It was Sunday morning, time to start another new week of teaching but my body was hardly wanting to dive into another week. I’d spent more time in the bathroom the night before it seemed than in my own bed. But it was time to get up – the first tree gong was being hit so it was 6am already. By not eating and sitting more than standing, my body was able to make it through the teaching time. We talked about the purpose of the law and then covered the first 4 commandments. Matt demonstrated the very normal occurrence here of taking the Lord’s name in vain and it hit home. It’s very normal to hear them say ‘Thank you Jesus’ when they cut their hand or stub their toe, whenever they hurt themselves or come close to it, they use His name commonly. So today we were talking about how He commanded the Israelites not to take the Lord’s name in vain. Of the first four commandments, this one hit home the most. They’ve worshipped evil spirits but they wouldn’t necessarily admit to that at the moment and yet they could sure see their habitual breaking of this law. Anyway, the lesson itself went well and they really appreciated the skit on the purpose of the law. Matt had dirt on his face and as his friend I told him it was there. But he insisted that his face was clean – he had washed that morning already. But I kept insisting that he couldn’t see his face on his own so I gave him a mirror and he could see his dirt then. Then he tried to clean his face with the mirror and of course it didn’t do much to help him. We were comparing the law to the mirror. It showed him his sin but it sure couldn’t get rid of it – it wouldn’t help him become right in God’s eyes. Again we were encouraged with their understanding and grasp of these truths.
Now it was time for the ladies’ meeting. As bad as I felt, I knew the Lord could undertake and make it a neat meeting with these ladies. And He didn’t disappoint! There were only about 6 ladies there but they all participated and were all so keen to hear all that they can about God’s Word. I opened it up first for questions – to see if they had any on the last week’s teaching. So my ‘sister’ asked about her kids. If she followed God, would that help her kids go to heaven. It was a super neat opportunity to talk about how we must each make this decision for ourselves. We must each choose to believe God and accept Christ as Savior – or not. I didn’t say it exactly like that as we haven’t taught all of that yet. But I did lay out that her kids too will have to make a choice as to whether to believe God’s talk. They will have to choose to come to God His way – or not. If she believes, then she can help them by teaching them and helping them understand the choice they have to make but they will have to choose for themselves. Since we don’t even have a word for ‘choose’ in Uriay, it’s always interesting to talk about making a choice or decision. It ends up being more of a paragraph to explain it but you can get there….I think. J Anyway I was so glad to see her thinking and analyzing all this.
Then my other sister asked about the word pictures represented by the skits that morning. So we talked again about the mirror and about how it showed them their dirt but could do nothing to clean it up. And how the law was like that for us. It’s good and it helps us see that we’re sinful but it doesn’t make us righteous before God. It’s so cool to see them grasping that there is nothing they can do in their own strength or from their own knowledge to be right with God. They are understanding that God has made a way for us to be right with Him – to be clean in His eyes and we can go to Him by that road. And if we do, we will be righteous before Him. We can spend eternity with Him in heaven as opposed to being eternally separated from Him in Hell.
She also asked about the previous lesson where we talked about God coming down to the Israelites in fire, thunder, lightning and smoke and how afraid the Israelites were. She asked again about why God showed His power to them. So it was a neat chance again to talk about how the Israelites recognized God’s holiness and just how pure and different He is from them. And they recognized their own sinfulness – that they couldn’t approach God because of their sin.
For a group of ladies that have done little besides scrape sago, look for food, prepare meals and take care of their kids with no real educational background, these ladies are getting it. Some are younger ladies that are quick anyway but most of these ladies are the older crowd here. Some have learned to read and write. Some are still waiting on their turn. Some may never actually learn it even if they attend the literacy course, but God is opening their understanding to who He is….and to who they are. Keep praying that they’ll also understand His provision and accept Christ as their substitute. I can’t know their minds but as I talk with these ladies, I can’t help but think they’ll ‘get it’. Pray that I’m right. J
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