We have started meeting with a national friend who is teaching us a technique he using in sharing his faith. It is a new approach many have been using in this area and it has been very successful for the Kingdom. At our last meeting, he told us a little more about the beliefs of the religion here in an effort to help us understand how to use terms they are familiar with to explain the truth.
He explained to us that they believe that when you die, if you don't make it to heaven, you go to a kind of purgatory. During this time, your relatives can come and pray at your grave after 40 days, 100 days and 1000 days after your death then every year after that until enough has been done to get you into heaven. When do they know when it's enough? How do they know when you transition to heaven? They don't know. But Gods word tells how we CAN KNOW for certain, without any doubts. This is why we are here. It's not that they are choosing not go to church or telling someone they don't want to hear "it" like in the states. It's that they have NEVER heard. They do not know anything other than what they have been taught and passed down from generation to generation.
While we were walking through the kompung last week we saw this grave behind some homes by the river. Our friend who lives in this kompung said that people come every year and pray at this grave. She said they have been doing it for a long time. I have to wonder if the people feel as lost as I think I would feel never knowing if my sins had been forgiven yet… never knowing if I had done enough. How hopeless… how helpless! It is up to all of us to share with them the hope and the help that we have in Christ Jesus!
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