DBS Beyond the Eyes

Beyond the Eyes 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!…-Matthew 6:21-23 

You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.-Luke 6:45 (The Message)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

-Jeremiah 17:9 

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,-Romans 3:23 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.-Romans 6:23 

 

To say that Madiah was intrigued by her new two American friends would be an understatement. Was she curious as to the difference they described in the life they have been walking with Jesus, as their Lord and Savior? How could the interactions with these infidels be so heartwarming, she must have pondered. What made them different? 

Madiah and two of our recent summer teamers from the University of Texas and Texas A&M, joined me for tea one afternoon. While translating for Hna and Pyn, they shared powerfully their personal story of God’s story in their lives and how they were drawn to be transformed as Jesus’ disciples. By the now, in this second meeting with Madiah, the Holy Spirit was stirring her heart to discover more of this relationship with God in Christ. Madiah asked to hear more. 

Using the Discover App https://discoverapp.org, we read together one of what we call “felt needs-on-ramp” Discovery Bible Stories. Usually after a bit of filtering we invite the person and their household to discover more of God through a basic Creation to Christ story set. With this fully veiled SaSumBi woman, we felt led to share Matt. 6:21-23. We walked through the usual process of 8 Discovery Questions. When we find potential people of peace and their households/friends group whom God is drawing, there are usually a few distinct ways we can know based upon the patterns which Jesus modeled. 

 “Person of Peace” (PoP) (Matthew 10, Luke 10) (W.O.O.L.Y)

• WELCOMES / HOSTS us – often feeds the messengers, typically invites messengers to stay in their home,  
• OPENS their Oikos (family/group/community/network) to the Good News (not necessarily the disciple-maker gets into the oikos but sometimes the PoP is passing on the gospel) 
• LISTENS to You-listens to the message and the messengers as they share about God /a new spiritual message. (Not necessarily receiving the message, but willing to listen to it.) So obviously this is a LOST person. 

We continued… “Madiah, as followers of Isa AlMasih, we know that He has ALL power and authority over darkness. In the Bible, Isa Al Masih states that He is the Light of the world and in Him there is no darkness. My friends, Hna, Pyn, and I are followers of Isa Al Masih. We know that He reveals where there is darkness and no light. The Word of God also teaches that EVERY person is sinful and separated from God, the One and only Holy One. Do you want us to share what we see as we look into your eyes?" “Yes.” I ventured, “Madiah, I see in your eyes a woman who expresses a hunger for the Light of Isa Al Masih, but that you feel hindered in your attempts to that end. You are held back in a desire to discover more of who this Isa is in the Word of God. I see that you are one who covers with your veil but you wonder if God really sees you. Is this accurate?” “Yes.” 

• Pray for Madiah and her household as we follow up in the next DBS story. (John 6:44-45, 2 Peter 5:9) 
• Pray for reproducing local leaders to be strengthened in leadership development, tethering themselves to the Word, living lives worthy to be followed, and walking in Holy Spirit-empowered ways. Pray for dramatic answers to prayer leading to breakthroughs among the SaSumBi.