Hefner - 3-15-08

Dear praying friends,
 
If you go outside at night and look at the moon you will see how much longer we have in this first phase the teaching.  I requested that folks come to the teaching for 5 days a week for 3 months/ moons.  We are into the 3rd moon now so the end is approaching.  Before the next moon appears, I promised the people that this first section of teaching would be done.  
 
We continue to request your prayers as we are coming to the conclusion of the gospel message.  
 
Our teaching schedule is as follows.
 
Saturday:  Jesus heals the paralytic, “I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Sunday:  conflict with pharisees, Jesus healing people, calling disciples
Monday:  Parable of the sower
Wednesday:  Jesus’ calms the sea, heals the demoniac
Thursday:  Jesus feeds the 5000
 
I have resumed reviewing rough drafted lessons with two men, Wiye and Burame.  In asking them questions after each session it is evident that they are understanding their personal need for Christ’s offer of salvation and their own inability to save themselves.  We have not actually covered Christ death, burial, and resurrection yet, but they know from what Jesus and the prophets have said that Jesus must die in order to save sinners.   Please be praying that these issues will become more and more clear as we go over those events.
 
In one interesting exchange after a lesson in which we covered Jesus’ statement “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” we discussed why Jesus had to give his life for his sheep – in order to pay the penalty for sin.  We talked about how our good works would not take away our sin – the natural Dialonke way of thinking.  These good works include the fasting and praying that other religions proport to possibly take away sin.  Burame then asked, “Well, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness.  So when we believe on him and he becomes our substitute, then we no longer have to fast, b/c he has fasted for us?”  
 
In essence Burame was talking about imputed righteousness – Christ fulfilling the law on our behalf – something I don’t want to discourage, but unfortunately he had the wrong law in his thinking – Islamic law.  So, how do you answer that? I thought for a moment and silently prayed to the Lord for wisdom.  Being that the point of the lesson is that Jesus saves us from our sin – not how we are made righteous in God’s sight, I reminded him that Jesus sacrifice – his death – was on our behalf, in order to in John the Baptists words, “takes away the sin of the world”.  Christ’s sacrifice of himself was a holy one, on our behalf, and he died to take our sins.  Then I made a mental note that fasting and praying are going to need some more treatment in the teaching.
 
Whether I responded appropriately or not is up to debate. Probably not – I constantly fall short of being a good missionary.  This is why I constantly ask you to pray.  We need God’s help.
 
This conversation also underscores the difficulty of working in a context where an incorrect understanding of “God” and “God’s word” have already been taught and received.  We are seeking to replace bad thinking/ teaching with good, biblical thinking, but this change does not occur overnight.  We need wisdom in how to teach God’s word to confront these wrong beliefs and the spirit of God to bear witness with their spirit that these things are true.  
 
For the King,
Aaron