HELPING OTHERS TO UNDERSTAND
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| Masalu teaching a man and his son. |
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August 8, 2008
by David Bell
In the darkness Masalu approached the group of men. They were drinking tea and listening to a Bible lesson on one of the audio players. Masalu was hearing his own voice.
Since coming to Christ, Masalu has sought opportunities to teach God's Word to his fellow Landumas in Guinea. Teaching by audio tape is one way he has been able to do this. And he always looks for ways to follow up, further explaining God's message and encouraging people to continue listening.
Masalu sat quietly, listening to the men who questioned whether they should be listening to the recording.
"Whatever they are preaching there, we don't understand any of it because they don't mention the prophet or our holy book," one man said and others agreed.
"Yes, but this teaching, if I heard them preaching it from our holy book, I would say I understand it fine," Sana said. "I understand this teaching well, and whenever I hear it is being preached I will go there and listen. What they are saying is really the truth."
"But we shouldn't listen to it," said another, "because it isn't the path of our holy book. The things they are saying aren't what is written in our book."
Then another man said, "Whenever you listen to this teaching you will gain wisdom and you learn how you should live your life. Our holy book says some things but they say you shouldn't tell it to the people. If you don't tell the people what God wants and what He doesn't want, how can a person learn to do right? But those guys expose all the secrets so we can know how God wants us to be. That's why we like to listen to this teaching."
Masalu had heard enough. He made his presence known and the group laughed and said, "Oh, the audio player preacher has come."
Sana said, "Uncle, much of what you preach and what our holy book says is similar but what is different is the way you make it all clear to us. Our holy book doesn't do that. Our preachers just say, 'It is written,' but they don't clarify what it means, and you don't see where it is written."
Some of the other men began criticizing Sana, saying, "You are an apostate. You follow whatever teaching you hear."
"That's not true," said another. "But you know that what we are hearing here you haven't heard in our holy book."
"Yes, because that is how the prophet said we should preach. That's why our preachers preach that way," the dialogue continued.
Then Masalu spoke, "Yes, that's true. But you all need to make an effort to hear. Some want to listen and some don't. But you should consider this: We say this is God's message. We don't say it is our message or some prophet's message. We say it is God's message. When you hear that it is God's message, you should listen to it and understand it. Then you can believe it or you can reject it. But you all need to make the effort to listen."
"I know that what he is saying is the truth," Sana said. "Whatever you don't know, you must listen till you understand it. When you hear it, then you will know what your response will be. But something that you haven't heard, you won't know how you should respond to it."
Please pray that these Landuma men will continue to listen to the message and learn that their salvation is in Christ alone.
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