“Don’t judge me!”
“I am a sinner.”
“I’ve been a part of this group for years, and God hasn’t punished me!”
“God’s Word is not in me. I’ve been thinking wrong on these things.”
“These prophecies will come true, if I believe strong in them. We will have the ‘good life’ on this earth.”
“How can a bad tree produce good fruit? How can we leave our sins?”
As you can see from these quotes, since we started teaching in October, and especially in the last several weeks, there have been 2 lines of thinking at work among the Tobo people here.
At the close of 2006 and outset of 2007, we are beginning to see the lines being drawn more clearly between those who are interested in hearing the teaching of God’s Word, and those who are interested in how ‘God’ can give them cargo. The latter group has mostly dropped out of the daily group that comes to hear the teaching as we move on into the life of Christ. Sad to say, it appears that although the prophecies expected were not fulfilled on either the 24th or the 30th of December, many of these people are still looking to this year ‘sometime’ for the long-awaited cargo to appear. We continue to pray that they would be disillusioned with the lies and false hope, and choose instead to believe God and His Word.
As for those in the first group, those who continue to come faithfully to the teaching to hear God’s Word, we have been encouraged by some of them, who have begun to take a look at some basic questions, such as how we as sinners can be made righteous before God. Jason used a great illustration recently adapted from John’s talk to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 3 about the trees that bear bad fruit. He asked, “What would we do with a coffee tree that produces bad fruit? Can we pick all of its fruit off and hope for better fruit next time, or maybe we could chop off all its branches and wait for new ones with better fruit? Or perhaps it can change its own fruit?” They all laughed knowingly, and said, “No way, it’s only good to be chopped down and burned, because the ‘mother’ tree itself is bad.” They did not laugh when they saw how this related to themselves and their sinful condition. Our neighbor Alis asked, “Then how can we bear good fruit if we are bad trees?” We answered, “This is what Jesus came to do for us. Keep listening to learn how we can be forgiven of our sin and be clean in God’s eyes and able to bear good fruit.”
We are looking forward to very soon revealing more of the answer to this question of Alis’, as we move further into the life of Jesus leading up to the culmination of the gospel message. It does appear that at least a few of the group may be close to understanding the truth. We’ve already begun to introduce the parallel of the ram which took Isaac’s place as well as the blood on the doorposts at Passover to that of Christ, as we read the story of how John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! We are showing them that Christ Himself is God in the flesh, and that He is the Deliverer God promised back in Eden who would crush Satan’s head, saving us from his power. Please pray that these people would understand the truth soon!!
Finally, please pray for those people who seem to be torn between the 2 groups. They are feeling the pull of those who hope for the cargo and ‘better life’ by ‘using’ God rather than seeking to understand Him through His own clearly revealed Word to them, and on the other hand they are feeling the emptiness and futility of a life without the personal knowledge of our Savior. God loves these Tobo people, and desires for them to enter into a personal relationship with Him.
Thanks so much for praying! We are hopeful that in this new year, we will see new birth among the Tobo!
Chad, Janeene & Elijah
This week, the following lessons will be taught and we ask that you would specifically pray for us these days that these lessons will be communicated clearly:
January 1st (already taught today): ( Matthew 4) Jesus used God’s Word to thwart Satan in his attempts to tempt Him in the wilderness
January 2nd : ( Mark chs. 1, 3) Jesus began His ministry of teaching, healing and casting out demons- Since only God has power over sickness and demons, Jesus is God
January 3rd : ( John 3) Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be born again-only Jesus can save us from sin and death, and only He can give us new life (being born again). “For God so loved the world,..”
January 4th : ( Mark 2) Jesus has the power to forgive sins, as he forgave the sins of the paralytic and then healed him (the one who ‘dropped in’ on Jesus)
January 5th : ( Mark 4) Jesus told and then explained the parable of the sower and the wheat seed—Theme question this lesson—“Is God’s Word taking root in your hearts? Evaluate yourself as to what type of ground you are.” (should be a great lesson for this agricultural society!)
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