Satellite TV

This is a common scene on Sumatra. Tin roofs and crude wooden structures crowned with a satellite dish.  The photo here was taken in Kaur Bintuhan in Southern Bengkulu Province. People who seem to be living hand-to-mouth still have the money to buy nice cellular phones and satellite TV. Life the-world-over is about priorities. Even with limited resources, people invest in the things that are important to them.

We also see this idea being played out in the lavish and often ornate places of worship in poorer rural areas. Having a physical place to worship that looks good is often very important to the people here. They hope that being rich towards God by having a nice worship house will result in God blessing them materially.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that it is important to invest on the inner-life because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Many people here miss that fact. In their desire for material blessings, they miss the need to invest in their internal spiritual life.

It’s all about priorities. We always have time and resources for the things that are important to us. At the Last Day it will not be important how nice a cellular phone you had or how nice the place looked where you attended worship. The state of the heart will be the true measure of a life well spent or a life misspent.

Pray for the grip of materialism to be broken among the people groups of Sumatra.

Pray for people here to have a deep heart hunger for holiness.

Pray for Sumatrans to invest in their inner-man by generous time being spent in prayer and in reading the Bible with the result of transformed, yielded lives.