KwaZulu Mission

SALVADOR and DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 93 May 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

Dear Friends and family,

We can hardly believe we are in April. It just seems the time is flying by this year. This month has been unusual in that we have participated in activities that are outside of our routine. Firstly, we got back from Port Elisabeth and we were thoroughly blessed to see the brethren there and the sense of fellowship they have. We have since learned that several of the visitors for the passover and meetings have since joined the fellowship there. Praise the Lord for His goodness.

In Vryheid, we have taken opportunity to do plenty of house sitting as Salvi had a deadline to submit two assignments before the end of the mont to ensure his continuation in his theological studies. He managed to get them done over a week and has now started studying the last module for his diploma level before he will be able to go onto the degree level which is the last level of his course. For those who may be interested, Salvi’s bible college “Kings Evangelical Divinity School” is working on opening a way for students to do the degree with a focus of Jewish-Christian studies. For more info please visit the following link http://www.kingsdivinity.org/about/centre-for-jewish-christian-studies .

While house sitting, Salvi was invited to preach the word at a Christian Evangelical Zulu meeting on Good Friday. Salvi spoke about being ready for Jesus’ return and the message seemed well received. Salvi also sang a Zulu song called, ‘Hallelujah Hosanna’ in isiZulu, isiPedi, Afrikaans, English and Hebrew which was apt for Jesus said that Israel would not see Him again until they cry out the words of this song to Him.

This month we also gave out about 2000 bibles donated for 2 schools. Evangelism still continues in the area of Ngenitsheni and Salvi had opportunity to contradict a preacher of the Nazirite sect. The Nazirites in KZN are followers of a late prophet called Isaiah Shembe. He is a false Messiah. The traditional teaching of the sect is that Jesus was the white Messiah and Shembe is the Messiah for black people. Numerous cars can be seen on the streets of KZN with stickers which say ‘Shembe is the way’. People follow him because of the alleged miracles he did. Strangely they see Shembe as equal to Jesus, as the prophet like unto Moses for the Zulu people, and the comforter that Jesus promised to send from the Father.

This month we have also helped with the wedding of the daughter of brethren, Craig and Magda, at the Bethany Baptist Church. Di took the whole week to help out practically. Salvi had a song recorded and ready as backing track. He arranged a traditional Hebrew song sang at weddings called ‘Dodi Li’ which lyrics are from the ‘Song of Songs’ but Salvi wrote an coda in English to emphasize the relationship between Christ and the Church. The song can be downloaded at the following link http://soundcloud.com/msindisi-1/dodi-li-mp4 for free. Before Salvi sang he gave a brief exhortation for the hearers to be ready for Jesus’ return. Apparently Magda’s brother was challenged and by it and wants to find out more. So we will see if anything transpires and whether we may visit him.

Salvi has continued discipleship with the Alpha brethren and we have just finished a series of studies concerning Israel and their place in God’s purposes as His elect nation. Next we will be doing a survey of the Biblical books starting with the Torah, first five books of the bible. Di’s literacy class with Tholakele has been stunted but she continues to practice reading and listening to her audio bible. Di has just taught the care bear creche and used different shapes as visual aids to teach about different aspects of the gospel. We are usually welcomed with loud applause when we turn up. In fact last week, in a supermarket called Checkers, a lady who works there came up to us and said that her grandson had spotted us in Checkers and told her “There is uncle Salvador”. When she told him that she did know us, her grandson replied by saying “What! You don’t know uncle Salvador?!!!”

Phumlani has gone to Zimbabwe being accompanied by Jonny, a farmer who is a member of our tuesday night Bible study. They are visiting a cell based church group in Harare to see how they operate as a Church and how they disciple. We are hoping that Phumlani will be inspired by the visit and will be sensitive to whatever the Lord might want to tell him. We have heard they are well and they will be set to come back tomorrow. It is a time of new experiences for Phumlani. It is his first time outside of South Africa, his first time on an airplane, and we heard that at the airport his first time on an escalator. When he saw the lift he told Jonny that he wanted to ride it as he had never been in a lift before either! With Jonny being away, we have been helping his wife Kim with the farm where we can. We have gone out selling with her to the local communities. But without the lorry, which none of us had the license to drive we were not able to take enough food or milk for people. Thus near the end of the run people were complaining that we had sold out. They cried out saying, “What are we going to eat?” It is at times like this we marvel at the government’s desire to buy farms up to give them to the local communities. With the depletion of farmers there is also a depletion of local jobs and food productivity. But while on the farm, Salvi has had an opportunity to challenge one of the farm labourers, called Muzi, concerning the unbiblical nature of ancestral traditions. Salvi also witnessed to a client there one Saturday who is a Nazirite. The Nazirites also try to keep the Mosaic Law. The man was challenged by the conversation as Salvi kept appealing to scripture. The man eventually responded by asking when the Sabbath was, as they keep a Jewish Sabbath. I responded by telling him that if he wanted to live by the Mosaic Law he had already broken it for he had bought 2 chickens on the farm and elsewhere had bought a crate of beer on the Sabbath! Salvi encouraged him to read him Bible and not place a man or prophet above scripture.

For those who are interested there is a website with three audio messages uploaded that concerning the building of the Church and having a Zeal for God’s house. These messages were recorded in Port Elisabeth, South Africa 2011. www.sermon.net/msindisi

VISA update. We still have not as yet got any news concerning Di’s application for extension for Temporary Residence Permit, but as we reported in the last newsletter there is news concerning Salvi’s application for Permanent Residence. As you may or may not know, Salvi does not qualify to apply for Permanent Residence so he put together an application to be considered as a special case for exemption of the regular rules for application for permanent residence. Salvi found out that his application had gone through to the director general of home affairs. Thinking this was the last step we were surprised to find out that he then made his own notes and forwarded it on to the exemptions department. The latest update is that the application has been forwarded to none other than the minister of Home Affairs! What a testimony to the Lord. Salvi will be contacted them this week to see if there might be any news update. The official Salvi spoke to said that hopefully a decision would be reached this month or next. We trust the Lord for His leading in this matter but we also trust that His glory will be magnified through this time. May many be touched with the gospel of His grace.

We thank you all for your prays and support, may the lord richly bless you as we labour together in His work.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please don’t forget to look at Salvi’s petition concerning ecumenism in the Lausanne consultation for Jewish Evangelism which has been signed by several people including Jacob Prasch and others from Moriel ministries and Jackie Alnor among other people. For more information please visit www.lausannecje.wordpress.com and for the petition please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/lcje . Salvi is hoping to have it sent or delivered to the members of LCJE in the near future so please sign it if you have not done so already and also feel strongly against ecumenism infiltrating the evangelical camp.

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
THE CLEANSING & SALVATION OF NAAMAN THE ARAMEAN
PART 14
2 Kings 5: 1 – 27

Elisha is a picture of Christ. Jesus healed a non Jewish leper (Samaritan) and this is what Elisha does in Chapter 5 of 2 Kings. Here we find a picture of the way the church would become after the apostolic period. At its inception, the Church was a Jewish institution. There was no distinction between Christianity and Judaism; except for the fact that the Jewish believers held that Yeshua was the embodiment and fulfilment of the Law and the prophets. Then, the gospel spread to Samaria and then the Gentiles started to believe. We have salvation at the first given to an Ethiopian. However; because he was a student of the Law and the Prophets he may well have been a convert to Judaism. The first Gentile that we definitely know was not circumcised was Cornelius. After this event with the vast numbers of Gentiles getting saved and the antagonism among the Jews towards believers grew. In Acts 13: 42 – 48 we see that the Jews loved the message that Paul was preaching and were starting to follow it. But when they saw the Gentiles coming to faith they started to contradict the things said by Paul. As Paul teaches in Romans 11, a hardening of Israel had started so that grace may be shown to the Gentiles until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. This did not stop Jews getting saved but there was a rejection of Messiah by the Nation of Israel and a national salvation will only happen again when Jesus comes back. In Luke chapter 4: 23 – 29 we see Jesus using Nazareth’s rejection of Him as symptomatic of the Nation’s rejection of Him. Though Jesus’ home town was Nazareth, the examples that Jesus gives of the rejection of God’s prophets were not localised to a specific hometown but epitomised a national rejection. The people were fascinated with the teaching of Christ in the synagogue, but they did not believe in him. Rather, they thought they had ownership over Jesus. For in verse 23 Jesus reveals their hearts. Because Jesus had done miracles in other places then the people of Nazareth thought He must do miracles for them because Nazareth was His hometown. They thought they had a special claim over Jesus. This is symptomatic of the nation of Israel. “Jesus is ours!”, thus there was jealousy over many Gentiles coming to believe in Him. And because Paul did not show special treatment to the Jews in regard to salvation, they rejected Jesus. This is the same thing that happened in Nazareth. In verse 27, Jesus uses Elisha’s healing of Naaman to teach about this principle.

VERSES 1 – 7 NAAMAN’S ENCOUNTER WITH JEHORAM

Aram is the ancient name for modern day Syria and in fact the New King James Bible uses the name Syrians to denote the people that came from there. This is fine so long as we do not mix this people up with the ‘Assyrians’ which came from modern day, Iran. The Arameans were Pagans. Their king was referred to by the title ‘Ben-Hadad’, meaning ‘Son of Hadad’ and Hadad was a pagan god. Now if you read 1 Kings 20, the Arameans were not the greatest of friends with the Israelites. In fact Israel had slaughtered many of their men and it was the Lord who had ensured Israel’s victory. The Arameans seemed to be alienated from the God of Israel, defeated by the God of Israel and enemies of the God of Israel and yet what do we find in verse 1? The LORD was also with the Arameans in their battles too. God had been with them and helped them to win their victories through a leper called Naaman. Naaman would have been an outcast in Israel’s society because God had commanded it. But the Arameans did not follow God’s laws and as such did not have a problem with him, a leper, leading the army as long as he granted success. That is the way of the world. So long as it works, who cares about it not being Kosher. But Naaman was not yet a believer in the true God and yet God had been using him and working through him, even though Naaman may have attributed his successes to other gods.

Naaman had a Jewish girl who waited on his wife. This girl may have been taken from Israel in the battle the Arameans lost in 1 Kings 20 or in the plundering of marauding bands as is indicated in 2 Kings 6: 23. The girl expresses her desire for Naaman’s healing. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it was ritually unclean to be around a leper. But more profoundly than this, it must have said something concerning Naaman’s treatment of his servants. Naaman must have been a good and fair master. Thirdly, we see there is some level of humility, though not a great amount. Naaman accepts the testimony of the girl instead of dismissing it as an invention. No doubt, being the Captain of the army and highly respected, he would have had the best physicians and witchdoctors in the country trying to cure him. So after speaking with the king he is sent with a letter and expensive gifts to Jehoram, King of Israel. Now if he was told to see Elisha then why did he go to Jehoram?

Firstly, Naaman being a foreigner, had no clue who Elisha was. Secondly, concerning the King of Israel, Naaman would have expected that he would be in good relations with the prophets of the God of Israel since Yahweh was Israel’s God. When a person is seeking the truth, he expects that the churches are following the God of the Bible. It comes as a shock to them when churches are off the wall and when Pastors, like Ray Macaulay continue to divorce and remarry. Thirdly, the King was in charge of the country. Thus the prophet would be subject to the king. But in God’s way of working, the kings were to be subject to the voice of God’s prophets. Yet, though Jehoram should have called for Elisha from the outset, he did not. He responded by renting, or ripping, his garments. When someone rents their garments they are showing that they highly grieved. Sometimes a Jew would do so when highly grieved in the presence of blasphemy. We see this in Matthew 26: 65, where the high priest made a show of his ‘supposed’ grief in that he claimed Jesus had blasphemed. Jehoram was reacting to the King of Aram’s request that he heal Naaman. The King of Aram had sent a lot of wealth and thus the pressure was on Jehoram to come up with the goods. Imagine if Mugabe, surrounded by a small group of armed soldiers, turned round to Tshangarei and loaded him with 10 million American Dollars and said to him; ‘My friend, I know we have had our differences but I want to put the past behind us, so to speak. Let us be friends. By the way, we are in dire need of rain. I have given all this money to you. Now you must make it rain today.’ ‘No I can’t do that, it is impossible.’ ‘You lie Tshangarei. I give you all this money and how do you repay me? You refuse to help me after everything I have done for you?’ He cannot be serious. It is a set up.

Note the reaction of Jehoram. Ben-Hadad had been defeated by Israel. He must have felt that the loss was a sore one. The pressure is on for Jehoram to cure Naaman of his leprosy. If he does not come up with the goods, it could end up in war. How can a mere man heal a leper? He speaks as if he is hearing a charge of blasphemy? ‘Am I God, to kill and to make alive?’ It is a show that has the air of religiosity about it but in reality was driven by fear for he says that Ben-Hadad was seeking a quarrel against him. If Jehoram was concerned about the Lord’s honour, or was a truly religious man he would have sought the Lord but instead he was simply reactive. Elisha hears about the king tearing his clothes and his reaction is different. He saw what God’s purpose was in this request. God’s purpose was to reveal Himself to this gentile.

VERSES 8 – 19 NAAMAN’S ENCOUNTER WITH ELISHA

Naaman was filled with expectations of how his healing would come about. He was a man who had great honour and was greatly respected in his own country. He had heard about this prophet from his servant girl and was no doubt greatly looking forward to meeting him. When he arrives at Elisha’s place, Elisha sends him a servant to tell him to wash in the Jordan 7 times. Naaman is furious at this and leaves. Now why was Naaman so angry? In Greek mythology, when a person wanted to request something from a god, the god would send the hero to do some mighty task. Sometimes the hero would have to go into the underworld to rescue someone or ascend some great mountain in order to get an object. In Shamanism, in order to get an answer or healing from the spirit world, the Shaman has to do spells, incantations and rituals. There has to be the bringing together of the physical world and the spirit world, often by means of a sacred object like a diviner’s pole, or as in the Roman Catholic Church the communion wafer and wine to invoke Christ’s presence; the invisible has to become visible. Put simply, there must be a show or some great feat accomplished in order to procure the healing. A simple washing in a muddy river 7 times would be seen as ridiculous. What magical powers could be lurking in there? If Naaman had come across someone like Benny Hinn, he would have been filled with joy at the prospect of being healed. But Elisha is no Benny Hinn. He simply sends out his servant with a simple message, telling Naaman to do a simple act without any sense of Drama.

The second thing that would have brassed Naaman off was that though he was highly respected in his own country, and though he had come with riches, Elisha could not even show him the decent courtesy of coming out to see him personally. Naaman wanted a Benny Hinn. He thought the miraculous depended on someone who had the air of the magical about him. He wanted a waving of hands and the speaking of faith filled words in order to see a healing take place. With God’s miracles, no such atmosphere needs to take place. God did not need Naaman to merit the miracle through some mighty deed or through him creating the right atmosphere. As his servant said in verse 13, Naaman would have done what the prophet said if it was some mighty act. God did not need that. He only wanted obedience. Some people have a real problem with the simplicity of the Gospel. For them there must be something more to it that Jesus dying on a cross and being risen again. And there must be something more required than just believing and repenting. Surely we must do so many good works before we are sure we can go to heaven. God wants simple obedience. Naaman did not even wash himself. The text says he plunged himself in the water seven times. He got baptized. I can imagine him bobbing up and down in the water in quick succession in order to say to his servant, ‘See, I did it. There you go.’ The Jordan is the river where John the Baptist would later baptise those who desired the remission of sin. Leprosy is a picture of sin. Sin spreads. Leprosy was not just something that a person could have but it was something that could appear on someone’s house or on someone’s clothes. When the mark of leprosy appeared deeper than the surface and if it spread then drastic action would be taken. If the leprosy was on a person, then that person would become an untouchable. If the leprosy was on a house or someone’s clothes then the house or clothes would be destroyed. Leprosy was serious business. Leprosy is a picture of sin. Sin is something that can spread and contaminate everything and everyone around it. Understand the typology of Naaman’s healing. Naaman, as a gentile leper, was a picture of us, outside Christ. We were sinners who were outcasts, separated from the commonwealth of Israel. He comes to the Prophet of God in order to be cleansed. Through simply obeying the words of the Prophet he is cleansed after going through the waters of the Jordan. 1 Peter 3: 21. He believes in the God of Israel and in verse 15 he seeks to pay for his cleansing but no payment is acceptable to the Prophet of God. It was a gift of grace. In verse 17 Naaman turns away from the worship of false gods and claims that he will only serve the God of Israel. Naaman is a servant and is expected to serve his master by helping his master bow down to a false god. Naaman knows it is wrong and so asks that God would be gracious to him and pardon him over that which he had no choice about. Naaman would not worship anyone else but God. And Naaman departs with God’s peace. Compare this to Israel. We have a Pagan Gentile who renounces the false gods, decides to worship the God of Israel and is cleansed. Israel, being God’s special people, have rejected their own Messiah in favour of false ones and they become unclean. But let us look further.

VERSES 20 – 27 NAAMAN’S ENCOUNTER WITH GEHAZI

Because of covetousness Gehazi chases after Naaman and tries to gain some wealth from him. Gehazi runs after Naaman, so we know that Gehazi was ambitious. Naaman gets out of the chariot in order to meet him. Though Gehazi is only Elisha’s servant, Naaman esteems him. Gehazi claims that his master has asked for a gift of clothing and one talent of silver. In his mind he has already thought of the riches he would have. But because he had done this, Elisha makes the leprosy of Naaman cling to him. What a picture. Gehazi, because of jealousy had turned away from his master. Many Jews, out of jealousy turned away from their Messiah. What was supposed to be salvation by a free gift, they sought to turn into salvation by works and were very fervent in trying to circumcise the Gentiles. They claimed that ‘The Master’ had commanded that they contribute towards their salvation by observance to Moses. And, as Paul taught, those Jews who did that were cut off from their own covenant. They ended up in the situation the believing Gentiles were in before they got saved, away from God’s presence. There are similarities between Naaman and Gehazi and the situation of Gentiles getting saved but Jews being cut off from their own covenant.

I want us to notice some things about Gehazi.

Firstly, in verse 20, Gehazi swears by the Lord that he will do this thing. Gehazi tells himself that it is God’s will to do this thing. He knows it is not but he tells himself that it is. How could he do such a thing? Because Naaman was a ‘Goy’. He was a Gentile and as such, the spoils of the wicked belong to the righteous.’
Secondly, he is headstrong and determined. He runs up to the chariot.
Thirdly, he lies in the name of his master. He gives a concocted story concerning some need that his master has and seeks for Naaman to supply the means to meet the need that does not exist.
Fourthly, he is careful not to arouse suspicion. He only asks for one talent of silver and 2 changes of clothes. This is a false humility because we see that Naaman has to urge him to take 2 talents of silver. He seems like he is a humble servant but inwardly he is a lying thief.
Fifthly, we see that one lie begets another. When Elisha asks where he has been he answers that he went nowhere. In fact the way that Gehazi answers Elisha is the same way that Cain answers God, when asked ‘where is his brother’? And the same way Satan answers God in Job. With the insolence and pride of a teenager. ‘Your servant went nowhere’.
Gehazi could no longer be in Elisha’s presence or before Elisha’s face.

There are serious consequences to changing the word of God. It was not wrong for Elisha to receive gifts from people. It was not wrong for him to receive talents of silver or changes of clothes. The problem was not with that. The problem was, as verse 26 shows, it was not a time for receiving these gifts. There is a time for everything under heaven. This would have been a great picture of the free gift of salvation if Gehazi’s covetousness had not spoiled it. No gift was supposed to be taken from Naaman. Salvation was free. Satan will always try to pervert God’s way of salvation. It was not a time for receiving gifts. Receiving gifts is not a bad thing. So how can we know what the right time is and what the wrong time is? Not through having some fixed idea in our limited understanding but by constant turning to the word of God and a constant ear for the voice of His Spirit. God had made known the timing through the mouth of Elisha? What is God making to known to me and to you today?

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 92 Apr 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

Dear Friends and family,

It has been an awesome and challenging month and we thank the Lord for His mercy and grace. This month Di taught at the care bear creche, we have continued with discipleship with the guys at Alpha on Tuesdays, this means Salvi has to take time to translate English lessons into Zulu, we have continued with discipleship for our friends from Cell group on Friday evenings in which we have been going through the gospel according to John, we have continued with Tuesday evenings with working through the letter of Romans, as well as Di teaching Tholakele to read in Zulu so that she might be able to read the bible. In Church Phumlani has been continuing to teach us all from the book of 1 Samuel. On saturdays we have started a children’s club for the older Zulu children in which we are going through the New Tribes Missions curriculum “From Creation to Chirst”. One lesson is done over two or three weeks as we want to engage the children in interaction. The Baptist church – Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid, has started a bible study on Wednesday evenings after the prayer meeting. We have been going and Allen has been doing a really good job of provoking discussion and working through the material.

We had a scare towards the beginning of this month with Asimbonge. Asimbonge is a little boy who lives at our place. Phumlani’s mother is Asimbonge’s grandmother. Asimbonge sneakily took his grandmothers medication and swallowed 7 little pills. He started to lose his motor skills and started falling over like a drunk man. We found the open packet of medication and we rushed him to the hospital. Thank the Lord that he was okay after being given other medication to counteract the effects Asimbonge was under. He was also on a drip and had to stay in hospital for 2 nights. As Asimbonge is 3 years old the hospital would not allow his mother to stay the night so that would have been a big thing for him but he is right as rain now and Gogo is extra careful with the medication. Di teaches him English during the week, basic numeracy and they do activities together such as art and puzzles. It is like Asimbonge has his own personal kindergarten teacher. His English has really come on.

The Gideon’s have donated over 2000 New Testaments to be given to the schools and hospitals in our local area. Salvi has used this as an opportunity to preach the gospel. The first week was spent by Salvi visiting the different schools and hospitals to ask if they are interested and how many bibles would be needed. Up to now Salvi has given bibles in 6 schools and in 2 hospitals and over 1000 new testaments will be given next term in two more schools. So altogether we will have distributed between 3000-4000 New Testaments.

Around this time, a lady in our church called Jessica Ntombela saw the passing away of her mother in law. It was wonderful to see the church support her. The church gave an offering of various items and we visited together to sing for her. At the funeral Salvi was given 5 minutes to hit on the ancestral spirits. The idea was to ask the family to lay off the pressure concerning Mrs Ntombela conforming to then ancestral traditions. But the family did not lay off the pressure and are requiring Mrs Ntombela to wear then clothes for the dead. She says that her heart does not want to wear the clothes for ancestral traditions but her husband is adamant and says if she does not wear them her husband will throw her out of the house. It is a very tough time. It is a very difficult situation and one that requires wisdom. It could be that some of these women would experience violence if they violate these traditions. These traditions are a wicked bondage used by the enemy to keep souls from true repentance. Please pray that the Lord makes her a way. It is amazing that persecution is on our doorstep.

This month a brother in Johannesburg donated 9 audio Zulu bibles that get recharged with a Solar panel. Up to now we have given 3 out. One to Phumlani’s mother, one to Jabulani and one to Tholakele. Gogo is using it all the time and we know the other ones are being used also. We thank the Lord for these great gifts.

To finish off this month we have visited Alan Mackenzie and the brethren at Bayshore Assembly. We have joined in legal Affiliation with Alan Mackenzie’s NGO “Road to Recovery” after we left Moriel and have been blessed at the fellowship and their huge prayer support. Salvi taught on three subjects while we were there. On thursday evening Salvi taught on Election from Romans 9, hitting against Calvinism, on friday Salvi taught on Predestination as a prophetic analysis of our future inheritance and on sunday morning Salvi encouraged the brethren concerning how we should respond to so great a predestination. On saturday both Salvi and Alan taught on the Passover as 54 of us crammed into his home and enjoyed the meal together and remembered what the Lord did for us and what He is going to do. A lot of work went into the meal. On Sunday afternoon we went to the Chinese assembly and Salvi preached on the mystery of Godliness.

Salvi has finished preaching the Gospel in the area of KwaNdlandla and now will continue to go through the other areas of KwaNgenitsheni. The school of Ngenitsheni has asked Salvi to come there once a month to preach to the children. So we will see how that goes.

VISA update. Though we have not as yet got any news concerning Di’s application for extension for Temporary Residence Permit, there is news concerning Salvi’s application for Permanent Residence. As you may or may not know, Salvi does not qualify to apply for Permanent Residence so he put together an application to be considered as a special case for exemption of the regular rules for application for permanent residence. During this last month there has been some news as to progress. Salvi found out that his application had gone through to the director general of home affairs. Thinking this was the last step we were surprised to find out that he then made his own notes and forwarded it on to the exemptions department. The latest update is that the application has been forwarded to none other than the minister of Home Affairs! What a testimony to the Lord. We trust the Lord for His leading in this matter but we also trust that His glory will be magnified through this time. May many be touched with the gospel of His grace.

We thank you all for your prays and support, may the lord richly bless you as we labour together in His work.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please don’t forget to look at Salvi’s petition concerning ecumenism in the Lausanne consultation for Jewish Evangelism which has been signed by several people including Jacob Prasch and others from Moriel ministries and Jackie Alnor among other people. For more information please visit www.lausannecje.wordpress.com and for the petition please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/lcje

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
MIRACLES WITH FOOD
PART 13
2 Kings 4: 38 – 44

In the last session we saw Elisha’s provision for a widow and a great lady. One lady was given the only source of provision that would help to preserve her life and the life of her two sons. The other lady was given a life, in the form of a son. Both ladies were blessed though they had different relationships to Elisha. The first lady was simply married to a co-worker and servant of Elisha and she pleads for help on the basis of her husband’s piety. The second lady was a personal supporter of Elisha in providing hospitality. She was a partaker in Elisha’s work without being a “co-worker”. For this she is rewarded without even wanting or seeking after the reward. Both of these ladies were blessed. One was shown mercy, the other had a reward. Both of these ladies were noble.

Verses 38 – 41. THE PROPHETS AND THE CLEANSING OF FOOD

But then we have a group of people that were more than relations of co workers or more than supporters of God’s servants, they were co workers themselves. This time we are in a famine and it seems that this is the famine that is written about in chapter 8: 1. It is not in chronological order to the rest of 2 Kings because God wants to bring something out for us concerning Elisha and the miracles he did. There is a famine and this famine was set for 7 years. Now a famine of grain has a spiritual significance. It is used in scripture to signify a famine for hearing the words of the Lord. Firstly we have a taking away of the rains with Elijah for 3 ½ years which signifies a spiritual drought where the prophet was also taken away from the Land. Then there is a famine which signifies a spiritual famine. In the drought God provided food and water for Elijah and now we see God’s prophets needing food. But in this famine we do not have the prophet of God being taken away. Rather he is involved in the provision of food for the sons of the prophets. The sons of the prophets, in verse 38, were sitting at Elisha’s feet. A few other people have noted something about this posture in the bible. This symbol of sitting at the feet is symbolic of being under someone’s teaching. Luke 10: 38 – 39. We see Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet, hearing Jesus’ words. And lest we think this was just a thing that Mary did we can look at Acts 22: 3. Here Paul says that he was educated under Gamaliel. The word ‘under’ in this passage literally means that he was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. This was the posture that disciples took to listen to their teacher. Thus when we look at the demoniac in Luke 8: 35 after he had been set free from the bondage to a legion of demons, he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind. This would have meant that the man was listening to the teaching of Jesus. And so these sons of the prophets were at the feet of Elijah, listening to his teaching.

Are we sitting at the feet of Jesus? Do we take time to come to the word day by day? When we take the time to come under the teaching of the Lord it is as something intimate like sitting at His feet, drinking in His teaching. You see here, the prophets are being spiritually fed. But not just spiritually fed. Elisha also makes sure they are physically fed. Now which one comes first? The modern missions’ principle tends to be, “You cannot preach to someone on an empty stomach.” This may have some element of truth in it. If someone is absolutely on death row, they are not going to hear the message and might die at any moment. However that is a rare situation. Most people would not be at death’s door. What is the example that Elisha sets. He looks to their spiritual need first and then cares for their physical need. What about Jesus? Mark 6: 34 – 37. Here Jesus has been teaching the crowd that followed Him because of the miracles. According to Luke 9: 11 He was teaching them concerning the kingdom of God and had been healing their sick. It was at the end of the day that the disciples recommend Jesus sending the crowds away to get something to eat. It was then that Jesus did the miracle with the loaves and the fish.

No one in their right mind would hold a teaching seminar without having organized the catering but this was not planned. The crowds just came and Jesus felt compassion. But Jesus never once seemed concerned about the people’s hunger. Jesus does not seem to have been mindful of the physical need of the crowd until this point. It was his disciples who brought up this concern and not Jesus. But as Jesus said to Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” On the other hand, when it came to the feeding of the four thousand it is Jesus who brings up the people’s need for food after they had been with Him for three days. So we see that even though we need food to survive, the scripture puts a bigger emphasis on the spiritual bread, the bread from heaven. Thus spiritual food in this text comes before physical food.

Thus after we hear about the teaching, in verse 38 Elisha tells his servant to cook up some food. Now firstly notice that these prophets do not turn round and complain that Elijah was fed meat by ravens but they have to put up with herb soup. There was contentment with whatever God provided them. Now the servant goes out looking for herbs and ends up finding a gourd. In Hebrew this is called ‘Pakkuah’ and it means a wild cucumber and it comes from a word meaning to burst. Apparently this wild vegetable when it is ripe bursts open its seeds which must have made it look somewhat appetizing. The problem was that it was poisonous. It looked like good food but it was not good food. The servant did not just cook this cucumber by itself and try to feed the prophets with it but he mixed it in with the rest of the food. As a friend of mine says; “you have a glass of juice with some drops of cyanide and you have a bottle of cyanide with danger marked on it and a skull and cross bones label. Which is more dangerous?” The glass of juice is more dangerous because without the bottle of cyanide there you would not know that the juice is dangerous. So it was with this stew. The poisonous food is mixed with the good food so that it might be eaten undetected. There are 2 preachers. One preaches that it is wrong to tell people they are sinners. He says that we are just to love people and if we tell them they are unsaved then you are satanic for doing so. The other preacher does not say it is wrong to tell people they are sinners but he does not deal with sin himself when he talks about becoming a Christian. He asks people if they want to know God’s purpose for them then they should pray for God to show them and now they are in the family of God. He did not deal with sin, or repentance. Which is more dangerous? The second preacher. The first preacher is to be compared with Robert Schuller and the second preacher is to be compared with Rick Warren and more especially with Nick Vujicic. Nick is a motivational speaker who lives his life without limbs. He has no arms and legs and has been able to find hope and perseverance despite such a hard life. His life without limbs is very inspiring. But not once during his preaching videos does he give a testimony of conviction of sin, of knowledge of judgment and the acceptance that Jesus took his punishment on the cross. Not once does he tell people to repent and nowhere does he give the biblical gospel. Robert Schuller showed his real colours but Rick Warren and Nick Vujicic do not oppose the Biblical message of sin and judgment but they practice the same kind of preaching as Robert Schuller. Thus they are acceptable to many churches that may reject Schuller.

The servant here unwittingly gave poisonous food. However the sons of the prophets as they start eating can taste that the food is not good. Either they could taste it in their mouths or they could start to feel the effects in the stomach. But they could easily discern that there was something not good in the stew. How do we know that they discerned quickly? Because there was no one who needed to be healed or resurrected. You see they did not only discern that there was poison in the food, they also stopped eating the stew. All the discernment is pointless if you do not stop eating the poisoned food. Sometimes people say, “I have discernment. I will continue to take in this teaching because I can see the difference between the two.” The leaven leavens the whole of the dough. The prophets did not only discern the poison, they stopped eating out of what was poisoned.

What was the antidote? Elisha calls for flour. Flour is ground wheat, it is processed. The grain is representative of the word. Flour is like good bible teaching, the grain is processed. The grain, the word is broken down for us. Instead of adding more of the poison, more mixed food we must turn to the word. Instead turn to solid bible exposition. Remember Psalm 1, the man who meditates on the Law day and night will prosper. Once the word takes root there is no more evil in the pot. But there is yet another application.

What do unclean foods speak of in the bible? Acts 10: 9 – 17 and verses 30 – 35. The unclean food speaks of us Gentiles. Before we were not accepted into the commonwealth of Israel. We were not allowed to go into the Temple to worship God. We would have defiled the temple. We were from a wild, uncultivated olive tree and we have been grafted into the Jewish tree. We were unclean, we would have defiled. After Elisha threw in the flour did the sons of the prophets still hesitate to eat of the stew? What God has made clean let no man call unclean. Compare that to the parable in Isaiah 5: 1 – 2. Israel was God’s cultivated vine and they were supposed to bear grapes but they only brought forth, worthless ones or more accurately, poisoned berries. In the flesh both Jew and Gentile, no matter how cultivated or uncultivated our spiritual background, in the flesh we both bring forth poisoned berries. It is only the sanctifying influence of the Word in our lives that will make us clean and fruitful.

Verses 42 – 44 MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES.

The second feeding miracle is very reminiscent and foretelling of the miracles that Jesus would do with the feeding of the four and five thousands. It also tells us something of God’s character. Have you ever heard of God’s mathematics? Because of God’s holiness He brings division. Because of God’s goodness He brings addition. Because of our sinful propensity to idolize things He brings subtraction. So God does division, addition and subtraction but God loves to do multiplication. That is a fairly simple statement and there are other reasons why God takes or allows things to be taken away. Sometimes it is to test us but the fact remains that God does love multiplication. As with the widow who had one jar of oil, God works with what people have and not with what people do not have. Now saying this we must be careful not to make this principle that expresses something of God’s desire, and His will into ‘this is the way it works every time’. God is the God who made everything out of nothing. I find it highly impossible to think that God would have been at a loss to provide without these scant offerings. There are times when, because of prayer God has provided food on a door step given for free. When Israel was in the wilderness, what did they give to God for the manna to come out of heaven? It was given for nothing. God did not use what they had. But there is a spiritual lesson here and that is, that often God wants to use what we have and, though what we have to give is insufficient, He does not despise it. In fact it gives God more glory when we do not have the sufficiency but He takes what we have and makes it sufficient. Think of the time Paul had the thorn in his flesh and 3 times he asked God to take it away. God’s reply was that His grace was sufficient for Paul, why? Because God’s power is perfected in weakness.

Now a certain man brought 20 loaves of first fruits. This was the feast of Pentecost or the feast of Weeks. To celebrate the harvest a person would bring 2 loaves of bread to the priest. Lev 23: 9 – 17. Just after passover the first sheaf of the barley harvest was to be presented as first fruits of the harvest. After 50 days there first fruits of the rest of the harvest were to be brought. There were also sacrifices to be done too. But here is the thing, before the people could partake of the harvest God was to get the first and the best. Remember Abel’s offering, he did not only bring lamb sacrifices, speaking of the sacrifice of Christ, but the fact is that he gave the firstlings of the flock and their fat portions. He gave God the best. What do we set aside to the LORD? Do we give Him the firstlings, the best portion or do we give a few left overs? This is not to say that there needs to be a certain standard or a certain amount of money. It is the principle. How about in our service for Him, do we give our first and best? But the first fruits were set apart for the priests. So it is with Jesus. According to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown when the sheaf was waved by the priest just after the Passover Sabbath. Thus it was the same time as He rose again from the dead as the first fruits of the resurrection. We are a kingdom of priests. Thus we will share in Jesus’ resurrection.

However since the time of Jeroboam, the Israelites in the northern kingdom were prohibited from going to the temple when he set up the golden calves. But though many go their own way, God still has a remnant. As we can see from verse 42 there is no possible way to get the first fruits to a priest, so he brings them to the Man of God. It is important that we recognize that he was not keeping the Law of God by this piety. When God commanded certain things to be done in the Law we see that God meant that those Laws be kept. Without blood there is no remission of sin. You cannot turn round and say that doing good works can replace the sacrificial system. But still, even though he does not obey the Law by coming to Elisha his offering is accepted. He has not kept the Law of God and he is not keeping it now but he goes to the man of God and his offering is made valid. Now how about us? We have not kept God’s Law, we have failed but as the man went to Elisha, so we go to Yeshua and our offering is made acceptable because of him. Any good works that we do are only made acceptable because of Christ’s righteousness given to us. As soon as Elisha is given the offering, what does he do? He tells his attendant to give it to the people, to 100 men. This obviously prefigures the 2 feeding miracles that Jesus would do. But here is the issue, Elisha did not hoard the gift for himself but looked to the welfare of his people. He was a good picture of how a good shepherd should be. The hirelings look to feed themselves off the fat of the sheep, real shepherds feed the sheep. In feeding the sheep Elisha uses the gift of one of the sheep and multiplies it, just like Jesus.

So what can we learn from this? First let us first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things, what we need to eat and what we need to wear, will be added to us. Secondly, when our food is poisoned, do yourself a favour and stop eating from it! Then seek solid teaching from the word to sanctify you. Thirdly we must accept all in Christ whether Jew or Gentile, Zulu or Afrikaans as all in Christ are sanctified in Christ. What God calls clean, let no man call unclean. Fourthly, let us give our first and best to God’s service. And lastly, as God is a God of multiplication let us have faith to entrust him with what ever we have. And let us seek to employ all our lives in His service that, as we drink in His word, He may produce fruit in us.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER:      91       Mar 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email:  msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

 

 

Dear Friends and family,

The Lord is so good and faithful and we have good news concerning Feb. This month we started teaching the kids at the Care Bear pre-school in Vryheid. Di did a teaching about the narrow path and the wide path. Something that we didn’t share in the last newsletter was that a local farmer has stated that she wanted to help a lady in the community, called Florence, who is looking after her grandchildren with no help from the mother who has disappeared off the scene. Florence’s house is starting to fall apart and she cannot grow anything because cows keep coming in and eating her vegetables. So we got Jabulani and a friend to build her a fenced off garden. We are also looking at helping her with the repair of her mud house but we must do it slowly, slowly. In the community, if people think someone is coming into money others may get jealous and can cause trouble.

This month we also started a new children’s club. We had noticed that we were losing some of the older children who were not engaging with the bible teaching on Sundays. We figured that they were not getting much out of the current kids club as they are learning together with very young children. After consulting with Celani and the older kids we found that starting an older children’s club was what was wanted. So we have called it Abantu Abash Club which is a word play. It can mean young people’s club or it can mean new people’s club as in the Zulu term for Born again. Salvi is slowly teaching through the New Tribes Mission, ‘Creation to Christ’ material that Clive and Donna Leembruggen from Australia gave in 2004. The kids have done it before but it is wonderful to really go through it in depth and to make it as interactive as possible. Salvi tries to get the students to share what they think and what they know and if necessary to discuss the material. There are also some new students who have never done the material before. At the moment we have 8 young people studying through the material and it is lovely to see them engaged in what they are learning.

On the 7th of this month Jabulani’s sister, Khethiwe, turned up to the discipleship in Alpha. We have started looking at the covenants of God with Israel and the relationship between Israel and the Church. But that day we didn’t look at any of that for Khethiwe shared that she wanted to give her life to the Lord. She had heard the Gospel before but this time she shared that she was convicted at a funeral that she was living on borrowed time and wanted to be right with the Lord. Mr Khumalo shared how he was being tested by the family of a boy who died on his property. The family have approached him to ask permission to do a ritual that supposedly will collect the spirit of the dead boy in order to bring him back to the family home. Mr Khumalo said that he doesn’t agree with those rituals anymore and refused. The family protested by saying that Mr Khumalo was going to lose the spirit of the dead. He has stood his ground so Khethiwe could see what it means to follow the Lord. Khethiwe said she still wanted to have a new life in Christ and understood that Jesus took her place on the cross. She was baptised on the same day. As we took her to be baptised we pulled into our home and she started witnessing to Gogo. We praise the Lord.

On the following Saturday we had our friends Craig and Magda come to visit but while they were visiting our neighbour’s daughter who was pregnant sent someone over to say that she needed to go to hospital as she was having the baby. Di drove her to Vryheid to the hospital and we were pleased to find out that she had a baby boy. However when Di got home the truck died and we had to push start the car. Our friends in town had that problem sorted out but the Truck still broke down. The problem was that we needed a new Alternator and Genrod wondered where they would get one as their electro mechanic had looked all over the workshop for one the day before and couldn’t find one. When they looked on the morning after our alternator packed up they found a brand new one that had been hidden away for four years, as if the Lord had just kept it there for that day. We praise Him for His provision.

Towards the end of the month we headed to Gauteng. We stayed one night in Secunda to visit a dear couple called Jozua and Veronica. They have supported us from the time that we worked with Moriel in Endicott, Gauteng. They pray for us every single day. So we were really blessed to share fellowship with them. We spent a couple of nights in Krugersdorp as Salvi had a meeting with some brethren concerning a ministry they were starting to encourage South African believers. More on that over the next few months. For the rest of the week we stayed with Allen and Sue Wells and all their kids. It was a great time of sharing, fellowship and catching up with some other old friends from Boksburg.

We got back this Tuesday and Salvi was back into ministering straight away he had the bible study group in Alpha. A young man called Lancelot turned up. We have gotten to know him on and off since 2009. His English is excellent and he has had much experience in the police and as a body guard. He shared that he has been in confusion over the bible and ancestral things. He wants to study with us and get some answers. He said that he had done a correspondence bible course and gotten a certificate and he wants to gain more knowledge. Salvi told him that the course we do is that we get the knowledge from the bible, but the examinations will come in the tests of life. He must respond to the Word of God in his life. When he does so, God will put the certificate in his heart so that people will see that he belongs to the Lord. Of course Salvi is hinting at the need for him to repent and know that Jesus took His punishment on the cross and the need to trust in Christ alone. Please pray for Lancelot.

The Louwsburg Bible Fellowship met in the evening and we are progressing on with Romans studying it intellectually so we understand Paul’s theology but also seeking to see how that applies to our lives as believers. We thank the Lord for this group.

Salvi has completed preaching the Gospel throughout the area of Kwandlandla, a sub area of KwaNgenitsheni and next week hopes to push onto the next subarea. Once that area has been completed there will only be the areas of Khambi and Cibilili and Salvi will have completed that which he purposes to do when we moved here which is to saturate every residential area between Alpha and Esihlengeni with the gospel and out of those who respond to disciple them. Praise the Lord we have seen fruit we we are grateful that we have gotten to see that first hand. We trust the Lord will send other workers into his vineyard to reap that which we have sown in these other areas. Please pray for this.

Well we are pleased to inform you that God willing in May, Phumlani and Jonny from our cell group should be visiting Zimbabwe to see a cell based church system in action. This was the same church that Salvi visited when he was there and we trust that it will be a blessing for them both but especially for Phumlani whom we trust will be inspired concerning the running of our own church in KwaZulu Natal. As Phumlani’s holidays are precious and he has never been on a plane we are hoping to fly him there if he can get the time off.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Finally we still have received no further news about visas. Di’s visa application is still in process. They still say that they are fast tracking it. Her last visa ran out in Feb 2011. In our last conversation with Home Affairs they were asking us to fax through all copies of Di’s documents that she already submitted to them and which they confirmed that they received!!!

As for Salvi’s application for special consideration for permanent residence… For those of you who don’t know, Salvi although being in the country on and off for 10 years, has only continuously been in the country for 6 years this April. He was in the UK working between Dec 2004 and April 2006. Normally a person can apply for permanent residence if they have been in the country for 5 years on a work permit. However Salvi have been here on a visitor’s permit. Salvi does not qualify under any category to apply for permanent residence. However through the advice of a believer who works for home affairs Salvi has put together a port folio, application form and testimonies of 20 something ministers, company directors and even the local chief and a petition of over 150 local signatures with the request that a special exception be made for Salvi to get permanent residence. Last month we got news that the particular office of Home Affairs which are handling the case in Pretoria, are making application in Salvi’s place that Salvi be granted Deviation. Deviation means that Salvi be granted permission to apply outside of the regular process. As Home Affairs are doing this it means that they believe that Salvi has a case and if Salvi is granted permanent residence it will not matter if Di gets her visa granted or not as she will be able to apply for permanent residence also. So we will keep you updated in our newsletters as and when news comes in.

We thank you all for your prays and support, may the lord richly bless you as we labour together in His work.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please don’t forget to look at Salvi’s petition concerning ecumenism in the Lausanne consultation for Jewish Evangelism which has been signed by several people including Jacob Prasch and others from Moriel ministries and Jackie Alnor among other people. For more information please visit www.lausannecje.wordpress.com and for the petition please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/lcje

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
PROVISION FOR A WIDOW, SON FOR A GREAT LADY
PART 12
2 Kings 4

In 2 Kings 3, Elisha prophesied victory to the Good king Jehoshaphat, the bad king Jehoram and the foreign king of Edom. Whereas historians only record the main movers and shakers and people of societal influence, the scripture records people of every day note who had needs. God chose to include accounts of people from every section of society because through His dealings with them we can learn something about Himself and about ourselves. In chapter 4 we read about three instances where Elisha is involved miraculously in the giving of life or preservation of life to three different types of people. Firstly we come across a widow who never was involved directly with Elisha but whose late husband was a servant and a co-worker with Elisha. Secondly we see a great lady who shows hospitality to Elisha and supports him and lastly we read about the sons of the prophets who would have been co-workers with Elisha. In all three cases Elisha is there with some form of life giving or life preservation. For the sake of time we will only look at the two women.

Verses 1 – 7. PROVISION FOR THE WIDOW

A certain woman of the wives of the prophets came to Elisha. She needed help. She is in debt and cannot meet her payments. Now in 1 Timothy 5: 3 – 10 we read about Paul’s criteria for helping widows and this included the woman being the wife of one man, over 60, reputation for good works, hospitality, who washed the saints feet and assisted those in distress. Now we know that this widow was the wife of one man because the scripture refers to her still as a wife of one of the sons of the prophet. And she refers to her husband as a servant of Elisha. But the basis of asking for Elisha’s help is not her own works of piety. In fact there is nothing at all about this woman that is used to motivate Elisha to help except for one thing. She was married to the prophet. She begs Elisha on the basis of how her husband feared God and was Elisha’s servant. She benefits from her husbands piety. Now scripture gives us examples that if someone wanted to show kindness to someone, or fulfill a promise to someone who was dead they would turn to the nearest relative of the deceased and bestow it on them especially when it came to keeping a covenant. We see this exhibited by David in 2 Samuel 9: 1 – 13 in wanting to show kindness to someone in Saul’s household for Jonathan’s sake. We see God’s giving of the blessing to Isaac in Gen 26: 24 was done for Abraham’s sake. Let us read Numbers 5: 5 – 8. We see in the case of those who have committed wrong and have wronged someone, the cost to that person wronged must be restored. Restitution must be made but also not just restitution. Also 20% must be added to the value. Now what if that person is not alive anymore, it must go to one of the relatives. But if there is no relative, then what must be done? Does the payment get canceled? No, it then goes to the priest. This must tell us something about God’s attitude to what we owe people who don’t want the payment back, before God we still owe that debt and we should still pay it back even if it is to someone else.

This lady pleads her case on the basis of her husband’s piety and Elisha gives heed to her cry. But get this. Elisha does not get the debt cleared. Elisha does not produce the money or persuade the guy to call the debt off, unlike Paul tried to do with Philemon. What Elisha does is provide the widow with a way to earn that money so that she can pay it off through her own industry. It was a miraculous provision but the lady had to sell it her self. But the first question that Elisha asks is in verse 2. ‘What shall I to do for you? What do you have in the house?’ God works with what we have, not what we do not have. Until we learn to employ whatever scant means we possess we should not expect God to do anything for us. When it came to the feeding of the five thousand, though a miracle provision the first question Jesus asked them in Mark 6: 38 was ‘How many loaves do you have?’ God never despises a small gift given in poverty. Instead He blesses it and uses it and can multiply it. A huge mistake in missions we make is that we go to the rurals, provide everything in terms of building and structure, despise what little they can offer and make them rely on Western funding. Instead we should teach them that God loves the little they can offer and can use it for his glory. This means more to the Lord than western churches giving our of their abundance spare change that because of the exchange rate can go far in their context. ‘What do you have?’ That is the first question. The lady has one pot of oil.

Next Elisha instructs her to borrow vessels from her neighbours so she can fill them with oil and set aside what is full. Before Elisha tells her what she can do with the oil, he expects her obedience. All she has to do is to fill up the jars with oil. But notice that the oil stops when there is no other vessel to fill. How much can God give us? Let me ask another question. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit who anoints. How much of the Spirit can God give to us? The Holy Spirit is infinite. He cannot be contained. The Lord gives us according to our capacity. In Matthew 25: 14 – 15 we see that the master gives his possessions to his servants according to their ability. One is given 10 talents, one is given 5 and the other is given one. God gives us according to our capacity. And lastly Elisha tells her that she should sell the oil. She must work with the Blessing that God has given. No loafing around. Even when provision was given for the poor in Israel the poor had to go and collect the grain themselves. They had to gather what they could. It was not simply a hand out. The first port of call after this was to pay off the debt and then secondly she could live off the rest. Her sons were this lady’s support and sustenance. If they were taken away then she had nothing to fall back on. God had commanded that Israel never treated their own country men as slaves. If they had to enslave they had to treat them like hired servants in the house. And if a Hebrew buys a Hebrew slave he had to release him after 6 years. (Lev 25: 39 – 42 & Deut 15: 12) But there was no guarantee as much as we know that this creditor would have been obedient to the Law of Moses, especially as the northern kingdom had forsaken God’s Law. Through Elisha God had made provision that this widow would have her sons in order to sustain her life in her older years.

Verses 8 – 37. THE GREAT LADY AND THE PROVISION OF A SON

The second lady we read about is from a wealthy and prosperous background. It is good and there is benefit in being a dependant of one who supports or is a co worker of God’s servants but it is even more noble to be a supporter of God’s servants. This lady was one who practiced hospitality. Hebrews 13: 2 encourages us to practice hospitality. The word hospitality in Greek is ‘philoxenia’ and this literally to love foreigners or strangers. People who do not belong to our community or our country, etc. The word Xenos in Greek means a stranger or something strange. This is where the word xenophobia, meaning racist, comes from. It literally means to be afraid or to intensely dislike foreigners or strangers. The word commands us to show hospitality to those who are not from our nation, people group, or home town. And in so doing, we never know, we might be entertaining Angels. This happened to Abraham where three visitors came to his area and he fed them. They turned out to be angels. But though, I am sure, Hebrews is referring to angelic beings, we should not forget that the word, ‘anggellos’ means messenger and that is what Elisha was. As a prophet he was a messenger sent from God to His people. The woman, either through spiritual intuition or by evidence of Elisha’s activity perceives that he is a Holy man of God and persuades her husband to have a room built for Elisha where he can retire.

Notice what the room contains. Verses 9 – 10. The room simply contains a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp. Interestingly enough, in the UK, student residences are supposed to contain a bed, a desk, a chair and a wardrobe. It was a place where Elisha could sleep, could eat, pray and study. Showing hospitality does not mean tickling our visitor’s fancy or letting them take advantage of us. When a servant of God is presented with a gift, he is not to turn his nose up at it even if it is basic. When a preacher talks about blessing the man of God and giving to his ministry, that preacher better be prepared to eat bread and water if that is the blessing he is given. Liberty on the side of the giver, contentment on the side of the recipient. Without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. (Heb 7: 7) Thus it is apparent that Elisha was a good example of someone who received a blessing. He took whatever was offered him without complaint. Paul himself knew how to abound and also how to lack. In every circumstance he had learned to be content with whatever he had. How are we in that area? Do we gripe and moan about what we do not have? Or are we thankful that God has given us above our need of food and clothing?

Notice also the attitude with which the woman gave. When Elisha asked her what she would like in return for the care she gave, if she would like special mention made to Royalty (and let us face it, could Jehoram or Jehoshaphat decline Elisha after the grace showed to them in the last chapter?) how does she reply? She does not want it. She is perfectly content with what she had. She did not give with a motive of getting more from God. She gave with a good heart. She was not expecting anything in return. As we know, the teaching of sowing a faith seed plays to people’s covetousness. This woman was not like that. But whoever gives to the prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Though she asks or expects no reward, God gives her one anyway and her reward is this, that she will have a son. Now this is not a recipe for having children if you are barren. Notice the woman did not ask for this. This was down to Elisha’s will and more profoundly the Lord’s will through Elisha. The woman tells Elisha, ‘Do not lie to your maidservant’. What she is saying is please do not make sport of me. Do not give me false hopes. There is a fear that her expectations will be raised in order to be dashed. It is much easier not to desire in the first place, than to desire and to lose it. When God gives us a desire and then prevents that desire from being fulfilled we may start thinking that God is playing with our emotions. God may seek us to die to our hearts’ desires but he never makes sport out of our vulnerabilities if we are submitted to Him. Now as with anything the Lord gives us, there will be a time where we must face the thought of losing that which God has given. God may take it away permanently or temporarily and it leads us to realise that we cannot control everything or keep it by our power. The best thing to do is to take it to the Lord. In verses 18 – 24 we read of how her son falls ill in the field, how he is taken to the mother and how he dies. What control the mother shows in her dealing with the death! She does not tell her husband. Now this is not insubordination on the wife’s part but she knew that man could do nothing for her son. God is the one whom she should turn to. The boy was given by the word of Elisha and to Elisha she goes.

Could it be that this woman is one of the women that Hebrews 11: 35 testifies to when it says that by faith, women received their dead by resurrection? I really believe that is the case. She presents no one her case except the prophet. Not even Gehazi is told. And when she arrives in verse 27 she falls down. Gehazi is quick to move her away. It is not proper for a woman to hold a guy like that. Gehazi is concerned with how it looks. And in some ways Gehazi was right. There is a way to treat people and to approach people that is proper but Elisha is not concerned about appearances, he sees the heart. The lady is in deep distress. He does not deride her for her uncontrolled display of emotion. He understands that she is troubled. How similar to our Lord who knows how to sympathise with our weaknesses. He felt what we feel. He was tempted yet without sin. He knows our frailties and he knows how powerful our emotions can grip us. No Elisha did not berate the woman for handling him as she did, he could see that it was not rebellion but a brokenness of heart. Nor did Elisha jump to conclusions. He did not have a thought and take it as God’s word for the lady. God does not always reveal things to His servants. His servants do not need to know all the answers. It was enough that Elisha could learn it from the woman herself. And I believe the reason for this was that a woman in this situation needs to be listened to and understood. She needed to tell Elisha and express how she was feeling. Is this not the kind of behaviour that God commands of husbands in 1 Peter 3: 7? What if there were more men like Elisha in the church who would allow women to express their emotions without deriding them for what we might call unbalanced and hormonal? What if, Instead of criticising weakness, they showed more understanding and then went to the Lord with their wives? What a high calling we husbands have.

Elisha sends Gehazi with the staff and tells him to lay the staff on the lad but it has no effect. Elisha was not going to go there. So why did nothing happen with the staff. When we compare this woman with the centurion we see two different levels of faith. The Centurion, in Matthew 8: 8 said “I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed”. How different to this lady in verse 30. She says I will not leave you. She would not accept that Elisha could send the staff and heal the son, she looked to Elisha. It is after she says this that he gets up and follows her. Thus when they arrive the staff has not accomplished anything. But instead we have a greater illustration of Christ with what Elisha does next. Just like Elijah did, he stretches himself out on the lad. His eyes to the boy’s dead eyes, his mouth to the dead mouth, his hands on the dead hands and warmth comes to the body. Here is the messianic significance. What would happen if you touched a dead body? Lev 21: 1. You get defiled. Elisha got defiled in order that that boy might have life. And what was it that signalled his being brought back to life? He sneezed seven times and then he opened his eyes. When God made Adam where did he breathe the breath of life in order that Adam would become a living being? It was in his nostrils. Thus Elisha is defiled that the boy might live, he came alive and was then able to see. As it is with us, Jesus became sin that we might live, we are spiritually born again and are thus able to see.

What we see in both accounts is God’s blessing to two different people. One needed oil and the other needed a resurrection. One was related to someone who served alongside a co-worker of Elisha. Another supported Elisha. The last group worked alongside Elijah. It is good to be a dependent of one who supports or works with God’s servants. It is better to be a supporter of God’s servants but it is even better to be a fellow worker. All of them have a share in the ministry. All of them are blessed. The first is shown mercy and grace, the second is rewarded and the last group will be rescued, despite the inclusion of unclean food. But God’s blessing does not promote laziness. It promotes industry and good stewardship. God’s reward is for those who act without seeking the reward and God’s salvation is preserved despite the inclusion of that which is from a foreign vine. God makes what was unclean, clean by the addition of the grain. Just like Elisha, Yeshua saves us from the bondage of slavery and brings us to new life. He will sanctify us, Gentiles from a foreign vine, by putting in the grain into our lives. He will make food abound where there is a famine of the word. His name means salvation; He not only saves us initially but continues to save us and will complete our salvation when He comes again.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER:      88       Jan 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email:  msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

 

 

Dear Friends and family,

Greetings in the most wonderful name of Jesus. We hope you are all well. Well after we returned home from house sitting on the 2nd of Jan Di had clothes to sort through graciously given by some people in Vryheid with some old books. Di gave out the clothes and had a clinic run to do the following day. Salvi continued discipling with the guys from Alpha. There is definite signs of growth though sometimes they have problems in coming to the Sunday meetings. However they rarely miss the discipleship classes where we have been spending much time on the basic doctrines of the faith. It has been interactive with many questions posed to them. Salvi has just finished a lesson with them based on Jacob Prasch’s message ‘Christ, the foundation’. It is a message that says that there are many truths in scripture but there is only one ‘the truth’ and ‘the truth is Jesus. When you take ‘a truth’ and treat it as foundational truth you turn ‘a truth’ into ‘a lie’. How very apt in the area that we minister into where churches build on many different focuses. In our first cell group of the year Phumlani taught us concerning Christ being the rock on which the church is built and how we are to stick together as blocks cemented together. He said that he was inspired for the message while building his extra room for his hut. He has almost finished and his hut is now a home with three rooms. Phumlani is such a hard worker. At the cell, Phumlani’s sister, Celani, and his niece Khethiwe also attended. On the Sunday afternoon we went to visit Salvi’s friend, Tony who was visiting from New Zealand. His sister lives in Vryheid and runs a guest house. In fact Tony and his sister, among other people, were instrumental in the directing of Salvi and his friends, Caleb and Sophie to this area in starting the KwaZulu Mission 10 years ago.

The next wednesday after Cell we went down to the brethren in Stanger to Calvin Josiah, Mark Van Niekerk and the church there for 5 days. We planned it so that it would not interfere with home cell and discipleship. We also planned it around the time that Khethiwe needed to go back to Durban south in order to do her second year of studies in Business management. This saved her catching taxis. But upon reaching the area of umhlanga our bakkie/ute/truck overheated due to a leaking water pipe. Fortunately no damage was done to the engine but it was hard for the garage to fix it as the whole pipe was corroded and so it did not respond well to welding. They patched up the hole with epoxy eventually but this gave us some time to visit umhlanga which happened to be right on the sea. We were able to take Khethiwe paddling in the sea. Khethiwe had never been to the sea before and she waded in to her knees and was truly excited by the experience. She said that the sea reminded her of how big God is. When the bakkie was fixed we rushed Khethiwe to the place where she is living in the south of Durban and got to Mark and Marie Anne’s place in Stanger who received us with a warm welcome, lovely food and a kind reception from Dean and Taryn also, who are their son and daughter in law. During our time staying with them we got the opportunity to witness to a really nice guy called Dave who is searching for truth and had many thoughts that he is thinking through. It was a pleasure talking to him and he and Mark may be visiting us in Northern Natal in the future. Salvi taught three sessions over the weekend and did a questions and answers session also. The first teaching was on Friday evening concerning John 1 and the new creation. And the two sessions on Sunday were about the miracles of Jesus in John being signs pointing to Jesus and revealing His glory. On Monday morning we shared a breakfast with Calvin, the pastor there and his wife Jean before heading back. While in Stanger Di made contact with a group called Natural Balance to buy 10 wonder bags. The wonder bags are heat retention cookers which cook food that has been heated for 5-15 minutes on a stove element. The food is then placed in the bags which retains the heat , not letting it escape, this allows the food to cook through slowly for about hour. As you can tell from the title the company believes in the myth that people are causing climate change. However the bags are brilliant for the people in the local community for it will help them save on their gas, thus saving them money by making their gas last longer. Di had come across them when friends called Debbie and Riaan gave her one. Di was so impressed she thought it would be fantastic for the women of our community. This month she has sold all ten to local women, giving them demonstrations concerning how they work. The response was so good that in the future we will purchase more and have various women in the local areas responsible for collecting data and monies so that they can receive a small income from the sales.

This month the older gentleman who Di had rushed to hospital because the ambulance did not arrive, sadly died from a stoke, also the man she often takes to clinic was hospitalise in Mountain View hospital with TB.
Sal has spoken to this man several times about the gospel but he is convinced he is right with God and God is fine with him honouring and sacrificing to his dead ancestors. Tradition and culture cannot replace the truth of the scriptures.

Di started her reading lessons with Tholakele again for the year and she is is making progress slowly. Her desire is to read the bible for herself.

Finally we have received no further news about visas. Di’s visa application is still in process. We have received news that they will now fast track it, that was in Dec last year. Her last visa ran out in Feb 2011.
As for Salvi’s application for special consideration for permanent residence… For those of you who don’t know, Salvi although being in the country on and off for 10 years, has only continuously been in the country for 6 years this April. He was in the UK working between Dec 2004 and April 2006. Normally a person can apply for permanent residence if they have been in the country for 5 years on a work permit. However Salvi have been here on a visitor’s permit. Salvi does not qualify under any category to apply for permanent residence. However through the advice of a believer who works for home affairs Salvi has put together a port folio, application form and testimonies of 20 something ministers, company directors and even the local chief and a petition of over 150 local signatures with the request that a special exception be made for Salvi to get permanent residence. Last month we got news that the particular office of Home Affairs which are handling the case in Pretoria, are making application in Salvi’s place that Salvi be granted Deviation. Deviation means that Salvi be granted permission to apply outside of the regular process. As Home Affairs are doing this it means that they believe that Salvi has a case and if Salvi is granted permanent residence it will not matter if Di gets her visa granted or not as she will be able to apply for permanent residence also. So we will keep you updated in our newsletters as and when news comes in.

We thank you all for your prays and support, may the lord richly bless you as we labour together in His work.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please don’t forget to look at Salvi’s petition concerning ecumenism in the Lausanne consultation for Jewish Evangelism which has been signed by several people including Jacob Prasch and others from Moriel ministries and Jackie Alnor among other people. For more information please visit www.lausannecje.wordpress.com and for the petition please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/lcje

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
GOD’S GRACE TO JEHORAM ON ACCOUNT OF JEHOSHAPHAT
PART 11
2 Kings 3

In the last session we looked at the start of Elisha’s ministry and how he is a picture of the Messiah. To those who accepted Him, He became the source of blessing, salvation and purification. But to those who rejected him he became a source of cursing. Elisha cleansed the contaminated water through salt. And so it is with Jesus. Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and he says that to us who follow Jesus’ teaching. It is not profession of Christ that makes us the salt of the earth but the obedience to Christ that does so. Also to be salt means that we lay on the altar anything that might be a stumbling block for us in our faith or for other people’s faith. The sacrifice of these things for the LORD is given to the High Priest and the family of the High Priest. In this we are salt. And so we experience a freshness and newness of life, a cleansing and salvation. Salt acts as a preservative. We are in the world but we are not of it. So we will see that the presence of the good king Jehoshaphat in this passage brings deliverance to Israel in this battle.

What we read of in this passage is the participation of the good King Jehoshaphat with the evil King Jehoram in battle. There is deliverance for Jehoram through the participation of Jehoshaphat but even so, does that make it right? Should we participate with evil pastors? In the Old Testament, God called the kings of different people shepherds. Both a shepherd and a king are rulers. Pastoral ministry includes the activity of ruling. Not as Gentile rulers which lord it over the people but as servant leaders. As Jesus said, the greatest among you must be servant of all. These questions we will deal with but let us read the passage bit by bit.

1 – 12 JEHOSHAPHAT’S PARTICIPATION WITH JEHORAM.

If you remember back to chapter one you may remember that Ahab’s son Ahaziah, an evil king that was just like his parents, died. Ahaziah had no son and thus the regency passed onto his brother, Jehoram. Ahaziah became king in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat’s reign and he reigned for 2 years. But Jeroboam became king in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat’s reign. Now the reason that these numbers do not seem to add up is because of the way the Jews counted a year of someone’s reign. If you became president of a company in March 2007 and your presidency was to terminate in the May of 2008 you would say that that person was president for one year and 2 months. But as Alfred Edersheim explains in his Bible History Old Testament, the Jews of the day would count the New Year from the month of Nissan (the month of Passover) and a king’s reign that extended beyond that, no matter how briefly the reign after that month would be counted as a second year of reign. Thus we would count 2007 as one year of rule and count 2008 as another year of rule. Thus you would have been president for 2 years. So we see that in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign Ahaziah became king and he reigned during the 17th year and the 18th year which would make a total of 2 years. And thus we see that Jehoram became king in the 18th year. The other discrepancy that people may point out is that in chapter 1: 17 Jehoram became king in the 2nd year of the reign of Jehoshaphat’s son, who also was called Jehoram, but in chapter 3: 1 we read that he became king in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat’s reign. So which king was on the throne? There is a plausible explanation that Wesley gave. The same time that Ahaziah became king was the same time that Ahab had been killed in a battle that he fought with Jehoshaphat where they were warned by the Prophet Micaiah that Ahab would not return safely. (1 Kings 22: 27 – 28) Jehoshaphat was a king that feared God and always asked to hear from a prophet of God. Thus it is highly likely that he would have instated his son as a Viceroy in his place in case he did not make it alive out of the battle. Thus during the 2nd year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat (being Viceroy), Jehoram the son of Ahab becomes king of Israel.

Now Jehoram was an evil king. He was not as bad as his parents. He did away with the Ba’al worship, at least officially he took a stance. But he still went in the same way as Jeroboam. In 1 Kings 12: 28 – 32 Jeroboam set up 2 calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan. This was to stop the people going to Jerusalem in order to worship the Lord. He changed the pattern that God had shown Moses with the tabernacle and that God had shown David concerning the temple. (1 Chr 28: 19) Jeroboam eliminated all of this and, just like the Israelites claimed that Aaron’s calf was the god who brought them out of Egypt so also, Jeroboam claimed that these calves were the gods that brought them out of Egypt. Jehoram was worshipping the calves. But the calves were not as bad as Ba’al worship. Even if we repent from gross sin. Maybe we have repented from Buddhism or Islam. If we join the Roman Catholic Church and partake in the Mass or use the rosary we are still not right before God. We are still partaking in idolatry. Even with Jehoram’s repentance God still calls him evil. We do not know why Jehoram did this? We can see from this passage that Jehoram wanted to regain the kingdom. When Ahab died the king of Moab rebelled. And he probably gained courage from the victory that the king of Aram gained over Ahab. Jehoram would have known that Elijah had prophesied against Ahab’s house because of Ba’al worship. So if we put 2 and 2 together we see it is likely that he got rid of Ba’al worship so that he could regain the kingdom. If this is true it was not a real repentance but a political move in order to regain power over the Moabites.

Now Jehoshaphat was different. He was a good king and revered God to a great extent except for one area. He was weak in the area of alliances. He kept allying himself with the wicked kings of Israel. In verse 7 we see that King Jehoram wanted to use Jehoshaphat’s help. Jehoshaphat was strong and rich and thus he was a pretty good ally to have. Though Ahab’s household had lost the servitude of the Moabites, Jehoshaphat had Edom in subjection. Where did the problem spring from? Why was Jehoshaphat a sucker for this kind of participation? 2 Chr 18: 1. There is much wisdom in the biblical precept ‘do not be unequally yoked’, and ‘bad company corrupts good morals’. He married into Ahab’s family. He not only married into them but he allied himself with Ahab through marriage. Now was this such a bad thing? Many people marry unbelievers and ally themselves with unbelievers. It is not necessarily wrong to do the same is it? Look also at Jehoshaphat’s character. In verse 11 he asks if there is a prophet of the Lord. He is seeking the Lord in his actions. Surely Jehoshaphat should help Jehoram out because by doing this he might be able to reach Jehoram. How could he be a good witness to these evil kings if he did not help Ahab, Ahaziah or Jehoram out? 1 Chr 19: 2. There is a difference between reproving someone or sharing the truth with them and participating in their enterprises. The King was leading the people astray and thus God was heavy on Jehoshaphat for helping him out. By loving those who hated the Lord, Jehoshaphat was bringing wrath on himself. He rode in Ahab’s chariot and got confused for being Ahab. Those who remain in Babylon will suffer the judgment of Babylon. Rev 18: 4. It is important that we do not use this verse to be introspective and cut ourselves off from people, but when it comes to helping ungodly groups, organizations, and multifaith initiatives we dare not ride with them in their endeavors. Jehoshaphat not only got reprimanded for his cooperation with Ahab, but he got reprimanded for his cooperation with Ahab’s son Ahaziah. 1 Chr 20: 35 – 37. And now we see he is doing exactly the same with Jehoram. Just because Jehoshaphat did this does not make him an evil king. We see in verses 11 – 12 that Jehoshaphat was one who sought God. He always asked if there was a prophet of Jehovah.

Verses 13 – 27 ELISHA’S PARTICIPATION AND THE VICTORY

Elisha’s attitude to Jehoram is very different from Jehoshaphat’s. Jehoshaphat seemed only too pleased to offer his resources to help Jehoram in the battle. Elisha, however, wants nothing to do with Jehoram. This is not Elisha’s attitude to all of the Israelites but only towards the King who is the cause of the nation’s downfall. This is why I believe that our attitude to those who are in Church leadership or who lead others astray must be different to those who are being led astray. All will suffer judgment but God’s criticism is harsher with the shepherds than it is with the flock. 2 Tim 2: 24 – 26. We are to correct those who err with a spirit of gentleness and yet Paul tells Timothy also to rebuke with great patience and instruction. Also Paul tells Titus that concerning those of the circumcision who are rebellious, empty talkers and deceivers that they must be silenced and severely reproved for they are upsetting whole families. They were teaching what they ought not to teach for sordid gain. (Tit 1: 10 – 14) So too, Elisha, upon meeting Jehoram, who was exacerbating the judgment against Israel, reproved him harshly. Elisha says, ‘What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and of your mother.’ One of these prophets we read about in 1 Kings 22: 11 and he was called Zedekiah. He prophesied in the name of Jehovah, in the name of YAHWEH. In verse 12 all the prophets were prophesying in the name of YAHWEH. In verse 6 they prophesied not that YAHWEH would deliver the king but that Adonai would. A Lord. Not the LORD. But when Jehoshaphat asks for a prophet of YAHWEH they start using the name of YAHWEH. They are just like members of South African parliament who change parties but keep their seats. Go to the prophets of your parents who will be anything you want them to be, who will say anything you want them to say. Go to them. Elisha is not telling him to repent but handing him over to sin.

Jehoram contests that he cannot go to them because he believes that the LORD has called them to be defeated by Moab. His evidence was the lack of water and the futility of their journey thus far. No one told Jehoram that this was the LORD’s hand against him but something in him thought this was God’s dealing. So how does Elisha respond? He says that if it were not for Jehoshaphat’s presence Elisha would not look at him or see him. Just the presence of the godly King brings grace into the whole situation and Jehoram benefits from it. The country is filled with water. (v 20) And the Moabites are defeated. (v 21 – 27) God promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were 10 righteous people in the place. In Rev 12: 14 we see that Satan tries to destroy Israel and they are protected for a time, times and half a time. For three and a half years in the tribulation Satan tries to destroy Israel but cannot so he therefore turns against the rest of her children who hold to the testimony of Jesus. There is a great persecution. Zechariah 12: 9 tells us that many nations will come against Jerusalem and when there is no one to help, and then God Himself will intervene and destroy those nations. When they try to obliterate God’s people, God obliterates them. And we have already read in Rev 18: 4 that God tells His people to come out of Babylon so they don’t partake in her sins and share of her plagues.

God criticised Jehoshaphat for his ungodly alliance with Ahab. He was criticised for his alliance with Ahaziah. But now he was with Jehoram and God by all accounts should allow both him and Jehoram to have it. If you help the wicked and love those that hate the Lord you bring wrath on yourself from the LORD. Jehoshaphat has been warned. Those who participate in Babylon will share in its plagues. If you fight with the enemy you will die with the enemy. But that does not happen this time. In fact it does not happen at all. Jehoshaphat’s presence brings victory not only to Jehoshaphat but also to Jehoram. How do we explain this? God warns of judgment but instead we see victory. Does this one act negate all the warnings that God has given us? No but the answer is as simple as this. God was gracious at this time. How many times should we have born the consequences of our compromise or sins and we have been let off the hook? Too many to tell. We do not deserve it and God does not have to do it… but He did. He did not have to spare Jehoshaphat but He did. And in our desire to protect against people abusing the grace of God we emphasise that God will forgive but we still have to pay the consequences of our sins and in many cases we do have to bear them. But that does not mean that God will never take away the consequences. God’s grace may actually act to store up wrath against us and it will if it is abused; but nevertheless his grace is still there. Sometimes people get away with so much that it adds to the deception that says that God does not see. But His grace is still there. (Romans 2: 3 – 4)

What about you and me? God’s acts of grace will never negate His judgment. He is serious when he warns us that if we participate we will share in the judgments. God’s grace to us demands a response of repentance and a pleading for forgiveness. As someone once said, ‘I believe that God is a God of second, third, fourth chances and any number of chance but be careful because you never know when your last chance has come.’ With greater grace comes greater responsibility to respond.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER:      88       Jan 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email:  msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

 

 

Dear Friends and family,

We trust you all have a good holiday and that this new year will be memorable and blessed in the Lord. As we see the potential wars going to happen between Israel and Iran with her allies, possibly escalating into the third world war and on another front between China and the US, we are to make sure that we are right with the Lord and that we are looking to Jesus’ return. Scripture has told us what will happen and these things are possibly the mechanisms through which we will see the emergence of the Antichrist, a power struggle between the Antichrist and ‘the king of the south’, a treaty made between Antichrist and Israel only to be broken half way through the agreement. We will see ever increasing anti-Israel sentiment among the nations, the rise of a one world religious body and possibly see the emergence of a great revived Roman empire which will see the integration or marrying of countries of the middle east and the European west. The scripture tells us something of what will happen but it does not tell us how. This is why we keep our eyes open to the developments in the world surrounding Israel, global religion and global economy. But to do this we cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by temporal pleasures that we only keep the bare minimum of oil of spiritual illumination of the Holy Spirit. Yet while trading in spiritual oil we are to be made more profoundly aware of the lateness of the hour, and the small opportunity we have to be busy about the father’s business. We need to take opportunity to preach, to fellowship and to expose sin and error with a view of sharing the answer in Christ while laws permit us to do so. Inaction is ministerial suicide. However may our action not be motivated by what we perceive as the need but may it be according to God’s word and by the leading of the Spirit.

This week for Salvi is very special for it was this week 10 years ago that Salvi first came to South Africa to study with Dave Royle in a church in Springs for a year. Salvi had a suspicion that he would be working in South Africa for longer but didn’t know how. Within one month of being in South Africa we had left that church and Dave started Moriel Missions Southern Africa. Salvi transferred his studies and became the first Moriel College bible student in what was then the Moriel Bible College before it became the Moriel Missions College. That year Salvi joined Caleb and Sophie Massey as and supported them as they started the mission work and ran the Moriel Mission station in KwaZulu Natal for the next two years. Little did we all know all that would transpire over these 10 years. But we know that the Lord has been faithful to us, has kept us and made us stronger in Him. So this year in August will mark the 10th anniversary of the Kwazulu Mission and it is such a privilege for us to be here and a small part of it.

We have just gotten back after two weeks of house sitting in Vryheid. Salvi kept coming into the area twice a week for church and bible teaching. Jabulani is now back home after a period of hard grafting labour. He has gotten a little weaker after foresting work which has taken a lot out of him. But he is still doing well and we are encouraging him and the mother of his son to do what is right before the Lord in terms of a marriage. She was not saved. However she has been very open to the gospel and Jabulani on Sunday said that he believes that she will commit her life to the Lord. Well, today at the bible study they shared that she wanted to commit her life to the Lord and that she wanted to wait till Msindisi, that is Salvi, arrived to pray and ask the Lord to come into her life. Salvi went though the Gospel one more time so that we could make sure she understood and she prayed for Salvation confessing her sin. She also got baptised today also in wanting to obey the Lord. We are taking her home tomorrow morning so that she will be separated until they get married.

The two weeks of home sitting have been a gift from the Lord. Di has been taking advantage of the electricity supply and water from a tap. The family have a pool so that was a blessing on those days which exceeded 33 degrees Celsius even going as high as 36. Salvi has been taking some time to start his assignment, record a couple of songs with various instrumentation, one of which will be performed at a wedding in April and we could also do some administration and accounts for our umbrella, Road to Recovery.

Earlier in the month Di helped with the Kids club. Celani threw a Christmas party as a local farmer called Evelin had given some money for party food. The children of Pilgrim’s fellowship in Australia had put together a few presents for the children and so those were given out. Di did her last clinic run of the year and teaching of literacy for Tholakele. Tholakele is doing very well and we trust she will be reading at the end of this year. At the end of November Phumlani lead his elderly uncle to the Lord and has been visiting him. We think he will be near to passing away for he is very frail.

While house sitting we held a one off bible study for some friends where Salvi taught on Psalm 1 and the necessity of getting into the word and the word getting into us. Three friends attended and said that they were much blessed by it. In the second week of house sitting a couple of friends called Sean and Catherine visited us for 3 days. Sean had visited us twice before with our friend Tony. We took them to visit Mr Khumalo and Jabulani. Last time Sean had seen them both they had not yet given their lives to the Lord. Khumalo asked Salvi to share something from the bible so Salvi put Sean on the spot and Khumalo’s wife came in to hear the message which is an absolute miracle as whenever we usually have a bible study she stays well away. Sean and Kathryn also came with us to the home to visit Phumlani and Thabi.

This month we also saw the visit of our friends from Piet Retief, Olaf and Charnel Hinze with their baby Nathan at Jonny and Kim’s place where we had a braai and a bible study. As for Louwsburg Bible Fellowship, we had our last meeting for the year on the 13th Dec and we start again this week with Phumlani giving us a teaching. Salvi has been teaching at church continuing with Deuteronomy although on Christmas day, because there were visitors at church Salvi gave a gospel message concerning why Jesus was born and came to the earth. Unbeknownst to us Celani had prepared a huge spread and had cooked for everyone. Salvi has finished evangelising the area of KwaBokkie and so started to evangelize Ngenitsheni twice a week. This will be picked up again this week.

On Saturday we will be visiting one of Salvi’s friends called Tony Spandow. Tony was one of the people that Salvi first met when he came into South Africa ten years ago. Tony used to be a minister with WEC and is now living in New Zealand. Tony gave Salvi a few points for mission. The first was that we need to know that God can. Secondly he shared that we need to get under people’s whatever in reaching them. Thirdly he shared that God can use Zulus to reach Zulus. Tony will be visiting his sister in Vryheid this weekend which is where we will meet him.

So what can we expect this year. Next week we will be taking Khethiwe to college in Durban and using that as an opportunity to visit and minister to Calvin Josiah, Mark Van Niekerk and the church in Stanger. They brethren there have asked that we come quarterly and we are working these trips so that they don’t interfere with home cell on tuesdays. It does mean that we are not there for church on that coming Sunday. We also have been asked by Chris De Wet of Moriel Bloemfontein to visit them in Bloemfontein and to share. We first met Chris face to face in Stanger when we shared a house and listened to Jacob Prasch preaching there. So we just need to arrange an appropriate time that won’t interfere too much with the ministry this side. In March or April we should be visiting Alan Mackenzie and the church in Port Elizabeth as we did last year. As the Lord wills we trust also that we will have the opportunity, later in the year as visa stuff and permanent residence stuff is sorted out to visit friends and family in New Zealand and maybe also in Australia. But at the moment we are just holding that lightly. Our friend Mujuru has asked us to visit Zimbabwe with him for evangelism but we have asked if Phumlani and Thabi want to go. As we are traveling much anyway we feel that we need to share some responsibility with Phumlani and as Phumlani’s heart is more in his evangelism than bible teaching it seems that it would be perfect for him to get involved in this. There is also the added benefit that Phumlani will see how the church there practices their cell based discipleship and evangelism and this may give Phumlani a new perspective and lease of life for the church here in Eastmine. Phumlani has a passport and has two weeks that he is allowed to take off work so please pray that everything can be coordinated and arranged to make this possible. It will be Phumlani’s first time he will have ever gone outside of South African borders.

Finally we have received some recent news about visa issues this last month. Di’s visa application is still in process. We have received news that they will now fast track it, which is nice as her visa ran out in Feb 2011. So hopefully she will get her renewal before Feb 2012. As for Salvi’s application for special consideration for permanent residence… For those of you who don’t know, Salvi although being in the country on and off for 10 years, has only continuously been in the country for 6 years this April. He was in the UK working between Dec 2004 and April 2006. Normally a person can apply for permanent residence if they have been in the country for 5 years on a work permit. However Salvi have been here on a visitor’s permit. Salvi does not qualify under any category to apply for permanent residence. However through the advice of a believer who works for home affairs Salvi has put together a port folio, application form and testimonies of 20 something ministers, company directors and even the local chief and a petition of over 150 local signatures with the request that a special exception be made for Salvi to get permanent residence. Last month we got news that the particular office of Home Affairs which are handling the case in Pretoria, are making application in Salvi’s place that Salvi be granted Deviation. Deviation means that Salvi be granted permission to apply outside of the regular process. As Home Affairs are doing this it means that they believe that Salvi has a case and if Salvi is granted permanent residence it will not matter if Di gets her visa granted or not as she will be able to apply for permanent residence also. So we will keep you updated in our newsletters as and when news comes in.

We thank you all for your prays and support, may the lord richly bless you as we labour together in His work.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please don’t forget to look at Salvi’s petition concerning ecumenism in the Lausanne consultation for Jewish Evangelism which has been signed by several people including Jacob Prasch and others from Moriel ministries and Jackie Alnor among other people. For more information please visit www.lausannecje.wordpress.com and for the petition please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/lcje

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
SEPARATION, ENTERING THE PROMISE AND A NEW START
PART 9
2 Kings 2: 1 – 14

Ahab has long ago fallen and thus the request that Elijah made where he prayed that God would take his life would now be answered in a way more glorious than Elijah could ever have imagined. Elijah was one of the greatest men that the bible ever mentions. No wonder that Jesus said of John the Baptist that there was none born of women greater than John, as John came in the Spirit of Elijah. I once knew a guy called Peter Africa and he once said that success without a successor is a failure. Thus before God would take Elijah out of the picture He commanded Elisha be anointed as prophet in his place and thus Elisha became a disciple of Elijah just like Joshua did of Moses but Jesus never did of John because Jesus was greater than John. But we must remember that being someone’s disciple does not mean that we will necessarily be that person’s replacement. Jesus had 120 disciples but only 12 of them were appointed apostles. However God had specifically pointed Elisha out as the one who would take up the mantle. Elisha was to take on an amazing ministry but up till now we have not seen him do anything. He has only been spending time with Elijah and serving him. There was nothing extraordinary in Elisha that we have seen recorded. And now we read in the first verse that the time has come for God to take Elijah away. I want us to try to imagine what it must have been like for Elisha to have this knowledge. Can we imagine the multiplicity of emotions going through Elisha’s heart, the thoughts racing through his head? “How will I conduct the ministry? Will I be expected to do the same things as my teacher?” How he would miss his teacher! And to top it all off there is the life changing experience of entering into a completely different role; from servant to being the prophet of God and Elisha being apprehensive of this must have thought, ‘boy do I need the Grace and the power of Almighty God to do this!’

All the prophets knew it was God’s time for Elijah to go. Many men of God have known the hour of their departure. Elijah knew, Simeon in the temple knew, Jesus knew, Paul knew, Peter knew. And here it was not just Elijah that knew this, it was all the prophets. In verse 3 and verse 5 the prophets, literally the sons of the prophets ask Elisha, ‘Do you know that the Lord will take away your lord from over your head today?’ Elijah was Elisha’s covering and Elisha knows this and replies, I know please be still. Elisha is going to be without the one who taught him and the one to whom he could turn for advice and here these people keep bringing it up and there is no way for Elisha to get away from the fact. Talk about rubbing salt into a sore wound. What is Elijah doing here? Why does Elisha have to face all these people? God is sending Elijah to all the places where there are schools of Prophets for the last time. And Elijah continually gives Elisha the option of staying behind. ‘Elisha, you do not need to come you know. You do not have to keep being reminded of the fact that I am going, stay behind please and save yourself some pain.’ And Elisha’s determination to do the right thing comes to the fore, ‘I will not leave you’. What is our attitude to Jesus? If we follow Jesus He will lead us through times of hardship, suffering, tears, persecution and pain and He asks us, are you going to stay behind? Are we going to follow or are we going to stay behind. What direction was Elijah heading in? He was going to heaven.

In verse 1 we read that Elijah is going to be taken in a whirlwind. That is putting it mildly. The name Gilgal means round, or a wheel, and comes from the word galgal, which can mean whirlwind because it moves round and round. But this is a much stronger word. The word for whirlwind here is Sa’ar and it means a tempest, a storm, a hurricane. Elijah was going to be taken up to heaven in a storm, in the midst of something tempestuous. But there are a couple of places that Elijah must visit first. These are Bethel and Jericho before he may reach Jordan. The reason Elijah goes to these places, besides the instruction given by God, is because there were schools of prophets in Bethel and Jericho and Jordan was the place where Elijah would be taken up. However there is a spiritual significance to all of these places. The significance lies in the words, entrance, separation and a new start. Bethel, Jericho and Jordan have a connection to some kind of separation, entrance and a new start.

Bethel is first mentioned in Genesis 12: 8 when Abraham had entered the Promised Land. In Genesis 12 we see that Abraham was called in Haran to leave his country, his father’s house hold and his relatives and to go to the land God had promised him. But in Acts 7 we see that Abraham was called before he lived in Haran, all the way back in Ur. Abraham did leave his country but he did not leave his father’s household for his family decided to take him to Haran with his wife. They went out together but God said that Abraham was to leave his father’s household. After Abraham’s father dies, then the call of God comes to Abraham again and this time he obeys more but not completely for although he left his country and his father’s house, he still takes along his nephew lot. The first place that Abraham arrives in is called Shechem and Abraham builds an altar. The second place is called Bethel, house of God. However after this Abraham goes down to Egypt and when he leaves Egypt he comes back to Bethel. Abraham messed up in Egypt. He told a half truth that Sarah was his sister and Pharaoh took Sarah as his wife. Abraham messed up but we read in Gen 12: 8 and Gen 13: 4, both times at this place, at Bethel, that Abraham called on the name of the Lord. It was in one sense a type of salvation because whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. He not only called on the name of the Lord before Egypt, before he stuffed up but even afterwards he could come back to that starting point. As verse 4 of Gen 13 says, Bethel was the place where Abraham had been at the beginning. He messed up but God gave him a new start. To be saved we need to turn our back on where we came from, to count the past as a heap of ruins and to come out of Egypt, to come out of the world. After the second calling on the Lord Abraham experiences a strife between his men and Lot’s men and there comes a separation between them. The separation was necessary because it was the fulfilling of the call that God had given him and thus God brings new revelation. God ties the promise of the land to the land itself and tells Abraham to walk the length and breadth of the land. In a sense this is an entrance into the promise. For the calling that Abraham received before, made the giving of the promise dependant on Abraham’s obedience to God’s request. It is only the second time at Bethel that Abraham’s obedience is completed, thus only then has he made that entrance into the promise. Abraham has yet to enter the covenant but in chapter 13: 14 – 17 it is no longer ‘do this and I will give,’ but now it is ‘I will give’. There is an entrance, a separation and a new start.

Think about Jacob at Bethel. Gen 28: 10 – 20. Jacob had grown up in the home of believers in God. His father, Isaac, in Genesis 26: 24 – 25 had experienced the Lord appear to him and had called upon God’s name. But for 40 years Jacob had referred to God as the God of his father. God seemed distant. Jacob separates from his family and it is at Bethel that Jacob receives the same promise as his father. God does not condition the receiving of the promise on anything but he gives it to Jacob. I don’t believe this is salvation. I see Jacob’s salvation coming at a later date when he wrestles with the angel but never the less he enters into the promise. This marks a new start for Jacob. Before God seemed distant but now he realises that God is with him. The same happened with me. I grew up in a Christian home and made an initial decision for Christ when I was 7. When I was 19 I was doing a degree and sort of living a double life. It was not until I moved out of my parents that I heard the voice of God clearly convicting me. Jacob’s life would never be the same again. He knew the reality of God in his life and he made a vow that if God was faithful and kept him on his journey and brought him back safely then God would be his God. But Jacob could not go back now. This was a pivotal point in his life and it was the start of a whole new journey of finding the Lord for himself as his own God. So Jacob had to be separated from his family to be alone with the Lord, just like Abraham. He had to enter into God’s promise and experience a fresh start in his life. Elijah firstly takes Elisha to Bethel, a place of separation, a new start and an entrance in the promise of God.

The next place that Elijah must go to is Jericho. Jericho is of course the name of the place that Joshua and Israel firstly invaded. It marked the entrance into the Promised Land. But before the Israelites could enter into the promised land there had to be a dying off of all the unbelieving Israelites and a separation from Moses. Not just being separated from the old crowd but also a separation from the one who represented righteousness under the Law. There has to be a separation from old affinities, our old ideas of self righteousness in order to enter the promise. The one is based on the righteousness of man, the other is based on the promise of God. We stand before God naked and alone. We are not strong enough or fit enough to inherit the promise, just as Israel were not strong enough to inherit the land. The difference is when God is on your side. How can God be on our side? How can God be on the side of sinners? Because Jesus took our punishment and satisfied God’s holy anger against our sin. That is how God can be on our side. And after they obeyed the Lord and blew their trumpets the walls came down. What were the trumpets about? Therebis a parallel between Jericho and the trumpet judgments in Revelation. And what is said when the last trumpet is sounded? Rev 11: 15. In other words they are saying to antichrist, ‘Your kingdom is at an end, Christ is instituting a new one.’ The kingdoms of Canaan were at an end, Israel would now be established, a new kingdom and a new start. There was separation from the one who represented a righteousness of the Law, an entrance into the promise and lastly a new start in the life of not only the nation of Israel but also of the land of Canaan. Elijah secondly takes Elisha to Jericho. A place of separation, entrance into God’s promise and a place of a new start.

But lastly and much closer to home Elijah finally takes Elisha to the Jordan. Jordan means descent and it is at this place that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and the anointing descended on Elisha as we will read. Elisha’s mentor figure is being taken away. He is being reminded of it constantly. What will Elisha do when Elijah is taken away? Verse 9 & 10. He needs God’s anointing and equipping. Now a double portion does not necessarily mean that Elisha wanted twice what Elijah had but refers to Deut 21: 17. In other words Elisha saw himself as Elijah’s firstborn and he wanted to inherit the spirit of Elijah in order to do God’s will. But Elijah does not promise anything to him except that if Elisha saw the sign it would be given. It was not down to Elijah if Elisha could get the anointing. The graces of God are distributed as He wills. Yes the Apostles imparted the Holy Spirit with the laying on of hands but they did that to all the believers. When it came to choosing an apostle to replace Judas, they could not simply decide who they wanted to take his place but they prayed and drew lots. There is no such thing as passing down a ministry from father to son but the Lord determines who will take that place and the anointing must come from Him. Abraham had to be separated from unsaved family. Jacob had to be separated from both ungodly and godly family members. Israel had to be separated from Moses and the older unbelieving generation. But here Elisha has to face being separated from his spiritual father. Discipleship in the bible is not program based but is relationship based. A teacher gathers to himself disciples who hear his teaching and watch his example and then they try to emulate their teacher until they become like their teacher. Just as a son grows up to be like his father. Not that we start going round calling certain people father, like the Roman Catholics do. Jesus said to call no man your father. However, in the bible we see a discipleship relationship where people like Paul would try to be a spiritual father to believers, one that said, ‘Follow me as I follow Christ.’

And we can hear the heart break of Elisha as Elijah is taken up in the Chariot and through what he says in verse 12. What Elisha is saying is that Elijah is Israel’s defence. Through Elijah’s ministry and his prayers he did more to protect Israel than Chariots and horses. But what was going to happen now? Israel’s defence has been taken away. Elisha is no great prophet, he was just serving Elijah and he rips his clothes in two, so great is his grief. As Matthew Henry stated; ‘He (God) takes away superiors from our head, inferiors from our feet, equals from our arms; let us therefore carefully do the duty of every relation, that we may reflect upon it with comfort when it comes to be dissolved.’ It is hard enough when God separates us from unsaved family but when God strips away people from us, people who have helped us so much in our spiritual walk in some ways it is even harder. Our earthly relationships are only temporal. Now why does God do that? Because while Elijah is still around, Elisha will never fulfil the ministry that God has for him to do. As long as Elijah is around Elisha will look to Elijah instead of looking to the Lord. And as Elijah goes up in this tempest, in this storm with the winds of sorrow, grief and loss are prevailing over Elisha’s heart and all seems lost, then Elijah’s mantle falls down. It is in the midst of the storm that Elisha is to rise up to the ministry that he was called but before he does he must learn one important lesson. The anointing and the calling does not get transferred through a person such as Elijah but it comes from the Lord. Elisha picks up Elijah’s mantle and strikes the water in verse 14 and nothing happens. The power was not in Elijah or Elijah’s mantle but it must be found in the Lord. He does not ask ‘Where is Elijah?’ He asks ‘Where is the God of Elijah?’ He entered into the promise that God gave Elijah, that Elisha would take his place in 1 Kings 19: 16 and thus a new ministry was started.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 27 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER:      87       Dec 2011

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email:  msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

Dear Friends and family,

Here we are at the end of the year and how this year has flown by. It is only when we look back that we see how much has happened. Really, we can only sum it up in one word… Grace, that is God’s grace to us who are undeserving.

For this newsletter we thought we would summarise the past year and see what may be in store for next year. Next August will mark the tenth anniversary of the mission since it started with Caleb and Sophie Massey in 2002. The church that Caleb and Salvi started continues faithfully.

It has been a year of some fruit. God has been good with bringing Tholakele to salvation and seeing her baptised. The church has acquired many visitors from young children who Salvi picks up every week from one of the local communities for church. Phumlani’s wife Thabi also got baptised in obedience to the word this year. Phumlani and Salvi share the teaching. Phumlani has become a very able expositor of the word and is faithful and yet it is easy to see that he has a heart for preaching the gospel. It is like Phumlani takes on a vitality with evangelistic preaching. Last month Phumlani lead his elderly and frail uncle in a prayer for salvation after witnessing to him in a state of mental instability and sleepless nights. After his uncle has stabilised he is still confessing Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and a rejection of traditional Zulu medicine. Phumlani’s uncle is very ill. Please pray that the Lord will keep him faithful to his profession until he goes home. Di has thoroughly enjoyed helping out with the kid’s club throughout the year. The older kids are now interpreting for Di when she is teaching it. Younger children are starting to come up and start the lessons. The age group starts from 3 till 16. Celani has really appreciated the help as she always faithfully runs the club.

It has been a year of visitors. Over the first nine months of the year we have regularly had people visiting from South Africa and abroad. In Feb we had some visitors from African Independent Insurance who brought food stuffs to give to the poor, instruments for the kid’s club, New Testaments to give out and personal gifts to us too. It was a wonderful experience for them to visit Zulu kraals and see people in the contexts of their own homes. Jacob Meads stayed with us for 3 months and left a huge impression with everybody that got to know him. Our friends Clayton and Jessie came to visit from the UK. Clayton has moved to the UK and this year got married to Jessie there. But Clayton is from South Africa and his parents are our very good friends Allen and Sue Wells who run Bezaleel in fostering and adopting 11 children. A young girl Bianca stayed with us for 3 weeks and she was followed by Salvi’s really good friend from the UK called Joe Rumley with his father in law, Rob, who is a pastor in Gauteng.

It has been a year if new friends and partnerships. We thank the Lord so much for Alan Mackenzie and the brethren that meet us in Port Elizabeth. Their Road to Recovery Christian Fellowship took us under their wing this year giving us a legal affiliation in order to stay in South Africa and apply for extension of temporary visitors permit. Alan and Salvi are in continual communication and Alan has been a great source of encouragement. Another source of encouragement has been meeting Mark and Marie Anne Van Niekerk from Stanger and through them meeting Pastor Calvin and the brethren there.

New friendships have lead to ministry and visiting opportunities during the year making it a year of visiting. Early in the year we travelled to Port Elizabeth to visit Alan and the brethren. Several times this year we have visited Calvin and Mark. Last month Salvi did a teaching weekend of three sessions on the building of the Church. The first message was a typological study on Haggai 1, second was a look at the baptism of the Spirit and speaking in tongues, the third session was on the purpose and end of the building of the body. The sessions were received very well and people were blessed, some even received peace for they had been subject to false teaching on the baptism of the Spirit and speaking in tongues. Salvi also visited Zimbabwe this year for a week. It was the first time Salvi and Di had been apart for so long in their whole marriage. But the door is always open to do visit again and to possibly to do some ministry there. We would love Phumlani to visit the brethren there and are sure he would be encouraged in his own ministry through it.

It has been a year of weddings. This year a former member of our cell group got married to one of Salvi’s friends, Phumlani and Thabi got married in May. Clayton and Jessie Wells got married in August in the UK which we saw through Skype and Allen and Sue’s place. Allen went overseas for the wedding but as they have 11 children Sue couldn’t go. So it was wonderful to be able to share the experience with them. Technology is just wonderful. Last month also Tholakele and the father of her children had a civil ceremony
As she wants to follow the Lord she gave her husband an ultimatum that he either does the right thing or leaves. That was a brave thing to do and not accepted in the culture but he is working and providing for the family and has been very open to the gospel. Please pray for him, his name is Thokozani.

It has been a year of social help. Di has continually taken people to the clinic. Through the help of African Independent and the church in Stanger, as well as our very good friends in Australia through Moriel, we have been able to give food, clothes and knitted jumpers to some of the most needy in the community. Di teaches Tholakele to read on a weekly basis so that one day she will be able to read the bible. Such thought puts a smile on Tholakele’s face. We have done several trips to the hospital this year and Salvi helped as undertaker when Tholakele’s brother died. It was through helping out in this way, and an opportunity to witness that she became interested in the gospel and Jabulani led her to accept the Lord. Di also acts as first aid nurse when people have pains or accidents. She doesn’t have much training but keeps simple things at hand and a good book called where there is no doctor. People will come to her for help, especially Phumlani’s family. With Di’s garden and her growing her own veg – Salvi rarely steps into the garden except to pick an onion or spinach if he cooks something- we have been able to give out veggies to some people in the community, especially some of the folks from church.

It has been a year of evangelism. Monthly we have reached out at the Care bear creche. Di usually gives the lesson for the children but last week Salvi preached to the parents at their children’s graduation a hard hitting gospel message and broke his record for the shortest preaching he has ever done, just 15 minutes! The ladies bible study that started in Louwsburg has unfortunately fizzled out as only one woman was interested in continuing. However, Salvi made sure he preached them and explained the gospel. Salvi has also completed the areas of Alpha and KwaBokkie this year which leaves Ngenitsheni to complete for next year. This Salvi has now started to do twice a week. But it was through Salvi’s preaching in KwaBokkie that the children started to attend the church meetings as Salvi picks them up every week and takes them back after the service. Ngenitsheni is a huge area with many homes and subareas. Salvi is about half way through the whole area after which will only leave the areas of Khambi and Cibilili to fill with the preaching of the Gospel. Esihlengeni, Steiland, Eastmine, KwaBokkie and AlphaVillage all having received gospel witness. Hopefully by the end of next year, God willing, we will have finished Ngenitsheni and be well on the way to the completion of all the areas. Tracts go out week after week, always weather permitting which stays with people. Individual witnessing also has taken place. Last week Salvi witnessed to a guy with Diabetes called Bongiseni and his partner about the importance of being born again. They brought up the issue of ancestral traditions which Salvi answered using scripture.

It has been a year of testing. Di’s last visa expired in February and she has reapplied twice now for an extension of her permit. We are awaiting the results as we write. We don’t believe it will be decided till next year as we are bearing Christmas now, but it is nearly a year that Di has been in the country without a permit. Please pray for a favorable result. Di is entitled to stay in the country until a decision is made. Please pray that her application will be approved. Salvi is applying for permanent residence but asking for an exception to be made in his case as someone in his position is not normally allowed to apply for permanent residence. His case is being reviewed as we write but it is taking time. If Salvi gets permanent residence it will not matter if Di’s application is approved or not, she would be able to apply for permanent residence under Salvi. Living here in the rurals in a Zulu place without electricity or water plumbed in is always a challenge. Living in one room with Salvi studying while other jobs need to be completed by Di is also a challenge. Alan Mackenzie visited this year also for a few hours on his way to Durban with his wife Brenda and their daughter Tayla and he commented that a person could get cabin fever living in this house. Together with that there is the eternal battle with constant flies, mud, – Di is constantly aware of snakes in the vicinity, especially after her experience with the Mozambiquean Spitting Cobra a while ago – and cows and chickens nibbling on Di’s flowers. We are constantly reminded to rely on God’s grace and aware that numerous people are holding us up in prayer. People in the area have grown up with all this but as foreigners to this lifestyle it can get to you a little bit and that is when you know you are here because you have been called to, for whatever period of time it is, not because you want to be here.

But there is much to be thankful for. Our truck, an Isuzu Bakkie 2.5 diesel given to us by Allen Wells has regularly been serviced and fixed more than once by Hendrik Els and Craig Boardman from Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid. They have been a huge help and life saver and really keep the ministry going here as we cover a lot of kms in the week. Our home cell meets from house to house within a 40km radius. So sometimes we use 80 kms just for a home cell. They are really part of the ministry in ways that they don’t realise. We want to thank the Lord for our home cell and the several miracles that we have seen. The Lord has kept us together and knitted us. The home cell is coming up to its third year of running. We have seen much growth in the members and we are now studying Romans. We thank the Lord for His rich provision this year and His grace in keeping us.

So what does the following year hold for us? Many things are in the Lord’s hands but a few things may be in the pipeline. Pastor Calvin and Mark Van Niekerk in Stanger have asked us to come on a quarterly basis for Salvi to do more teaching and also to do some evangelism amongst the Zulu there. We are hoping to go down either every third or quarter of the year but will work it so that it doesn’t disturb our discipling too much. Chris De Wet from Moriel Bloemfontein has also asked us to visit them there and to share the word so that is another possibility. Plus our friend Mujuru from Pretoria, through whom Salvi went to Zimbabwe, is thinking of running short term mission trips to the rural areas of Zimbabwe and is interested in us getting involved in some way. Apart from that Salvi is seeking to finish the area of Ngenitsheni at least and Di has some ideas for helping school children if the Lord grants us the ability to remain here longer and enables her to do so. We really hope that our newsletters and teachings have been a source of encouragement and blessing to you and causes praises to be given to the Lord. If that has been your experience then our newsletters will have fulfilled the purpose for which they were written.

We thank you all for your prays and support, may the lord richly bless you as we labour together in His work.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please don’t forget to look at Salvi’s petition concerning ecumenism in the Lausanne consultation for Jewish Evangelism which has been signed by several people including Jacob Prasch and others from Moriel ministries and Jackie Alnor among other people. For more information please visit www.lausannecje.wordpress.com and for the petition please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/lcje

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
THE REPROACH OF GOING TO A FALSE GOD
PART 8
2 Kings 1

We are now in 2 Kings and Ahab has died. The lesson with Ahab serves to illustrate a very important point. Even though God may be gracious to us and even though we may humble ourselves before the LORD and accept His Word to us, this is not my security in salvation. We saw that Ahab was, at least outwardly, contrite but this was not long lived, though God delayed the judgment till after his death. But in 1 Kings 22 we see that Ahab was once again hardened against God’s messenger. We cannot rely on the fact that we were born again on such and such a date. The question that befalls us is; are we following the Lord today? That is something that sometimes confuses us. We think that because we were born again five years ago we feel secure concerning our relationship with the LORD. But Romans 1: 17 says that the righteous man shall live by faith. God sends a deceiving spirit to speak through all the false prophets to Ahab and Ahab goes into battle to his own destruction for he is killed. However, since our study is on the consecutive ministries of Elijah and Elisha, we are not going to deal with 1 Kings 22 because neither Elijah nor Elisha appear in it but we are going to fast forward to the short lived reign of Ahab’s son, Ahaziah. We will deal with these 18 verses in three sections. Firstly from verses 1 – 8 we will see Ahaziah’s attempt to consult Baal-zebub, then from verses 9 – 15 we will look at Ahaziah’s attempt to apprehend Elijah and then lastly, from verses 16 – 18 we will see Ahaziah’s end.

1 – 8 AHAZIAH’S ATTEMPT TO CONSULT BAAL-ZEBUB

Ahab was hardened to the LORD’s words but he had knowledge of God and outwardly acknowledged Him. In the end we see that although Ahab’s prophets were false prophets, they were prophets who came in the name of the God of Israel as we see from Zedekiah in 1 Kings 22: 24. The name Ahaziah means Jehovah has seized or Jehovah possesses. Ahab named his son concerning an attribute of the true God. I do not say this to vindicate Ahab in any way or to take away from the detestability of false prophets. The reason I point these things out is because Ahab reigned for 22 years but his son only reigned for 2. Ahab’s judgment was postponed whereas Ahaziah’s judgment was fairly swift. Sometimes it is impossible to determine why God is more patient with some than with others. But I do not think that the reason behind the judgment here is something unknowable. There are some reasons why God acted this way in this situation.

Firstly, God had prophesied it when Ahab humbled himself. Ahab severely sinned and resisted God continually. It came to such a point that God could not just let it go. Judgment had to be given but because Ahab humbled himself God gave grace and held it back for a season. We read in 1 Kings 21: 29 that God would rather bring the evil on Ahab’s house during his son’s reign.

But secondly, and in some ways profoundly, the judgment on Ahaziah was not as swift as we would think from first glance. We see that Ahaziah ruled for 2 years and then God brought judgment. Maybe we would like to see God showing Ahaziah more patience and grace so that he also reigned for 22 years. However, God’s grace to Ahaziah was longer than 2 years. We forget the fact that Ahaziah, being Ahab’s son, would have lived in the royal residences. He was named after an attribute of God. He had no doubt seen the withholding of the rain under Elijah and heard about the ordeal at Mount Carmel where God sent fire down. He had seen all the evidence of God’s existence and His interest in the nation’s affairs but he still rejected the God of his people. When the nation got to this position, judgment was inevitable. The taste of this judgment, aside from the symbolic withholding of the rain that we already looked at during Ahab’s reign, is specified in verse 1. After Ahab died, Moab rebelled. David was Israel’s greatest king and Ahab was Israel’s worst. It is interesting therefore that the victory that King David won in subjugating the Moabites in 2 Samuel 8: 2 was undone in the judgment against Ahab’s house.

At this time, Ahaziah had an accident. Somehow he fell through the window or, lattice in his upper chamber and it must have been a serious injury that he sustained. My dad said that his grandfather had a bad fall in hospital and broke his hip. Having been gassed in WW2 by the Germans he got pneumonia after the accident and died. So it was similar with Ahaziah, he got sick after a severe fall and he was under the threat of dying. He knew the reality of God’s power which had been evidenced in his life time but did he turn to the Lord? Not at all but sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub. This was the god of a place called Ekron and the belief was that this god would have the power to ward off flies. In the New Testament we can see that Baal-zebub was regarded as the ruler of the demons. (Mt 12: 24). Thus in effect Ahaziah was turning to Satan for knowledge, the knowledge of whether he was going to die or not. 2 other people in the scriptures followed Satan’s counsel Satan for knowledge and they were Adam and Eve and they were punished and cursed for that. So too would Ahaziah be punished for turning to Satan for knowledge.

God would not allow a leader of Israel to go unchallenged or unpunished when God’s judgment was already looming over his house. The ‘Angel of the LORD’ tells Elijah to go to Ahaziah’s messengers in verse 3. There is no complaint as there was with Jonah. There was no hesitation of fear as in Gideon or excuse given as there was with Moses. There was just simple obedience. There is no explanation of what happened when Elijah met the messengers because we know that Elijah did just exactly what was asked of him. The scripture does not have to prove his obedience because we have already seen his example of obedience and therefore we doubt nothing. And what is the message from God. ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to the god of Ekron?’ Of course there was a God in Israel and He was real. The question is a little sarcastic. You never see the peoples of the world easily letting go of their false gods to serve the true one. I doubt greatly that Iraq and Iran are suddenly going to pronounce themselves as Christian countries and stop the building of Mosques. They serve their false god with devotion but here was a king ruling over the people that belonged to the true God and he turns to a false one. It makes absolutely no sense. But how often we are like Ahaziah. We would rather trust in something else apart from the Lord. As Matthew Henry stated, “A practical and constructive atheism is the cause and malignity of our departures from God. Surely we think there is no God in Israel when we live at large, make flesh our arm, and seek a portion in the things of this world.” In other words, our actions speak stronger than our words. We might have the name Christian, like Ahaziah had the name that he was Yahweh’s possession, but our actions can deny the very truth we claim we believe in.

So the messengers return prematurely to their king. They did not go all the way to Ekron because they had already got the answer from the Lord. These messengers had more integrity than some of us. God has revealed so much to us and how often do churches seek for more else where. The Bible is seen as a dusty old love letter that has lost its appeal and people are seeking other ways to hear from God. The prophet has spoken to them on their way to Ekron in the Holy Scriptures but they still go on to Ekron to seek a word or message through rituals, icons, statues, repeated mantras. The emergent movement is another form of Ekron. As one lady told me, ‘God does nothing without speaking through his servants the prophets.’ And so we accept the visions of so called prophets as authoritative and trustworthy as the Scripture itself. So I told her that she was right and that God has told us through the prophets, words written in Scripture itself. But these messengers had more integrity. When they heard the word of the Lord, they did not push onto Ekron but went back to Ahaziah. They did not need some extra biblical practice in order to know, they had the word of the Lord. This is not to deny the place of prophets in the Church as the scripture plainly says that God gives them to the Church. But that in no way is a replacement for scripture and when we ignore scripture for “a word”, then we are not going to the Lord but instead we are going to Ekron.

Ahaziah asked the messengers why they were back so soon and they told them about the man and the message from the LORD being that Ahaziah was going to die. For some reason the messengers did not know that the man was Elijah but Ahaziah knew and must have had a sneaking suspicion of who the mysterious prophet was. Something must have prompted him to ask about the man’s appearance and we are told that he was a hairy man with a leather girdle round his waist. Does that remind you of anyone similar? John the Baptist wore a hairy camel skin with a leather belt and John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah. But this was no mere identification with Elijah but marked John out. Elijah was marked out by the clothes he wore. The fact that Ahaziah knew who Elijah was just by what he wore shows us that not many people wore those kind of clothes. Concerning John’s clothing we can read Mt 11: 8. John’s hairy clothing was contrasted to the nice, soft clothing that kings wear. And so we see these prophets shunned the temporal pleasures of this life. God’s prophets did not go about in fancy cars and nice clothes. They were distinguishable from the rest of the world and thus Ahaziah could cry out “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

9 – 15 AHAZIAH’S ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND ELIJAH

What is the king’s reaction to such a message from Elijah? Does he do as his father did when Elijah prophesied against him? Does he humble himself? No, but rather Ahaziah attempts to capture Elijah by force and he sends a captain with 50 men to apprehend him. His heart was harder than his father’s. He was more like the elders of Israel who rather than heed Stephen’s voice, tried to silence it. Or he was like Herod Antipas who imprisoned John the Baptist because he did not like John’s rebuke of his marriage to his sister in law, while her husband was alive. But where was Elijah? He was not hiding away in a cave or running for his life but he went to the top of a hill, which some people say was Mount Carmel but I would have no idea which hill he was on. Elijah had trust in the Lord that he would be kept and preserved in the midst of his enemies. As David knew when he wrote the 23rd psalm, a table is set in the midst of our enemies. We are given the words we need in the hour we need them. It was one Elijah against 51 soldiers but Elijah had the majority because he had God. These soldiers did not fetch Elijah down from the top of the hill, they told him to come down. No whether Elijah’s position was difficult to get to for the soldiers I do not know but what I do know befits the context well. The soldier of the wicked king, in the name of the wicked king, was ordering the man of God to come down. When I was a kid and I had done something really bad like go to hit my mother or something like that, my dad would spank me but he would not chase me in order to do it. My dad would stand straight and tell me to come to him and if he did have to get me then I would have been punished more. It is a matter of authority. We are not going to get you, you must come to us. The seriousness of this situation lies in the fact that they called him a man of God but ordered him in the name of the king. In other words they did not really believe that he was a man of God and they raised the will of the king above the will of God. Elijah’s question was being answered by the response of these soldiers. ‘Is there no God in Israel?’ ‘We don’t believe there is so quit your nonsense and come down!’ How often religious terms are used when people do not even believe in God. A friend of mine, who is a pastor in the UK, says when he hears the Lord’s name used in vain he asks the people if they are having a religious meeting. Other people will say God bless when they do not even believe in Him. The officer had used God’s name in scorn and jest. This is obvious from the way Elijah responds. He does not respond by calling down fire simply because he was rejected but he calls fire out of heaven because a mockery was being made of God. It was a proof that he was a man of God and thus the message of God had to be reverenced. Elijah proved God’s divinity with fire the first time and yet again he proved it with fire. The soldiers were consumed by fire. It will happen once again with the two witnesses as we read in Revelation 11: 5.

Ahaziah does not accept God’s judgment and so he sends another captain with another 50 but this time they apply more pressure to Elijah as they tell him not only to come down but to come quickly. But Elijah’s reply to them is the same as before and fire comes down to consume them. The third captain sent however is different. The third captain does not shout for Elijah to come down but he goes up to him and bows on his knees. He does not command him to come down in the name of the king but he pleads for his men’s lives. How similar this is to the 2 thieves on the cross. They both hurled insults at Jesus (Matthew 27: 44) but there came a moment when one of them realised that Jesus was suffering unjustly and must have felt convicted. At that time in Luke 23: 39 – 43. At one time they both said ‘He is the king, come down, come down from the cross!’ But another time where as the one said ‘If you are the son of God save yourself and us’ the other said ‘please remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. There is something about humility that touches the heart of God and thus God shows grace to this captain and the angel of the Lord tells Elijah to go with this person. Not until God showed him did Elijah go and when God says go, we need to go.

16 – 18 AHAZIAH’S END

For Elijah to go with someone God fearing may have made so much difference. For one, God was ensuring that Elijah was safe. Secondly, for Elijah to go with this man meant that this captain could discharge his duties to the wicked king and not have to face the king’s wrath. But most of all it meant that Elijah had the opportunity to walk up boldly and unhindered to Ahaziah and tell him God’s word to his face. The message is the same and it does not change. God prophecies get repeated time and again. Even if it is not repeated verbally it may be repeated experientially in the lives of those who follow the Lord and towards those who oppose Him. Ahaziah was cut off so young and the sad truth is that if he had done as his father before him did, or as the humble captain, God may have spared him and left the judgment till a later date. But God’s words will always come through. The illness would have prevailed, and Ahaziah would have died because God had said so but the truth is that it could have been delayed.

Ahaziah trusted in Baal-zebub, in witchcraft, in false religion but where does Elijah direct our eyes to? (Verse 16), to the word of God. When we want to inquire of the Lord we must make sure we are in His word, we must read and hear the word with an honest and open heart. If we come humbly and openly then God’s grace will be there for us too.