Mark Custalow, a Christian from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia, addresses the question, “We have our own ways so why would we need Jesus?” There are many differences among the religions of the world but they share a common element. Mark explains.

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Transcript:

So you know, every culture in all of human history has attempted ways to appease the God that they understand.

God created us with a God-shaped hole and a desire and a need to appease the God that we understand exists. The tragedy is that if you study world history, civilization history, mankind has thought a lot of things about God, and then it came up with ways that we had to appease the God that we came to understand and know.

You know, the Aztecs, a tribal cousin of ours to the south in Mexico, they believed in order to appease God, they went to a great extreme and they practiced human sacrifice. I mean, it’s well-documented, some of those things. So you have anything from cannibalism to human sacrifice to cutting yourselves or things that you have to do to yourself to get God’s attention and say, “Look at me, accept me. I’m good enough. I’ve done enough. I’ve paid enough.”

Every world religion is based in that type of approach to appease the God that we believe is out there somewhere as this impersonal being deity.

The good news is that God is not impersonal. He’s a very intimate, loving God. And Christianity, unlike any other man-made religion, yea, even tribal, traditional religion, Christianity is not one where you have to earn the favor of God because we could never do that. Our God is holy. He’s righteous. He’s pure. And we are none of those things. In fact, the Bible says there is nothing we could do on our best day to impress God. But in the eyes of God, our best deeds are like filthy, dirty, rotting rags. No, in order to appease the real true God, it doesn’t depend on our works. It goes back to faith and believing. For it’s by grace that we’re saved, not by works. By believing in faith, exercising the faith that the Holy Spirit gives us to believe that Jesus is who He says He is, that He is God. He died for our sins to forgive our sins, to cleanse us, to make us acceptable to a holy righteous judge, to God Himself.

So yea, so having our ways and having that been in culture for a long time, that might be a cultural reality. But God the Creator said, “Here’s my way.” Because He’s the Creator, He gets to call the shots. And we have to approach on His terms. And those are His terms.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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What are we to believe about the traditional practices? Is there an exclusive way that our Creator has made for us to approach Him. Or is any religion acceptable? Mark Custalow, a Christian Native American from the Mattoponi Tribe in Virginia, answers this important question.

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Transcript:

You know, it’s a scary thing to leave and abandon what has been familiar and taught to you since you can remember anything in life.

You know, maybe that you grew up in a native community, in a native family that have practiced traditional ways all your life, and all of a sudden you’ve been confronted with a different truth than you’ve ever known. You’ve got exposure, somebody that’s talking to you, or some piece of media that’s come across your way that’s saying that the creator God that you’ve known and acknowledged has a name, and his name is Jesus.

And you’re being asked now to understand that what you’ve had is a partial truth, the fact that there’s a creator, that’s true. But He has a name. He’s also got a prescribed way that He’s shown us that He wants us to relate to Him. And that’s found in what we know as the Bible. And it takes faith at the end of the day to believe that God is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Now, I could quote that verse, and it would be easy for you to say, well, I’ve diligently sought Him. I keep all of my traditional ways. I’ve done everything I’ve been taught to do. And it all sounds great as a religious pursuit. But at the end of the day, God the Creator said, I want all men to know Me, but then He prescribed an exclusive way in which that can happen. I didn’t prescribe that. Men didn’t describe that. God the Creator prescribed that.

He gave His Son named Jesus to die for you and me. Jesus on earth said this. He said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And then He said, no man comes to the Father except by Me. Those were Jesus words. Basically, he was saying the Gospel, the good news of salvation is exclusive. There are not many ways to the Creator. There is one Creator, but there’s also only one way to the Creator. And He chose the method. He chose the means. And He makes it available to all. And all we have to do is listen to the conviction of His Holy Spirit, exercise that faith He gives us to believe. And then we are truly connected with the Creator in the way that He wants us to be, that far surpasses and is a greater fulfillment of anything and everything that’s been taught to us as far as a religious pursuit.

So Jesus is the way. The way is a person. Truth is a person and it’s Jesus. And there is no other way.

If the Gospel was not true, and there were many ways to reach the one Creator, then everybody on the earth who had some type of a religious pursuit to pursue God would not end up in a real place called Hell that God created for the devil and his demons. But the Bible says that’s not true.

God, the Creator prescribed the way. Jesus is the way. And everybody has the chance to believe. And I would urge you to consider the truth of Jesus.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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Native American Christian Answers: Mark Custalow from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia addresses the question, “After all I’ve done, can God really love and forgive me?”

Mark is a Christian Native American.

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Transcript:

There is not a box that we could build big enough to hold the love of God. The Bible says, “God is love, so He Himself is love, and He is limitless… beyond measure.”

Do you know that when the Roman soldiers who had taken nails and driven them in the hands, in the feet of our Savior, when they were at the foot of the cross, when He was hung there, dying for you and for me, they had before they hung Him there, they had beaten Him mercilessly. The Bible says you couldn’t even recognize that He was a human being and a man. You know what Jesus said from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

The Bible also says in Romans chapter 5, it describes the love of God and says, “You know, it’s easy for a person to love someone who’s lovely, someone who’s lovable, someone who will love them back.” Then it goes on and again in Romans chapter 5 and it says, “But God loved you and me when we were unlovely and we had nothing to give and couldn’t give anything back. He chose to love you and me even then in that condition.”

So friend, I don’t know what you’ve done. I don’t know what you’ve experienced in life. I’m sure you’ve done a lot of bad things because you and I, we’re all sinners and we all need a Savior. And it doesn’t matter how big of a sinner you are. What matters is how big our Savior is and He is God and His forgiveness is limitless. And He’ll forgive your sins and wash them as far away as the East is from the West and He remembers them no more and He leaves you clean, pure and white as snow, redeemed, set free. I’d love to see that for you.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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If there is a God, Why is there so much injustice in the world? Why is there so much suffering? Why is there pain, evil, and death? Why I hear that one an awful lot from Native and non-Native people alike. If there is a God and He is good, why would He allow these things to happen?

Mark Custalow, from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia, answers the difficult question, “What about all the injustice and suffering?”

Mark is a Christian Native American.

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Transcript:

Boy, this is a great question.

Why is there such injustice in the world? Why is there such suffering in the world? Why is there such pain and death and disease in the world? Why I hear that one an awful lot from Native and non-Native people alike.

If God is so great, why would He allow these things to happen?

Well, that’s a universal question, again, that transcends all people groups, all races, all ethnicities. It’s a question that sometimes trips us up from understanding the true nature of who God is, His righteousness, His holiness, but also His love, grace, and mercy.

The reason all those things exist is not because God wants to inflict pain on you. In fact, when God created as our Creator the Earth and Creation and all that’s in it, and you and I, the Bible said every day He created things. He said those things He created in those days were wonderful. They were good.

Do you know that when God created the first people, it was Adam and Eve, man, woman, husband, wife, when He created them, He created them perfect. And had they not transgressed against what God had commanded them, they would still be living today and perfectly healthy without ever having experienced sickness or disease or certainly death.

It was because they chose to transgress God’s commands that sin then entered the picture. And when sin entered the world, that’s really the root of all the sickness and the evil and the disease and all that we see that’s bad in the world. It all traces back to sin. And we brought that on ourselves and on creation too. Have you ever seen parts of creation that are deteriorating? What’s because of sin? Do you see sickness and disease? It’s because of sin. Do you see violence and injustice? It’s because of sin. Now what’s wonderful in all of that, and this is the good news of the gospel, God’s love, His grace and His mercy, infinitely larger than all of that.

And He loved you enough and He loved me enough that He didn’t want to leave us in all that mire of sin and all of its effects. He loved us enough to give His own Son, to take my punishment, to pay my price, that I owe God for all my sinfulness. Jesus paid that for me.

So all the injustices in the world, all the sickness, all the disease, that’s not God inflicting pain on you. That’s the result of decisions that we’ve made in humanity. And God says, “I didn’t create you for that. I created you to live forever. I created you to live with me.” And He’s seeking you out. And He wants to give you His love and grace and mercy.

Don’t let those things stand in the way of you experiencing the true love of God, your Creator.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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There has been much harm done in the name of God throughout the Americas by those who identify themselves as Christians. So, it’s a legitimate and important question that Mark Custalow addresses: “How can you believe in Jesus after all that’s been done by the church and Christianity?” Mark is a Christian Native American from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia. He offers a perspective that is both personal and authentic.

There is no excusing evil. Every person will have to answer to God one day. He is just and all wrong-doing will be accounted for. The question is, “How do people come to the place of wanting to follow Jesus after everything that’s been done in His name?”

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Transcript:

Yeah, if you look at Native history in this country, there’s been a lot that’s been perpetuated on our Native people, our ancestors and generations before by non-Native people and done in the name of Christianity, and the list of those things is long.

It’s cost many their very lives, and again, all in the name of Christianity.

That inflicts deep pain, deep grief, deep hurt, anger, angst, all kinds of emotions, and those things are perfectly logical.

It’s not an easy answer to that question, but the best way I know to answer that question is there’s the single greatest need in my life, the single greatest need in your life, is to be rightly related to the God who created us.

There have been many messengers that have come that have tried to tell others about God and they’ve come with great intentions and they use methods that just didn’t connect well. Others came really out of selfish ambition and they cloaked it in the name of Christianity, and a lot of that’s what took place.

I wouldn’t want something like that to keep me from the only source for the only answer for the real need that I have.

And for me, personally, my testimony, I’ve been able to find that. That doesn’t erase all the injustices of the past, but I know for me personally, I have a right relationship with a God who created me and He’s helped me to see all of that in a grander perspective from His eyes.

So again, that’s not an easy answer and it may not be an answer that comforts you, but I can tell you that God is greater than all of the sin of the world. His love far surpasses it all and is worthy of your contemplation and worthy of your faith and belief as well.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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Mark Custalow from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia shares his own story of how he decided to believe and trust in Jesus. As a Christian Native American, he is one of many Indigenous people from different tribes and nations across North America and around the world who follow Jesus Christ.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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Mark Custalow, from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia, answers the question, “Why do you believe and trust the Bible?”

Mark is a Christian Native American. He references those who have studied the reasons to believe but for him, it comes down to faith. For more information on the Bible and reasons people believe it is true see the following links:

An interesting visual presentation on why the Bible can be trusted: https://youtu.be/XtNcbu5oHQU
Dr. Craig Evans on Archeology and the Bible: https://youtu.be/VmUEy03Cqzk
Dr. Frank Turek points to four reasons that convinced him: https://youtu.be/hs6cLrdtz_c

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Transcript:

So as a follower of Jesus, I base everything that I believe on the Bible, on the Word of God.

I believe about the Bible, that it is God’s revelation of Himself to us. Why do I believe that? Because it’s what He says in the Bible.

So I’m not a scientist. I haven’t earned doctorate, but I’m not a scientist. And I’m not smart enough to sit here and tell you all the proofs why you should believe the Bible. There are some people who take that approach, it’s called apologetics, and they are worth listening to and considering. But even after you listen to the smartest apologists, it all, underscores all, boils down to faith.

In order to believe, in order to experience God in all that He is, it comes down to faith. The Bible says that in order to please God, He requires faith on our part. Now I’ll tell you this as well, this is kind of extra.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel.

You can also listen on The Storyteller radio app.
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Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-storyteller-radio-app/id1550371468
Or you can visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com