Thailand-Cambodia border

As Bear Valley has an active, growing involvement in evangelizing Cambodia, I am keenly interested in the events occurring on the Thailand-Cambodia border.  There is a clash right now between these two countries over Buddhist holy sites, and ironically their shooting at one another has caused damage to Preah Vihear, an 11th century temple considered very holy to them.  Thousands of villagers on both sides of the border have been evacuated.  At least 10 people have died over the weekend. 

Back in 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) listed Preah Vihear as a Cambodian World Heritage site.  This flared up what can truly be called old wounds between these nations.  Fighting over these "holy sites" has transpired, off an on, for over 1000 years.  The nations in this immediate area, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand, have been ruled and consolidated an a single empire multiple times over many centuries.  These temples, which are found in abundance in this region, are a focal point of interest both for their religious and economic values.

Paul stood in Athens, Greece, and preached, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:24-25).  Certainly, our Buddhist friends maintain and revere their temples not in homage to the God Paul preached but instead to a man long dead whose philosophies guide their lives.  Yet, even if these temples were claimed to be places of worship to that God, it would be a colossal waste of life and emotion to fight and fire at others who felt the same way about them.

God certainly wants His people, if they are blessed to have a place of meeting, to be good stewards of those buildings.  Yet, again, we can fall prey to the mistaken notion that God is confined and contained to those places.  Not only may we overestimate the importance of the building, we can find ourselves confining our God to that building.  Yet, Paul says He's not confined. Paul goes on to say, "We ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of men" (Acts 17:29).  Our God is boundless, able to see, able to save, and able to serve at every moment of life.  He is to be obeyed and honored whether or not we are at the building.  May we never restrict our religion to the real estate, our adoration to the auditorium, or our commitment to the church building.  Our lives are to have greater purpose than that and our God deserves much more than that!

Neal Pollard