How Do You Know What Is True?

Why do bad things happen and what can we do to avoid them? I guess it is a question that mankind has been asking for a long time. So how do we find the truth?

When we first moved into the tribe, the area was already in the midst of some conflict. A few people had died, and when people start dying, especially men, tensions rise. Who is responsible for the deaths, why did they happen, and who is next? These are all questions that are pondered around the fires at night.

For them, the next thing to do was cook the special divination leaves to find out why these bad things were happening. The truth, they thought, could be found in the cooking pit. The special leaves were gathered, a pit was dug. Each leaf was representative of a woman in the village who might be performing witchcraft, which caused the deaths. After the leaves were cooked and the pit opened, any leaf that was left a bit raw or uncooked would reveal the woman who was the culprit!

They said to us, “Our special divination leaves are much like your computer. You look at your computer to see when the supply helicopter will come and it tells you [referring to email]. So it is with our leaves, they will tell us who the witch is. It does not matter where we cook the leaves, or how many times we cook, the leaves always tell us the same result.”

We are all people of faith. We are placing our faith somewhere, whether it is in divination leaves or in the Word of God. Thankfully, many of our tribal friends have exchanged their faith in the cooking pit and spirits and are fully trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.

They understand that the good things of this life and the hard things of this life are under His control. They understand that only God can take a life and that even sickness and death are used for His purposes and are according to His will. They are no longer afraid of the spirits or the lies of Satan but are resting in the hope that their lives will continue for eternity with God because of the righteousness of Christ.