A few weeks ago, Thailand celebrated its most popular holiday, Songkran, also known as the water festival. While Songkran is perceived as a fun and exciting celebration, the heart of it is troubling for Christians. Buddhism is a system of merit, where one has to outweigh the bad that they have done with good in order to have a better future in reincarnation. There is a constant cycle of repentance and personal atonement, making the goal of escaping suffering unattainable. During Songkran, Buddhists will pour water over statues of Buddha and one another to gain merit, good luck, and wash away sin.
This year, Songkran coincided with Easter. There is a stark contrast between the hope Christians have in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and the constant striving of Buddhism. In Christ, there is nothing more that I can do to make myself more clean before the Lord. It is all by grace, through faith that we have a relationship with the most loving God, who alone has the power to justify us and make us righteous through His Son's blood. We long for Thai people (and all people) to know this kind of love and freedom found in Christ.
Would you pray for the Thai people? Would you pray that as they recognize their sin and need for cleansing that they would long for salvation that is not based on their own merit? Our prayer is that the beauty and grace found in Jesus would be fresh and attractive to people that are stuck in an endless cycle of hopelessly attempting to atone for their own sin!
