To The Unknown God

“As I walked around I looked carefully at your objects of worship” Acts 17:23

Our excursion to see the “Gateway to India” consisted mostly of dodging pedestrians, powered rickshaws, and stopping to ask taxi drivers where we were going (perhaps a shortcut) but we really were unsure of where we were in the first place!

After an hour and a half of negotiated twists turns and turn arounds we arrived. It was quite impressive. When A asked what we were looking at I explained it was the “Arc de Triomphe”of India. The colonialists had left their mark on the conquering of the continent for the advancement of the British Empire.

What the conquering colonialists failed to rid the continent of was the culture of gods. Not just one god but a god for very malady, potential problem or hoped for blessing. Hundreds of women in the crowd wore a red dot on the center of their forehead. There were elaborate buildings decorated with gargoyles and gods governing a variety of domains.

The task introducing truth to a culture so steeped in deception seems overwhelming, the gargoyles and gods hideous grins mock in unmoving stares. But we are given weapons to bring down these strongholds, to put to death these demons and to bring for life everlasting. Paul faced a pagan world with these same weapons of warfare – and the world CHANGED!

Cities along Paul's ancient route are familiar to us 2,000 years later: Thessalonica, Philippi, Colossi, Corinth, Crete, Galatia, Ephesus and the 7 churches of John’s revelation: Laodicea, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis. Will the villages we reach have familiar names to the faithful future generations? Will missionaries be sent forth from these small pockets of poverty, the impoverished made rich in the knowledge of Christ save their nation?

Is anything too hard for God?