Soaked

Matthew 18:7

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin!

Yesterday I received an email from a friend and co-laborer in India. He has been planning and preparing for an equipping and encouraging event that will be taking place in the mountains for rural pastors in India. The event will take place in February (please be praying for us as we prepare to go and teach God’s word to these faithful followers in the hard places). As he has been planning the event he has had some difficulties in finding available coordinators. In his words, “…cooperation was very poor in Andipatti. They are soaked with the World.”

I was struck by his words.

When you live in a place where rain can come upon you at any moment – prepared or unprepared – you understand the meaning of the word soaked. Saturated. Immersed. Permeated. Absorbed. Soaked.

In India there are few Christians (compared to the West). In the south the numbers are greater, around 3%. As you spend time with those believers (particularly these remote village pastors) you cannot help but be struck by how much more difficult it is to follow Christ there. Almost every village pastor I met was very skinny and quite poor. Most serving their small fellowships scattered over a few villages by themselves with little or no formal education… just the Word of God. They face a lot of opposition. Their fight seems strong compared to so many I see in the West. But still… some are soaked.

Soaked by a world-like desire for authority and power.

Soaked by a world-like desire for importance and fame.

But mostly, soaked by the desire for money and security

…sound familiar?

Our Lord faced this in the wilderness.

His followers have faced it throughout all of history.

We face it in the West… and my friend faces it in the East.

So how then do we fight the good fight for faith in a faithless age?