Faith and Celebration
“The Messiah is in you all, the hope of glory.”
You may remember Khumar above, and all that I have written about this sweet family who joined our family only last year. The picture you see above is their baptism service. I imagine if I had been there, sobbing, babbling joy would have made me a spectacle. I have been the mess in the middle of the more together of the brethren enough times to know that this occasion would have been even more overwhelming for me. After all, I have longed for and begged for this day since I first met them. Does that happen to you at baptisms? I have never made it through one such service with my face intact. It is holy and pure and the absolute JOY of heaven.
There were a number of hurdles for Khumar and his clan to get to this point, because the rules, and traditions that you find in both Hinduism and Buddhism have woven themselves into the relatively new world of Christianity. As a result, this family was denied communion and baptism until the leaders were convinced that this family would not bring shame on the Christian faith. Last month, this changed.
If you know me even a little, you know this waiting, and the reasons for the waiting were hard for me. However, when you are on the mission field, there are more of these sorts of interesting paradigms than not. I am thankful for the ones who have gone before me to teach me about the nuances of navigating culture and faith. Though I strongly embrace the reality of faith over culture, there is beauty and grit in walking that fine line within any given nation.
Paul understood the mission field as he addressed the church at Colossae. Interestingly, the book of Colossians has gripped me since I first landed in Nepal. I still can’t get enough of it, and though I will not plumb the depths of it in this lifetime, it has helped me to navigate pretty much every situation I have faced.
Paul came to understand the problems that the Colossians faced, both the pressure to observe the rules and regulations of the Torah from one group of well meaning Jewish Christians, as well as the pressure from the opposite side to keep up the polytheistic worship of their day. It was culture against a form of Christianity.
He came like holy thunder reverberating even to this day, to remind them that faith is about a person so that they could abandon the pressures of both the culture and the wrongly applied traditions of the church and embrace the beauty of the person of Jesus and the reconciliation He bought with His very life.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of the cross. And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven of which I Paul, became a minister. Col. 1:16-23.
In this revelation, the hope of the gospel crushes carved images, superstitions, religious traditions, false teachings and everything else that dots the landscape of people’s lives. They are overridden with one person, Jesus.
He defeated every single lie they believed, and every pressure they faced from both church and culture, by drawing their gaze and their focus to who Jesus is and what He has done.
JESUS is the good news.
There is so much rejoicing in heaven over Khumar and his family. The truth has penetrated the darkness, and the norm has been overridden. They are indeed an incredible miracle in this nation. My prayer is that their witness will go much further than any missionary every could. May they see Jesus with fresh vision every single day for the rest of their lives and live to preach this good news wherever they go. I hope you will all pray with me for their faith to never stop growing, and their love for Jesus to never die out.
Holy Spirit is such a good teacher and leader. Revealing Jesus as the good news in whatever way that I can is a core component of the why I am sent. Whether in church or on the streets, I trust Him to show me the way. I would be remiss not to share how thankful I am for all of the Brave supporters who make this possible. Brave blessing to you all!
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2