December 26, 2003

• Bright Spot

  The bright spot of my Christmas was attempting to explain about Jesus to my grandpa in Vietnamese.  I say “attempting” because my grasp of the Vietnamese language is so rudimentary.  I was stumped several times over certain questions that came up as we were reading the Vietnamese Bible together…

  - Trinity.  How in the world do you explain that God takes on three forms but that He’s really One?  I got close to hitting the idea when I used the ice, mist and liquid water analogy, but I didn’t quite nail it.  My grandpa didn’t buy that God could have a Son.
  - Circumcision.  First of all, I don’t even want to explain that in English let alone to my grandfater, in Vietnamese!!
  - Eternal Life, Kingdom of God, living forever. How to explain this beautiful concept?  These words in Vietnamese don’t hit very well on the Place God has prepared for us.  It got especially complicated because of Grandpa’s beliefs in reincarnation and stuff.
  - Resurrection.  His questions:  Jesus came back to life?  Where is his body now?  Did Jesus take his flesh with him when he ascended into heaven?  (I didn’t recall 1 Cor 15:35-57 til I drove away from the house.)
  - Sin.  I wanted to explain that we all have sinned and that no one can live a perfect life.  But my grandpa believes that people can if they try really hard!  And when they can, they will enter that eternal nirvana.  This was tough to untangle.
  - Grace.  Christianity is different because you don’t have to do good works in order to be saved.  You just have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9-10).  My grandpa was tripped up on the concept that you absolutely must do good things.
  - GOD.  Ultimately, to all these hard questions, I wanted to explain too that our minds are limited and there’s no way we could understand completely the ways of God.  If we had that capability, then we ourselves would be God!  But God is God because we cannot grasp fully who He is.

  Challenging conversation!  In trying to communicate these things in Vietnamese, I came to grips with the reality again that the ways of God are beyond comprehension.  It’s all such a mystery that God should take on human form to rescue us.  It’s a mystery that He could take the penalty of sin for us on the Cross and by believing, a transfer can take place for the believer.  His righteousness exchanged for our sins!  It’s a mystery that when we believe in Jesus we are transformed.  We are forever made perfect. 

  I love Jesus and this mystery of all that He is.  I pray that I could get another chance to explain this mystery that is “too good to be true.”  

  • 7:03 pm
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