Back from Cambodia

Yesterday I returned to Sydney after a mission trip to Cambodia.  It was an incredible blessing and an unforgettable experience.  In many ways I am still decompressing as I sort through the trip in my mind as I look through the pictures I took.  God provided bountifully and protected the entire team.  Though I am a foreigner in Australia, I do not always feel like one.  In Cambodia, I almost always felt like a foreigner!  From the moment pastor Hung drove our team from the airport, it was like being in another world.  The variety of sights and smells are more than I could possibly do justice through recounting.  I have returned from Cambodia not only rich in experiences, but also with new friendships with members of our team, translators, and missionaries who live in Cambodia.

People are people wherever you go.  But the biggest difference I noticed from countries I have lived in and Cambodia is how much effort is required for survival.  The American and Australian cultures I am familiar with pursue comfort and convenience:  survival is largely assumed.  In Cambodia, this is not true.  Clean water, sanitation, and good nutrition is often not available.  In some of the remote villages we visited (maybe only 20 minutes off a paved road) the most basic medical attention might as well be 200 miles away.  Many of these people do not leave the village and even if they could, they could never pay with cash because they are farmers who live off the rice they grow.  The magnitude of the physical and spiritual needs is truly beyond comprehension.  Praise be to God that we were able to meet some of those needs! 

Our Aussie team joined with small teams from the States and Mexico providing basic medical exams and medicine, dental care, and reading glasses.  But more important than the care provided by our trained doctors and dentist was the spiritual care provided through the Gospel.  To pull out rotting teeth and supply medicine is good, but it is only a temporary fix.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ removes the rot from a human heart and provides eternal salvation by grace through faith.  It was amazing to see people drinking in the words of life, tasting and seeing that God is real and good. 

I have included some pictures of four villages we visited.  More to come!

10 Days in Cambodia

In our family, we love board games.  Playing a game together is one of our first choices on a family night.  One of the games in our closet is called "10 Days in Asia," a favourite of Laura.  Players can walk or use a airplane or train to connect their international destinations.  Being a person who loves to organise things, Laura plays the game exceptionally well.  Cambodia is one of the countries in the game, and a country God-willing I will visit on a 10 day trip that begins tomorrow.

Cambodia is historically a country that has endured much suffering at the hands of its leadership.  During the years spanning 1975 to 1979, nearly two million people were killed at the command of Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge.  It was a tragedy of such immensity the wounds have only begun to heal.  The hurt is so profound that even time can hardly numb the pain:  only God has the power to redeem such misery.  Wherever the Gospel goes, love, hope, and joy with salvation go as well.  How fitting that I would visit Cambodia just after Christmas, a time set apart to celebrate Christ's coming to earth as a divine Saviour.  As the new year approaches, it is only Jesus who has the power to make all things new.

Please pray for our group and the people of Cambodia!  Upon my return I hope to share some pictures and testify of God's faithfulness.

Satan's Works Destroyed: Rest Enjoined!

Christmas Eve and 40 degrees Celsius in the shade!  Converted to Fahrenheit, that is a toasty 104 degrees.  As I sit in my sweltering non-air conditioned house baking birthday cakes to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I can hear thunder rumbling in the distance.  Maybe we will have a downpour or some hail before the day is over.  But I didn't drag myself up the stairs to post on this blog just for a weather report, as interesting or unimportant it may be.

Yesterday we had the pleasure to accept a friend's invitation to a Christmas carol presentation at his church.  It was a grand affair with thousands in attendance, bright lights, skilled musicians, talented vocals, and booming volume.  As I was singing along with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," I noticed one of the opening three lines was curiously omitted.  It has come back to mind several times today, and therefore I feel compelled to expound upon the deleted line.

The familiar carol begins, "God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day; to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray."  Many Christians today set apart Christmas as a time to commemorate and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour sent by the Father to be the Saviour of the world.  From what I heard at church last night, the purpose of Christ's coming was to bring salvation, peace, joy, and goodwill toward all men.  This is true.  What I did not hear is that Jesus Christ came "to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray."  When Jesus came to earth, this was a primary reason why He came!  1 John 3:8 reads, "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."  There was likely nothing sinister at work in the omission of that single line in the carol.  But the devil is sinister, and Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

Right after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden through their disobedience, God alluded to this future destruction of Satan's power.  Genesis 3:14-15 states, "So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." Slithering snakes are a reminder of man's fall and subsequent curse of sin.  That "old serpent," that deceiver and destoyer Satan who is the devil, he has continually been at war with mankind.  There would always be enmity between Satan and men created in the image of the Almighty God.  Jesus Christ, the Messiah, also called Immanuel (God with us), is the Seed of whom is referred to here.  Satan would inflict a painful blow to Christ upon the cross of Calvary, but Jesus in dying and rising again would crush Satan's head.  Jesus proved Himself victorious over sin, death, Satan, and hell.  The Law that condemned us was nailed to the cross, along with the power of Satan.  Jesus has overcome, and all who repent and trust in Christ as Saviour are triumphant also through Him.

Christmas is a wonderful reminder of what Christ has done by saving all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.  Because of His incarnation, obedience, and sacrifice, all may repent and be born again.  Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  For those who are born again by God's grace, we are to put off the works of darkness and walk in newness of life.  Praise God for sending us a Saviour, for breaking our chains, and freeing us from the bondage of fear, sin, death, and Satan! 

Why Go to Church?

I have met many people who are professing Christians but cannot see the need to regularly attend church.  There are a vast amount of good reasons to do so.  The primary reason is that God's Word commands us to.  Hebrews 10:23-25 reads, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."  Gathering together to pray, worship God through song and the preaching of God's Word are also modeled throughout scripture.  Because all born again Christians are part of the universal Body of Christ, we have all been given talents and gifts to glorify God and edify the church.  It is impossible to edify a local or international Body of Christ without personal involvement.

God lamented concerning His people in Hosea 4:6, "My people perish for lack of knowledge."  God has given us the Bible so we might know His character, understand His will, and hear His voice.  It is possible to read the scriptures, understand the words on a mental or literary level, but not comprehend or apply what is being said.  It is for this purpose God has gifted people in the church to teach and preach.  We see this provision supplied even in the Old Testament.  Nehemiah 8:8 gives a descriptive example of this:  "So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading."  In Nehemiah's day, the people had not heard the scriptures read for some time, much less explained.  Ezra the scribe and other men stood at a pulpit of wood and opened the Book of the Law in the sight of the people and helped the people to make sense of what was written.  They carefully observed the text, interpreted it in light of other scripture, and applied it practically to the lives of the people.

Though this is a God-ordained way of people learning from the Bible, a gross abuse developed over the years.  Spread across millenia and spanning various Bible-believing groups, men were "put on a pedestal" as the chosen oracles of God.  God provided His Word so all men could learn of Him, yet a misconception was perpetuated among both clergy and laity.  The clergy saw their role as to discern truth from heresy, and their faithful followers did not consider themselves able to lay hold of the truth alone.  Therefore the understanding of the scriptures were seen as reserved for a select few chosen ones.  Even priests must bow to a traditional stance which is passed to the people.  This view continues in some circles to this day.

When Jesus Christ came to earth, He explained the scriptures in a way that the Pharisees and Scribes could not.  Being the Author, Jesus had authority to rightly divide the Word of Truth.  Luke 24:45 tells of Christ's interactions with His followers:  "And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."  Not only did Jesus make sense of the scriptures, He enabled men through the Holy Spirit to lay hold of them and apply them correctly.  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell His people so they might be taught by God Himself, not relying upon the word of any man to interpret and apply them.  John 16:12-13 states, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come."

It is ironic that after God sent the Holy Spirit, men have adopted a different error:  they do not make a practice of being taught the Word by a pastor or teacher and justify this because they have the Spirit who already teaches them all things.  This is partially true.  It is true that all genuine believers have the Spirit of God within them, but that does not mean we should shun messages God delivers through men called for this purpose.  Those who cannot seem to endure church fellowship sometimes stand in harsh judgment of presentation styles and personalities, acting like the clergy of old:  terriers of orthodoxy, bristling dogmatics, devoid of grace, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.  They cannot find a church that suits them because they have some quarrel with church structure, the age of the pastor, perceived hypocrisy, or a multitude of trite minutiae.  Instead of seeking to be suitable for God's service in a God believing, Christ-honouring, Bible teaching church, they cannot find a church suitable for them.  As they dry out spiritually without the support and fellowship of God-fearing brothers and sisters in Christ, the belief in the existence of an adequate church fellowship erodes.  Having separated themselves from the flock they are open to doubts, attacks, and error.  Without spiritual exercise through fellowship, spiritual atrophy is certain.  Without like-minded believers to sharpen their countenance and conscience, dullness follows.

So what is the balance?  Let us be those who are filled with the Holy Spirit, having had our understanding opened to comprehend the scriptures through faith in Christ.  Let us also seek fellowship among God fearing, Bible teaching churches with pastors and teachers gifted by God to do so.  Even pastors need solid Biblical teaching.  A man cannot rightly teach unless he has first been taught by God.  God graciously uses both His Word and people anointed by the Holy Spirit to do this.  Receive the exhortation and encouragement from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24:  "Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil. ²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it."