Are you Tim Challies?” These are not words I was expecting to hear while waiting to retrieve my luggage at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. I had just flown from Lucknow to New Delhi as I began a marathon journey back to Canada. And now I was standing by the luggage belt, waiting to move to the next stage of the journey. But I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit.

Thursday was our last day in India--our last full day, at any rate. We spent most of the day in and around Lucknow, seeing the city, looking at the sights, and enjoying the company of our hosts. Lucknow is a small city only in comparison to one as huge and sprawling as New Delhi. Though it is awfully busy, it seems almost laid back by comparison to Delhi. What may stand out most about the city, at least from what we saw, is the almost inconceivably massive Ambedkar Memorial. Former Chief Minister Mayawati built many of these monuments across Utter Pradesh, supposedly as a tribute to India’s Dalit’s, the untouchables. In reality they are monuments to herself and calls to turn from Hinduism to Buddhism. Built with hundreds of millions of dollars of government money, these monuments are opulent beyond description, an utter waste of money and space in a nation with so many pressing needs. Though beautifully built, many people in India consider them symbolic of government futility and corruption.

After eating a final dinner with our friends, we set out for the airport, enjoying one final experience of India’s roadways. A quick flight took us to New Delhi--a flight that seemed as rushed as any travel on the ground, though without all the horn-honking. How often does a one-hour flight land fifteen minutes early? We give a thumbs up to IndiGo Airlines.

And then, as we picked up our baggage, someone asked, “Are you Tim Challies?” There were two British pastors standing there, waiting to fetch their bags. Like us they had been in Uttar Pradesh with a Christian group and they had been training pastors to understand and to teach the Bible. They had kept up with my blog while in India and made the connection between me and the blog when they saw someone whose ethnicity set him apart from the Indian crowd a little bit. We ended up spending a couple of enjoyable hours together while waiting for our flights home.

The reason I mention these two pastors is that Murray and I found that their assessment of the church in northern India was very nearly identical to our own. The church there is growing quickly, but it is lacking in depth. There are a growing number of leaders there who love the Lord, who are eager to serve him, and who are doing this very well. Yet they are lacking in training and in resources. It was a joy to hear that these men had been involved in training pastors in years past and that they intend to carry on that work in years to come. This year they spent a whole week of eight-hour days investing in the church of northern India by investing in her pastors. It was one of the Lord’s unexpected blessings that we got to spend this time with them.

We spent Wednesday night aboard a train that took us from New Delhi to Lucknow. We woke up in a very different part of the country. We were greeted at the station by a friend--a local pastor--who promptly took us to his apartment for breakfast. The city here is smaller, a little less noisy and less busy, and quite a bit less smoggy than New Delhi. The train station was huge and beautiful and built to look British, no doubt a hold-over from colonial days.

For the past several decades there has been slow gospel growth in Uttar Pradesh, but recently the pace has increased and more and more people are coming to the Lord. This local church pastor is native to India and fluent in both English and Hindi. He is a graduate of Southern Seminary and completed the internship program at Mark Dever’s Capitol Hill Baptist Church before returning to Lucknow to take up the work here. You may have heard him share his testimony at the most recent Together for the Gospel conference. While he and his church are not in imminent danger of outright physical persecution, it would be unwise to mention his name or the name of his church. Christianity is regarded as a western religion and conversions to Christianity--of which they are seeing many--are regarded as defection or disloyalty.

As this man pastors a local church, he is also involved in training and mentoring the current generation and the next generation of church leaders. He has around him several young men who are prospective pastors, each involved in a mentorship program. And he meets regularly with other area pastors to help in their ongoing training.

Shortly after we arrived in Lucknow we went to that meeting of church pastors and leaders from across the state; there were perhaps 30 of them there yesterday, though often more than that are able to attend. They meet on a monthly basis to learn God’s Word and to encourage one another. They are pastors and church leaders, yet few have had formal training and there are scant resources in Hindi to help them in their ministry. Murray and I were able to hear their testimonies of how the Lord saved them. For an hour we sat and listened as they recounted how they Lord had opened their eyes to his truth. That was a tremendous blessing.

I was asked if I would like to say something to them, so through a translator I spoke for some time from Ephesians 6 and putting on the whole armor of God. It was a real privilege. As we heard afterward, many of these men do their work in the simplest ways--they pastor small churches and then meet with families or individuals throughout the week. As they study the Bible together, they invite friends and neighbors to sit with them. And the gospel spreads steadily from house-to-house and village-to-village.

Everyone I asked assured me that the Indian Railroads would be a cultural experience I would not want to miss if I was looking for good slice of life in India. Last night pastor Prasoon drove Murray and me through the endless Diwali celebrations so we could take an overnight train to Uttar Pradesh. It had been a good day; a fun one. We got off to a slow start, hanging around the guest house for a couple of hours, before I was asked what I would like for lunch. I went with McDonald’s. It’s not that I particularly like McDonald’s, but that I was curious to know what their menu would look like in a nation where cows are sacred (to Hindus) and pork forbidden (to Muslims).

It turns out they have pretty much all the same chicken items as in North America, but none of the beef or pork. In their place are vegetarian dishes like the McEgg Burger (egg and mayo on a bun) or McSpicy Paneer. I decided to try the Chicken Maharaja Mac--a rough chicken equivalent to the Big Mac. It was not delicious. On the plus side, the Oreo McFlurry was every bit as good as the North American one and the fries were just as they should be. The McDonald’s was in a mall and I was surprised to see that security checked the trunk of the car before we drove into the parking garage and that a security guard passed over each of us with a metal detector wand as we walked into the mall (albeit rather halfheartedly). New Delhi reflects some fear of terrorism, presumably based upon Muslim on Hindu violence.

In the afternoon we drove to the church building to spend some time with the college and career group of Delhi Bible Fellowship’s south congregation. It was Diwali, the year’s major Hindu celebration, which meant that all the schools and most of the businesses in the city had been shut down. We ended up talking about how to know and do the will of God and from there how to grow in spiritual discernment. It is a great group of young people, most of whom are Indians, but some of whom are from elsewhere in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them over several days. They were kind enough to send me on my way with a pretty amazing t-shirt.

There were still several hours before the train left so I asked to see something in New Delhi that was beautiful, something that was genuinely New Delhi. The city is so sprawling and so blanketed in fog that real beauty is hard to come by. We soon found ourselves at Qutub Minar, a monument that is something like 800 years old.

Jet lag and culture shock are just plain cruel when they team up. This week I find myself halfway around the world, in a time zone ten-and-a-half hours removed from my own and in a culture so vastly different that it is difficult to comprehend. After two or three days in the east, I fooled myself into believing that I had adjusted well to the time difference. But then Sunday evening and Monday I was so utterly exhausted I had to admit defeat and spend a lot more time flat on my back.

Jet lag is easily enough to overcome—just give it time and a few sleeping pills, and you’ll be back on your feet. It is the culture shock that surprises me more. I have spent my life in Toronto, a city that is multicultural to the extent that over half of its current population was born in a different country. My church is made up of people from all kinds of different countries and ethnic backgrounds. Somehow I thought this would give me an advantage when I suddenly found myself deposited in the middle of New Delhi.

Culture shock is apparently “The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.” I guess it is the accumulation of these things that brings about that sense of shock, the quick piling up of the unfamiliar ways of life, the unfamiliar attitudes, the foreign sights and smells.

Delhi is a city of over-stimulation, where there is so much happening, so much that to the outsider appears to be complete chaos, that the mind quickly goes into a state of sensory overload. It is just too much to process all the sights, all the sounds, all the smells, all the movement. I’ve never experienced anything like it.

I have found myself jotting down some of the differences between life in India and life in North America (at least, life in Canada). Here are just a few of the things that take getting used to.

In India there are few bathtubs and few dedicated showers. Rather, most bathrooms are tiled throughout with one side of the room having a toilet and sink and the other having a shower protruding from the wall. Most people seem to use a two-bucket system where one big bucket is filled with water from the shower while a second smaller bucket is used to draw water from the big bucket to pour over your head and body. This saves on hot water since few homes have a large water heater like the ones in North America. Instead, there is often a very small heater mounted over the shower.

In North America, lines on the road are meant to be followed strictly. In India they are almost completely ignored. If the road space allows five cars to squeeze in side-by-side, there will definitely be five cars there no matter what the lines indicate. Cars are also regarded as more of a utility, an object that will necessarily get dented and scratched in the course of normal use.

Last Friday I worshipped at Redeemer Church of Dubai and then spent the rest of the day with Pastor Dave Furman and his wife Gloria (read A Day in Dubai). Saturday morning I got up early (along with Murray Robinson, who is traveling with me) and headed to the airport to continue the journey east. We arrived at the airport to find that the flight was overbooked and that our seats had been given away. It took some pleading, but eventually the good people at Emirates managed to find two empty seats and put us aboard.

The flight from Dubai to New Delhi was just a little bit over three hours long and entirely uneventful. We passed quickly through immigration—a process in which not a word was exchanged between the immigration officer and me—and after finding our luggage were met by Prasoon Goel. Prasoon is the pastor of one of the congregations associated with Delhi Bible Fellowship (DBF is an English-speaking Evangelical church that has seven congregations throughout the city). To that point Prasoon and I had only ever communicated via email and Skype, so it was a joy to put a face to the name.

We bundled into Prasoon’s car and hit the roads of Delhi. For all its charms, Delhi does not make the best first impression. Driving is every bit as entertaining as I had heard. While there are lines painted on the roads, they seem to be suggestions at best as no one pays them the least attention. If a car can fit into a space, it will inevitably squeeze in there. You would look in vain for a car that doesn’t have at least some scratches and dents. Horns are used constantly; they signal intent or warning and are rarely meant as an expression of anger. The roads are shared by cars, trucks, autos (three-wheeled taxis), bicycles and endless numbers of motorcycles—motorcycles carrying televisions, motorcycles carrying entire families, motorcycles everywhere. Pedestrians walk through it all, always at a constant pace so the cars can properly gauge when to go honking past. At some intersections little children approach the cars, looking sad while they mimic eating food. Except on the major roads, cows wander at will, snarling traffic and eating whatever they find lying around.

Even more notable than the traffic is the smog. New Delhi is known for its smog problem and it is especially bad this time of year when the air is still and when there is little rain to wash it all away. It is a smog you can smell and taste. It gets in your eyes and nose and mouth and just won’t go away.

Traffic and smog are the first impressions, but, of course, the city has its charms as well. We bunked down at Prasoon’s house on Saturday night and on Sunday headed straight for church. Worshipping with Delhi Bible Fellowship was every bit as much a joy as worshipping with Redeemer Church of Dubai.

DBF, like Redeemer, is extremely multi-cultural, drawing not only native New Delhians, but also a lot of ex-pats and foreign workers of various stripes. A church of around 300 people, they meet in a rented facility and have two identical services each Sunday morning.

This is the tenth installment in a series on theological terms. See previous posts on the terms theology, Trinity, creation, man, Fall, common grace, sin, righteousness, faith, pride, and election.

Revelation refers to the revealing of something that was previously unknown. In the case of theology, revelation refers to the revealing of the knowledge of God’s character and ways.

The Bible presents two types of revelation.

1) General revelation refers to the knowledge of God that is revealed in creation. This is spoken of in Scripture in places like Psalm 19:1-2:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

Scripture teaches that, because of what is evident in creation, every human being has received enough knowledge about God to be justly condemned before him for their sinful rebellion against his rule. As Paul says in Romans 1:18-20,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

2) Special revelation refers to the knowledge of God that comes to us supernaturally through prophetic words. Today it refers most particularly to the words of prophecy that have been recorded for us in the Bible. Paul speaks of this kind of revelation in 2 Timothy 3:14-15:

But as for you [Timothy], continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Scripture teaches that, apart from a new, supernatural word from God, every human is consigned to the condemnation they have received through General revelation.

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:13-15)

Despite humanity’s sinful rejection of him in general revelation, God has graciously, mercifully sent another Word, one of mercy and reconciliation through the death of his Son. And all who receive and rely on this revelation will be saved.

It must have been almost a year ago that I received an email from a pastor in India, asking me if I would consider traveling all the way to New Delhi to teach at his church and to meet some of the Christians in that country. I thought about it, prayed about it, and talked to my fellow elders at Grace Fellowship Church and together we decided that I ought to go. A few other pieces fell into place and it soon became a trip to Dubai, New Delhi and the province of Uttar Pradesh.

On Wednesday evening I jumped aboard a plane and headed to Dubai—my first time in the Middle East.  We (Murray Robinson, an elder at the church who is traveling with me) arrived in Dubai on Thursday evening; that was 13 hours of flying time, but 22 hours when factoring in all the time zones. 

Dubai is a city that has long fascinated me from afar. It is no less fascinating on the ground. The first impression was of the airport—a big, busy airport with people of every race and nationality bustling around. It was kind of like Toronto, but a bit more so. It took us about a half hour to clear customs, something that required a photograph and a retinal scan. We were met by Dave Furman who pastors Redeemer Church of Dubai. A short cab ride took us to the apartment where he lives along with his wife Gloria (who blogs at Domestic Kingdom) and their three children.

This morning was Friday (NOTE: I wrote this yesterday but am posting it today), and since this is a Muslim country, Friday is the first day of the weekend and the day set aside for worship. It’s kind of different having the first day of the weekend set aside for worship. Redeemer Church meets in a beautiful hotel ball room and several hundred people call the church home. Dubai is a city of ex-pats and Redeemer is comprised almost entirely of people who were born elsewhere and migrated to Dubai to work. Redeemer is an evangelical church very much in the Reformed stream and meets here with the assent of the government. They love the gospel and they love one another. The worship service, from the songs to the sermon and the prayer, could have been lifted straight from Grace Fellowship Church. The people were delightful and very welcoming.

One week from tomorrow I will be heading east. Way east. Along with Murray Robinson, one of my fellow elders at Grace Fellowship Church, I will be heading to Dubai and then to India. I am going there to meet fellow believers, to teach them and to learn from them. It promises to be rather an interesting trip and one I hope to be able to share with you through the blog.

We will be leaving late in the day on November 7, hopping aboard a flight to Dubai, and arriving late on Thursday. That’s 14 hours of flying plus a whole lot of time zones. For those who care about such things, this will be a direct flight on the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet. Of course I’m guessing the economy class on the world’s largest passenger jet isn’t a whole lot different than economy class on any other plane, so I doubt it will be too exciting. We will spend a couple of days with Dave and Gloria Furman and attend Redeemer Church of Dubai with them on Friday. (Because United Arab Emirates is a Muslim country, the Christians worship on Friday instead of on Sunday.)

On Saturday Murray and I will fly over the Arabian Sea to New Delhi, India where on the Sunday I look forward to speaking several times at an English-speaking congregation there. Monday and Tuesday I will be meeting with, speaking to, and learning from youth groups, couples, interns and pastors. A bit later in the week we will head to the province of Uttar Pradesh and visit Christians in what is a predominantly Hindu area. We will head home by the end of the week, leaving us with a trip of about ten days that will something like 16,000 miles. All-told, I anticipate speaking between ten and twelve times, teaching about Christian maturity and discernment and doctrine and yes, even technology.

I am not yet sure how the trip will effect my blogging. I do plan to maintain my daily blog post, many of which will be of the travel journey variety, I’m sure. I would also like to be able to maintain A La Carte, though the posts may come out in the morning Delhi time rather than North American time. I also hope to make a rare foray into photography, by taking photos as I go. Because some of the areas I am traveling to have deep religious divides and very little Christian witness, I may not be able to give a lot of details. I know that few of us have ever travelled to India, not to mention spent time with Christians there, so as much as possible I’d like to introduce you to brothers and sisters there, along with the work they are involved in.

I would be very grateful if you would pray for Murray and me as we travel, that we would remain safe and healthy, and that I would be able to be a blessing to the people I am able to speak to. Pray also that we can learn from the Christians there and enjoy true fellowship in the Lord. And please pray for our families while we are away from them for a little while.

Today we will be introduced to the next big thing—the next next big thing, that is. This afternoon, in one of Apple’s much ballyhooed events, they will take the wraps off what most expect to be the iPad Mini, a scaled-down version of the iPad. The iPad Mini will be smaller and less expensive than its older sibling which will allow far more people access to a device that, to this point, may have been out of reach. It will open up a whole new market for Apple, thus generating even more revenue. Or such is the hope.

Whenever the next great device is unveiled it comes with promises that it will bring with it a higher quality of life. It will bring greater satisfaction and greater contentment. It will increase efficiency and double productivity. Whatever it brings will be good. It has to be this way, right? Why else would we allow it into our lives?

Our gadgets reflect our priorities. Apple’s job—and Microsoft’s and Google’s and every other company’s—is to just give us what we want. They feed us these devices and convince us that our lives will immediately be that much better. But is this actually the case? Do they really make us more productive? Do they really help us accomplish more?

Though I wrote about this a little bit in The Next Story, I really like how Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon put it in their book The Art of Neighboring (which, I just realized, is free on Kindle today). Here is what they say:

Think about it. Even fifteen years ago, you’d never have dreamed that in the near future you’d be able to:

• Make phone calls while riding in your car.
• Send mail electronically while riding in your own car, while you are making phone calls.
• Own a machine that allows you to record your favorite TV shows so you can watch them whenever it’s convenient for you—and you can even fast-forward through the commercials.
• Turn on your computer and be able to see on the screen the people you’re talking to. There’s no longer a need to travel for meetings.

Your reaction most likely would have been, “Wow! What am I going to do with all of my free time?” Maybe you would have started dreaming about a four-hour workweek. You’d be planning for all those extra tee times on the golf course. You’d be dreaming about spending time with your family or simply lying on a hammock in your backyard.

The fact is that’s what technology could have enabled us to do. But instead of having more free time, we’ve added more things into our already crammed lives. Even though we get more and more done, we still pile up the tasks. Our calendars continuously stay full, no matter how many time-saving devices are invented.

If the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Corinthians 1:11) so that he could endure the hardships of ministry, how much more do you think your local church pastor needs your prayerful support? I’ve been noticing a lot (an awful lot!) of articles lately that call on people to do this very thing. What interests me is that nearly all of these have been written by pastors. The point is clear: Pray for your pastor!

Pastors see the reality of the spiritual battle they face and they long for prayers—your prayers. Here are just a few of the articles that may help with the specifics of what you can pray about:

1. “How to Pray for the Pastoral Staff” by John Piper

2. “Praying for Your Pastor” by Ligon Duncan

3. “How To Pray For Your Pastor As He Steps Into the Pulpit” by Stephen Altrogge

4. “How to Pray for Your Pastor” by ReachLife Ministries

5. “How to Pray for Your Pastor” by R. W. Glenn

6. “31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

7. “Praying for Your Pastor” by Joe Thorn

8. “Please Pray for Your Pastor” by Julian Freeman

9. “How to Pray for Your Pastor” by Todd Benkert