can i really say what i want to say yet??

too often, i find myself trying to explain a concept in khmer and somehow leaving listeners much more confused than when i began. i guess there's a good chance that i might frequently do the same thing in english with my family and friends. nonetheless, i've been working on communicating the difference between a religion and actual truth. here's a shot at communicating my thoughts in english. . .

• your average Joe buddhist believes that when he dies, he's going to heaven, hell, or he will be reincarnated. his outcome is based entirely on how much good merit he has acquired throughout his lifetime.
  
• your average Joe muslim believes similarly in that life after death is contingent on the works done in this lifetime. the main difference being that he believes there is a distant god full of wrath and anger waiting to judge him, so he better get things done right here on earth. that's why martyrdom is so appealing to the fundamentalist muslims, because it's an automatic berth into heaven.
• your average Joe Christian in america believes almost the same thing. except he believes that we have a loving God who is going to let everybody into heaven unless you mess things up too bad. do good enough and you get into heaven. somehow fail to measure up, and your chances get kind of sketchy.
• your average Joe atheist in america believes that he dies and that's the end.
• then there are Christians that base things very literally off the Bible (of which i would like to include myself in this category) the Bible teaches very clearly that the only way to heaven and the only way to have a relationship with God is by believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Faith in Jesus and in nothing else allows us to have salvation.

here's the dilemma if you haven't caught it yet. . .THESE CANNOT ALL BE TRUE!! one or none of these is truth and the rest are just religions made up by men. they directly contradict one another! even if you believe in an "many roads lead to heaven" philosophy, these still contradict each other. how can one man die and go to heaven because of his good deeds, one man die and be reincarnated, another perform a suicide bombing in the name of Allah and be awarded heaven, and yet another die and that's the end??? do we all somehow get to pick and choose what kind of afterlife we get to have? that doesn't sound like too bad of an idea to me, but it seems highly unlikely. somewhere along the way, we have to recognize that some things are true and some things are made up.

my heart is that the people of Cambodia would deeply search out that which is TRUE. And this is what i mean when i say that. . .i don't want Cambodians to change religions and just start following a new set of ideas. I pray and hope that they would recognize that Jesus is much more than just a foreign religion. He is TRUTH. everything that He taught is TRUE. the Bible says "salvation is found in no one else. there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." those words are spoken of Jesus and they are a reality, they are not just religious talk.

my words and my limited ability to speak khmer mean very little when it comes to communicating this message. please pray God would deliver His truth with power and conviction to the people of Cambodia.