On Mission with God

The devil may wear Prada, but what’s his favorite fragrance?

Recently we had an interesting and telling incident occur in one of our house churches. The family hosting the house church had relatives visiting for the weekend. The relatives joined us for church, but really did not participate much in the singing or the discussion of the text that evening.

The couple who were visiting are spiritists. Their religion includes the channeling of demons by mediums, offering sacrifices to demons and invoking demons for protection and benefits. Theirs is a very dark religion which is masked by “good deeds” and “peace seeking”. The promise of a “good life” for the adherent is very attractive to many.

Our Bible study that night included aspects of the Christian life that deal with suffering and persecution. The Tribulation even entered into the discussion. It was quite a study that dealt with the realities of life and future upheaval that awaits the human race. Even before we finished, this couple excused themselves from the study. Our studies sometimes run late.

The next day, the hostess began preparing lunch for her guests. The man who was visiting entered the kitchen and began peeling and cutting up onions. The hostess thought he was helping her prepare some of the ingredients for their lunch. But, after he finished cutting up the onions, he took the peelings over to the wood burning stove and tossed them in the fire. This is not what people usually do with their onion peelings when preparing a meal.

The hostess asked him why he threw the onion peelings in the fire. He explained that the study the previous evening, all the talk of suffering and persecution, had disturbed his spirit. He threw the onions in the fire as an offering to his spirit protector to restore balance and peace in his spirit.

This type of offering or sacrifice is a part of spiritism, but it is not usually done in the home of someone else, especially in the home of someone else who is not a spiritist. It was quite an offense to the hosting family that this man would practice his religion in their home knowing that it was against their religion. Such an act is very outside the norms of the culture here. But, that is how disturbed this man had become. The host summed it up well. He said, “It is fitting that the devil would find the aroma of burning onion peelings a pleasing smell.”

It is very affirming for us knowing that the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God perturbed this man, it rattled his cage. He seeks the protection of the spirits, demons, but came face to face with the power of God to the point that he was shaken. For his family, we were the smell of death. Please pray that this family will come to know the true source of their religion and that they will come to be followers of Jesus Christ. Please pray that we would become to them the fragrance of life.

II Corinthians 2:14-17 (NASB)

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

In the US, there has been a great deal of controversy over the Ten Commandments. I remember just a few years ago seeing many yards with signs of the Ten Commandments, supporting their public display. Much of this centered around the situation of the monument of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama State Courthouse. For the moment, the controversy in the US seems to have subsided.

Here in Brazil, the controversy we face over the Ten Commandments is not publicized and does not center around their public display. Rather, the controversy is over which Ten Commandments are the actual Ten Commandments. That may strike you as odd, but that really is one of the barriers we face in presenting the gospel in a way that Catholics in Brazil can understand.

Let me explain. Most Catholics in Brazil learn their belief system from the practice of the church and from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They rarely read the Bible. They certainly do not study the Bible the way they are required to study the catechism. Therefore, the catechism is considered a source of authoritative teaching and is, in practice, placed in a position of authority over the Bible.

The Portuguese translation of the Latin Catechism of the Catholic Church has a formulation of the Ten Commandments. It is more of a summary, rather than presenting the full text of the Ten Commandments as they appear in Exodus 20.2-17 and Deuteronomy 5.6-21. I’ll translate the formulation for you:

First: Worship God and love Him above all things.

Second: Do not invoke the holy name of God in Vain.

Third: Sanctify Sundays and the observed festivals.

Fourth: Honor your father and mother (and other legitimate superiors).

Fifth: Do not kill (nor cause other damage, in body or soul, to yourself or to your neighbor).

Sixth: Keep chastity in word and deed.

Seventh: Do not steal (not keeping unjustly, nor damaging the goods of your neighbor).

Eighth: Do not raise false witness (nor in any other fashion slight the truth or defame your neighbor).

Ninth: Keep chastity in thoughts and desires.

Tenth: Do not covet/envy the things of others.

If you grew up in or have been discipled in a Protestant church, you will quickly see that this list of Ten Commandments is somewhat different from the Ten Commandments in the Bible. It is even different from the authorized Catholic Bible used by Catholics here in Brazil. It is quite shocking for the folks to whom we witness when they read the Ten Commandments in the Catholic Bible. They can not believe that the Bible actually says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below (Exodus 20.4 NIV).” They do not want to believe the Bible actually says that. Most Brazilian Catholics have statues of Mary and many of the saints in their homes and in their churches. Some homes have 100 or more statues, idols.

I could go on, but I won’t for now. Perhaps I’ll continue this subject in a future post. Suffice it to say, we have a huge challenge before us as we share the gospel with the lost of Brazil.

I would like to ask you to pray for Prof. M. He is not yet a follower of Christ, but has been attending one of our house churches for quite some time. God has been doing a lot to grab his attention. Those of you who heard me speak in the US may recall me telling you about a dream that this man’s wife had and how God fulfilled that dream. He e-mailed me with two questions. One of those questions was, “What are God’s laws for man today?” That is a huge question and will take a lot of time to answer. Please pray for Prof. M and me as we walk through the Bible together searching for the answer to this question. Please pray that God will open his eyes to the truth, that he will become a follower of the way of Jesus Christ.

In Brazil, there is something about Mary, and the saints, that holds incredible sway over Catholics. I was talking with a young lady at house church last week about this very subject. We were expressing praise to the Lord that another family has realized that they can no longer follow Mary and the saints. This young lady told me that it took three years from the time she first heard the idea that praying to Mary and the saints is idolatry to the time she realized that was true. The family (mentioned in our previous post) have been studying the Bible with us for about six months. We praise the Lord that He has opened their eyes to see this truth.

We have not discovered any specific amount of time that is necessary for people to realize this truth. Since we discovered this barrier to proclaiming the gospel among our people, we have become more intentional about addressing idolatry in our teaching. With a belief that is so much a part of who Catholics in Brazil are, we must take the time necessary to present the truth in love. We must also give them time to count the cost of following Jesus.

If you approach a post-modern person and proclaim that an absolute truth exists for all people, you probably will have only one opportunity to speak to that person, and you probably will not convince them. If you approach a Buddhist and proclaim that there is only one path to God, you will probably only have one opportunity to speak to that person, and you probably will not convince them. The same holds true with Catholics in Brazil. If you approach a Catholic in Brazil and proclaim that it is necessary to abandon Mary and the saints in order to follow Jesus, you will probably only have one opportunity to speak to that person, and you probably will not convince them.

We have learned that this particular barrier to the gospel among our people will usually only be overcome by investing time and love in teaching the Bible to them.

This is just one insight we have gleaned from our time working here in Brazil. Thank you for taking the time to read it. Please pray that God will ever keep our eyes open to see barriers to the gospel and that He will give us ways to overcome these barriers.