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Week 12 saw some amazing fruit. |
April 19, 2008
by Gary S. Smith
'When I heard God's laws, I knew that I had broken them and I knew that I was in Satan's hand, and I was afraid. But now I see what Jesus did, how he completely paid for my sin and I am not afraid anymore. Ronny. The entire group has not heard the whole gospel story yet; but two men have, and both have made a clear profession of faith like what you read above from Ronny (pictured on far right)! Bau (second from right) also expressed sincere joy in what Christ has done for him. Both men help me as I write the Bible lessons. Thus, this week they heard the rest of the story. I felt like Jesus when I told them to not tell anyone. I never quite understood why Jesus did that, but now I get it. It's pure exhilaration, getting this glimpse of things to come! In the meantime the rest of the people heard stories of Jesus' work, teaching and miracles. Talking with Itiringke (he is one of the main leaders of the village pictured in the crowd there in the middle) after the lesson we were discussing my sore eye and what he said was very encouraging. He said, 'God can heal your eye. He can do anything! It's like what happened yesterday. Before when someone was sick I would go get some water and try to heal the person, but now I know that I am just a sinner and that only God has the power to heal. Yesterday I went and visited your papa (Esingke) because he was sick. But I didn't do what I used to do. Instead the two of us just talked about how God has the power to heal sickness. And now look at him. He is healthy again. God is true! Hearing that made the pain of my eye worth it! People were shocked that Jesus chose Judas Iscariot who would later betray him. So to demonstrate hypocrisy, we filled a nice shiny new pot with nastiness from our compost pile (picture on far left), and showed them that what counts is what's inside. That what God sees is our sinful, ugly hearts. This illustration went much further than we expected. People afterwards were asking, 'How can I clean my dirty heart? Another huge lesson was the parable of the sower. People related with that by admitting that their hearts are like the soil, full of rocks. Then we taught the well known story of feeding the 5,000, and later Jesus walking on the water. So we magnified the person of Christ with the people, marveling at His awesome power. We then moved into the next part of the story that is not so well known. That the crowds of people came looking for Jesus because they wanted more of that free food. As Jesus rebukes their misguided motives, He explains that He is the bread of life and what the work of God is; that the work God requires for salvation is to believe in Christ. John 6:28-29 (NIV) Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. Even in this remote culture the drive to earn merit before God is huge. However, when one understands that he is a sinner by nature it's easy to understand that working for salvation is just a complete misnomer. It's just impossible. And as a result of teaching God's word in this manner (chronologically), the people are indeed beginning to grasp this concept. They are beginning to feel the burden being lifted from them as three older men said to me after the lesson, 'This talk is turning us inside out! I tried to say 'Amen! but the closest I could get here was, 'Bulje! (which means true.) Next Week Lessons for your prayers: Monday -The way of the Pharisees is not God's way. Tuesday - Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Wednesday - Jesus is the only doorway to eternal life. Thursday - Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Friday - Jesus taught that we need to be humble and admit our guilt. |
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