This week we prayer-walked around a Wat (temple) in the city, where we saw some of the most beautiful and lost parts of Thai culture. So much time, effort, and artistry was spent building this Wat that cannot bring peace. I'm reminded that everything we build here on earth is but a copy and a shadow of heaven.
Even so, Hebrews 8 promises this from the Lord: "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.11 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
We also learned that many of the monks here were refugees from Myanmar. These young boys often leave their refugee families to become monks not out of religious devotion, but destitution. Forced into a religion of hundreds of rules, I'm reminded that we do not serve a legalistic God.
Please pray that these monks would come to know the God who has seen the course of their life, and known them for who they are, not what they do.