Sabbath
Yesterday was spent mostly recovering from the lack of sleep from Friday night. I slept until about 4pm and spent most of the day watching episodes of "House" (a medical show) with Rory and Carlyle (I stayed at Dr. Gollogly's place) with the rain POURING outside. As I was watching the DVDs, I started wondering about when the last time was that I just wasted an entire day. It had been a while, but I found the process to be very satisfying. I really didn't do anything else but eat and get on the Internet on Saturday. Wow I needed that. God certainly did create the Sabbath for man.
My one regret is that I didn't spend much time with the Lord or in the Word. I think the process would have been complete if I had. It felt like something was missing at the end of the day. Oh well. Live and learn and put it into practice next time.
Today was another day of refreshment and God's guidance. I stayed at Jim's (Dr. Gollogly's) place another night because it never stopped raining and I kind of like sleeping with air con as they call it here. So when I got up, I headed for church only to find it had been canceled for the morning. Fortunately, I'd heard about another church called New Life that started an hour later, so I headed there.
After the usual misdirection and aimless wondering, I arrived at New Life and found exactly what the Lord had been pushing me toward. PASSIONATE Christians, mostly Cambodian with a few white folks mixed in. These people were jumping, shouting, praying, holding hands and just generally having a good time with their Lord.
The pastor was a white guy who had been there since age 17, a good twelve years. The services were conducted in Khmer with an English translator broadcasting to handheld radios with earphones. A live band led worship, with lyrics on projector in both English and Khmer. I sang "How Great is Our God" with 300 Cambodians today. I was prayed over, I comforted a hurting brother and I made several new friends, one of which was an eye doctor from Eastern Washington. The guest speaker was another man from Washington state teaching on us being like Christ and sharing the living water with the world. Absolutely wonderful.
A Cambodian guy came up to me in the middle of the service and shared a verse about God showing compassion for us and us needing to wait on God for His will to be accomplished in our lives. Okay okay okay... I get the point. Things aren't always rosy, we just need to actually trust that God will work things out for the Best. (it sure doesn't hurt to keep hearing that though)
So the rest of the day left me with a full stomach and one moral dilemma which I'd be happy to get some input on. I went to a market and then to Wat Phnom, a Buddhist temple in the middle of town. I went up to the shrine part and everyone was taking off their shoes to go inside. The whole time I was there I was a bit angry that so much work had been dedicated to a false idol. So I didn't take my shoes off, but I also didn't go inside. What is the proper response there??? I did not want to show respect for a religion that lies to people, but I also didn't feel that desecrating their shrine would prove anything good about God. Honestly though, part of me wanted to tear down their false shrines with their little blinking lights and crappy painted faces. But I restrained myself. Any thoughts?? (FYI a Buddhist monk just walked by me in this internet cafe... some of them have cell phones)
Moral dilemma explained, here's how I got the fully belly. Church potluck. Oh yeah, they work over here too. I went to the afternoon service at the International Christian Fellowship and they had a potluck afterwards. I met some cool kids and a woman with a family who is preaching the Gospel with her husband in the outer parts of Phnom Penh where it hasn't reached yet. Nothing else major to report there. Goin' home, got 4 newbies coming into the hospital tomorrow that I'll have to show the ropes and gotta figure out if I'm doing anything for my birthday. Maybe I'll buy myself a moto.
1 comment:
Hey, Ross, great blog! Very inspiring. You’ve reminded me to pray about this silly minute issue I’ve been trying to decide on, and now it doesn’t seem like an issue. Anyway, about your not desecrating the shrine, I think you did the right thing. Shad, Mesh, and Abed didn’t bow down and follow suit out of respect for the people. (Of course, they got thrown in the fiery furnace, so you may want to watch out, but God was definitely with them. )
I was also thinking about Paul in Athens. Then I thought, “Wasn’t it Athens?” I opened my Bible BOOM! Right to Acts 17 (a sign?). Paul credits those guys as religious and relates to them through their religion without putting them down for what they believe. Seems you did the right thing by not going in with your shoes on and perhaps by not going in at all. Paul’s custom was to go in the synagogues and preach to or reason with the people there, but then, the Jews worshiped the same God, so that may be a different situation. In trying to clear up things in my own head, I think I’m muddying the waters. Anyway, I love hearing how you’re walking in God’s ways.
When you wrote about WWJD in the Heart of Darkness, all I could think about was Jesus. You went to some shocking places, but you had your mind focused on God and were in the world but not of the world. (But still, I wouldn’t want my own kids to go there.)
I laughed when you said you're starting to talk with a different accent. I'm thinking of changing my career to be a speech teacher, but my daughter asked, "Can you teach speech with your Texas accent?" I'll have to pray on that one. When I went to school in Italy, I made an A in Italian, but when I spoke Italian, my accent kept anyone from understanding me, so I let others speak for me. You'll do well taking on the new accent (but drop it when your mom calls).
This whole time catching up on your blog, I’ve been thinking you remind me of Jesus and how he walked around serving the people. Who knows…maybe even Jesus cut his hair. BTW (learned that from a previous blog comment) love the haircut, but I prefer short hair. I like to see the eyes.
Rhonda (from Kenai, friend of your family)
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