Msindisi Newsletter 104

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 104 May 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008
+27 (0) 815836288

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

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

 

The month of April has been beautiful !! Clear blue skies, fresh mornings and cooler evenings. Firstly we want to thank the many people who make it possible for us to stay and do the work we do. It would be impossible for us without your constant prayer support, and the opening of your homes, this involves so many things like printing, charging phones and computers, feeding us, showering us, servicing of our truck, allowing us to do washing when needed…. And it goes on. When you see the body at work it’s such a blessing and with humble hearts all we can say is a Huge Thank you as we labour together.

The start of the month we had the union bible institute visit the area. A group of 8 people came to evangelize with Phumulani and Salvi on the Friday afternoon, then returned to take the kids club on the Saturday. This was a huge blessing to the kids and also ourselves. Kids club numbers have increased hugely lately with one week Celani and Di having 35 kids and Sal 8 older ones. We are really praying for seeds to be planted, watered and to bear fruit in their lives.

Di was able to get a few more of the small new born jumpers which are sent from Australia delivered to Vryheid maternity ward. The other larger jumpers we will wait and give out in June when we have the youth of Joberg coming to visit for a few days.

Sal has been teaching through a marriage series on the Tuesday night bible studies and this work it was the 5th series. These are proving to be helpful and other people from outside the cell have been requesting the teaching, each week it is put on CD and the notes that have been typed up can be given out.

This month Di was asked by Girlie (from the bible study) if she could open in prayer at the woman’s institute meeting that she is co president of. Di spoke briefly on prayer being a noble gesture but do we know who we are praying to and is our life right before Him? That all the good works and kind charity work does not makes us right but only the free gift of grace by believing in the lord Jesus.

In the middle of the month the baptist church in Vryheid had a guest speaker called Keith Daniel and his wife Jenny from the African Evangelistic Band. The cell group on Tuesdays decided to attend the meeting instead of meeting together in a home. It was a pleasure to meet them both as they have visited often Di’s home church in Palmerston North, New Zealand. His messages were challenging and encouraging to put aside the things of this world that can hinder a deeper relationship with the lord. Pressing into Him as the time is short and being a soul winner.

Phumlani and Salvi have now started evangelizing the area of Khambi which is about 10 -15 mins away. On the first preaching occasion many people turned up and we have had small crowds since listening on every occasion. They are associating with a guy called Trust Moyo who is a teacher in the area. He is from Zimbabwe and is not being paid for his work at the school because the department of Home Affairs are slack to produce a letter of confirmation even though he has been granted a working Visa for his teaching services. We shared about him in the last newsletter. Trust has a home church in the area and has a desire for truth. This is something that we are excited about for if there is any interest in the area we can direct them to Trust. We have given him material by New Tribes Mission for discipleship in English and in IsiZulu and many audio sermons by Phumlani, Salvi and others.

Phumlani and Salvi also continue to disciple the Alpha guys on the Tuesday afternoon, currently they are going through 2 Samuel. Di has been meeting up with Celani when they can and are going through some discipleship material that Salvi has been writing and translating into isiZulu. Salvi has almost finished writing this material and once it is finished he will get it printed for the sake of other believers and churches. Phumlani on the other hand has been proof reading the New Tribes Mission material in isiZulu and correcting it. New Tribes Mission have a couple of missionaries from Australia called Tony and Maria Verlaan. They have been trying to get the firm foundations material translated into the various South African languages and are seeking to have them published in South Africa to make the material cost effective. The material has been translated into isiZulu but needs proof reading by various speakers of isiZulu in order to check for mistakes, etc. Phumlani agreed to be one of the proof readers and has therefore been very busy working on this. He is almost half way through the whole course. We are also looking for another person to translate the introductory material.

Sal has started teaching at another pre school in Vryheid. This is not with the kids like we do at care bear but with the teachers. Salvi takes about half an hour on a thursday morning to cover a few verses on scripture so please keep this in your prayers also.

This month Asimbonge managed to slice open his leg while trying to cut grass. Di took him to the clinic where he got several stitches. He was a brave boy as the nurse said the clinic only had large needles available to stitch his wound. This Friday he gets his stitches removed.

Our dear friends Belinda and Hendricks Els were broken into this month. The thieves took laptops and TVs etc. Although this is very common in South Africa it is never nice when it happens. We thank the lord they were not home and the thieves were disturbed when their neighbour unbeknownst to them was outside flagging down a delivery guy who was bringing pizza with a torch. The flashing of the torch spooked the thieves and they left in a hurry dropping their touch as they made out the same way they entered.

We had the pleasure of attending our neighbor’s Zulu wedding. This was a time to farewell the bride from the home and kraal so she could go to the grooms home to be married. Many from the community turned up. As with Zulu weddings it is an open invitation and anyone can attend. Many come as food is offered and it’s a great community time to all come together. Some of the men were in traditional Zulu skins ready to do the traditional stick fighting but sadly we missed that. The bride to be and some of the woman also were in the traditional outfit. Today a lot of the woman wear their bra or a T-shirt to cover up but not all. There was lots of dancing and singing. We were welcomed and shared a meal with everyone. A zulu wedding is a huge amount of work and cost for the celebrations go on and on.

Just yesterday morning Salvi preached at Bethany Baptist Church on Fruitful Trees. The pastor there, Jannie, had asked a while back if Salvi could come to preach there. We were conscious that it would mean that for one Sunday there would be no one to pick up the guy for Church at Alpha and Phumlani is reluctant to drive the vehicle that we have. We have been given finances towards the replacement of Phumlani’s vehicle that was stolen and are on the look out for a small truck. So we took Khethiwe to the church meeting as she can speak English. It was a great blessing to be in an English speaking church service as normally we are trying to follow along with the isiZulu which can be difficult for Salvi and mostly impossible for Di.

With May here, we wait to hear when Caleb arrives !!! People in the community have fond memories of him as the founder of this mission. He and his wife, Sophie left a great impression on local people. It will truly be a blessing to have him with us. We thank Sophie and other family members for raising the funds for him to be able to come over. We will take lots of pics for you Sophie as we know you also would have loved to have been here.

Also this month we have started digging the foundation for two rooms to be added to our hut. The Lord touched someone’s heart to ask if they could do this project and a number of people, mostly unknown to us have contributed towards this building project. This future house will give extra room for visitors to stay, a kitchen and living space that will be separate from our sleeping area. At the moment, when we have cell group people feel uncomfortable to use the bathroom as everybody in the hut can hear every noise emanating from it. It will also have an office for Salvi which he will appreciate very much and all of this will reduce the cabin fever that can arise. The building will take place little bit by little bit.

May the lord bless and keep you all. Until next month !!

Shalom

GOSPEL MESSAGE

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

The word evangelistic means something that pertains to Good news. This Gospel is the Good news that God not only wants to share with us but also one that He wants to use to transform us. This Gospel is not only a verbal message but it is a truth that, if acted upon will radically alter our lives. This is not only in regard to our activities that we do, but also the way we think, the choices we make and the attitude we have. It is the message that God wants to use to save us, as Paul wrote in Romans 1: 16 – 17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes”. The gospel is absolute truth, it is God’s truth. Truth is a word that does not seem to be highly regard in society and yet it is a word that, at times, people treat with the utmost gravity. When it comes to being betrayed or lied to we then feel emotionally attached to the notion of being told the truth. But as someone once asked a convicted man, “What is truth?”

We live in an era where society seems to have given up on the notion of absolute truth and is now treating religion as a sweet store where you can pick and mix according to your own taste and liking. I believe that this is an era of confusion and that this is so on different levels. A major philosophy that seems to permeate our society is ‘relativism’. Relativism says that what is true is what you think is true.

This relativism has brought about such confusion that we don’t even know what is true. ‘What right does one person have to tell another person what is right and what is wrong?’ This is a question that is often asked and so what we are left with is a consensus where people cannot claim a hold on what is true and what isn’t. We have confusion. When I speak of confusion I don’t mean that we are all psychologically unstable but I mean that we are in confusion in regards to religious truth, in regards to morals and even professional ethics. We live in a world of shifting sands. If we take something like health care, practices that were once classed as proper and good are now regarded as sackable offenses. Once corporal punishment was accepted in schools as good and just, though it was open to abuse, now it is even difficult for teachers to make physical contact if it could be perceived as abusive. Yesterday people were fighting for the legalization of marriage between two homosexual people and today people are fighting for marriage to be legalized between a group of people, termed group marriage. We are in a world of shifting sands.

Political correctness is never in a state of stability. Words that were acceptable last year are now classed as wrong. And things that were socially unacceptable years passed are now classed as right. The goal posts are continually being moved and therefore morality is a world of shifting sands. Where will this end? When dealing with religion what can we say? Religious groups with fundamentally opposing beliefs are being encouraged to class each other as equally valid. This is not because society believes any religion to be true but it is merely a practical way to stop conflict. But all religions cannot be true. There are too many fundamental contradictions for this to be the case. Islam fundamentally teaches that God has no son and the Bible fundamentally teaches that Jesus is God’s son and that He died on the cross and without this, we cannot be saved. Both cannot be right. If all religions are true then none of them are true. What is truth?

This has all served as an introduction to this gospel message. But before I properly begin, I want to answer the question: why is this important? This is important because it is our origin. God, the one who made us, who created us is our origin and origins are important. The attitude about God issues often is, “Who cares, I’ve got more important things to think about!” But origin matters because it is our identity as a human race and as human individuals; and what ever is our identity determines our destiny. There is something in us humans that is concerned with identity. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? All these are questions that we ask at one time or another. This is important. We see this with adopted children who, once they learn that they were adopted, seek to find out who their real parents are. Some embark on life long quests and searches. We are never really content till we find our origin. That is why God issues are important. The real question therefore is not ‘who am I?’, but it is ‘who is God’? Once we find God, we will find ourselves. Now the agnostic makes a very valid point here, he says, for a person to state “I know the true God; my God is the right one”, is impossible because God is beyond our understanding. He is an infinite being and therefore it is impossible for a man to know Him. He also argues, anyway God is not interested in us, just look at the Tsunami and all the suffering in this world. That is proof that God is not interested.

What the agnostic is saying is that there is a gap between humanity and God and we cannot cross it, so why even try? It is impossible for people to find out who God is. In this assertion they are right. The only answer is that God would have to reveal himself to man. But God wouldn’t do that would he? Yes He would and He did. Look at the bible. The Bible is a compilation of 66 different books by over 40 different people, who spanned over 2000 years of history. Most of them did not know one another and yet they are united in their message. There is consistency. It is not the illusionary vision of one man; it is too complex for that. And the bible says that revelation is the only way we can know God. Just read Jn 1: 18. God has to show us the truth because we can’t work it out ourselves. So let us start from the beginning. I just want to share three simple points from the bible. Firstly, the creation, secondly the fall, and thirdly, the remedy.

THE CREATION

The first four words of Genesis 1: 1 say, “In the beginning God”. This says a few things but firstly it says that before anything existed God was there. You may ask, well who created God then? I answer that no one created God, He was always there, and eternally existent, His very name means ‘I am’. But you may argue, he can’t have existed forever, nothing lasts for ever, and everything has an origin. But again, God has no origin, He is. If God was created then he wouldn’t be God for there would be someone greater and that God would really be the true God that we should worship. Therefore by definition God must be self existent and eternal. But the bible gives no basis for believing that God was a created being, it simply says ‘in the beginning God’. Secondly it shows that the beginning was brought about by something personal, which has a mind, will and emotions. He is a creator. He is expressive. He speaks.

We will see this expressed in His creation but I want to stress that God is not a set of principles, where if you press the right buttons, you get the right result. God is not an impersonal law; He is a person with a character. And what is his character? God tells us His own character in Exodus 34: 6 – 7. Moses, who gave the Ten Commandments, asks God to show him His glory, and God said that He couldn’t do that because Moses would not be able to survive if he saw it fully and therefore God would give him a glimpse, a little peak at God’s back and God preaches his character to Moses. We see that God describes Himself as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth. God is an intimate God, who suffers much before He shows His anger, and there is no false hood in Him. How many people do you know who are like that? There are not many and yet God declares Himself to be these things to the most perfect degree. We see this in the creation account. Genesis 1: 31 says that “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” In His creation God made light, life, vegetation, fruit, and animals and not only did He create them, but He created all kinds of varieties and species, colours and fragrances. We see the intimacy of God when we look at His creation of man. Genesis 2: 7 – 25. What is so different about the creation of man?

The bible says in Gen 1: 26 that man was made in the image of God. Does this mean that man was an exact duplicate of God? No, of course not. God is omnipresent but man is not and never was omnipresent. What it means is that man was made to reflect the character of God as an under ruler, having dominion over the earth. In verse 8 of chapter 2 we see that God placed Adam in a garden. He was given responsibility. That means that man was made with a purpose to serve God; that is to look after those gifts that God gave him. Even now, we still bear the imprint of this aspect of the creation whenever we ask “what is my purpose in life?” In verses 18 – 25 we see that God created a wife for Adam. God is the author of relationship. I think that one of the strongest desires of the human race is the sense of home, belonging, family, community, communication, and interaction. Why is this so? It is because that is how we were created. God made us to be social. When God made man we see that their relationship was intimate. Man did not have that division between him and God. So if that is all true then what went wrong? Why does God now seem to be so distant?

THE FALL

When God made Adam and Eve He gave them freedom and allowed them to share in everything except one thing, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen 2: 16 & 17. People facetiously ask what type of fruit was borne on this tree. Was it an apple, or was it an orange or what? It was none of them, for apples come from apple trees and oranges from orange trees but this was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree symbolizes three things. Firstly it symbolized the freedom that Adam and Eve had. They had the freedom to disobey God. This shows us that God didn’t create us to be robots; if He did then He would have contradicted his desire of relationship. If relationship is to exist it must be two way and it must be willing. Secondly it represented their subordination to God. The tree was there to make them to be like God knowing good and evil. God was willing to share everything except His deity. God would not share His right to be God. Thirdly it represented death because in the day they ate from it, God said they would die. And such disobedience didn’t take God by surprise because God said emphatically that they would eat from it. He said, “For in the day you eat from it you will surely die. So what happened? Sin happened. Where did sin come from?

Let us read Genesis 3: 1 – 10. In Revelation 12: 9 and 20: 2 we read that the serpent of old was Satan and what Satan said to Eve is very instructive in understanding the nature of sin. Firstly Satan misquotes God by saying that God said they couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden. What he was claiming was that God was stingy. ‘God is trying to restrict your freedom’. This leads Eve to respond but here we see that Eve misquotes God. Eve said that God’s command was that they couldn’t even touch the fruit, but God said only that they couldn’t eat it. This may well have been part of the deception, for if Satan had told her to touch it he may well have used that as proof to delude her into thinking that God might have been wrong about eating it. ‘Look I touched it but nothing happened.’ But that is a little speculative. But the most deceptive thing is that Satan promised illumination through the eating of the fruit, that their eyes would be opened and that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. This evolving into godhood was a satanic rouse and yet we see this philosophy in various religions and even within the church. This is the Sin – When I turn round and say, God I don’t want you to be the ruler of my life, I want to live my life, my way. As Isaiah 53: 6 says that ‘all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him’. But was Satan wrong? Did Satan lie when he told them that their eyes would be open? No, their eyes were opened. You see the lie wasn’t the promise that he made to them, the lie was the fact that Satan intimated that God was wrong and that He was hiding something good from Adam and Eve. God said that they would die in the day they ate of the fruit. But did they drop down dead? No! So, did God lie? Has God contradicted Himself? What is death? What is life? Is life football? Is life in getting plastered on a Friday night? Is life in working 9 – 5, in sleeping around? What is life?

Jesus told us what true life is. Jn 17: 3. And that is what died on the day they ate from the fruit. Their relationship was severed with God. Genesis 3: 8 shows that Adam and Eve were ashamed and they hid from God. God had to drive them away from his presence. God is a just God. His law is perfect and when we break his law we must pay the price. Let us look back again at Exodus 34: 6 – 7. God says in the seventh verse that he is a God of forgiveness and yet he must punish sin. As the words of the film ‘National Treasure’ goes, “someone has got to go to jail”. Wrong is done and someone has got to pay the price. It is no good saying that our good will out weigh our bad. God’s standard is perfect. We’re not competing for the Olympic gold medal here; we are looking to gain eternity in the very presence of God. If life is to know God, then death is to be separated from Him. That is the situation that we are in. The bible tells us in Rom 6: 23 that the wages of sin is death. How would you feel if you worked for a month and got paid zero. You would be irate. Well good news, God is a good boss. He will never fail to give us what we have earned. There is a second death that the bible talks about. A lake of fire is its description and it will burn forever and ever. This is the part that most of us don’t want to deal with because it is that terrible. But just because it is awful suffering doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at it. In South Africa, there was another taboo subject and that was AIDS and HIV. It is a subject people can speak about generally but not when it is applied to them. Couldn’t it be claimed by those people that we were just trying to use scare stories to modify their behavior? But for us that have the knowledge, they are not scare stories. They are frighteningly real. So is the lake of fire.

We deserve that place and do you know, the agnostic is right. There is no way that we can bridge the gap back to God. We are not good enough. The bible says ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Like in a game of darts we keep missing the bull’s eye. We can never reach it because we are predisposed to sin. Not blaming Adam for my sin but Adam was sent away from God’s presence and became a sinner, and every descendant of his is born with that nature. We call it human nature. But God isn’t like the depiction of Christoff in the Truman show. Truman sought to run out of the TV show and Christoff tried to kill him. So people claim, ‘you see that is what your God is like, if you don’t do things His way he tries to kill you’. Well that is not my God! This is what my God did; he became a man in the form of Jesus. Jesus took on the sin of the world on the cross; he took on God’s heavy anger against my sin and satisfied God’s justice so that whoever believes on Jesus and follows Jesus doesn’t have to suffer God’s anger. Jesus died that on the cross and was buried and he rose again as proof that he was right all along in everything that he said and everything that he did. One day he is returning to judge all of us and the question will be ‘did you know Jesus personally?’ To benefit from Jesus’ sacrifice, you have to be identified with Jesus. You need to trust Him and Him alone as your saviour. You need to turn away from the way you’re living. You need to stop going your way and start a new life with Jesus. Jesus as your master and your Lord. A guy once said that Jesus doesn’t offer a new start in life but rather a new life to start. The bible says that you must be born again. A new birth, a new life; and if you ask Him he will cause that to happen to you. Just as he made the heavens and the earth in the first creation, he can create a new life in you. If you want to be restored to the True God, to know Him, to know life and peace, to go to heaven there isn’t a better day to do so than today.