| Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear for God has willed His truth to triumph through us, The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; One little word will fell him. Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” 1592
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| The spirit world is very alive and real to the Dao. A very prominent man named “Wakayoo” came from a couple days hike away with the purpose of performing a “Spirit Chasing”. So the believers asked missionaries Scott and Jennie Phillips what they should do.
Since the burial of the Bible teacher Wikipai, many of the Dao people have heard strange noises and what they call “evil spirit voices”, coming from the general direction where they have buried Wikipai’s body. Shaman, “Wakayoo” also heard of these things and came to try to get rid of these evil spirits by speaking incantations and performing certain rituals. The Dao do not doubt the existence of evil spirits or their intention to do harm. The believers, however, have begun to doubt the old ways of chasing these spirits away through rituals and incantations. Apiyaawoogi said “There is only One that is powerful enough to chase spirits! Only One that they are afraid of and that One is Jesus!” Topeawa said to Jennie, “That man Waakayo is coming from a very long ways away to preform the spirit chasing but will the spirits go? No, I don’t think so. Only Jesus could make those evil spirits go away.”
And her friend chimed in “In the past we would have been a lot more fearful of these spirits than we are today because we had not yet heard about Jesus. Now we have heard that Jesus has the power to send them away by only His word and so when we are scared, we call out to Jesus.” The Dao believers know where to turn. They were reminded once again in last Sunday’s message on Mark 1:21-28 that Jesus is supreme and that with “One little word”, as Martin Luther put it – He can defeat them! It is at times like these, however, that they must choose in between a mere head knowledge of what they have heard of Jesus and a true heart knowledge that will trust in Him even amidst their fears. They must choose whether they will trust in old rituals that have no power or in the very source of power itself, Jesus Christ. Many of the believers took a stand and refused to be a part of the “Spirit Chasing” ceremonies. There are others that still seem to be hanging in the balance. –Scott and Jennie Phillips Please pray for the Dao believers – that they will choose to stand for truth and trust in the power of Jesus instead of the rituals and ceremonies they have trusted in for generations past.
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