M&T Updates: I’m Offended!

The Gospel of Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.  It offended them…BUT IT WAS STILL THE TRUTH!!

In 1 Cor. 1:22-24 we read:
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

I’m offended!

During our first six and a half years of  studying the Pume language, there were many times when we made cultural blunders.  We were totally ignorant of what approved behavior was and so sometimes crossed the line into forbidden territory.  And the people let us know quickly.  They would tell us right out, “You did us bad in doing that.”  Yes, we offended them.

How often we have heard the words, I’M OFFENDED, during the last two years as we have experienced massive seismic shifts across our cultural landscape.  Wow, many things have changed drastically and changed quickly.  And people have been offended because of these changes.  Yes, offended, upset, and angry over a whole host of things.  Teresa and I too have been shocked as we’ve watched the direction that our leaders are taking us in.  And this has effected the different local bodies of Christ as well.  People within the church have been offended due to the changes that have taken place, or haven’t taken place.  And as strange as it may seem, there appears to be more sanity among the P people right now than in our own so-called civilized country!!

When the P people talk about being offended, they express it in different ways but the most common way is “You made me think a big one”.  And as the Word of God was disseminated among this ethnic group, we heard that statement many times as the people listened to God’s message for the first time.  And then when they became believers, we heard it too, and so did the P pastors and teachers.  So why is this?

Why do people get offended at the teaching of God’s Word?  Well, it would seem that it is simply  because God’s Word is offensive in many ways.  Yes, it gives us so much Good News, but hey, the Bad News is in there as well.  And it cuts deeply right across the fleshy desires of our sinful hearts.  It points out the greed, selfishness and pride in our minds.  It wastes no time at all in slapping us a good one up side the head!  Yes, the Word of God attacks our worldview, going against the plans of Satan, and shaking up our cushy life styles.  It cares nothing about political correctness or measuring up the present cultural norms and standards.  This eternal Word of God that comes from the Most High Himself stands alone as the absolute truth, provoking and unsettling us, stirring the pot and even poking us in the eye.  It is our compass for life, our map that shows us which way to go, our GPS in the middle of the storm, and our lantern on the dark trail.  I’m reminded of what the Scriptures say about the Word of God.

Jeremiah 23:29 says:
Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?  ESV

It is like God’s truth goes out burning and smashing the lies in our lives and culture, destroying the bricks of  Satanic deception that make up the foundation of our thinking and worldview.  After all, the Word is a lamp for our feet, and a light for our path.  The darkness cannot withstand it.

Hebrews 4:12 says: 
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ESV

And here is an approximation of how Hebrews 4:12 is rendered in the P language:
For the words of the true God are powerful.  It’s like it has life.  It’s like it works hard.  And it is exceedingly sharp.  Yes, it is like sharper than a thin, double edged machete.  And it’s like it stabs us truly deeply, measuring our hearts and our spirit, and the hidden things that we think about.  Yeah, its like it’s really alert and aware, knowing what we are thinking, what we are longing for, and what we truly want to do.  It’s like the true God’s words measure us as if we are totally exposed in a wide open place, with no possibility of hiding anything.

So yeah, the Word of God meddles.  It disturbs us.  It messes with our minds.  It points out sin.  It shakes us up as it convicts and points us to the truth.  It shines a light on our dark paths and points us to the truth and to freedom.  And on our journey through these many years, Teresa and I have both been poked and stabbed and messed with by the Word of God time and again as the Spirit has used the Word to convict us and conform us more to be like Jesus, our older Brother.

So hey, when what the preacher says cuts us deeply, when we are powerfully convicted by the Holy Spirit, how do we respond?  When God’s holy Scriptures cut right across the craziness that our culture embraces, do we side with the truth or with the bizarre behavior around us?  Do we embrace the truth or are we offended by it?  And have we ever looked at it the other way around?  What about being careful not to offend God?  Our sin is a huge affront to the Most High.  We can easily make light of it but it is a huge offense to Him.  And isn’t it interesting how we can so easily be offended with His message to us but don’t give a second thought to something that He takes offense at.  The Psalmist wrote that God has exalted His word even above his Name!

Offend US!
As the P believers have grown in the Lord, they have at times exhorted and advised us.  And some of their advice goes like this:  “Teach us hard.  Hurl the straight words at us.  Make us think a big one.  We don’t want to be as if sleeping.  We don’t want to be as those who are without ear holes, so throw the words hard at us so we don’t get stuck.”  And they love calling the Scriptures:
—the flashlight words
—the living water words
—the words that don’t go off track
—the non-deceiving words

Here now are a few examples on how some of the believers have been offend by God’s message to them:

—Dario had fallen into sin.  Here he was a twice-egged child of God and yet he had yielded to this lady who wanted to have sexual relations with him.  So he requested that one of the pastors pay him a visit.  He wanted to talk about it and get his counsel to make things right.  Well, when the pastor arrived and began visiting with Dario, the village chief (pictured above), who was Dario’s father, became very angry.  What right did this pastor have to come to his village to talk with his son about a sin that he himself didn’t want to face up to?  When the chief heard about his son who was sleeping around, and what the pastor said from the words of the true God, he was exceedingly disgusted.  He balled out this brother who had come to help him, telling him to go away and not come back.  What the pastor had done really made him think a big one.

—Maripera, pictured above, had been doing a lot of gossiping and causing grief.  She was tearing down believers and especially the Bible teachers.  When one of the pastors paid her a visit, she was angry.  “Who made you boss over me?  Did you raise me?  Did I call you father when I was young?  No, you have no authority to tell me anything.”   And she laughed at him and paid no attention to what God’s word said.  The pastor had caused her to think a big one.

—Pedro, pictured above, had only recently been married.  He and Omaira were very happy with their two little kids.  They were really a couple of love birds, still often painting themselves with the typical orange coloring from a certain tree that dating couples used.  But suddenly when the pressure was on from her parents for him to marry Omaira’s younger sister as well, Pedro yielded.  When one of the pastors encouraged him to stick only with one wife and not take the second, this young man became ticked.  His liver got very hot.  “I don’t live under the authority of your rule” he answered back.  “I will do what I myself think I should do” he continued.  The word of God had caused Pedro to think a big one.

—When some of the believers from Big Breeze village were confronted by another believer about their stealing pigs from a national rancher, they became angry.  “You don’t know what we do” Juanaca said.  “We don’t live under your eye.  We’re not living under your constant gaze.  You have no authority to tell us anything,  Are you our father?  Did you raise us?  No, you didn’t.  You can’t tell us anything” and he mocked the believer who was only sharing what the Word said about stealing something that belongs to another..  The words from this brother who sought to help them made Juanaca and many in the village think a big one.

—Oscar, pictured above on the left, has been a great teacher of the word.  He was an excellent reader but also a good teacher.  Suddenly a trap was laid.  A pretty young married gal began secretly tempting Oscar.  These temptations continued and finally Oscar yielded and took her as a second wife.  This really hurt the body of Christ.  Many went to Oscar and pleaded with him to fix things up, to come back to the trail of truth.  But no, he was living without ear holes.  Even when Uvencio went to see him and kindly requested that he get out of the tall grass and come back on the straight trail, he said “no!”, with disgust.  Uvencio had made him think a big one by giving him the truth.

Praise and Prayer

• PTL that my RALP surgery was successful and that all the cancer was removed. A recent blood test showed that I am completely CLEAR, so we rejoice in God’s goodness!
• PTL that our national team has been out in P-land since early February. Pray for great strides forward in language learning, for wisdom in encouraging the church, and for God’s protection from the evil doers who fill the land.
• PTL for the reconciliation that has taken place between several village chiefs and some of the pastors. They had been angry when their sin was confronted, and now they have “cool livers” once again after “brotherizing” with one another. A real big praise! Pray for continued harmony between the shepherds and the sheep, and between all the believers as well
• PTL that a children’s Bible class has started and that three of the pastors in training are doing the teaching. Pray for the next generation that they too will embrace the truths of the Scriptures
• PTL that some of the radios have arrived in the country
• Pray that the believers won’t be offended by the truth of Scripture but rather listen to the teaching having ear holes
• Pray for the six pastors in training, that they will continue to grow and be mightily used by God
• Pray for our daughter Jodi, who continues to deal with some different symptoms after her stroke in November. Pray that she’ll be able to get the needed tests there in the northland as things move very slow up there.
• Pray for my brother Howard as he on this long and difficult journey with encephalitis due to the West Nile Virus. He has been on his back now for pretty well five months, and continues to be fed with a feeding tube into his stomach. We PTL for the small signs of progress we are seeing but it looks like it will be a long and slow road to recovery. Your prayers for Howard and his wife Susan are much appreciated.

Thanks again for your love, encouragement, partnership and for your fellowship in the Gospel across the miles.

Confiding in the One who created the heavens and the earth,
Merrill and Teresa