Wednesday, July 21, 2010

CheongJu Temple....

We were on our way to the CheongJu Jinsoo Bible Study, when we saw this crazy gold temple, and huge tiki things...we had to stop....we had some extra time to kill anyways...you can see Logan and I under those massive TIKIs....
There were two temples...dont know what the right one was....but i got a chance to go into the left gold one....
cool shot....with the beam of light..
i wanted to get in the shot....
this is a huge huge bell....
liked the flower on it...the bell was some type of brass or bronze coating....looked nice...
I love the bend of the wood on old Korean style houses and temples....really sweet....
they were missing the gong....^^
here are the front doors...I always wondered why...if this is where their god is....that it needs to be protected by dogs and dragons...my God cant take care of Himself....
Looking up at the temple....well about this time, the ground's keeper asked if we wanted to go in....I said "YEH OF COURSE!" The other guys said that they wanted to wait...so i went in alone...I really wish I could have taken photos...but they told me not to...so i will try and describe what I saw....

I walked inside and in the first room, there was this huge huge gold turtle...it took up about half of the room. It was covered with spikes and he had his mouth open....it was pretty cool looking, but I had no clue what it meant....then the guy took me upstairs....he made sure to tell me not to take pictures....

When we got upstairs, he walked up and bowed...not remember the shape of the building, kinda like a Christmas tree....well in the center was this ginormous statue that went to the ceiling...around this was four other smaller statues...reminded me of something like elders or priests of some kind....holding different things like scrolls and censers...but of course the main thing was the tallest statue, which they claim to be "god"....

All you see when you get to the top of the stairs is the feet and some of the robe that he is wearing....as you walk closer and look up, you see him with hands out, palms up, looking down into your eyes with his brown eyes....all over his robe was artwork, things that I translated as all the things this "god" created....deer, fish, rivers, mountains, plants, all sorts of animals, etc.

Now....what does this mean to me? Absolutely nothing...I think of it simply as art....they worship this thing was created by man, by hands...I worship a God not created by my own imagination, because there always flaws in that, making Him the way I want Him...thats not God....He is completely reliant upon Himself, nothing of what I can do...that is why God is so amazing....

The guy tried to say that this god and the "Western American God" is the same....so sad....people are really lost. It was good to learn a little bit of what this country suffers from spiritually....I think it prepares me more for ministering to their needs better. There truly is a battle for souls here...be praying soldiers!
So.....we walked around more...nice waterfalls outside....Logan is a goof....^^
ahh cha cha...^^ Just makes you wanna dive in huh?!

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