Short Talks for Songs

INVITATION

Our sins have separated us from the light of God. We have been as blind men, walking in darkness. We did not know where to go. We did not know what to believe, (what is truth). Our evil deeds have made us blind. Jesus said, I am the light of the world." God's book says, "I will lead the blind by a way that they know not. I will forgive their sins. I will love them freely." If you leave your ways of evil and believe on Jesus, the light of God will come into your heart. His Word will teach you. Your eyes will be opened and you will know the road to heaven. His Spirit will enter you and stay with you always. He will help you and fill your heart with joy. When you die He will take you to heaven immediately. Open your heart to Him now and beg Him to cleanse you and live in you.

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My people, Satan is trying to deceive us. In many ways he is trying to lead us away from God. He wants us to be his slaves. He hates God. He tells us to do many evil things, but if we listen to him we will follow him to his house (village - town) when we die. God loves us and he wants us to go to His good place when we die. He wants us to have joy. Satan wants to keep us from going there. He hates us. He tells us to forget God and follow our own desires. He tells us to lie and drink and steal and kill. He tells us to commit adultery. He tells us to make sacrifices (shed blood) and to worship others that are not God. In this way he deceives us to do evil so we will follow him to hell, (the fire). He wants us to suffer. Let us open our eyes today and see that it is Satan who causes us to do evil. Let us turn from him and follow God. Let us believe on Jesus and give Him our love. Let us follow Him with one heart, (our whole heart).

ARE YOU READY?

My friends, there is a Day of Judgment coming when our lives (hearts) will be examined. Are you ready for that day? God has appointed Jesus to be the judge. He will separate us according to what He sees in our hearts. If our hearts have sin in them, we will have to go into the place of fire which God prepared for Satan. If our hearts have been cleansed, we will go to the good home which God has prepared for those who have received Jesus. Jesus gave His life in order to cleanse the evil from our hearts. If we turn our backs on His love and refuse His cleansing, He will not have mercy on us at that day. He will not let us enter His home (heaven). He will say, "Go away from me, you who have been doing evil. I never knew you. You are not of mine." They will be lost forever. We do not know when the day will come. Let us turn to Jesus now so we will be ready.

CHOOSE JESUS

In the world there are two chiefs. The name of one chief is God. He has no evil. He is only good. The other chief is Satan. He is evil. He is the father of all evil. He brings fear and death. His place is a place of fire. Those who follow him will go there when they die. They are the people who do evil. God is the Great Chief. He is stronger than Satan. Some day He will throw Satan and all who follow him into hell (the fire). God loves all people and He does not want them to go there. He wants them to live with Him when they die. His place is very good. In order to break the power of Satan, God sent His only Son to the earth. He shed His blood and died because of our sins. Then He arose and returned to heaven. At that time He spoiled the power of Satan. He is able to take us out of Satan's hand. If you want to leave Satan's road, ask Jesus to deliver you from Satan. Ask Him to cleanse the evil from your heart. He will cleanse you. At that time God will become your Big Chief. Jesus and God are one. God says to you "Obey My words. Follow Jesus only. If you die, I will take you to live with me when you die."

GOD'S WORD

There are many things which people say, that are not the truth. There are many things which we should not believe. But God's Word is sure. It is always the truth. We can depend on it. What He says will happen, is sure to happen. Those who have heard God's truth are very fortunate. They have opportunity to receive Jesus as their Saviour, so that when they die they can go to heaven. Those who have not heard this good news or who have refused it, will be very sorry when they die. They will suffer forever with Satan. God wants everyone to know His words. He says, "Tell the good news of Jesus to everyone."

TRUST

Jesus called me when I was lost in my sins. I was following the ways of Satan and I had no peace in my heart. Then I heard Jesus say, "Come unto me, you that are tired of your sins, and are carrying them as a heavy burden. Come to me and I will give you rest." I was glad to hear those words. I trusted in Jesus. He took away my burden of sin and gave rest to my heart. Now I want to follow Him always. He makes me happy. He stays with me and helps me. He gives me comfort when I am sad. He loves me and I love Him. I will obey Him and follow Him even if the way becomes hard. He will encourage me and give me strength. He has all power. There is no friend like Jesus. I do not want to do anything, no matter how small it may be (even if it is small) that will not please Him. He has given me true life. I will praise Him forever.

TESTIMONY

My friends, at one time I was walking in the sinfulness of my own ways. Then I came to know the holiness of God. I saw that my sins were as filthy rags in His sight. Even my good works were filthy because I did them with a sinful heart. The money I gave was unclean. There was nothing I could do to cleanse myself. This filled my heart with sorrow and I cried to God to help me. He said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." So I turned to Him. He alone was good enough to pay my debt of sin. Because He died for me, God has forgiven me and cleansed my heart. He has put His Spirit within my heart to live. He helps me to obey God's commands and now I desire only to do what is good in His sight. He fills my heart with peace and joy and I know that when I die I will go to live with Him forever.

PRAISE

Let us praise God. He is the One Who created us. He loved us. He is the only One we should worship or praise. (All others are not gods at all.) He is the One we should think about. We have fears because we do not belong to Him. He protects those who serve Him. We have sorrows because we do not come to Him for comfort. He will help those who are in trouble, if they love and obey Him. God is greater than all others. He gave Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. He did this because He loves us. He is able to take the sin from your heart and cleanse you. He will fill you with joy. He will stay with you always. All good things come from Him. He gives the sunshine and the rain. He makes the gardens grow. He is the One Who causes us to breathe. Without Him we can do nothing. Let us praise Him with all our hearts. Let us all turn to Him and serve Him.

SHORT TALKS FOR SONGS - CULTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS

One day one of the Piapoco people went to his garden to work with his family. Soon one of the girls began to cry and they found that she had been stung by an ugly, hairy worm. The Piapoco believer scraped it off her arm with a leaf and laid it aside unharmed. At the end of the day he noticed that the worm had rolled itself up in the leaf and was making a cocoon. They watched it for days every time they went to the garden and one day the leaf and web began to wiggle, then it cracked open and out flew a beautiful butterfly! This is so much like what happened when the Gospel came to us. We were ugly, poisonous worms, but God made us over again!

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Once a Christian tribesman watched as a rotten tree floated toward a roaring waterfall. On this tree were several river birds. As the tree neared the falls the birds saw their danger and flew away. They left the rotten tree trunk that was carrying them toward death. The Christian said, "The birds are wiser than many people. The thoughts and ways of the world, like the rotten tree trunk, are carrying people rapidly toward the eternal abyss, but they do not see the danger. The devil has blinded them. They will not leave their rotten life, and soon fall into hell with no more chance to fly away. We have been given `wings' to escape - the Holy Spirit. But those who have not been born again and do not have the Holy Spirit in their lives are like the grub worms that were in the rotten tree trunk that went over the waterfall and were lost in the watery abyss."

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Victor, of the Puinabe people, was going into the jungle to cut poles for a new house with his axe. Before him on the trail were three men and a girl. He was by himself when he heard the men scream, "Tiger! Tiger! Victor, bring the axe!" Victor said, "When I got there and saw how big the tiger was and how mad, I got scared. He had grabbed the girl and was standing there with bloody teeth, roaring. I am a little man but the axe was strong and sharp. Though I did not trust in my own strength I trusted in the axe. I lifted it and sank it in the head of the tiger. He fell back and ran into the jungle. Without the axe I could not have saved the girl from the tiger. In the same way we cannot save ourselves from the devil by our own strength. The devil is walking about like a roaring lion looking for people to destroy. But we have an axe strong and sharp which is the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit. With the Word of God we can deliver Satan's prisoners."

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A man of the Cubeo tribe was burning his garden at the end of the dry season. As usual he lit a fire all around the edge, but there was a paca in the middle of the garden and as the fire neared the center he looked for a way to escape. There was one small opening through the fire to the green jungle and he ran through it to safety. We people are like the paca in the middle of the burning garden facing certain death. Jesus is our only way of escape.

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Many years ago some brown-skinned people were slaves to a people of another tribe. The slaves had to work hard and obey their masters. If they didn't obey them they were beaten. Some were put to death. Then the Government made a law to make these slaves free. They need no longer be slaves. If their masters tried again to rule over them they needed only to ask the government to make them free. The government did this and they were free. They were not slaves anymore. This is a picture of what Jesus can do for us. Before we received Jesus as our Master we were slaves of sin. We were always doing evil things. Sin ruled us. We were not able to free ourselves. But Jesus made the payment for our sins on the cross. He set us free.

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Amongst one tribe living to the east of us they have a law that if a man commits adultery they must kill him. A son of a chief did this evil. This was found out. They killed the woman and they wanted to kill the man. But he ran away. The people said that this situation was not yet square. So they looked for a close relation and killed him instead of the wicked man. They said the evil deed was now right. The uncle of the man died instead of him. This is a picture of the way God saves us sinful people (squares our sin debt with Him). Jesus died for sinners to take our punishment. Jesus' blood was shed so that our sins could be forgiven. Now those people who trust Jesus to take away their sins receive forgiveness.

In the jungle there is a vine called the blood vine. When you cut this vine with a machete it pours out a red liquid which looks and acts just like blood. It coagulates just like blood and is a good medicine to put on open sores and cuts to dry them up. This same vine that has the blood inside also has very dangerous thorns which lie just under the branches and hook back like a tiger's claw. If this hooks your flesh on a trail in the jungle, it will not let you go, but will make a huge gaping wound. Of course the vine can be cut and the blood used to help heal the wound, but this same vine that hurts and heals reminds us of Jesus. It is only His blood that can heal our sins. If we do not come to Him to apply the blood, the thorns of His judgment will some day destroy us.

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A man of the Puinabe tribe was hunting one day and shot a mother monkey. The baby was unharmed so he took it home and raised it until it was full grown. One day the man was eating a wild fruit and the monkey begged for some from his perch on one of the poles of the thatched framework. The man kept eating his fruit and in rage the monkey jumped on the back of his owner, sank his teeth in his ear and tore it completely off his head. The blood flowed freely from the wound, and in a short time the man was dead. This man had loved and cared for his own murderer. Like him, the people of the world love and care for their vices and sins that will bring them spiritual death, separated from God for all eternity. Romans 8:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."