I’m not even going to make you wait until the end of the blog to find out the answer to that one; the answer is nothing. The love of our heavenly Father is a free gift. A free gift for every single person on the earth. There is not a single thing that you can do to earn it or have it taken away (Ephesians 2:8). It is always there for you, it is just up to you to choose to step into that love and grace.
The love of the Father has so very little to do with us and so very much to do with the heart of the Father for each of us. True reationship with the Father is loving Him for who He is, not what He gives us.
I’m taking ownership of my ignorance here by claiming this, but I had no idea how many people in the world still believe that they need to take part in Old Testament practices to earn the Fathers love. In Guatemala, there is a huge Mayan influence. One of the biggest churches in the town of Chichicastenango combines the practices of Catholicism as well as Mayanism.
There are literally statues of lions that people look to as gods here. People pay large sums of money to ask these “gods” guidance on issues in their life and then they sacrifice animals in order to get their answers. This is a practice that is happening in 2021.
Being in Guatemala during Holy Week is an experience I am grateful to have witnessed, although it did leave me feeling a certain heaviness. The members of the church create beautiful mats made of flowers and pine needles on the ground in the middle of the city streets. There is then a massive processional that is frankly a little hard to describe.
Locals lined the streets wearing expensive and ornate ensembles required of them in order to witness the processional. About 20-30 men outfitted in black robes lead the convoy, shaking incense into the air, setting the atmosphere of the whole street.
Following the men in robes; a huge constructed ark, complete with a statue of Jesus’ body in a casket was carried by around 50 men. The ark was HUGE. The ark first emerged from the church, carried by the men, and was carried throughout the city and over the mats of flowers all throughout the city.
It was beautiful, but it was dark. They blasted traditional music through speakers that sounded grating to my ears. What breaks my heart is that someone high up in the church is making a massive profit off desperate people searching for grace.
Many people in Chichicastenango hardly have enough money for food, and yet, they are shelling out hundreds of dollars in order to buy outfits that allow them to get into the doors of their own churches. Why does a church need bouncers? And the men that carry the ark? They have to pay the equivalent of around 1000 USD just to have the honor of carrying the ark and just about that much to buy the uniforms required of them. They carry the ark all day on their shoulders; sore shoulders at the end of the day is supposedly payment enough for God to bless you for the rest of the year.
There is no payment required of you to get into Gods Kingdom. Nothing frustrates me more than churches being used to turn a profit. Jesus flipped tables over that exact same issue! (Matthew 21:12-13)
The good news is that God wants to change the hearts of every person who doesn’t yet know Truth. His heart is for every single one of his children. Our host, Juan, shared with me that his grandfather used to practice witchcraft in this same community. He fell sick, and in the midst of his sickness someone shared the Gospel with him, changing his heart forever. After this, his grandfather made sure that his children all knew the Lord, and because one man’s heart was changed, a whole family was changed. In this same way God can change a whole community.
Never underestimate God’s power to change what seems to be unchangeable. He is a God that breaks chains and moves mountains (Acts 16:26).
But the good news is this; God is raising up a new generation of Christians in Chichicastenango, and it is beautiful to see even a little piece of it.
