March 20, 2016 – My first full day in Cambodia was immersed in the culture. Michael & Julie McRoberts are excellent hosts – explaining everything around me in its context.
Worship in Phnom Penh
Spent the morning in worship with Good News Baptist Church, a Cambodian church in Phnom Penh. The missionary is Stephen Benefield. The entire service was in the Cambodian language, Khmer. They sang & preached and Michael McRoberts interpreted in my ear.
Pastor Benefield is beginning a new series through Ephesians. It is one of my favorite books of the Bible to preach. Ephesus was a major city given over to idolatry.Like in Cambodia, friends and family tried to get Christians to return to worship false idols.
Buddhism is a religion that promotes ‘Do good to get good.’ It is a religion of doing good. But Christiainity teaches ‘Get good to be good.’ We have to receive Christ as Savior before we can really do any good works.
Ephesians is divided into two sections (like Romans). The first half is doctrinal and teaches us truth. The second half is practical and teaches how to apply truth. We need to know before we can do. Once you know, you can do.
Cambodia has few exegetial commentaries on the Bible. One of those is about the Book of Romans. It is called “Get Good To Do Good.’ This is opposite the Buddhism philosophy. Pastor Benefield not only knows his Bible, he knows his culture.
But some may comment, ‘We don’t have idolatry in American.’ Really? I think one of our idols is sports. We have temples (stadiums), dress in costumes (uniforms & face painting). We sacrifice money and time to our god, hoping it will reward us with a championship.
Visiting some Buddhist Shrines
We spent the afternoon touring a little of the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
At the center of a town square (or giant roundabout) was a monument called, Independence Monument. It commemorated independence from the French in 1954. Cambodia was colonized in the 19th century. previous to that, it was one of the largest empires in the east, along with China and India.
We passed by a statue to Chuon Nat. He was the head Buddhist monk of Cambodia. He developed the dictionary. He did not believe in all the superstitions of the typical Buddhists of Cambodia. And neither did Buddha. It seems that Buddha started a philosophy in rejection of Hinduism. But for a man who did not consider himself a god, and did not want to be worshiped, Buddha is worshiped by millions of people around the world.
One of the most magnificent buildings in Phnom Penh is the Buddhist Temple (called Wat) of Phnom, an old Buddhist woman of Cambodia whose spirit is thought to protect and take care of Phnom Penh.
While we were there many people came, offered prayers, lit incense, and gave money and goods, to appease the spirit of Buddha and Phnom. There was also a section of the Temple for the Chinese Buddha. The China Buddha is fatter and smiling, indicating that
I saw one family kneel down with two children. One had an injured leg, the other a broken arm. In talking with the family, we found out that they came to offer prayers so that Phnom would either give their children or ward off any curse that caused the injuries. At another place an old man was reading the fortune of a group of children. A fire was burning so that people could buy fake money, put it in a paper tray, and burn it to the spirits.
Several young boys had small bird cages. If you paid them money, you could put your worries on one of the birds and it would fly away. The only problem was the bird was well fed in the cage. And in just a few moments the bird would return, ready to take another worry away from the public.
I am so glad we don’t have to work to earn grace from God. We simply trust Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and He gives eternal life. Good works are wonderful. But in order to truly to good, we must get good. We must receive the only One who ever lived a totally good life – Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow we travel 6-7 hours to visit the world’s largest Temple, Ankor Wat. Oh, and in case you are wondering. It got up to 102 degrees today, but about 40 degrees in Detroit area. It is crazy hot!
You can read daily blogs of my missions trip to Korea and Cambodia at: Asia Adventure – My Missions Trip 2016
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