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5 Great Books to Read about the Gospel and South Asia

While I was overseas, I had a chance to read 5 great books, which I would recommend to you:

• Death of a Guru by Rabi Maharaj. This is the autobiography of a Hindu guru who struggled for years to find God, and this account of how God finally found him was one of the most touching stories I've ever read. This book takes you DEEP into the beauty and uniqueness of the Gospel and the power of its claims for Hindus and Buddhists.
• A Chance to Die: The Story of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot. Carmichael was a missionary in South India, and lived an extraordinarily cross-centered life. Elliot is a fantastic writer, and you'll find your vision enlarged and heart changed as you read of this woman's selfless and undying commitment to see the Gospel come to South India.
• The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. This one has nothing to do with S. Asia, per se, just that I read it while I was over there. It is the latest book by Tim Keller and is a great summation of the differences in the Gospel and religion. The Prodigal God uses Jesus' story of "the prodigal son(s)" as a backdrop. This book encapsulates Keller's whole approach to preaching. To note, this may be the clearest explication in print of the Gospel as it relates to Western culture.
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. This book is the #1 book on London Times' best seller list right now, and it just happens to be about the very people we just went to see. It is a gripping novel of mystery and murder showing you the desperation of many of the poor in India. It is not at all a Christian book, and parts are VERY rough (though not sexual). It gives pretty good insight into human nature and especially S. Asia.
• In Spite of the Gods be Edward Luce. This is a new cultural analysis of the peoples of South Asia. It is a collection of anecdotes and stories, and it is witty and engaging. It shows you the method behind much of the madness that is South Asia. What will stand out is how constant human nature is even when cultures are entirely different. Also not a Christian book.

The worship of multiple gods in South Asia

Some of the most incredible Christians I've ever met were some of the national believers in South Asia. One of our team asked them about a statue of a monkey god we saw mounted on a dashboard. They said, "Do they worship the monkey god because monkeys are so prevalent here?" The national believers said, "Yes. Monkey god. Cow god. Tall god. Short god. All false god. Whatever the people like, they turn into a god... We have 34 million gods in this country. But still people find themselves unsatisfied and scared about the future. So, they think that by adding more gods they will find, at last, the peace and happiness they desire. But if 34 million gods won't do it, why do they think 34 million and 1 will?" He then went on to say, "But when Jesus comes, the temples close (and he clapped his hands shut) because He is one, true, all-satisfying God and His love and power give to them what the 34 million gods of nature cannot."

I couldn't help but see the correlations with people in our culture. Obviously, we don't have gods like this that we religiously worship, but our culture is consumed with worshipping things we think will satisfy us. Our acts of obeisance to things like money and love are reflected in our advertisements which promise happiness in their product and in the lyrics of our music which promise romance will meet all our needs.

Christianity is most fundamentally a question of worship: will we worship the one true God, or we will substitute other gods for Him ? If we worship anything or anyone besides the one, true God, we should expect to have a complex life full of insecurity and unhappiness. Real happiness will always elude us by just a few steps, and we will always be adding new gods to our temple when the current ones aren't working.

Faith and Sacrifice in South Asia

The first thing I did when I returned was hug my kids, kiss my wife, and go to Outback Steakhouse for a ridiculously sized steak (where I was, there was no beef consumption allowed as cows are often worshipped.) Then, having not slept in what felt like days, I fell into a small coma and just awoke.

But I'm back now and really looking forward to being back at the Summit Church tomorrow.

The doors are wide open for us there in South Asia. We have a chance to be meaningfully involved with orphanages, do a lot of medical clinics in some places where people are suffering from easily curable diseases, and partner with new Christians and other pastors seeking to reach their country for Jesus. It was some of the most exciting ministry I've been involved with overseas. If you're at the Summit, please pray for the things ahead.

I have a handful of things I'll be sharing over the next few days... short stories, things learned, etc. Here's what I'll give you today...

Two of our church members who live over there just had twins. They said the hardest thing for them being overseas is the fact that their kids will not be able to "know" their grandparents as easily as if they lived close by. They really want their kids to know their grandparents.

This is a very difficult, but as they acknowledged, Jesus said that reaching the world for Christ would be costly for us, as it was for Him. But I heard one missionary say this, "Not having the grandparents close is a legitimate loss. But we think of what the kids here will lose if no one comes. Our kids may lose easy access to their grandparents since we came; if we didn't, many kids here would have no access to their Heavenly Father. That's hard to compare."

Jesus said that for those who leave "father or mothers or homeland or grandparents" for his sake would be rewarded 10-fold not only in the life to come, but in this life as well. That means that the good things that our grandparents would have put into our lives God will make up to us in His way... not just in some "pie in the sky" type of afterlife-reward, but in this life as well. That doesn't take away from the pain of the loss now, but it does mean that the lasting, eternal good that God intended to come into our lives through things like our family (which, is, after all the only thing that ultimately truly matters) He will replace in our lives in His own, direct way.

It is a sweet promise, and one I think of often when my concern for my family causes me to fear the costs associated with following Jesus.

Adventures in South Asia

Things are going great here in South Asia. 600 or so village pastors have sat hungrily as I have taught the Scriptures for hours, soaking up literally every word. I have heard so many incredibly touching first-hand stories of endurance of these pastors under persecution. These are men of women of incredible faith, believing God in the face of great odds. The times of worship and prayer have been incredible. They stretch out their hands and call audibly to God in their native tongue(s). It is beautiful.

I have preached to them about Jesus' unique ability to save, and how all of scripture demonstrates that God alone can save. (This nation is 70% Hindu,which worships literally millions of gods. People here live in perpetual fear that the gods are angry with them. It has been awesome to tell them that God has removed all fear and doubt by giving Himself to us in Christ.

I have also encouraged them to believe God's willingness to save their country, and to stretch out in faith on that believe and dream great things for God. There are over 1 billion people in this region of the world and only 13 million believers. Tis country alone gas 205 unreached people groups This pastoral network I am with, headed by a friend of mine from this country I met in seminary, has a goal to plant 20,000 churches by 2020.

There are 13 million homeless children, and close to 30% of children are malnourished on this country.

Our Summit medical team has been very busy, seeing hundreds of children. Pastor Charlie has done great, preaching once literally on the spot once. He as a real gift for exhorting the church.

Though the church here is small and persecuted, it has grown more in the last 20 years than ever before. Millions of dollars are poured into Hinduism (much more than into Christianity), yet Christianity keeps growing. Why? As always, hard times give Christians a chance to demonstrate joy in persecution and great generosity. My friend told me the churches have stared to grow faster as persecution increases.

They gave talked to us about coming back, doing apologetic/evangelism meetings in cities, together with medical clinics, children's camps at church orphanages, and pastors' conferences. This land is a place of wonderful opportunity, for which I believe the Summit may be especially equipped. Do pray and ask (Ps 2:8).

A great book I am reading about a Hindu priest coming to Christ is 'Death of a Guru.' It gives great insight into the heart of a Hindu.

I pecked this out by finger on my iphone so don't cop an attitude about the terseness or typos.

South Asia and Young Professionals

I am leaving tonight to take a trip to South Asia to speak at a pastors' conference and investigate the possibility of putting a church-planting/medical mission team on the ground over there.

 

Please pray for me that on Thursday through Sunday, as I preach to about 700 pastors who are facing some pretty severe persecution, that I will have wisdom and power. Compared to what they live on a daily basis, I know little to nothing about suffering for the Gospel. Our version of suffering is usually having a bad editorial written up in the paper about us. Theirs is having their family imprisoned.

 

After that I'll be visiting some of our church members who live over there, praying and dreaming about putting a team there. I would suspect these teams might have a medical focus, as that is a huge need in those areas.

I'll be blogging as I can through the trip. I do ask you pray for me, and stay tuned...

Also, our Young Professionals are gathering Thursday night and it's a great community experience for that growing demographic group in our church--the average age in our church is 29! Now... if you’ve been at the Summit more than a year, you wont recognize the event though you may remember the name. The guys running this deal have a great thing going and this Thursday in particular they have an awesome night coming together. Check it out

International Church Planting Freaks

A bunch of freaks. Fanatics. That's what you people (Summit) are. One of the things I LOVE about our church is how you all respond to a call for international church planting. Any call. For years you have been at the very, very top of churches in yearly missions-giving. Today you amazed me again.

This morning I presented a need for two people to go to one our Central Asian countries in May. Like, less than a month from now and to one of the most volatile places in the world. I asked that if perhaps God was moving on someone's heart already about this, they might respond. We were inundated after the service with people who are ready and willing to go.

We have literally a couple DOZEN people that are preparing right now to go and live overseas for 2 years or more in one our strategic church plants. I am so very, very grateful. 70% of the unreached people in the world live in Muslim countries, yet less than 0.5% of all Christian workers in the world are working to plant churches among Muslims. Yes, you read that right. Read it again. Something tells me God is either really bad at the math system He invented, or some of the people He's calling to go just aren't listening. And there are still over a billion people who haven't the slightest knowledge of the name of Jesus. There's nowhere I'd rather dedicate my energies.

Central Asia: On this note, our "scouting team" in Central Asia has sent back some great reports. (My paraphrase below) They have absolutely fallen in love with the cities where we are focusing our efforts.

They love the food. David Thompson said last night that he ate at the most romantic restaurant he has ever visited. Jen (David's wife) said that for him to notice it was romantic is really saying something! And the best part was he got to eat there with Brad O'brien. I just threw up a little bit in my mouth just now.

David and Brad spent the morning speaking in some small Christian congregations in one of these cities. Tomorrow they are going to Ephesus, which they are very excited about. Let's hope their trip there turns out as profitable, but not quite as painful, as the Apostle Paul's 1950 years ago!