A Day of Contrasts

The Lord provided a very interesting contrast one day in particular while I was in India. Let me set the stage: The first part of this day the team had the opportunity to visit two Hindu temples in the area… Temples exist on almost every corner and the only difference in them is the god to which they are dedicated (Hinduism supports about 330 million gods), the size of the temple and the degree of “ornateness” (I think I just made that word up but it fits). We saw the sign next to the door detailing the price for each particular type of blessing the worshiper was seeing from the god. We stood in the temple and watched as worshipers rang a bell in the doorway (to wake the god) before entering. We watched as worshipers came and lay down prostrate before the god, plastic and decorated with garland. We saw the gifts/offerings people had bought seeking blessings and/or appeasement from the god.

For me, there was an overwhelming sense of sadness as I saw the deception. We had seen just days before, in a neighboring village, the priests “taking the god for a ride” through the village on a decorated cart dawn by water buffalo. We heard about how periodically the gods are taken out of the temple and bathed in milk. Scripture describes this scene perfectly in Psalms 115: 4-8.

Later that evening, the Lord provided a completely different picture: We had the privilege of attending the early hours of a monthly all night prayer service at the church in Ventrapragada. The service started with worship through singing and through the preached word before moving on to the time of prayer. It was such a beautiful contrast from the picture seen earlier in the day. Believers bowing in prayer before the throne of the living God who never sleeps nor slumbers (Psalms 121:4). So many of these precious saints were found laboring in prayer for the salvation of their families. Through translation the team knew the specific prayer requests of these people and one by one, side by side with these Indian believers we were able to simultaneously approach the throne of God with our petitions. How sweet to know that the one true God, immediately, hears and understands our prayers, in English and in Telugu.

The interesting thing is that we Americans think we are a little more removed from the scenes of temples filled with idols on every corner, in our houses, and in our cars but we really aren’t. Sure, we don’t literally take our gods out for a ride, bathe them in milk, or attempt to literally appease them but really we are no different. We erect idols and temples of a different sort. Our idols are seated on the thrones of our hearts where Christ is the rightful ruler and our idols manifest themselves in the form of our jobs, careers, money, kids, religious appearances, and chiefly, self. As we are frequently reminded at Grace Church, our hearts are indeed “idol factories” and we desperately need a great Savior to step in, purify our hearts, and unite them toward Christ (Psalm 86:11).