Brazil Chronological Series, version 2

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

I'm going to talk to you a little bit about God.

God always lived; God didn't have a father, He didn't have a mother. He wasn't born. He can't die. He was before anything else. God made everything. He made the Sun. He made the moon. He made the stars. He made the woods. God made everything in this world. God has all power. He has more power than anything else or any other person in this world. He has more power than the river when it's high. He has more power than the strongest wind and thunder storm. Nothing is hard for God. God listens to everything. He listens to the snake when it's crawling through the jungle*. He listens to the ants building their houses*. He listens to men when they are whispering among themselves. God knows everything. He even knows what we are thinking. He knows when we were born, and He knows when we are going to die. God lives in heaven and we can't see Him. He also lives here on the earth among us men. He can see us all the time. God never sleeps. He can see during the night. He can see the armadillo in its cave*. He can see the fish in the river. God is good. He never did anything bad. He hates badness. God never changes. When He speaks, His word is true forever. He does not change His thinking like many of our gods. (Give example).

This God wants to know us and He wants us to know Him personally. He wants us to live near Him, enjoying His love. It was because of this that He chose people to write the Book about the words that He spoke. This Book is the Bible.

THE CREATION

God tells us in His Bible (Book) how it was that He made the world.

In the beginning there wasn't anything. There were no woods, no rivers, no mountains, no sun, no people - nothing. That's the way it was in the beginning before God made the world. God made everything that we see. But He doesn't work like a person does, when He made the world. He doesn't sweat. He made all these things by simply speaking. He spoke and the night and the day were made. God is very powerful. After God spoke, the plants appeared on the ground, manioc and beans, trees with fruit - they all grew*. Only speaking, God made the sun and the moon and the stars. He spoke and they appeared. God also made the fish and the birds and the animals like the horse and the dog, and all the other animals. Finally God made the first man and the first woman. The name of the man was Adam; the name of the first woman was Eve. God made Adam from the earth. Afterwards, He made the woman from Adam himself.

God saw everything that He had made and saw that it was good. Everything that God made was good. God always makes things properly. God made everything that we see; there is nothing that God does not know how to make. We can't see God, but we can see what God made. It's God Himself that sends us the rain. It's God Himself that makes the sun to shine every day. It's God that makes the fruit that we eat. God is very good with us. We should give thanks to God. We shouldn't forget to thank Him every day.

THE FALL OF MAN

I have already told you how it was that God made the world. In the beginning everything was good. The animals weren't savage. There was no sickness. The first persons, Adam and Eve, spoiled everything. After that, the animals were savage. Bad things appeared. I'm going to tell you now how this came about.

God put Adam in a good garden where there were lots of trees with fruit. Adam and Eve lived there and they took care of the trees. It was a beautiful place. They could eat almost everything in the garden. But there was one fruit tree that they could not eat because God Himself told them that they should not eat from that tree. If they ate from that tree, they would be punished. One day, Satan came to the garden and he talked to Eve. He fooled the woman; Eve listened to what Satan said. In that way, he fooled her. She tasted the forbidden fruit and afterwards she gave to Adam and he ate also. And so, Adam and Eve sinned. They listened to Satan and they did not listen to God. And so Adam and Eve were evil in God's eyes. God is pure and does not like sin. God sent Adam and Eve away from the garden where they were living. Adam began to cultivate the earth but it was hard because now the earth was very hard to work and there was little fruit. After eating the fruit, Eve also had many problems. When it was time to give birth, it was very painful.

The thoughts of the first people stayed far from God. They were afraid of God. Then came difficulties and sadness. Sickness appeared on the earth. The animals also became savage. Some even started to eat people. All of this happened because Adam and Eve didn't listen to the Word of God. They listened to Satan and they ate the fruit that God had told them not to eat.

Today, we also listen to Satan's lies, and we do not listen to God. But God knows what is best for us. God always speaks the truth to us. We should always listen to the words of God and not pay any attention to what Satan tells us.

CAIN AND ABEL

I'm going to tell you the story about the sons of Adam and Eve.

The name of the first was Cain, and the name of the second was Abel. They were the first to be born here on the earth. Adam and Eve taught their children about God. Cain grew up and became a farmer. Abel grew up and he became a shepherd of sheep. One day Cain was very angry with Abel. He went with Abel to the fields. Cain hit his brother and killed him. Cain thought that he had killed his brother without anyone knowing, but God saw what had happened. So God asked Cain, "Where is your brother?" Cain answered, "I don't know," but Cain was lying. But God said, "I see the blood of your brother. This is your punishment. Now when you work this soil, you will not have any fruit. And you are always going to wander like a nomad on the earth." Cain was very sad. He knew that God was right to judge him. Cain had sinned, and he did badness. He sinned against his brother Abel. He also sinned against God, because God had made Abel.

This story teaches us that when we do what's bad against other people, we also sin against God. God made all of us and for that reason, we should always respect other people. We should respect all people. God knows the bad things that we do against other people. He can see what we do even in the darkness. He knows when we speak badly about somebody else or when we don't like somebody else. He knows when we lie and even when we think badly about somebody else. All of this makes God very sad and makes Him angry with what we do.

NOAH

Adam and Eve had other children after Abel was killed. They grew up and they also had their own children. Many years passed. There were many people on the earth, but these people did much badness. There were fights everywhere, and people were taking vengeance on other people. Everybody thought only about doing bad things to other people and how to hurt them. This made God very sad. He knew the bad thoughts of these people. He saw all the bad things that they were doing and God was very sad.

God left them alone for many years, but nobody stopped doing the bad things that they were doing. So God decided to destroy all these people and all the animals on the earth. But there was one man that obeyed God. His name was Noah. Noah was a good man. He did what God wanted. He didn't like badness and he even spoke against other people that were only thinking bad things. One day God spoke to Noah. "I can't take any more of these people's sins. I'm going to send a big flood. All the people and animals are going to drown. You build a big ark. You and your family enter in and you will be safe."

So Noah began to build a big ark, like God had showed him. (SE BUILDING.) While Noah built the ark, he told the people that God was going to send a big flood to finish all people. But they just laughed at him. (SE LAUGHING.) They did not believe the words of Noah. They continued doing bad things. So God said to Noah, "Get your family together, and a male and female of every animal, and get into the boat." (SE ANIMALS.) After everyone entered into the boat, God Himself shut the door of the boat. (SE DOOR.) After this, it rained and it didn't stop raining for a long time. (SE RAIN.) The water came up and covered the fields. It covered high places and finally even covered the mountains. All the people drowned, but Noah and his family were safe in the boat. They had believed God and His word.

We can see that God does not like bad things. He punished the people in the days of Noah because they did badness and they thought only badness. God does not like sin. There is a day coming when God is going to judge every person for the badness that they have done. This suffering is going to be much worse than the suffering in the days of Noah. We should be thinking, "What is God going to do with me, when He is judging everyone?" Many people are going to be very sad because of their sins that they did when they were living on the earth.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

A long time ago, after the days of Noah God showed His people how they should live. He gave them His commandments. Listen, I am going to tell you God's commandments.

God says that we should not worship other gods. We should only worship Him because He made us. God says that we should not make any kind of image to worship. We should only worship God. We should not worship the images that anybody else makes. We should not seek help from other spirits. We do not owe anything to the spirits, and we do not need to be afraid of them, because there is only one God. The spirits and even Satan are afraid of God.

God says that we should not speak His name in vain, without respect.

God says that we should respect our father and mother and obey them. We should not speak badly to them and we should not hit them.

God says that we should not kill other people, not even people from other tribes. God does not like it when we kill for vengeance, or for any other reason. We should not even want to kill another person.

God says that we should not commit adultery. That means that a man should not even think about going to bed with any woman other than his own wife. And the woman should not think about going to bed with any other man than her own husband. God knows everything that we think and He does not like it when we are thinking badly.

God says that we should not rob; we shouldn't steal cattle; we shouldn't steal manioc - not from other people, even white people*. We shouldn't take anything that belongs to somebody else.

God says that we should not lie. We should not cheat other people or even talk badly about them. God does not like lies. God always speaks truth.

God also says that we should not want the things of other people - not their houses, not their women, not their farms nor their animals or anything else that belongs to somebody else. We shouldn't even be jealous of somebody who is rich. We should be willing to work hard for what we want. We should be satisfied with all the goods that God has given us. We should give Him thanks.

THE JUDGMENT OF GOD

I already spoke to you some of God's commandments. Of course, all of us disobey God's commandments. We are born, liking sin. We enjoy what is bad and we think bad thoughts. This is because our hearts are sinful.

Have you ever seen the jaguar*? There are many spots on his skin. Can that jaguar take off those spots by washing himself many times? Of course not. Why can't he take off his spots? Because the spots aren't just stuck on to his skin. They come out from inside him. In the same way, we cannot take away our desire to sin. Sin comes from inside of us, our hearts are bad, and that is why we disobey God. God loves us but He does not love the bad things that we do, and that is why He is angry with us. He's going to punish all the people who disobey Him. When God punishes people, He is not going to send another flood like He did in the days of Noah. He's going to send something much worse than the flood. He's going to send disobedient people to hell. Hell is a place where Satan and his evil spirits will live. Hell is a fire that never goes out. There people are going to suffer forever - going to cry, they are always going to be sad. They will have to stay there forever. There will be no way to escape suffering.

It is certain that all this is going to happen. It will be horrible. Is it possible that we can avoid going to this fire that never goes out? Yes, God Himself found a way for us to not go to hell. Listen. I am going to tell you how to avoid this punishment.

INTRODUCTION OF JESUS

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God punished them but He also spoke a promise to them. God promised to punish Satan and also to pay the cost of sin. The cost of sin is death. God Himself made a way for us to avoid punishment.

Although God was in heaven, He was also on earth in the form of a man. It was many, many years ago that God became a baby. His name was Jesus. He was called the Son of God. The mother of Jesus was Mary. Mary had Jesus when she was still a virgin. When Jesus was born, it was something that had never happened before because Mary had never slept with a man. God had spoken to Mary that she should name the baby Jesus. The name Jesus means, "The One Who Rescues (Saves, Spares)". Jesus came so that we would not have to go to hell.

While Jesus was growing up, He always was good to all people. He was never disobedient to one of God's commandments, not even to His parents. Satan wanted Jesus to do badness but Jesus never listened to what Satan said. Jesus walked on this earth among men. He was truly man. At the same time He was truly God. When Jesus was 30 years old, He began to teach other people. He said that they should leave their sin, and believe the words that He was teaching and the words of God. One day Jesus said this, "Come to me, all of you who are tired and burdened and I will give you rest".

THE MIRACLES OF JESUS

Jesus did a lot more than just talk to people. He did many miracles.

One day, he fed over 4,000 people with just 7 pieces of bread. Another day, he calmed the storm. He just spoke and the wind stopped and everything was calm. One day, Jesus even walked on top of the water. Jesus also cured many sick people. Jesus healed a woman that had a fever. A man that was paralytic, Jesus made him walk. One group of men were lepers. Jesus completely made their bodies well. Another man could not use his legs and arms. Jesus healed him. One woman had a hemmorhage for 12 years and Jesus stopped the bleeding. One man that could not hear, Jesus made him hear again. One person that couldn't speak, Jesus made him speak again. Jesus healed blind people.

I'm going to tell you about one blind person that Jesus healed. One day, Jesus was passing along with his followers, and a blind beggar man was sitting there alongside the road. He heard the noise of the people as they came up and he started to shout very loudly, "Jesus, have pity on me; Jesus, have pity on me." And Jesus stopped and called for the blind man. When he got close, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do". The blind man responded, "Lord, I want to see!" So Jesus spoke, "See. I have already cured you, because of your faith." Jesus touched his eyes and immediately, the blind man could see.

Jesus also cured people that had demons. One day, a father came to see Jesus and said, "Master, I've brought my son here for you to see, because he has a bad spirit, and he cannot speak. And every time a spirit attacks him, it throws him to the ground, and he begins to spit, grind his teeth, and he is getting thinner." So Jesus said to the man, "Bring your son here". When the boy was coming, the bad spirit attacked him and threw him to the ground. Then Jesus gave an order to the spirit, "Come out of this child!" The bad spirit cried, and shook the child and left him like dead. But Jesus picked up the child by the hand and helped him get to his feet, and then He gave the child to his father. Everyone was very impressed about the wonderful power of God in Jesus.

Jesus even brought back to life dead people. The son of a widow had died. They were carrying the child to the cemetery. The mother was following behind, crying. Jesus came up. When he saw that the widow was crying like that, he was very sorry for her. He spoke to her, "Don't cry." Then Jesus spoke to the corpse, "Child, I'm giving you an order - get up." And then the child sat up and began to speak. Jesus gave the child to his mother.

THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION

My people, listen while I tell you how it was that they crucified the Son of God

When Jesus lived here on this earth, He did a lot of good for all people. He went around from town to town, telling everyone the Word of God. He healed everyone who came to Him with sickness. He also spoke against the badness that people were doing. He corrected ordinary people and He even corrected the leaders. For that reason, many of the leaders were angry with Him. But all in all, most people liked very much what Jesus did and what He said. The leaders followed Him from one place to the other. When the leaders saw how many people followed Jesus, they were very jealous.

One day, the authorities sent men to capture Jesus. These men caught Jesus and they brought Him to be questioned. The chief of the leaders asked Him, "Are you the Son of God?" When Jesus said, "You are right," they were very angry. They did not accept Jesus as the Son of God. They all made up their minds to kill Jesus. The same night, they began to mistreat Him. The next morning, they nailed Him alive to a tree. At midday, the sun darkened, and the earth was in darkness. Jesus cried in a loud voice, "Father, Father, why have you left me?" At 3:00 o'clock, Jesus gave his spirit back to his father. His body was completely dead. At this time, His spirit left His body completely. And then the sun came out once again. At this very same time, there was a very strong earthquake. A soldier that was standing there said, "Certainly this was the Son of God."

God saw all that happened when Jesus died. God let the leaders kill Jesus because He knew that Jesus died for our sins. God punished Jesus, not for his sins, because Jesus never sinned. God punished Jesus for our sins. Jesus willingly took the punishment for our sins on the cross because He loves us. That is why Jesus is our Saviour.

The same afternoon, before it became dark, a friend of Jesus took the body of Jesus. He wrapped it in cloth as was customary in that place, and they took it and put it in a hole that had been cut out of the rocks. And then they put a big rock in front of the entrance. Soldiers were left to guard the entrance to the tomb.

On the third day, some women came to leave perfume for the body's preparation at the place where Jesus was buried. When they got there, they saw that the big rock was away from the tomb. They saw too that the body of Jesus was no longer there. An angel appeared and spoke to the women, "Don't be afraid, Jesus is alive like He told you He would be. Go and tell Jesus' followers that Jesus is alive." So the women went and told the disciples, and after that Jesus appeared to the disciples. He appeared to many other people. He walked with them, he talked with them, he ate food with them for many days.

After 40 days, Jesus went back up to heaven; but before He went, He spoke to His followers and told them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Everyone who obeys will be saved, and those who do not follow my words will be condemned." After speaking like this, Jesus went up into heaven. Two angels appeared and spoke to the disciples and said, "This same Jesus that has gone up into heaven, will someday come back to this earth in the same way."

THE TWO ROADS I

Where will we go after we die? The spirits of people do not die; but where do our spirits go? Jesus came to teach us about this.

Jesus said that there are two roads in this world; one is a wide road and the other is a narrow road. We all begin this life walking on the wide road. This road is easy to walk on, there are always lots of people there. But Jesus says that this road goes to hell. There people are going to suffer in the fire forever together with the bad spirits and Satan himself. There the fire will not go out and people will never stop suffering. The people that walk on this wide road are always thinking about themselves. They think about how to get more cattle, more money, more goods, everything for themselves. They think about how to be respected by everyone, and how to be important people. They like to do bad things, like to drink, fight, and to run around with other women. They also talk badly about other people. They like to make fun of them. Why are they like that? It's because people are born that way. It's because they are on this wide road from birth itself. They walk on this road until they arrive in hell, the fire that never goes out.

Jesus said that there is another road. This road is very narrow, and there are very few people that walk on this road. This road separates from the wide road. There are many people that pass the entrance to this narrow road without even knowing it. It's difficult to walk on this narrow road; and for this reason there are few people who walk on it. Many times, people have to walk all by themselves. But this road, the narrow road, is the road that goes to heaven, where God lives. There in heaven, there are only good things. There, nobody will die again, there will be no sickness. It will not be too hot. There won't be any night. There's no suffering, there's no sadness, there's nothing bad. Children won't even cry. The people who arrive there will never be afraid of anything.

The people that walk on this narrow road always think about God and what God wants. They believe that Jesus willingly gave Himself to be punished by God for their own sins. For that reason, they love Jesus. They accept Jesus as their own chief. They let Him tell them what they should do with their lives. They have found that the most important thing is to do what Jesus wants them to do more than anything else. They listen to the Word of God. They give thanks to God. They think about how to do good to other people. They don't like to do bad things. They don't keep company with people who drink and fight and run around with women. They don't like to say bad things about other people. They like to do what God wants. They want God's plan or will more than they want their own wills.

Why are these people like this? It's true that these people were born on the wide road. In times past, they liked to do bad things. But one day, they realized that they had sinned against God. They were sorry to think about the bad things that they had done against God. They knew that God was very just when He would punish them. So they did the following: They talked to God and told Him that they were wrong; they accepted the truth that Jesus was willingly punished for their sins; they submitted themselves to God's authority. They told all their sins to God. They didn't try to hide anything. They asked God to clean away their sin. They also decided not to go back to the old life. God helped them to leave their sins. That way, God caused them to leave the wide road and they entered into the narrow road. They began to trust in Jesus, so that He would help them.

In that way, God was not angry with them. God cleaned their sins from their lives and gave them His spirit to live inside of them. His Spirit helps them to please God. No more are they afraid of death. No more are they afraid of the evil spirits.

But even after they are on the narrow road, they find that they have leftovers of the bad thoughts and the bad ways that they lived before. They find that inside of them is the Spirit of Jesus, and also at the same time, the old thoughts. They find that at times there is a conflict between what Jesus wants and what their old thoughts want. They find that when they are thinking in the old ways, they have to speak to God to clean them once again, so that they can follow the straight way correctly. When they sin, they find that they are blind and walk in darkness. But when they listen and follow the words of the Spirit of Jesus, they have light to walk on the narrow way.

THE TWO ROADS II

Which of the roads are you walking on? Are you walking on the narrow road, or are you walking on the wide road?

Many people walk on the wide road, even though they want to leave it. They agree with these words we have been saying. They think to themselves, "It's true". They know they are doing bad, but they stay on the wide road. They stay with the multitude that arrives at the fire that never goes out. They like their pleasures and they like to live for their own desires, rather than enter the narrow road.

Listen! Jesus is alive. He is the chief or the boss. He says that we should leave our sins and trust in Him. If we do not do this, He will have to punish us when He comes back. Do you want to enter the narrow road, this road to Jesus? I am going to tell you how you can enter. Talk to God. You can talk to Him right now. God is everywhere. He can hear what you are saying to Him. Tell God that you are sorry that you disobeyed His commandments. Tell Him your sins, so that He can take them away. Tell Him that you want to leave your sins. Tell Him that you want God to be your boss. Give thanks that Jesus has already died to pay for your sins. Let Jesus rule your life.

* Use local examples.

REVISED 14TH MAY, 1987