First Worship Service in Cairo

We just had our first worship service at Maadi Church this evening -- it's Thursday here, and that's when the Muslim holy day begins. Tomorrow is the big day for worship, but like in Judaism, the holy day begins at sundown. And since we're in a Muslim nation, we follow their pattern. When in Rome...

Services are held in a semi-outdoor space with a tarp roof and walls, but a large opening between the walls and the roof -- and lots of fans running to keep heat bearable. We had about 250 this evening. Tomorrow morning we expect a lot more between the two services.

The mood seemed a bit sedate at first, but sincere. They are still grieving the loss of their beloved Pastor last year. We heard a brief update on the search for a new Pastor - they hope to have someone in place by summer.

After a short worship set Brian talked for 15 minutes or so on how the Lord is our Shepherd, leads us to green pastures and makes a table for us in the presence of our enemies. The problem for us is that He doesn't always choose the green pastures we want or set our table the way we want it. And He often makes a place for us in the midst of our troubles, rather than taking them from us. There's that bit about Him being with us in the valley of the shadow of death. We would rather walk around the valley and have Him meet us on the other side.

But that's not always how life works, is it. We all have our valleys. Sometimes it's the valley of the shadow of death. But the good news -- the Gospel -- it that it's only the shadow of death, not death itself. Even when it's our time to die. "He who believes in me will live, even though he dies."

We saw the Pyramids today. They are simply tombs of Kings who thought they could take it all with them -- their wealth, their servants, everything. But the grave robbers got all their cool stuff centuries ago. Even their mummies are long gone. All that's left is their astounding tombs.

They hoped the gods would see their good works and let them into paradise. Problem is, how good do you have to be? We're all a mix of good and bad, and it seems our fallen race's default mode is bad, doesn't it? So even if you have an astounding tomb and you were a Pharaoh, were you good enough? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and our righteousness in like filthy rags. So how many filthy rags do you need to get into paradise?

Fortunately for us, the Pharaohs weren't the only Kings to visit Egypt. When the Great Pyramids were some 2,600 years old, the King of Kings and the Pharaoh of Pharaohs lived there for a few years. He was just a child and nobody had any idea who He was, save His parents. I wonder what He thought of these monuments. I think they grieved Him deeply -- all that work to bury one dead guy whose sin nature had doomed any hope of paradise. But I doubt the contrast was lost on Him. Here were the ancient, even in Jesus' day, monuments to one man's quest for heaven, who thought he could get there through having an entire nation serve Him -- and didn't make it.

And here was Christ, who came not as the great King He is, but as a child, and as a servant. Who took the lowest place in all the world -- nailed to a savage cross for all the sins of mankind from long before the Pharaohs 'till long after us to give all who believe in Him eternal life - for FREE. The great Pharaoh used a whole nation to save himself, and failed. But the true King gave Himself to save a whole world. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

May His Kingdom come.