Questions and Answers

Recently, I was considering the reality of the decision to follow the Lord to Cambodia. I guess these thoughts were triggered when I looked at the calendar recently and realized that our departure is only four months away. As I have been thinking about this life-changing move we are preparing to make in just a few short months, I have asked myself some questions, and have been assured with some answers from God's Word.

What would cause us to leave our family, our friends, and our comforts and move to a country like Cambodia? What would motivate me to learn a language like Khmer? Why would we go to a predominantly Buddhist country and tell them of Jesus Christ, knowing that if they accept this Jesus they will be ostracized from their families and ridiculed by their countrymen?

Here are a few answers that have given assurance to my sometimes frail heart.

1. Because of the command of Christ. In all of the Gospels and in the Book of Acts, Christ issues the command to His church to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. I like the words of Jim Elliot: "Why are you waiting on a voice when you already have a verse?"

2. Because of the constraining love of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:14 states, "For the love of Christ constraineth us..." Praise the Lord, I am a recipient of God's love; and it is that very love that has compelled me to go to such a spiritually dark place like Cambodia, where most of them know nothing of the love of God. The verse goes on to say, "because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." Christ's love constrains us, it compels us, to carry the light of the Gospel to Cambodia.

3. Because of the cry of the Christless. Most people in Cambodia are not waiting with open arms for us to arrive with the message of the Gospel. Many of them are angry that we preach a message that is in direct conflict with their religion. But they are crying. While many will not admit it, they are crying for truth. They are crying for love. Their religion and superstitions have left them spiritually, emotionally, and even physically empty. I believe that the only true answer to their spiritual plight is salvation in Jesus Christ.