Ghost Month

It is now ghost month in Hong Kong. For those of you who don’t know what ghost month is, it is the time of year when the locals build huge shrines (one down the street from my apartment is the size of a small house in America) and burn various articles, including incense and paper figures modeled to look like everyday items such as cars, computers, and money. They do this to satiate the ghosts who live in their neighborhood and keep the ghosts from bothering the living until the next time ghost month rolls around.

Coming from 21^st century America, it is shocking to see how many people still believe in and practice something that would be brushed of as mere superstition back home. Viewing the practice as a Christian, it is saddening to see so many people living in fear and turning to setting fires to try to calm their fears. Seeing the practice has made me think about the wonders of the gospel and how it is so greatly superior to religion in two key ways:

Fear: Religions keep people trapped and following a lie through fear. For the locals during ghost month, this fear is that if they don’t do their duty, the ghosts will plague them over the next year. For some who claim to be Christians but in reality only pursue moralistic religion, this fear is a fear that God is out to get them and will unleash His anger upon them if they fail to attend church or read their Bible for a day.

The gospel frees us from fear by telling us that we absolutely deserve this punishment from God, but that because of His love He poured out our due punishment upon Himself on the cross. God gave His own life for us. He has proven that He is not anxious to trap us and get us as soon as we give Him a chance. We have each given Him thousands of chances to “get us” in situations where we truly deserve the punishment because of our sin. The gospel reminds us that rather than punishing us, God has loved and accepted us. Because of this truth, we are free to follow Him not out of fear of what will happen if we mess up, but rather out of thanks for the love that He has already shown us.

Works-Based Righteousness: Every religion, at its core, teaches that we, by being good enough, earn our way to our goal (whether that is heaven, Valhalla, Nirvana, etc.). In ghost month, the goal is to avoid the ghosts of the dead bothering the living, so the living perform works (burning various items) in order to satiate the ghosts and keep them away for a while. The problem with this is that nobody can ever do enough to “make it.” Even if the locals in Hong Kong burn enough incense this year to keep the ghosts away, there is no way to know that they will have the same luck next year. Someone counting on their good works for acceptance before God can go months or years without any “major sins,” but all of that “goodness” can be undone (at least in this person’s mind) by one “major failure” tomorrow.

The gospel frees us from this endless pursuit. On the cross, Jesus bore all our sins. There is literally nothing we can do to add to His work and contribute to our own salvation. All we can do is receive His gift. And the gospel doesn’t leave us stuck in a state of confusion, wondering whether Jesus’ death was sufficient. The resurrection is God’s seal of approval upon Jesus’ sacrifice. It is the proof that the debt we owed has been paid in full, that the work is finished once and for all.

Please pray for the city of Hong Kong, that its people would see the liberating power of the gospel, that they would believe it, and that they would be freed from the religions and superstitions that keep them trapped for now.

Gospel Preaching Doesn't Solve All Your Problems

Over the years, I have come into close contact with multiple churches whose preaching on Sundays was filled with the preacher’s opinion and pop psychology rather than the gospel. As I observed these churches, I saw a number of issues in them:

•  A lack of new believers hearing and believing the gospel coming into the church
• Membership rosters that were stagnant not only in numbers, but also in maturity
•  Debt that prohibited the church from being able to use its money in missional and gospel-centered ways
•  A fear of doing anything that could move the church forward in its mission and/or a desire cut effective ministries because of fears that the church couldn’t handle the financial burden

I had always compared these churches to the big and famous ones I would hear about—the ones whose preachers write books that get published and speak at big conferences. I assumed that where the gospel was preached faithfully, things just fell into place. The problem—one I didn’t realize until recently—is that the big and famous churches aren’t perfect. They have issues just like all the other churches, they just don’t get discussed as much in books and at conferences because there is enough good stuff happening at these churches that they can keep the conversations focused on the good stuff.

As I have thought about it more, I realized that my assumption about gospel-centered preaching fixing all the problems in a church is wrong for a number of reasons, including:

• God never promises that gospel-centered preaching will fix all the problems in a church
• The church is still made up of sinners
•  God opens people's eyes to believe and live in line with His truth, not great preachers
• Gospel preaching doesn't guarantee gospel application
•  Even the early church, under the leadership of the apostles, wasn't perfect, even though the gospel was clearly preaches to them repeatedly. Why should we be different?

As I thought about it more, I realized that gospel-centered preaching actually brings a number of problems (or ‘problems’) to a church that don’t exist when the gospel isn’t preached faithfully. These include:

• The gospel is at the root of all true heart change. People with problems are drawn to what will fix them. If we preach the gospel, people with problems will come for healing. Our churches will become populated with people with problems if we faithfully preach the gospel.
• Where the gospel is preached, people are saved. People getting saved means immature/new believers (who likely have a long way still to go in their sanctification) populating our churches—along with all their issues
• Where the gospel is preached, Satan wants the message stopped. He will fight against the proclamation of the gospel and do all he can to stop it going out. When the gospel is faithfully preached in our churches, we are inviting attacks from Satan.
• When people get saved, churches grow. Growth adds a whole new level of planning for things such as: how do we disciple new believers? How do we fit into our space on Sunday? How do we address the increased staffing needs in our church due to the growth? Where do we find more volunteers? How do we make sure our church maintains its vision and missional focus through this growth?
• Where the gospel is preached, people respond. This may mean some of the strongest leaders in the church respond to the gospel's call for them to leave our church and go somewhere else where they can have a greater impact for God's kingdom. Faithfully preaching the gospel can cause our best leaders to leave.