Tag Archives: buddhism

You Are Not Saved by Your Works, But… (Video)

Posted by harleyandmakara on

I had a conversation with one of my English students the other day. He is a Buddhist monk and we were talking about the school my wife and I are soon to open. I told him that the school was being built in part to help the poor. He said that I was a good man. And I said: “Well…” (and the words of Jesus came to my mind: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God”). That led into a conversation about living without sin as a Christian compared to a Buddhist. I explained that as Christians we trust in Christ to remove our sin, not our good works.

We do not live good lives to remove sin, we live good lives because sin has been, and is being, removed by the person and work of Christ.

A good way to put it is this: You are not saved by your works, but you will be judged by them, because your works show what is the true condition of your heart.

If you abide in Christ you will live as God wills. We call this fruit. If you do not abide in Christ you will not live according to God’s will. There is no way to fake this. No amount of good works will be a good enough disguise.

“Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?”

Here’s a good video which talks about this…

Jesus: The True Unwasted Life from Desiring God on Vimeo.

The power for growth in not wasting your life comes from having Jesus, the one, true unwasted life.

In this video: John Piper, Bob Glenn

Our National Conference this September is on the gospel and sanctification: dsr.gd/HGvx0z

Sorcery, Witchcraft, Superstition, and Stupidity

Posted by harleyandmakara on


Here is another article from the “Phnom Penh Post” which follows up on a previous article I posted about. Let’s pray that the Gospel continues to spread in this area, and frees these people from all the demonic stuff that’s going on here.

Cambodian ‘Sorcerers’ Damned to Exile
(Phnom Penh Post~June 19, 2012)

“I would like to ask to everyone to stop saying that my village is a sorcerer village, because some people who are sorcerers have already been killed,” she says.

Brutal killings, including a case in which an alleged sorcerer was hacked to death by axe-wielding villagers, are not uncommon in Cambodia and have led authorities to take unusual actions in Ratanakkiri…

…About five years ago, 44-year-old Ra Chorm Veuch fled nearby Khoun village, fearing for her life after some villagers got sick then claimed she had subsequently appeared in their dreams. Her fate was sealed with the accusation that she had “red eyes”…

…Ma Vichet, police chief of Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district, says his department’s research has revealed that most common source of accusation – sickness – comes from poor sanitation, drinking water that had not boiled and people not washing their hands.

But he still challenged villages to deploy their own traditional test – a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” ritual reminiscent of medieval European witch hunts in which the accuser and accused must dip their finger in molten lead and sustain no burns to prove innocence…

…In 2001, three family members in Ratanakkiri, including a 7-year-old girl, were shackled and then drowned after being accused of sorcery, Pen Bonnar, provincial co-ordinator of the rights group Adhoc, says…

…There are many more cases, and while belief in black magic is strongest among the heavily animistic indigenous ethnic minorities in Cambodia, the fear of ghosts and sorcerers has also strongly permeated into mainstream Buddhist culture.

Yet while Theravada Buddhism has developed as a hybridized, polytheistic religion incorporating Hindu gods and animistic beliefs, notions of black magic and sorcery have not gone unchallenged…

…In Ratanakkiri, the occult beliefs are also under attack from another religious source, Christian proselytising, which has come to the rescue of 51-year-old Rocham Char, an accused sorcerer in O’Yadav district Somkul village who was threatened with murder and exile last year.

The now mostly Christian villagers say they have abandoned their suspicions of him and are happy for him to stay, although his accuser, Kloeun Nhieu, still maintains he is a black magic practitioner.

Click here to read full article

Just Become a Christian, It’s Cheaper

Posted by harleyandmakara on


Here’s an interesting story about why some Cambodians are turning to Christianity.

“Ethnic Minority Turn to Jesus as More ‘Affordable’ Option”
from the “Phnom Penh Post”

At upwards of US$500, the cost of slaughtering a buffalo to revive a relative condemned to ill-health by the spirits has pushed the Jarai indigenous minority residents of Somkul village in Ratanakkiri to a more affordable religious option: Christianity.

In the village in O’Yadav district’s Som Thom commune, about 80 per cent of the community have given up on spirits and ghosts in favour of Sunday sermons and modern medicine.

Sev Chel, 38, said she made the switch because when she used to get sick, it could cost her hundreds of dollars to appease the gods with a sacrificial package that might include a cow or buffalo, a chicken, bananas, incense and rice wine…

…Klan Ly, 56, said she had completely abandoned her fears of black magic after making the conversion.

“When my family believed in Christianity, my old Buddha could not use the black magic on us anymore, because Jesus protected us,” she said…

Click here to read the full story