Bangkok

Enjoying a cup of tea in the city of Bangkok. 7:30am, the girls are still sleeping but I can't wait to see what this day holds. Yesterday we took a tour of 2 temples. The reclining Buddha temple is an amazing temple with a gold Buddha in a lying down position 160ft long. Every inch of the temple was covered with ornamentation. The other temple housed a solid gold Buddha worth 70 million English pounds. If I looked at the temples simply from an artistic point of view, they were amazing, but when I stopped to watch the people bowing down to the golden Buddhas, it broke my heart and convicted me. Because grace is a free gift, because Christ took our place, because all we have to do is accept, believe and walk a life of faith, I think we at times, forget that God is our King and creator. We take him and his gifts for granted and we make our desires and wants into a golden image and long for that more than God. We see God as a Santa Claus waiting for us to sit on his lap so that he can grant our wishes. In an effort to make God relatable, we forget that He is our King and should be respected and worshipped as such. Buddhism believes that if you rid yourself from all human desire you can someday reach nirvana. But desiring nirvana is also a human desire, so the act of desiring nirvana causes you not to experience it. So you continue to be reincarnated so that you experience a never ending cycle of suffering and striving. Buddha is said to have been reincarnated 500 times. If he, who was "chosen" from birth, who lived a selfless life, had to live 500 lifetimes, ( which comes to around 35,000 years), how much more difficult is it for the average person to reach nirvana? When you reach Nirvana what awaits you? The promise of complete nothingness. The reward for becoming nothingness is complete emptiness. The bible tells us that we live one life and die one death and then we face one eternity, either heaven or hell. This was accomplished by one perfect, sinless man, who died once for all,so that we could be made complete by one God who loves us and created us for relationship. Heaven is the reward for those who accept Christ's gift of forgiveness, restoration and salvation and choose to walk in relationship with Him. Heaven is a place of complete joy, devoid of suffering and pain. Buddism and Christianity have very different views of eternity and how to get there. So this is a travel blog? Yes, travel challenges our worldview. Travel challenges us physically, emotionally, mentally,relationally and spiritually. Travel helps us see how we fit into this world that God created. Travel gives us new eyes to see, new ears to hear and a new heart to love. This is why I love to travel. I hope you will grow with me.