THE  STORY  OF  CLEOPAS

In our recent series of posts we read how Peter was converted and became a changed person when he received the Holy Spirit. Now, in this new series, we shall read stories of how other people since then have had a life-changing experience through receiving Jesus as Saviour.

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It was the same day that Jesus Christ revived and rose from the dead. Two of the disciples were walking back home late in the day from Jerusalem to their village, and they were talking with each other about all that had happened. One of them, was Cleopas.

As they talked a stranger appeared and joined them. What are you talking about? he asked.

Cleopas, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know?”

The stranger, “What is it I don’t know?”

Then they spoke in a rush, first one then the other “About Jesus of Nazareth of course … how the chief priests got him crucified … we had hoped he was the Messiah Christ … and this morning some of my women friends told us the tomb was empty … and some angels told them that Jesus was alive … we didn’t believe, but two of our men went to check, and – well – the tomb was empty … “

But the stranger interrupted, “Why so slow to believe! The prophets did tell how the Messiah Christ had to suffer – be killed like a lamb – and then return to heaven.” And he went on to explain how the whole Hebrew shastra spoke of Jesus (because that is who the stranger was).

At their home they asked him in. Then at supper he thanked God for the meal in the manner in which he had always done, and they realized he was Jesus!

At once he vanished, and they were left looking at each other open-mouthed, “Didn’t great feelings of joy warm us inside as he explained the shastra?” they said.

Instead of Jesus’ death being the end of all their hopes for salvation, it was actually the final fulfilment of God’s plan which had existed from the very beginning. And they rushed back by night, and found the others too had no thought of sleeping, because Jesus had risen!

(Read the whole story as it is told in Luke 24:13-35. It is posted separately for you)

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It was by meeting the risen Jesus in person that the first believers became converted. But it could not always be like that, and it became necessary for one person to tell another as those women did; that is, whether other people will believe you and me or not (The apostles did not believe the women at first). And only rarely, as in some of the stories that we shall be reading, did Jesus show himself again to people on future occasions.

Next time : A god-fearing African meets a disciple of Jesus in the desert.

 

 

THE  STORY  OF  NIMA  TSHERING

This story of his life is told in a booklet ‘Nima Tshering of Shang, Tibet’ (Maranatha Revival Crusade, Secunderabad).

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Tshering was born in 1917. His parents were serfs (tshe g.yog) who put him into Shang Gadan Chokhor Monastery to become a monk; they did this lest their owner took their only son to be a servant, just as they themselves had been taken when only children.

Tshering tells how it happened: ‘When we came to the monastery my teacher told me that when the head lama talked with me, he would ask how old I was. This teacher said that I must answer that I was seven years old, as that was the youngest age that a boy could be admitted to that monastery. Sure enough, when I went to the lama, he asked that question. I answered, “I am six years old, but my teacher told me to say that I was seven years old, otherwise I will not be admitted.” The principal laughed and laughed and said, “Pooh! You will be a truthful man when you grow up. Although you are only six years old you may become a monk today.”’

Tshering made very good progress as a monk, and after some years, went on to study in the great monasteries of Lhasa. While living at Drepung he had good food and could also earn money. He writes: ‘When people died, I went to their homes to read from the prayer-book called Bardo Thoydol (bardo thos grol, The Tibetan Book of the Dead). This book shows the way of hell. Buddhism says that everyone must go to hell once. If they do good work and worship the idols, then they can be reborn into this world as a human being. There are many kinds of gods in hell. They have animal heads, and when the dead person’s spirit sees them it shakes with fear. This is what I as a lama explained to the relatives of the dead person.’

In 1952 he was in Bhutan during the great festival of The Illumination of the Buddha, the day when he began his teaching (drugpa tshes bzhi, The 4^th of the 6^TH Month Festival). He writes, ‘All we lamas gathered together to worship. We had good food and wine, and we all became intoxicated. Also, I became sexually involved with a girl. All these things are against the lamas’ teachings. From that day on I was no longer a lama. I felt very sorry about this and no longer wanted to stay in Bhutan.                ‘I was now 35 years old, and had learned Buddhist teachings for 29 years. I left Bhutan and went to India, and visited many holy places – Buddh Gaya, Varanasi, Kushinagar and many others. My money then ran out, and I was left with no peace and no possessions.’

In Calcutta he found work, but while there fell very ill with malaria. A Finnish lady gave him food and medicine at a Christian dispensary. She also gave him the Holy Bible, in which he read that God made the world, and how idols are not worthy to be worshipped. And he thought, “This is not my religion.”

He went from there to Darjeeling, where an English couple, who were Christians, asked him to teach them Tibetan. Again he read in the Bible about idols, how people prayed to wooden idols, saying, “You are my God, save me” (Isaiah 44:9-17). But Isaiah also wrote that the idol can’t move from its place, it does not answer or save us.

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 46:7

དེ་ཚོས་དེ་ནི་གཉའ་བར་བཏེགས་ནས་འཁུར། དེ་ནི་གང་དུ་བཞག་ཀྱང་དེར་གནས་སོ།

འགུལ་མི་ཐུབ་པ་དེ་རུ་གནས་པར་འགྱུར། སུ་ཞིག་དེ་ལ་སྨོན་ལམ་འདེབས་རྩ་ན་།

དེ་ཡིས་ལན་འདེབས་བྱས་མི་ཐུབ་པ་དང། ཡང་ན་རྐྱེན་ངན་སོགས་ནས་སྐྱོབ་མི་ཐུབ།

 

After this Tshering became sick again, and was treated for 11 months in a TB hospital. Then a Christian man came and prayed for his sickness. He was cured and believed in the Lord Jesus. In the Bible he found it would be for a blessing if he obeyed the Lord God, but for a curse if he followed dead idol gods (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

 

བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྐྱར་བཤད་ 11:26-28

དེ་རིང་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་དམོད་པ་གཉིས་ལས་གཅིག་འདམས་ཀ་བྱེད་པའི་གོ་སྐབས་སྤྲད་ཀྱི་ཡོད། དེ་རིང་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་སློབ་སྟོན་བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད་པའི་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁྱོད་ཚོའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་རྒྱ་རྣམས་ལ་སྲུང་པ་ཡིན་ན་ཁྱོ་ཚོ་ལ་བྱིན་རླབས་ཐོབ་རྒྱུ་དང་། འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་རྒྱ་འདི་དག་མ་ཉན་པར་དེ་སྔ་ནམ་ཡང་མ་མཆོད་པའི་ལྷ་རྟེན་གཞན་ལ་མཆོད་པ་ཡིན་ན་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་དམོད་པ་འཕོག་ངེས་སོ།

 

And in Isaiah again, he read how God was offering a new way of liberation from samsara (‘khor ba).

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 43:18-19

འོན་ཀྱང་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁོང་གིས་བཀའ་གནང་བ།

ཁྱོད་ཚོ་འདས་པའི་བྱ་བར་མ་དྲན་ཞིག། ཡང་ན་ཡུན་རིང་སྔོན་དུ་བྱུང་བར་མ་ཆགས་ཤིག།

ང་ཡིས་བྱ་རྒྱུའི་བྱ་བ་གསར་པར་ལྟོས། བྱུང་བཞིན་པ་དེ་ད་ལྟ་ཁྱོད་ཚོས་མཐོང་ཐུབ།

མི་མེད་ལུང་སྟོང་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ལམ་བཟོས་ཏེ། ཁྱོད་ལ་དེ་རུ་རྒྱུགས་ཆུ་བྱིན་པར་བྱ།

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 43:25

དེ་བས་ན་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྡིག་སེལ་བྱ་མཁན་གྱི། གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་དེ་ནི་ང་ཡིན་ནོ།

ང་ནི་རང་གི་ཆེད་དུ་འདི་ལྟར་བྱས། ང་ཡིས་ཁྱོད་ཆོའི་སྡིག་པར་སླར་མི་དྲན།

 

After that, Tshering opened his heart to the Lord, and invited him to stay in his heart, as the Saviour Jesus whose promise of forgiveness and cleansing he trusted.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་༡ 1:9

 གལ་ཏེ་ང་ཚོས་རང་གི་སྡིག་ཉེས་ཁས་བླངས་ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་བློ་གཏད་ཆོག་པ་དང་ཡང་དག་པ་ཡིན་པས་སྡིག་ཉེས་སེལ་ཞིང་དྲང་པོ་མེད་པའི་དྲི་མ་ལས་ཡོངས་སུ་འདག་པར་མཛད།

 

So Tshering was baptized in 1955, and spent the rest of his life in this new way of trusting and obeying, and enjoying Jesus’ blessing. He wrote and distributed gospel booklets, and taught in a school for Tibetan boys, and became a leader in Christian churches.

This is how he finishes his life story, ‘Recently the Lord led me to Kathmandu, Nepal, where I now serve Him. Here there is a great number of Tibetans, whom I seek to tell of the true and living God; and of the Saviour who saves from sin and from its penalty, so that we don’t need to go to hell – not even once  …. Pray that many will be delivered from the chains of darkness, and brought into the light of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

THE  STORY  OF  AJALAA

This is the story of Ajalaa, a despised and illiterate old woman dying of advanced TB, told by her visitor Jaylund.

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Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a doctor, but those who are sick” (Luke 9:12).

ལུ་ཀཱ 9:12 – ཉི་མ་ནུབ་ལ་ཉེ་བའི་དུས་སུ། ཉེ་གནས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པོ་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་སྟེ་ “ས་ཆ་འདི་དབེན་སྟོང་ཡིན་པས་ཁོ་ཚོ་མཐའ་འཁོར་གྱི་ཡུལ་སྡེ་རྣམས་ལ་རང་རང་གི་ཟས་ཉོ་བ་དང༌། བསྡད་ས་འཚོལ་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་གཏོང་བར་མཛོད་” ཅེས་ཁོང་ལ་ཞུས་པ་ན།

 

She had been brought to the hospital slumped in a wheelchair.

Her real name was unknown; so, they just called her Ajalaa.

No one liked her; who could? They avoided her with her louse-ridden matted hair, her bony limbs, and her gruntings of unknown meaning uttered between spitting on the floor through her decaying teeth.

The visitor was Jaylund. The doctors, who did not know Tibetan, had asked her to come and speak with the sick woman because she had once known some Tibetan language.

As she approached, Ajalaa grunted a greeting. And spat. Then mumbled some words in a dialect that Jaylund could hardly understand. So she prayed, “Jesus, what can I do? Lord, please give me your love for this wretched woman.”

After the nurses had washed her hair, Jaylund tried to comb out the remaining lice in it. Food was brought, but Ajalaa would not eat. And when the time came to go, Jaylund said, “Ajalaa, I have a helper (rogs-pa); his name is Jesus. I will pray to him every day and ask him to help you.” In reply she muttered something. But after that no word of goodbye (g-le phebs), no light on her face, just dejection.

Jaylund returned after three days. But there seemed to be another woman with clean hair asleep in the bed, so she looked elsewhere for Ajalaa. It was in vain; had she died? But coming back she leaned over the bed and whispered, “Ajalaa.” The woman stirred and looked up.

Yes! It was Ajalaa! So improved! And Jaylund spoke with her for a little while telling her about her children, and a few other things that she knew how to say. Ajalaa listened, and then spoke, “Give me some money.”

Jaylund, “I haven’t come to give you money; the hospital is looking after you. But I could tell you about Jesus.” And Ajalaa replied at once, “Yes, tell me about Jesus. What’s money? Money doesn’t bring peace of mind. I want to hear about Jesus.” All that Jaylund knew to say was, “Ajalaa, Jesus loves you.” But, holding her hand, she prayed for Ajalaa before leaving.

She visited again a few days later and found Ajalaa clean and good-looking. “Ajalaa, you look pretty today.” And Ajalaa told her how Jesus had helped her. So, Jaylund played her tapes of the Good

 

News of how Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

ལུ་ཀཱ 19:10 –  མིའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་ནི་བརླག་པ་རྣམས་འཚོལ་བ་དང་སྐྱོབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡོང་ངོ་” ཞེས་གསུངས།

 

On further visits Ajalaa wanted to hear more stories about Jesus, and to sing Jesus songs.

And one day, as Jaylund prayed to Jesus, she also prayed.

But as days passed her relatives spoke against her new faith. Then, as she grew stronger, she sadly no longer wanted any visits from believers in Jesus.

 

Seven years later 

Jaylund was in a town looking for a shop to buy momos (mog-mog). Suddenly an older Tibetan lady came up alongside her and peered into her face, and exclaimed, “Oh, it is you my helper (rogs-pa)! How good to see you! I saw your hairstyle; but I came up to be certain. And, yes, it was the same! And it really was you, my friend (rogs-pa)! You are the one who saved me!” She then invited her into her little house, and fed her cheese (phyur-ba) and tea (bod-ja).

And Jaylund finally realised this lady was Ajalaa. And she said. “Ajalaa, I didn’t save you.

It was Jesus. He is our true Rokba, our helper.”  And she rejoiced because Jesus had arranged this meeting. Jesus had not forgotten Ajalaa.

They met again another year. Ajalaa was with her friends walking on the path of merit-making (dge-ba gsog) round a stupa (mchod-rten) and spinning her prayer wheel (maNi ’khor-lo skor). Jaylund stepped alongside her to greet her, and she seemed pleased.

But that was the last time that they met.

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How difficult it was for Alalaa, being unable to read the Bible, and having no believers in Jesus among her friends, people who could have encouraged her and reminded her of what Jesus had done for her when she was sick and despised.

Isaiah 53:3-5

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 53:3-5

 3ང་ཚོས་ཁོང་ལ་སྨད་ཅིང་སྤངས་བར་བྱ། ཁོ་ཡི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ན་ཚར་བཟོད་སྲན་བྱས།

སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོ་ལ་བལྟ་བར་མི་བྱེད་དོ། ཁོ་ལ་ང་ཚོས་རིང་ཐང་བརྩི་མེད་བྱས།

4འོན་ཀྱང་ང་ཚོས་མྱོང་དགོས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་། ང་ཚོས་ན་ཚ་འཁྱེར་དགོས་ཁག་བཅས་དང་།

ཁོང་གིས་བཟོད་སྲན་བྱས་པར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིན། ཁོང་གིས་མྱོང་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཚང་མ།

དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁོང་གིས་གཏོང་བའི་ཉེས་ཆད་ཡིན་ཞེས་ང་ཚོས་བསམ་བྱུང།

5ང་ཚོས་སྡིག་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་རྨས། ང་ཚོས་ལས་ངན་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་བརྡུང་།

ཁོང་གི་མྱོང་བའི་ཉེས་ཆད་རྐྱེན་ང་ཚོར་སྐྱིད་པོ་དང་ཞི་བདེ་ཐོབ།

ཁོང་གི་རྨས་ང་ཚོ་དྲག་ཡོད།

 

There was of course no need for her to gain merit by going round the stupa. Jesus had suffered for believers on the cross for their sins. On it He had won for Ajalaa all the righteousness and merit that she needed.

 

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”   (1 Peter 2:14)

པེ་ཏྲོ་༡ 2:14 – ཁྱེད་ཚོས་གཙོ་བོའི་དོན་དུ་སྲིད་འཛིན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བཀུར་དགོས་ཏེ། དབང་ཆ་མཐོ་ཤོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའམ། ཡང་ན་ཁོང་གིས་མངགས་པའི་སྤྱི་ཁྱབ་རྣམས་ལ་བཀུར་དགོས། སྤྱི་ཁྱབ་རྣམས་མངགས་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ངན་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་ཆད་པ་གཏོང་ཞིང༌། ལེགས་སྤྱོད་མཁན་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།

 

And Jesus is the loving One who faithfully holds us fast in His grasp.

It was Jesus who caused Jaylund to meet Ajalaa again after that gap of 7 years.

If our relatives and friends with their merit-seeking habits are the only human company that we have, so that we forget to hold fast to our faith in Jesus, yet Jesus will always hold fast to us and welcome us back into His arms. He will never cast out those whom His Father God has given to him.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:37 – ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་ལ་གནང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ངའི་རྩར་ཡོང་ངེས་ཡིན། སུ་ངའི་རྩར་ཡོང་ན་ཡང་དེ་ངས་ནམ་ཡང་བསྐྲད་པར་མི་བྱ།

 

We may be faithless, but He remains faithful.

 

ཐི་མོ་ཐེ། ༢ 2:13 – ངེད་ཀྱི་དད་སེམས་བསྐྱུར་ཡང་ཁོང་མིན་ཏེ།། ཁོང་གིས་རང་ཉིད་སྤང་བ་སྲིད་ན་དཀོན།། ཞེས་སོ།། གདེང་འཇོག་ཐོབ་པའི་ལས་བྱེད་མཁན་གྱི་སྐོར།

 

Footnote: I have tried to write the name of Jaylund in Tibetan characters. It could perhaps be gces-lon-da, because she showed love to Ajalaa.