“Do not put any other gods in place of me.” Exodus 20:3
Today we witnessed a Mayan worship service at an ancient temple ground. The Mayan people are an indigenous people group throughout Central America. They worship many gods and have been for several hundred years. As you can see on the video, this was a fairly large group of people with a person leading the service. They have many types of services, one of which they rub an apple on each of their joints for the cleansing of sins. Candles were lit and placed on steps up to the top of a stone ruin. They had some type of plant that they waved all around and then placed on an open fire in the middle of the circle.
What struck me about this was the people there were trying to fulfill some type of need. They obviously knew they needed some help with the sins of their life. Why are we like that? Why are we searching for something? It is simple, we were made this way. We were created to worship our Creator. There is a reason that God gave the first two of the Ten Commandments addressing this issue. In the Old Testament, God’s people continually worshiped other gods and suffered as a consequence. The truth is there is nothing we can do about it. We are going to worship something. Deep down inside we know there has to be something more than just us. We were designed with a longing for something outside of ourselves. The question is, what or who are we worshiping and is it the truth? In John 14:6 Christ proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” As Josh McDowell wrote, “Jesus was either the Lord, a liar, or a lunatic.” The very forgiveness the Mayan people are looking for today can be found in Christ Jesus.
What is so great about the Gospel is it is based on Christ and his sacrifice, not on us and our religion. He paid the price for our sins. We don’t have to worry about some type of performance or special worship service for cleansing. Isn’t that refreshing? Doesn’t that take a burden off us?
What or who do you worship? If not Christ, aren’t you tired of searching?
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