Temples Built By Hands

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and
earth and does not live in temples built by hands.” – Acts 17:24

This verse comes from one of my absolute favorite passages
in the Bible, where Paul addresses the Areopagus in Athens. I find it to be so
incredibly beautiful, and just completely packed with Truth. And what a passage
for a nation such as India! It seems there are “temples built by hands”
everywhere you turn.

We get the privilege of preaching to and praying for a
different remote village church every night, and I felt the Lord calling me to
include this passage in a sermon of mine. How perfect for India, I thought… it
is so easy for these people to identify with worshipping gods in temples,
because we see them everywhere here. But we came to India to proclaim
that those gods have no power! My prayer is that these people know that there
is one God, and that He is not
merely a being to whom they can sacrifice in hopes of appeasing Him… but that
He is the almighty God that loves them and desires them! Oh, how they need this
Truth and love.

The people here have the most kind, genuine hearts. Pastor K
(our main man for translation and village outreaches… and pretty much our
bestie now) and his family have been such a joy to be around. It is so nice to
spend time with a sweet family, especially when I miss mine so incredibly much.
His wife, Diamond, is very curious about us… on the way to outreach a couple of
nights ago, my left contact fell out of my eye while we were driving, so the
wind was crazy and it was dark so I couldn’t see and was having much
difficulty… and she was staring at me the whole time (I didn’t think much of
it). Later, when she asked us about it, we found out that she had never seen a
contact lens before! I can only imagine what she was thinking haha… This
produced a great deal of much-needed laughter. Another reminder of the many
blessings we have.

 

**The picture has no specific relation to the topic – but
that is my new friend Ellis, who is just too adorable not to share with you
all!**