Saturday, June 03, 2006
Incredible India!
Incredible India. So the posters in my 3-star hotel state... spent 2.5 weeks in India for my fieldwork this semester. Spent a weekend in Trivandrum for the first national conference held in India, where there were 1000 saints who came. Really interesting to see how so many different dialect and language groups could get together to blend and meet. About 86 overseas saints from Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand, USA, Singapore, Iran, and some others also came. Quite marvellous indeed.
India is just so diverse. Made up of 29 states, there are a 1000 over dialects spoken, hundreds of different cultures in each area, with its own range of foods, dress, customs, religions, and lifestyle. Man, going to each different state is as good as going to a different country. My team spent the time in the state of Kerala, which incidentally means "coconut". We had 2 weeks there, where we participated in the propagation work with the brothers there. Basically, it was hard work. Visiting newly contacted ones and having home meetings with them, preaching gospel to new ones, having seekers' meetings on weekend evenings... it was indeed tiring, yet very fruitful. There were so many pple who were seeking to know about the gospel, and many came out of their denominations to meet with the local church there. Most of them were from Roman Catholic background, some Pentecostals, Methodists and Anglicans. Even some from traditional religions like Hinduism and Islam were open. But the one thing common to them all, was that they really wanted to seek life and not carry on in dead religion. When pple reach a certain stage in their life, and begin to wonder what is the meaning of their human lives, and why religion doesn't seem to satisfy them, this is when they start to seek for life. I was really enlightened by one point, and that is religion is opposed to Christ. As Christians, we don't "belong" to a religion. In fact, this is against what is written in the Bible. Throughout the gospels, and some of the epistles, especially Galatians, we can see so clearly that the religionists and those who practised the law were the ones who oppposed and persecuted the Lord. And He charged us to keep away from such, and instead to turn to life. Wow.
I'm so thankful that I don't have to worship human-made idols and images of Jesus (which ironically breaks the very 1st commandment in the Bible!)... and what's worse, to have pictures of Jesus... which always depict Him having brown/blond hair, fair skin, and brown/blue eyes... (erm... Jesus was born in the middle East... no way he could have been 'white'... plus the Bible in Isaiah states clearly that He was uncomely in fact!).
The things which you can't see and grasp are truly the things which remain forever and are eternal.
To be continued...
India is just so diverse. Made up of 29 states, there are a 1000 over dialects spoken, hundreds of different cultures in each area, with its own range of foods, dress, customs, religions, and lifestyle. Man, going to each different state is as good as going to a different country. My team spent the time in the state of Kerala, which incidentally means "coconut". We had 2 weeks there, where we participated in the propagation work with the brothers there. Basically, it was hard work. Visiting newly contacted ones and having home meetings with them, preaching gospel to new ones, having seekers' meetings on weekend evenings... it was indeed tiring, yet very fruitful. There were so many pple who were seeking to know about the gospel, and many came out of their denominations to meet with the local church there. Most of them were from Roman Catholic background, some Pentecostals, Methodists and Anglicans. Even some from traditional religions like Hinduism and Islam were open. But the one thing common to them all, was that they really wanted to seek life and not carry on in dead religion. When pple reach a certain stage in their life, and begin to wonder what is the meaning of their human lives, and why religion doesn't seem to satisfy them, this is when they start to seek for life. I was really enlightened by one point, and that is religion is opposed to Christ. As Christians, we don't "belong" to a religion. In fact, this is against what is written in the Bible. Throughout the gospels, and some of the epistles, especially Galatians, we can see so clearly that the religionists and those who practised the law were the ones who oppposed and persecuted the Lord. And He charged us to keep away from such, and instead to turn to life. Wow.
I'm so thankful that I don't have to worship human-made idols and images of Jesus (which ironically breaks the very 1st commandment in the Bible!)... and what's worse, to have pictures of Jesus... which always depict Him having brown/blond hair, fair skin, and brown/blue eyes... (erm... Jesus was born in the middle East... no way he could have been 'white'... plus the Bible in Isaiah states clearly that He was uncomely in fact!).
The things which you can't see and grasp are truly the things which remain forever and are eternal.
To be continued...
// posted by superlambanana @ 10:16 AM 
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