Our Centenarian is Gone

Posted on by BETH

Kuthi Muthu was with the church at Lock Street for as long as I can remember. In her younger years, she was married to leper and bore him eight children, yet she never contracted leprosy.   I can’t remember her ever being ill enough to have to go to the hospital.  She was a winner.  Unfortunately she and her husband did not rear their children in the Lord because they did not know about the church until the children had grown up.

Age 80
Age 80

As she aged and became a widow, she sometimes spoke of being cold during the rain season.  That complaint was easy to understand, because I too felt the cool dampness even in my house during the monsoons.  I gave her a sweater and hoped it would warm her.  Then one day she came saying her stomach hurt and she needed help to feel better.  We took her to the local hospital where she was admitted for a few days for observation.  The doctors there claimed she had cancer and sent her home to die.  Not willing to give up so soon, we took her to another hospital in the area where we were told the same thing, except that these claimed she was too old to treat.

After trying four more hospitals, we finally took her to an elderly lady doctor in the village who had sympathy enough to try to find out what Kuthu Muthu’s trouble might be.  The diagnosis was related to her feet and legs and she she was treated for tropical Filariasis (sometimes called elephantitis). It obviously affected her stomach too.

A younger teacher at CTTS volunteered to carry her breakfast every morning along with the prescribed tablets for treatment.  The medicine was harsh and she seemed to grow weaker and sicker quickly.  The young man continued to monitor her and give what the doctor prescribed.  One day she fainted and sustained a rather nasty bruise and cut to her head.

In all this, Kuthi Muthu never wanted to miss an assembly of the saints.  Even when she was so sick she could not walk, she asked for someone to carry her to the meetings.  Likely because she thought her time was near, she came bringing a cloth bag filled with wadded up rupees (Indian money) and requested to be able to donate that to the church one day.  Some covetous soul who heard about her gift berated her and said, “You should  have given that money to your children!”

Her children…ah, yes, those eight she bore to the leper…those eight who were not members of the Lord’s body because they had been reared in paganism…those eight who couldn’t wait to occupy her house…

Not one of them wanted to take care of her in her old age!  Mind you a son and his family had moved into her house–supposedly for that purpose, but they would not even give her a cup of tea in the mornings, nor would they feed her anything but waste food.  Students and teachers from CTTS took it upon themselves to be sure she ate three meals a day and had the medicine she needed.  We could not assume her family would allow her access to good food or medicine even if we sent it there, so this had to be part of our personal daily ministry.  It was literally a trip to find her three times a day and give her what she needed–our chance to be used by the Lord to visit the widow in her affliction…(James 1:27).Kuthi Muthu at 84

Finding Kuthi Muthu was not always easy.  She learned early to avoid the brutality at home, so she walked, and walked, and walked from morning until late at night. There were times we found her on the roof top of her four story apartment building.  She lived on the third floor, so going up one more floor by the stair was nothing to her.  Later, when someone blocked the stairs, she used the metal ladder bars outside the apartments to climb all the way up the apartment walls.  She said sitting in the summer tropical sun was better than listening to the fighting in her home (Prov. 21:19).  One day she complained about never having a chance to rest in her own house and cried about the treatment she was getting.  Someone asked her if that gave her a chance to return good for evil, and she agreed it did (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31).  She was willing to be defrauded (1 Cor. 6:7).

There were so many trials during those last years, but Kuthi Muthu seemed to conquor her temptations and remain strong.  We too had trials along with her and were often tempted to give up, but the journey was a blessing for all of us.  She passed from this life last month and many will miss her sweet, yet strong will to do what was right.

HISTORY

Posted on by BETH

Since the advent of email, we get lots of articles and prefabricated forwards challenging us to take a stand against first one thing and another.  One blog which I subscribe to is called BiblePlaces.com, and today they sent a very unusual link about tourism: http://www.caspari.com/new/en/resources/media-review/854-january-27-2014-media-review  Note one article I have copied below.

History

The Jerusalem Post, January 21, 2014

Eli Kavon, an American Jew, reflects on the Christian nature of the American Revolution, in his attempt to come to terms with the foundations upon which his country was built. Kavon explains that the American Revolution was a religious war, one that the “New Israelites” [i.e. the Protestant immigrants to America] fought against the “demonic evil” represented by the British. Many sermons preached during the Revolution reveal this bent in American thinking at the time. These sermons leaned heavily on “the militant Christ of Luther” as is manifested in the book of Revelation. “In an attempt to convince Americans that Jesus never condoned pacifism,” writes Kavon, “ministers cited Revelation 19. This particular chapter features Jesus as the ‘militant victor.’ This was a Christ wielding ‘a sharp sword’ that would ‘smite the nations’ in judgment, laying down ‘the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.’ … Americans martyred themselves on the field of battle, inspired by the image of a Jesus who fought evil, not a meek, ‘turn the other cheek’ teacher.” All this, explains Kavon, ought to make American Jews feel rather uncomfortable, especially since “the Christ as ‘militant victor’ is the same force that persecuted Jews as the ‘sons of the Devil,’ in the extreme hatred of Jews evoked by Luther in his later writings.” However, Jews ought to recognize that these are facts of history, and “face this reality with honesty, grace and a sense of history not distorted by an out-of-date and insecure apologetic stance.”

Translated from the latest Caspari Center Media Review includes a brief summary from the Hebrew-language Yerushalayim Shelanu of tourism to Israel in 2012.

HOW DOES THE HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF PRE-1776 PHILOSOPHY COMPARE TO Matthew 5:27-48?

27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
KJV

IF YOUR ENEMY’S OX GOES ASTRAY

Posted on by BETH

“If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray,
thou shalt surely bring it back to him again” (Exodus 23:4).

The Old Testament Law was given to the Israelites as a nation for their government as well as for their spiritual training.  On the surface it was merely a set of rules regulating the people as they lived among other such nations.

A man like King David might see the principles behind the laws and learn to have the heart of God while others merely observed the outward show and did not discern the justice, judgment and equity cloaked within. 

Having studied the New Testament principles today makes it easier for us to see that much of the Levitical system had to do with a higher standard of living than just legalistic obedience.  Such was the command to do good to their enemies by having compassion on the enemy”™s animal that was in distress.

What New Testament command is there for us today concerning our enemies?  How are we to do them good and why?

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (Matt 5:43-47).

From this passage, what good works are we to do?  Whether or not we like the idea, we can see that we are to love our enemies.  We are to bless them that curse us and do good to them that hate us.  Then as if that were not hard enough, we are told to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us.  Some would say this is impossible for humans to do.

Why should we do this?  We want to be children of the Father (our Heavenly Father), and what is He like?  He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and He sends the rain on the just and on the unjust.

What further reasoning is there for this action?  If we love the ones who love us, what reward is there?  Even the publicans do that much.  If we salute our brethren (and friends), what do we do more than others in the world?  Even the publicans do the same things.  We must reach for a higher standard and learn to treat people like our Heavenly Father treats them.  That truly is a good work.