians

A Window into My Past

Click a window into my past

For whom is the Short Term Mission Trip?

As I sit in the staff meeting of one of the most influential churches in the world; I see leaders of various summer outreaches (short term mission teams) to different nations reporting to the senior pastor about their success stories.  Video clips and slides, with fitting music, of their spoils in foreign lands are projected to the meeting with intermittent clapping of hands by the members of the meeting in celebrating their victories.  The slides and video clips take us in a ride with them to the place they have just conquered for the glory of God (wonder if it is really for God's glory).  We start with them in their cameras from the very beginning till the end; the departure from the church, the bus to airport, the plane, the welcoming in the foreign land by their resident missionary along with some local helpless hands who are forced to present the bouquets to the incoming dignitaries.  As the team moves from the airport; the pictures and the clips continue to take us to the house settings of the missionary in the land, and gives us a sense of visiting some mansions of multimillionaires of the land or to the corrupt politicians because the economy of these nations tells us that life in these mansions is only possible with extra-ordinary amount of money which is only available to the multimillionaire businessmen or to the corrupt politicians but now it appears that we can also add certain missionaries in that list. 

As the team enters the mansion, almost every member is seen falling on the knees as if they have entered the most holy place on earth.  The mansion has enough space for 10 to 15 members who start unpacking their bags; some start putting the local outfits in order to be able to touch the local population within the period of time they have in their hands; one week or 8 days at the most.  As they move in and around the compound of the mansion; they run into the drivers, watchmen, gardeners and other servants of the missionary and immediately start putting to the test the language they had learned while they were preparing for this mission trip back in their homeland.  These workers of the missionaries are very kind to these ignorant, foolish and gullible team members who cannot comprehend whether they are being treated with kindness or craftiness; they cannot tell whether they are treated with kindness because of who they are or what they can leave behind for these people when they return.

Soon, some of the local church member (leaders) appear at the mansion and with the pleasant smile on their faces start familiarizing with the team.  Together, they begin to give a final touch to important aspects of their missions to the nation; worship dance with various cultural elements, stationeries, balloons, some gift items for every member who will be attending tomorrow's church worship.  They also have brought some boxes of old clothes, medicine, and some musical and electronic materials but these things are handed to the missionary who can use his or her discretion as what to do with them. 

Its time for the church; local people begin to pour in regardless of whether they are Christians or not and otherwise half empty hall, today it is jam-packed.  You could tell the difference between believers and non-believers the way they behaved.  The believers had some kind of a depressing look on their faces and mostly kept their heads down, either praying or avoiding the cameras whereas the non-believers were smiling and making sure that their faces were in as many pictures and videos.  Most of the members are shabbily clothed; only the leaders and missionary's workers have some good clothes on them; these are the most active members in the church.  They never sat in worship; they were busy in helping the mission team to perform. 

The worship began, fewer songs today because the visiting team also has to sing, they had been practicing these songs and dances for weeks if not months; but these songs are not in the local language, no one understands except the team and the missionary family.  The leader of the team preaches, local pastor is not seen in the pulpit today (may be he was told to cook); the missionary introduces the speaker and then translates the sermon but the look on the face of the believers tells that there is nothing to be blessed with that message but the non-believers continue to smile and even respond with "Hallelujah" and "Amen"!  In the children's worship, there is much fun; candies, toys, balloons and some stationeries and even a school bag!  As the worship is over, the visiting team is already at the door standing in line; handing something to every church member as one leaves the hall; it is a small towel with the name of the church printed!  There is food today in the church; everyone appears to be having a great fun and the major part of the mission trip done!

The next day the team heads to an orphanage; hands over some clothes, balloons, and toys.  They even venture outdoor evangelism but local people give them some quirky looks and move on.  The day is done with that; team takes rest and the missionary then takes them to an exotic restaurant in town for the dinner.  As it is now too late at night, the team crashes because tomorrow they have to teach to the local leaders that the missionary has invited from various churches; some of these leaders the missionary supports financially because they have lately joined him along with their congregations and others are invited with the possibility of future support if they bring their little congregations with them and join the missionary's growing church planting ministry.  As the training session ends, with only about 25% of teaching being understood; the local leaders who are surviving on missionary's mercy claim that they had been greatly blessed with such a great learning experience!  When they begin to say goodbye (some of them had come from very distant and remote areas of the country) to the missionary; they tell him "please when the next mission team comes, bring that team to my church"!  The missionary gives them a look of appreciation and thanks them for being such a faithful bunch of followers and promises them that he will try to bring the team to their churches as soon as possible. 

After two days of sightseeing, the team is back to the homeland and ready to edit those videos and pictures to be presented to the main church and also the the members who helped them financially for their mission trip.  After the reporting, senior pastor is greatly pleased and asks everyone in the meeting to thank God for such a great success of his church's outreach!  I also slip out of the room and start writing this blog!

Three questions to Nepali Christians

Life in a changing world

Life in a changing world

Over a period of time, everything changes in our physical and social environment.  We say, "times have changed" to indicate the differences between the present and the bygone days.  Sociologists and psychologists talk about "generation gap" in explaining the difficulties parents have with their children where neither can understand the other.  We are born, we grow and go on to be the individuals that we can until death greets each of us at the door.  Change continues unabated in this world whether we live or die.  Families change, relationships change, occupations change, social networks change and religious convictions and worldviews change too.  Even the geography changes; nations change their borders, rivers change their course, landslides change the shape of the mountains, lakes dry, creeks disappear and so on.  Some of these changes are manmade but others are not; manmade changes rather permanently destroy the ecology and environment (deforestation being the primary cause of the landslides and drying of rivers, lakes and creeks) whereas the nature has its own way of restoring or adapting to the changes it has brought upon itself.  Whichever way change comes, it is certain that change is a permanent process in this world and no one can stand against it; it will take everything on its way along with it.   

            The Bible says "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth", implying that what he created in the beginning has also an end and thus in the New Testament we see people longing for the new heaven and new earth because the world "in its present form is passing away" (1Cor.7:31).  Not just the material world that is passing away; the NT also talks about a world that is immaterial and this too will pass away and therefore gives following admonition;

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1John 2:15-17).

            Less than a year ago Christopher Hitchens was a robust and a handsome looking man who even reaching 60 looked as if in his mid-forties.  His physical look matched to his intellectual ability to tear down opposing arguments and destroy the faith of the simple minded believers in any form of god or divine. The last book he published as his memoir (Hitch 22) was selling like hot cakes and in his own words, Christopher was in for the glory days ahead of him; he was now ready to ride the tidal wave of fame and popularity that he had worked for so hard until then. Unfortunately for Christopher, his glorious world came crumbling down too soon while he was on a book signing tour last summer; the cruelty of cancer was so harsh, and even for a man of strength like Hitchens had to pause and think.  As the emergency crew came to take him to hospital, Christopher in his typical linguistic beauty puts like this;

They arrived with great dispatch and behaved with immense courtesy and professionalism. I had the time to wonder why they needed so many boots and helmets and so much heavy backup equipment, but now that I view the scene in retrospect I see it as a very gentle and firm deportation, taking me from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady. Within a few hours, having had to do quite a lot of emergency work on my heart and my lungs, the physicians at this sad border post had shown me a few other postcards from the interior and told me that my immediate next stop would have to be with an oncologist. Some kind of shadow was throwing itself across the negatives. (Vanity Fair, September 2010).  

            Christopher has crossed the border from the land of the well into the land of the maladies and sadly even lost his voice to speak; what a change has come in his life.  As a devout Atheist, he continues to fight for every precious moment he can have in this world and I wish him many more.

            But over half a century ago in the Netherlands, there was a young 15 years old girl by the name of Annie Frank.  Her parents gave her a diary for her 13th birthday and began her entries in it.  Soon thereafter, the whole Frank family along with few other friends went into hiding from the Nazi's purge of the Jews.  After spending two years in hiding, Annie completing her 15th birthday, and two days after her last entry in that diary, the hiding place was raided.  Everyone was sent to various concentration camps, everyone perished in a short span of time except Annie's father.  When the war ended; Annie's Father visited the place where they had hid themselves; got his daughter's diary and later published it; Dairy of Annie Frank has since become a household name in much of the western world.

            The interesting thing about Annie is that even in her young age she was able to look beyond her age and environment; she saw the changing nature of life and everything in this world; including suffering.  On July 11, 1944 she wrote,

In the eyes of the world, we’re doomed, but if after all this suffering, there are still Jews left, the Jewish people will be held up as an example.  Who knows, maybe our religion will teach the world and all the people in it about goodness, and that’s the reason, the only reason we have had to suffer. We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. And we’ll have to keep on being Jews, but then, we’ll want to be. God has never deserted our people. Through the ages Jews have had to suffer, but through the ages they’ve gone on living, and the centuries of  suffering have only made them stronger. (Dairy of Annie Frank) 

            While hearing about millions of Jews being gassed across Nazi occupied Europe; Annie looks beyond the sad post of suffering to a land of goodness and God; a land where evil shall be conquered by good, where weakness shall turned into strength; a land where there is no shadow coming over the negatives but light wiping away every trace of darkness and fear.  What a contrast between Christopher and Annie's world!  Christopher fights for a world that is passing away but Annie looks to a world that will never pass away.  The world and its passions will pass away said apostle John; "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever" (1John 2:17). 

            Unfortunately, most of us who claim to be living for the world to come are often pre-occupied with the things of this world.  Whether we are from an affluent nation or an impoverished one makes no difference when it comes to the things of this world; the passions that attempt to imprison us in this world are the same everywhere and for everyone regardless of one's position in life.  Lust, greed and pride continue to create havoc in many Christians' life and particularly in Christian leaders' life. We hear of news such as a mega church pastor in the US having secret homosexual partners; a mega church pastor in Korea sexually exploiting secretaries in the church offices.  We hear of MBB (Muslim background believers) faking their persecution so that they could gain sympathy and dollars for a better life.  We hear of missionaries writing fake reports of what they are doing in the mission fields so that the flow of finances continues for their royal life-style in some third-world nations.  We hear of third world pastors and Christian leaders selling their churches, orphanages and ministries to highest bidder from the affluent nation even if it is a false teaching like Jehova's Witness, Mormons, Manmins, or anyone.  Lust, pride and money become the objects of worship for such leaders and they can change their vision, calling and doctrine depending on the monetary and the sensual pleasure of this world.  The things of this world continue to win the affections of many of us and we don't want to think about the kingdom of God.  For this case, we are worse than Christopher Hitchens; in fact Hitchens deserves better respect because he is not a hypocrite like us.  He claims that this world is all that he has got whereas we claim that we live for the world to come; but in reality we find it hard to detach from the things of this world and continue to crave for them; we cheat, lie and quarrel for them.  We have witnessed how these Televangelists have deceived the innocent folks; we have seen how pastors in third world nations have built palaces for themselves by the money that was given for the reported mission work; we have seen how a pastor's desire to make his name great has gone on to suck life out of his church members by constantly asking them to pay for his mega-building projects. 

            It appears that such a mindset of Christians and their leaders has forgotten the changing nature of this world.  They have fooled themselves by believing that this world will last forever and therefore, having an affair, buying a private jet or an expensive car with the money received by fooling the believers, building a beautiful house with the mission money perfectly makes sense to them.  Sadly their sense of pleasure and security will also come to a place where everything will be changed; like Solomon they will say that it was all in vain and what is more terrifying is that Christ is going to ask for an account of what we did with what was given to us while here on earth.  But long before we get to that place where we meet Christ, the price of such a life has to be paid here and now; we have seen how their lust, pride and greed cost them everything right here on earth.

            Unless we live with one eye in eternity, we will all be tempted to do what we have described above; if we focus on the things of this world with both the eyes, we will make wrong choices and miss the view of heaven; one way or the other this changing world will get to us.  Therefore, like the author of Hebrews said, let us focus on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.  Like Annie Frank's conviction of goodness; lets make our ambition to live as an examples of good instead of greed, lust and pride; let us live for the world to come in this world and beyond.

Love your enemies