Went
for a run with my lovely wife – first run together in about a year I
think. Lots of people with their
kids out and about today.
Went
to church this evening – really awesome experience. Christian activity in Turkey is an interesting
situation. I talked briefly with
Nese about it a few days back. I
asked her about persecution in Turkey.
She said that the government says
that it supports and permits freedom of religion but that in reality it
tactfully opposes it. She said that
the persecution is, in general, “underground.” It’s subtle and implicit most of the times. Also, the level of persecution varies
from region to region. Actual
martyrdom does occur in places, but where we are along the Aegean it’s a little
more liberal and persecution comes in the form of discrimination – people shun
Christians, families shun converted family members, Christian businesses are
boycotted, etc. However, this part
of Turkey is opening up a bit and the receptivity of the people to the Gospel
is increasing. Tonight we actually
met in a designated church building with a sign on the building clearly
proclaiming its Christian affiliation.
This is permissible.
Proselytizing is not. So,
evangelism is done in delicate ways but it is still done by these brave
believers and people are meeting
Jesus.
To see Turkish believers
worshipping Christ in one of the least evangelized nations in the world is
super exciting. There are about 73
million people in Turkey. Nese
told me she thinks there are about 5,000 Christians. Still, in a country so hostile to the True God doors are opening and the church of Christ stands strong and
firm despite the opposition. God
is still sovereign over all, and ultimately the nations conspire and the
peoples plot in vain. No one can
thwart the plans and purposes of an eternal creator. The ‘foolishness’ of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the
‘weakness’ of God is stronger than man’s strength. Christ will
build His church on the earth, no matter what happens, and no one and nothing
can stop Him. He is God, for goodness sake! We’re SO foolish to think we’re too ‘enlightened’ or too
‘progressive’ to believe in a God anymore. We’re even more
foolish when we ignorantly and haughtily refuse to believe in the God who makes exclusive absolute claims about his
own divine uniqueness and supremacy.
We’ve concluded that truth can never be absolute simply because this is
intolerant and exclusive and doesn’t really jive with modern sensibilities and
yet we deal daily in absolutes.
Absolute truth, in my opinion, is only logical. People are always saying that there
can’t be just one true God and one true religion. But really, why not? Because that would be
offensive? Because that poses real
problems to my limited human understanding of how things are supposed to
work? Because I can’t wrap my mind
around it? Because I don’t like
that idea? Because that would mean
that I can’t just live my life the way I want to? These are all unsatisfactory reasons. I’m sorry, they just are, and
oftentimes when you get to the heart of the matter people get stumped and the
answers are all similar… Anyways…
After
the service we went out for dinner to a bit of a fancier place (upwards of
$8CAN for a meal!) with the pastor and his wife who facilitate the evening
service (in English). They’re
Canadian. It was pretty cool to
connect with some Canadian comrades.
They’ve been doing ministry in Turkey for about 5 yrs now. Really neat couple. Very Gospel-centered and motivated to
see people meet Jesus.
The meal was great as well. I had lamb kebabs and Leah had chicken
kebabs. They also brought us
complimentary salad and tons of flat bread. It cost us about $12CAN for both our meals…
The highlight of my day was
certainly worshipping with fellow believers. I get so excited about what God is doing globally! Even the gates of hell cannot prevail
against the church of Christ. With
the Spirit beckoning people from all over the world, God’s great purposes for
humankind continue unimpeded as history unfolds and continually advances toward
its epic culmination when Christ returns, rights every wrong, repairs what
we’ve broken, and restores Creation to its original, flawless condition. He makes all things new!
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