"And God spoke all these words:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above
or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..."
Exodus 20: 1-5
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above
or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..."
Exodus 20: 1-5
I have been teaching my students about the life of Moses in Devotions for the past few weeks. We work through it slowly, because their understanding is still very limited, but we have finally reached the point where Moses and the children of Israel are in the wilderness and Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the commandments from God.
I didn't think much of it at first, because teaching young children about Moses and the ten commandments is a pretty common thing. But then I ran into a problem.
I am teaching about God, and the Bible, to children who have been raised in Buddhist families. It starts off not as not very difficult. Jesus Loves you, Adam and Eve ate a fruit and that was a bad thing, Noah had lots of animals... These are all fine and good and acceptable, but then, Bam! "You shall have no other gods." "You shall not made idols."
In Christian churches in the states, we usually look at these verses/commandments and try to adapt them to our culture. We change it to say that we should not let anything become more important to us than God. We say that an idol can be a relationship, a sport, an electronic device, or anything that can steal our time and attention from God. To a typical American, it would be silly to think of bowing down and worshiping a statue. But transplant yourself into the Buddhist mind. Bowing down and worshiping a statue is normal life and isn't questioned.
I was suddenly very nervous about teaching the ten commandments. How on earth do I begin??
Something inside of me was tempted to say "But they won't understand what I'm talking about anyways, so it's okay." But that would be foolish of me. I WANT them to understand. They NEED to understand. I can't be censuring the truth so as not to step on toes.
I definitely have been spending a lot of time in prayer over this one, and I would love it if you could do the same. It's a big hurdle, but this is why I'm here, right?
In other news... The Kingdom of Thailand has lifted it's ban on youtube.com.
I didn't think much of it at first, because teaching young children about Moses and the ten commandments is a pretty common thing. But then I ran into a problem.
I am teaching about God, and the Bible, to children who have been raised in Buddhist families. It starts off not as not very difficult. Jesus Loves you, Adam and Eve ate a fruit and that was a bad thing, Noah had lots of animals... These are all fine and good and acceptable, but then, Bam! "You shall have no other gods." "You shall not made idols."
In Christian churches in the states, we usually look at these verses/commandments and try to adapt them to our culture. We change it to say that we should not let anything become more important to us than God. We say that an idol can be a relationship, a sport, an electronic device, or anything that can steal our time and attention from God. To a typical American, it would be silly to think of bowing down and worshiping a statue. But transplant yourself into the Buddhist mind. Bowing down and worshiping a statue is normal life and isn't questioned.
I was suddenly very nervous about teaching the ten commandments. How on earth do I begin??
Something inside of me was tempted to say "But they won't understand what I'm talking about anyways, so it's okay." But that would be foolish of me. I WANT them to understand. They NEED to understand. I can't be censuring the truth so as not to step on toes.
I definitely have been spending a lot of time in prayer over this one, and I would love it if you could do the same. It's a big hurdle, but this is why I'm here, right?
In other news... The Kingdom of Thailand has lifted it's ban on youtube.com.
3 comments:
Elizabeth, being where you are gives such a clear and different perspective! We can be tempted to censure the truth here, too. For us it is more subtle. We probably let it slip in thinking, like you said, that we're trying not to step on toes, or we're being sensitive, not that we're censuring the truth. For you the contrast is so clear, and (good for you!) you didn't miss it.
Praying for you fervently.
Mommie
Oh, so now you need to see the video "Hamster piano and Pop corn."
Elizabeth, being where you are gives such a clear and different perspective! We can be tempted to censure the truth here, too. For us it is more subtle. We probably let it slip in thinking, like you said, that we're trying not to step on toes, or we're being sensitive, not that we're censuring the truth. For you the contrast is so clear, and (good for you!) you didn't miss it.
Praying for you fervently.
Mommie
Oh, so now you need to see the video "Hamster piano and Pop corn."
Wow Elizabeth! What an opportunity! It's hard to imagine living in such a different culture where parts of God's truth are more abrasive than some of the parts we see as more "controversial" here. Over here its harder to talk to people about stuff like homosexuality; idol worship doesn't come up too often. =)
You always provide fascinating insights into your experiences/adventures. Keep up the great work!
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