Let me start by saying this post is a follow up to the last post, so if you haven’t read the last one entitled “Is God your source”, go read it first.
As I was saying in the last post, it’s easy to turn to other things as a source of comfort, hope, joy, peace, or love in times of need. It’s easy to try and replace God as our source, but in the end we are ultimately going to be let down because anything that we turn to other than God only provides temporary satisfaction. Once you learn to turn to God as your source, you will find that He is true to His promises. He does provide, He does satisfy, He does bring joy and hope. But what if you didn’t know about this hope? What if you were constantly searching, but everything seemed to fail you at some point and you had no idea what else to turn to? As Christians, we know about this hope. We know about the love, comfort, joy, and peace that Jesus provides and yet we still seem to turn to other things so often, but what if you had no clue who Jesus was and what He promises to do if you place your trust in Him? That is the case for most of Thailand. Less than 1% of Thai’s know Jesus as Lord, and not only that, but of the more than 99% of Thai’s that don’t know Jesus as Lord, most don’t know of Him at all. Until I moved to Thailand I had never really met anyone who hadn’t heard of Jesus. Whether they believe in Him or not, most, if not all, Americans know of Jesus and the good news that He provides, but in Thailand I’ve literally met people who will say “Jesus? Who’s that?” and of those that have heard of Him, most if the time the reaction I get is the Catholic hand gesture of making a cross on your chest. These people have no idea. They place their hope in idols (literally the golden statue type of idols that you read about in the Bible). They worship spirits and false Gods. These things CANNOT provide them with the hope they are looking for. Thai’s want to worship, they love to worship, they just don’t know about the God that they were designed to worship. People are going to worship, we were all designed for it. The question is not if we will worship something, it’s what are we going to choose to worship. It breaks my heart that these people have no clue about the hope that Jesus provides, and as a result, they are forced to place their trust in man made idols that are sure to fail them. And it’s not just Thailand. There are almost 7 billion people in the world, and of those 7 billion, over 2 billion have never been reached with the Gospel. Over 2 billion people have no idea about the love, joy, hope, comfort, and peace that Jesus provides, and therefore are placing their trust in other things as their temporary source. That’s heartbreaking. Church, we are called to do something about this. We are the vessel by which God is going to reveal Himself to those that have never heard. It’s time to step up.
