Some years ago, in a village in Central Africa, there lived a man named Kankwali, who was the most powerful and feared person in that area. Kankwali was what was called a witch doctor, or a “medicine man.” He acted under the power of wicked demons, yet people thought he was wise, and they accepted what he said about many things. He wasn’t a “doctor” as we know them, and what he told people to do for their illnesses often made them get sicker, or even die. He was often responsible for the death of innocent people, because he said that they were guilty of causing someone to get sick by angering the evil spirits. People were so afraid of him they would do almost anything to keep him happy with them.
One day, however, something new happened in that village. Some missionaries moved into the village, and they brought the good news of God’s love. The missionaries started a school for the children, who were happy to go and learn things they had never learned before. Kankwali viewed this new situation with mixed feelings. Eventually, however, Kankwali got so curious about what the children were learning that he asked them what these strangers were teaching them at the school. In their own simple way, the boys and girls repeated the story which they had heard.
They told Kankwali that they had learned that God loved everyone in the village, and even in the whole world, in spite of how sinful everyone is. They told him how God in His great love sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, down to earth, where He died for our sins. And they told him that Jesus was raised from the dead and now lives to save whoever will believe on Him. God’s free gift to all people, they told Kankwali, was everlasting life, and He also gives the power to live our life in a way pleasing to Him each day.
This certainly was news for the medicine man. Did God really have a personal interest in him? Did God really love him? Could God forgive him? Would God receive even him? These were the questions that crowded Kankwali’s mind, and such questions may well be asked by each of us. The answer to these questions is very simple: “Whosoever [that means, anyone who] shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)).
Kankwali believed God’s wonderful love, and he was saved. The Lord Jesus Christ became to him the one and only Lord of his life. It meant that he was now serving a new master, because doing evil things in everyday life and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ don’t go together. One or the other had to go. He completely gave up witchcraft and its evils. He became a new man with a desire to live for the Lord who had saved him.
Kankwali continued to plant his garden and to fish from his canoe on the river in order to earn his living, but his whole life was changed. Instead of serving the devil and causing misery and death, he started following Christ, and he began to tell others about the One who had saved him.
We see in the story of Kankwali the power of the gospel. When God forgives a person, He also gives that person a new life, and He gives them the power to overcome sin. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)).
Messages of God’s Love 9/11/2022