Well, it's been a few days since I posted...so I'm going to summarize a few things to try and catch up.
One of our missionaries recently was working with a volunteer group from the U. S. He and a couple of them were witnessing to man who was deaf...or at least trying to. His wife came in the room and they immediately began talking to her instead of the man. After a while she prayed to accept Christ. They had virtually ignored the man while talking to her. At this point the man spoke up and said, "I want to accept Jesus too." A miracle of hearing? Don't know, but certainly possible. At any rate, two more people entered the kingdom.
We don't know whether to be disappointed or rejoice. We were excited when a group came through Llano Grande passing out announcements that they were going to begin having a "culto" (worship service) on Sundays there in Llano Grande. We have been praying for a church to begin there for some time. Of course, we were thinking that it would be from a result of "our" efforts, not some other group. No matter. God answers prayers in His own way.
We thought that the group was from a Baptist church we are familiar with down the mountain in another town. The name was the same...Palabra de Vida. (Word of Life) Well, last Thursday the Bible study leader told us he had invited the man leading the new service to come to our Bible study. He came, but we found out that in reality, he is Methodist, not Baptist.
Now we are faced with our own biases and conflicts of belief, be they slight. Most new believers wonder why there are so many different "religions" among Christians. Sometimes that is a difficult question to answer. I am glad, however, to be a Baptist, although there is no doubt that many people of other groups love the Lord and know Him well.
We had a nice visit with the Methodist man and praised the Lord together and agreed that the Bible is the basis of all true belief.
Speaking of which....Mitzi had an interesting conversation this past week. Several ladies were discussing the Bible and Christianity. One, a Catholic, stated that she had decided to read the Bible to find out just what was and wasn't in there that she had been taught. By doing that she had discovered that she could pray directly to Jesus and didn't have to go through Mary. She mentioned that she didn't find the rosary anywhere in the Bible, and several other things convinced her that she should read the Bible for herself and follow its teachings.
Another lady, staunchly Catholic, remarked that she respected the Bible, but that there was more than the Bible, indicating that subsequent teachings of the church and church leaders could, and did, supercede the Biblical teachings.
Problem is, when that begins to actually contradict the Bible, where is the true authority? If the Bible is divinely inspired, "God breathed", as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, why does man need to add anything or change anything?
Therein lies the reason we are here. Yes, the people here have the Bible, but they don't read it and don't know what it says. They do not know of a salvation by grace, but rather have a series of "works" that are required to have even a chance of heaven, and then it's not certain. There is little praise of God, but much for Mary, saints, and, Ok...I might as well say it, the Pope.
Speaking of which...without saying anything about the particular man who just died...isn't it interesting that even the Pope has to have the prayers of people to hopefully make it to heaven.
I think I'd rather depend on the grace of God and the provision of the Savior, Jesus Christ and the promise we have of eternal life through him.
