Our weekend at
Uncle Salvador and Aunty Di’s house
We had such a wonderful weekend. We learnt a lot about how
many people in South Africa
live and learnt to appreciate what we have. We were privileged to experience
day to day activities with uncle sal and Aunty Di like kids club and the church
service. We also enjoyed many games of Black Jack (not gambling) in which we
all ganged up on Salvador, even though he was losing. There was a rooster that
insisted on crowing non stop from 3am and it was very cold but we managed with
gas heaters and many many blankets. We got to help Phumulani with the
foundation to the extension of his home and we taught ‘teletubie’, a.k.a
Asimbonge, how to show us his teeth. He really does eat a lot. We had such a
wonderful weekend and it really was so much fun getting away from buildings and
cars and getting to experience the beauty of the Lords creations
Love Nicole
What a lovely weekend it was indeed!! After we had arrived, we
had coffee with one of aunty Di’s friends who told us many fascinating and
hilarious tales of his journeys throughout his life. We all had many laughs.
Then after coffee uncle Salvador, Jacob, Nicole,
Sandile and I went out to a settlement about twenty minutes away and Salvador preached to some
of the kids that live there. If we were successful I am not sure as I don’t
understand Zulu. Then after preaching to the kids we moved down to where the
rest of the community were settled and spread the Word there… in majorly
strong, cold winds. Then on our return journey back to our four star chalet at
The Hayworth; Jacob, Sandile and myself exchanged stories of no importance
whatsoever (we were talking nonsense). That night we all congregated in the
honeymoon suite, that aunty Di and uncle Salvador resided in, for a well needed
and greatly appreciated ( very, very delicious!!) meal that aunty Di had
prepared for us in our absence. After dinner Phumulani and Thabi, his newly
wedded wife, joined us in the honeymoon suite as Salvador shared a short message from the
Bible. After that we all indulged in an extremely scrumptious cup of hot
chocolate that was, once again, prepared by aunty Di. Also, after dinner
everybody joined in an intense tournament on “black-jack” that Salvador had taught us just before dinner.
The first stage of the tournament engaged that night… little did we know that
it was to continue and intensify every time it was played. At about ten that
night, Salvador eventually decided to kick us out of their humble abode and
send us back to our own chalet, of which I was grateful for as that place had caused me to get a
serious case of… dum dum duuum… THE GIGGLES!! At one stage that night I thought
I had developed the Toronto
blessing… along with everybody else. The first night at our place was very…
cold… restless… funny… cold… and annoying as one of the other residents at the
hotel we resided at had decided to bring along a chicken that had a disability
of telling the time. Normal chickens crow at sunrise which is at about 6:00 am.
No, not this one. It had been shipped in from some whack country that is two
hours behind South Africa,
meaning it crowed at 4:00 am!! Well, I had every intention of making dinner the
next night!! Anyway, on Saturday morning, Jacob had asked us to join him in the
kids club meeting and to do a re-enactment of “The Good Samaritan”, to which we
all agreed happily. The kids there were very welcoming and had a friendly and
kind expression about their faces. If you asked me, they enjoyed the play very
much, especially when I groaned (as I was the injured man). Then when we got
back from the kids club meeting I went on a long walk to observe the landscape
a little better. By the time I got back an hour had passed and everybody had
started getting ready for lunch which uncle Salvador would be preparing for us. Then we
all lazed around for the afternoon and I went and took a long awaited afternoon
nap… and again; when I returned about an hour had passed. Then I forgot what we
did after that because I only fully awoke another hour later, which might have been
when we had the second reading from the Bible. The same events and procedures
were to follow as the night before, except without the discovery of my sudden
and new found “condition”; aunty Di prepared an excellent cup of hot chocolate
for all of the people who temporarily hi-jacked her suite. Then the games
began… again!!! And Salvador
started getting annoyed because he never won as many games as the previous
evening sooo… he kicked us out… again. Then we got back to our chalet and got
right into bed for a peaceful sleep… or so we thought till the fake-imported-disabled
chicken started with its stories again!! I don’t know about the rest of my companions,
but I lay awake from 4:00 am till past when it should have crowed, to about
8:00 am when everybody else woke up. We all then gathered in the honeymoon
suite again and got ready for the church service which Salvador
had prepared the day before, and which Phumulani had translated from Salvador’s English to Zulu
for the rest of the congregation to understand. After the service, another
friend of the Hayworth’s joined us for lunch; I think her name was Joanne. Then
after lunch, which was again absolutely delightful, I honestly can’t remember
what we did… but then later that afternoon we played a few games of black-jack
and “chilled” till we had to leave for Vryheid again for the evening service at
Bethany Baptist Church
at which we watched a DVD called “The Daniel Project”. And that is more or less
what happened on our weekend away at the not-so-recognized Hayworth Inn. We
really enjoyed it and learned a lot. It was an unforgettable experience!!
Many thanks
Damian Els
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI
MONTHLY
NUMBER: 82. July 2011
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
The aloes are all in flower
now. June is behind us and we have headed into July. Looking over the month of
June we see that we have been blessed in so many ways.
The Louwsburg bible study has
been continually meeting. Every second Tuesday it is hosted in our house but
every other week we rotate from house to house among the members. We will
continue through Revelation soon but in the last two weeks Salvi has been
dealing with faith and rebutting the false Word of Faith, Prosperity and
positive confession teachings. Unfortunately there is so much junk on Christian
TV of this false word of faith teaching and it has been a blessing that some of
the bible study group have come out of this and rejected that teaching over the
space of 2 years of us meeting together. It really takes patience sometimes to
allow time for people to work through the issues and experience that
transformation of the mind that the Word of God accomplishes through that
person’s faith. One family that we met with in the first session are into the
word of faith teaching and so it was a huge challenge to them. We trust the
Lord will continue to minister to them and to challenge them not only in the
teaching but also concerning their heart’s treasure. Jacob Meads from New
Zealand gave a teaching on co-labouring in the gospel but titled the message “Where
is our treasure?” He also shared this at church and will be doing one more
teaching on Philemon for the church and the bible study before he leaves us in
a couple of weeks. Jacob has been a real blessing for us and we trust the Lord
has stretched him and blessed him in his visit here.
This month we have to say
farewell to Isabel who is leaving the area to work in Klerksdorp. We have some
friends into sound doctrine and we hope that Isabel will catch up with them and
start to meet with them to continue receiving sound doctrine.
Salvi and Jacob have continued
to evangelise and disciple. In Church Salvi has started to teach a series on
Deuteronomy which he has taught in English and Phumlani interpreted into Zulu.
Joanne from the bible study has brought some Zulu guys to visit the Church from
Louwsburg and may continue to do so on a regular occasion. This was a huge
blessing because 2 guys which Kim from the bible study and Salvi had both
witnessed too came with. In fact one of them remembers Salvi from 2004 sharing
the gospel with him when he was admitted to the Salvation Army TB hospital at
the time when Salvi used to visit and witness on a weekly basis. On the same
weekend we had the pleasure of 3 young people from Bethany Baptist Church stay
with us for a short term mission. Their report will be found on the ministry
website.
Di has done two clinic runs last
month, planted her garden and taught children’s club amongst her hospitality
and general running of our lives. It takes a lot of time with hand washing
clothes, cleaning and organizing our activities to make sure nothing gets
forgotten and for all of Salvi’s talents he can be quite forgetful when it
comes to the routine things! In the children’s club Di taught about man being
made in the image of God and also about us loving God because God first loved
us.
Salvi did some unusual
outreach this month. In the Louwsburg farming community he did a lecture for
the ladies arts and drama group on poetry recital as a form of theatre. He
performed a monologue and did a dramatic recital of Psalm 137 which enabled him
to share about the biblical background to the piece and then finished with
sharing his testimony. It was very well received and we hope that people were
challenged regarding their stand before the Lord. The following week Salvi and
Jacob performed a gospel play for the young children at care bear preschool in
Vryheid. The kids loved seeing Jacob being Abundant Grace and Salvi being Nasty
Boy who comes to repentance and becomes Forgiven. We hope the memories stay
with them so that one day they also may come to repentance.
A couple of Sundays back
Bethany Baptist Church showed the Daniel Project and though not many new
visitors attended it was well received by everybody. The church may be showing
the DVD again and hopefully attracting more viewers.
Phumlani has been given gifts
of blocks for building another room for his hut. He is humbled by these gifts
and thankful to the Lord. He has started building the foundation and the young people
will be returning on Saturday to help him complete the foundation.
We have had the blessings
given to us by people to take Jacob to Shakaland to learn about Zulu culture
and to Mkhuze nature reserve to see some animals. This week he is in Gauteng
visiting Allen and Sue Wells and a friend of his who works for a children’s
place of safety near Johannesburg.
Thank you for your faithfulness
in your prayers for us. We really do covet them. Indeed many thanks for all
your emails, prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry.
The Lord bless you and keep
you.
Shalom aleichem baShem
Yeshua, Salvi and Di
ELIJAH AND ELISHA
THE CHALLENGE
PART 3
1 Kings 18
Elijah was a man
of great faith, great courage and great obedience. We have seen his powerful
ministry but also his servant hearted nature. The only thing that Elijah
coveted was to see the people turn back their hearts to the Lord. No doubt he
lived in the hope, in the expectation that he would see revival. By the word of
Elijah drought came upon the land and Elijah had hidden himself from Israel,
trusting in God’s provision. This was the real judgment; that God had hidden
His words from the people. This went on for three and a half years where Elijah
saw the salvation of a gentile woman, a type of the church which has
predominantly been gentile since the 4th century onwards. But now
the time has come for the Word to come back to the Jewish nation.
Verses 1 – 6 Elijah sent back and Obadiah is introduced.
So God has
promised the rain will return and that is why Elijah must go back. This is
symbolic of the fact that the word of the Lord would be spoken again in Israel. God was
going to send rain upon the earth; therefore Elijah must have anticipated a
revival. Elijah did everything possible to see a revival. He was obedient. He
presented God’s word faithfully. He had suffered rejection and persecution. He
was zealous and now God had given him a promise. The rain was coming back. Now
notice that Elijah did not decide to return to Israel on the basis of knowing
that the 3 ½ years of drought had to happen as a type and prophecy of the two
witnesses in the tribulation of Revelation. He did not return to Israel because
he had been clever enough to work out the time that the rain would come back.
He did not do that. The fact that he was out for that time was coincidental in
the mind of Elijah. Rather Elijah would not return until God told him to,
whether that be 3 years, 3 ½ years or 50 years. Elijah did not have to have it
all figured out but he had to be sensitive to God’s voice and to be obedient.
Now there is someone
new that we meet in this text and that person is Obadiah. What do we learn
about Obadiah from when we meet him? The first two things are as follows. He
was over the household of Ahab and yet he feared the Lord greatly. He was
subject to and close to the wicked King and yet God vindicates his honour and
integrity in the fact that God had it recorded in scripture that Obadiah did not
compromise his loyalty to the Lord. If you have read ‘Tortured for Christ’, you
will remember that there were people within the communist party, people who
were in the secret police that were believers. These people were rejected by
other believers because of their apparent betrayal of the church. But what
these believers did not know is that these officers were actually double agents
of a sort, providing information to the underground Church, in order to warn
true believers of where the secret police where going to hit next. These secret
believers also kept information from the secret police. Now there were a big
number of believers that became informers to inform on the believers so how
could you tell the difference between the two? You cannot on a superficial
level! So it was with Obadiah. By external appearances it seemed that Obadiah
was apostate, that Obadiah had joined forces with God’s enemies. Yet Obadiah
was one of the good guys.
But what about
the commandment to ‘come out of her my people’? Should not Obadiah have taken a
stand and left Ahab? God has always had his hand in situations like this and
planted his people in influential places. A look at Daniel proves this case in
point. Daniel did not want to be in that position but he had little choice and
yet even in that position God moved so that he became known as a prophet of
note and preserved a testimony for God’s name in the most unlikeliest
circumstances. This was not a position that Obadiah would have wanted to be in
because he was someone that feared the Lord greatly. He would not have wanted
to face the trial everyday of temptation to go with the flow. He would have
been the odd one out in the court. If he feared the Lord how could he have
joined in all the pagan rites? He could not so why was Obadiah in that
position? Because it was a matter of life and death. In verse 4 we see that
Obadiah was in that position to save God’s prophets from execution. He used his
influence to serve the Lord.
But in verse 5 we
read that Ahab and Obadiah were to go through the land to find water. They are
in a desperate situation. They needed water but Ahab would rather seek some
broken cisterns that cannot hold water than turn to God for living water.
Everything with Ahab was about maintaining his society. He only saw the
situation of drought and looked for a solution to curb it rather than seeing
the underlying cause of the drought being spiritual. He was a pragmatist. It is
just like our societies today. We have stopped up our ears and shouted to the
creator ‘we don’t need you, You don’t exist!’ and when God manifests His
displeasure we will ignore it and simply say, as Isaiah 9: 10 portrays, “The
bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with smooth stones; The sycamores
have been cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.” In other words God
has judged us but we will come back stronger. Ahab was not even at that stage;
he was merely trying to curb the damage. Ahab’s operation was a salvage
operation. The other thing we do is blame God for it and shake our fist. But
Ahab and Obadiah separate from each other to cover more ground and then Obadiah
meets Elijah. That is to say that even in Obadiah’s situation, to be separated
is still paramount. God is always separating. We see this in Genesis and we see
it in the New Testament. It is God’s apartheid. Then Obadiah could hear the
word of the Lord. ‘Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands
and a pure heart.’ God told Elijah that He will send rain on the earth. The
drought was caused by Israel’s
apostasy and so for the rains to come back there must be some kind of revival.
Surely God was going to turn the hearts of the children back to their heavenly
Father and Elijah was the instrument that God would use.
Verses 7 – 16 Elijah meets Obadiah
Obadiah is on his
way, not expecting to see Elijah and Elijah meets him. Now notice Obadiah’s
reaction to Elijah. He falls on his face and calls Elijah his master. Now
although Elijah knows that Ahab is detestable to God, he does not treat Ahab as
if he was a nothing. He recognizes that Ahab has been placed there by God and
as such he acknowledges that Ahab has authority. Thus he says to Obadiah to go
tell ‘his master’ that Elijah is here. Elijah called Ahab, Obadiah’s master.
Obadiah’s allegiance was with the Lord first and foremost, however he was still
under human authority placed there by the Lord, no matter how bad that human
authority was. Romans 13: 1 – 2. This is why the early Christians went
willingly to their deaths on account of Christ. They knew they had broken human
law by following Christ and they were willing to face the death penalty for it.
Why? Because they feared God more than man and yet they did not fight against
the system because they recognized that their rulers were given that authority,
which they used to kill these believers. They were given that authority by God
and as such these believers would not fight against God. As Peter and John said
in Acts 4: 19 – 20, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to
you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about
what we have seen and heard.” They did not resist authority and yet their
highest allegiance was with God. So too, Elijah acknowledged Ahab’s authority
over Obadiah and respected that. Obadiah is scared at the proposition that
Elijah has set. He has seen God’s hand on Elijah and God’s protection over
Elijah. Obadiah has stuck his neck out on the line for God’s people, one time
by hiding 100 prophets away from Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah
too, he was a wanted man. Therefore if he told Ahab that Elijah was ready to
meet him and Elijah was whisked away by the Spirit of God, then would Ahab not
have executed Obadiah for letting him escape instead of capturing him? I do not
think we understand the gravity of the situation. Elijah was an enemy of the
state. Elijah was a wanted man, an outlaw who was seen to be terrorizing the
country. It will be the same with the 2 witnesses in Revelation 11: 10. These
men will not be hated because they are religious. They will be equated to
suicide bombers and perpetrators of terror. The offense will not be their
religion. Society is becoming more and more pluralistic. Their offense will be
their fanaticism. They do not fit the system. They can believe whatever they
want but they must not impose their views on others. And who knows, maybe they
will be perceived as worse than suicide bombers, because at least suicide
bombers die when they cause terror. When the two witnesses die at the hand of
the antichrist and his empire the world will act as if it is Christmas. So was
the attitude towards Elijah. Can we see why Obadiah was scared? But Elijah
gives Obadiah his word and that is enough for Obadiah. How trusting he is in
the Word of God and how lacking I often am! With one phrase all fear is stilled
just like Jesus calmed the sea with three words. The sea obeys the Lord much
more than I do. Obadiah goes to Ahab and tells him that Elijah wants to meet
him.
Verses 17 – 19 Elijah meets Ahab
Now look at
Ahab’s response in contrast to Obadiah’s. Obadiah was respectful, God fearing
and trusting. Ahab was neither. The first words out of Ahab’s mouth are “Is
this you, you troubler of Israel?”
What is Ahab doing here? He is fixing the blame on Elijah. It does not matter
what God has done with Ahab and that he has proved that He is there and He is
angry. It does not matter that God has sent prophets to Israel and given Israel
His law. Ahab still cannot see that his sin caused all this. In his mind the
power lay not with God but with the prophet. It was not that God had commanded
the prophet to speak in this situation but it was that the prophet had spoken.
He was like the deists of the last century who believed that though God may
have made everything, He had made the world to operate in a cause and effect
way, in a closed system, which God could not interfere with. Just as psalm 14:
1 says, “The fool in his heart says there is no God.” But secondly look at how
deceived Ahab is concerning his own sin. He does not see it as sinful and this
speaks as a microcosm of our human, fallen, sinful state. The reason that
mankind shakes his fist at God and hates God when bad things happen is because
mankind believes that it does not deserve this treatment. Just like the two
thieves on the cross. One turns round and says “Are you not the Christ? Save
yourself and us!” The other criminal had a different attitude. He rebuked his
fellow criminal for not fearing God. What was the difference between the two? The
difference between the two was that the second thief admitted that he was
suffering justly. So Ahab cannot see that because he will not acknowledge his
own sinfulness.
This is why in
our evangelism, and the testing of ourselves, we must use the Law to bring
people to the cross and to continually return to the cross. This is exactly
what Elijah does. He replies by convicting Ahab of his own sin and stating that
his own apostasy is the cause for the drought. If God warns us about certain
things that He actually despises, if God warns us by sending prophets and bible
teachings to tell us that these things totally displease God; and if we just
shrug it off or try to silence the messengers, can we therefore blame God for
manifesting that displeasure? And so using the Law is a way of showing people
their offense before a holy God, that they may become aware of the displeasure
of God. When a person acknowledges that they have a problem, they may then seek
a solution. That is Elijah’s tact in this situation and with the declaration of
Ahab’s guilt he also offers a challenge that the 450 prophets of Baal and the
400 prophets of Asherah come and meet Carmel with all Israel
observing. 1 Prophet of the Lord against 950 prophets of false gods. We will
see in the next session that the prophets of Asherah did not show up so he
would only face 450 of them. But here we see that Elijah was pitting himself
against 950 false prophets. Who had the majority? Who was most likely to win?
Who was out numbered? Elijah had the majority. Why? Because Elijah had the
infinite creator God on his side. There are a few things that I would like to
add before I conclude.
Firstly, God is
the one who was leading Elijah to do this. There is no way that Elijah would
stick his neck out on the line if it was not God leading him. This was not
about Elijah challenging the Baals and the Asherah but it was about obeying the
One who Elijah stood before.
Secondly, these
prophets were worshipping false gods. These were dumb idols and such religions
that worship dumb idols feed off superstition. God finds idolatry a joke
because all this power is attributed to a thing that has lips but cannot speak,
hands that cannot do, feet that cannot walk and if it falls it needs a human being
to prop it back up again. This is the ‘powerful’ god that these prophets were
worshipping.
But thirdly, as
one Christian once asked. “How many whole Christians do a thousand half
Christians make? A thousand half Christians do not even amount to a single
whole Christian!” There was only one real prophet that would make it to Mount Carmel and that was only Elijah. All the pillow
prophets were phonies.
Elijah was
looking for revival and would do anything God required to see it happening.
With an ‘Elijah’ people will have two reactions. Either they will be like
Obadiah, who was reverent, God fearing and trusting, or they will be like Ahab
who hated the prophet. Ahab blamed Elijah for the drought. What attitude do we
have to the word of God in our daily lives? Are we reverent or do we think of
it all as a joke? Also, when unbelievers look at us, they will not understand
us. Our lives testify to the miracle of God’s intervention in our lives. But
they will rationalize that out of the equation and reckon it to be some innate
power within ourselves. Elijah had to tell the kings sin to his face. He
convicted the king about his idolatry and challenged him. He was willing to
face 950 prophets to testify to the Power of the one true, living God. He
completely trusted in the Lord to come through.
Do we desire some
kind of revival in our lives and the lives of those we touch? Are we obedient?
Will we face false shepherds if God leads us that way? Will we endure reproach
for the sake of Christ? Will our fear of God lead to positive action? Are we like Elijah and Obadiah or are we like
Ahab?
“This book should be seen in light of the fact there are other views concerning the
return of Jesus that need to be explored, examined and digested. It can only
complement and lend credibility to Rosenthal’s work and certainly there are other
scholars who hold to these views. Should there be slight variances in
interpretation, as Bereans, we should look to God’s Holy Spirit for insight and
illumination…
Young believers are generally presented with one aspect of the “rapture”. As they
grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, they will find there appears to be
irreconcilable differences on this subject. The problem cannot lie with the
Scripture. Maybe the time has come to accept that being dogmatic about certain
texts supporting a doctrine, cause more problems, than those who hold to the
possibility of an alternative understanding.
– From the Foreword by Mark Van Niekerk. www.hazorim.org
This book is primarily geared for those who have never really examined the topic
of the rapture or have only been presented with one view. It is hoped that this
introductory excursion into the rapture will be a sufficient springboard or
platform to study in greater depth while maintaining respect for other premillenarians.”
If you would like to obtain your free copy of this book please click on the following link:
May the Lord bless you,
Salvador
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 81. June 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,
What a joyous month of celebration with Phumulani and Thabi’s wedding. Friends coming to visit fromSouth Africaand from theUK. The birth of our friend’s first child and the baptism of Tholakele.
There is much to tell and I’m not sure where to start. Jacob Meads from Di’s home church inNew Zealandis still with us until mid July. He has settled in well and has formed good friendships with many people. He has picked up a few words of Zulu, greetings and farewells, along with the odd words. His warm personality draws people and much laughter is heard in the communication process. The Lord is stretching him with the study of His word but he continues to press in. This month he will be ready to share a message with the bible study and the church. He has already shared at the Care bear pre-school at the start of this month and played his piano accordian at kids club where he will share later in the month. He was a huge help with the preparations of the wedding. Such as killing a cow and cutting it up for meat, the cow was given as a gift from Phumulani boss. We have been fetching water everyday as the rainy season has finished and with the many visitors and the garden now planted water is needed often. Di’s veggie garden was extended and fenced thanks to Jacob and Sal.
Much of the month was taken up with the preparation for the wedding. We witnessed a real outpouring of generosity from friends within and outside ofSouth Africa. Everyone wanted to help in some way, so the pulling together of pots, dishes, tents, flowers, video camera, vehicles, finances for hair, cake and food etc made it an extra special day for them both. Many many thanks to you all.
Before the day we had the pleasure of Clayton (Allen and Sue’s son) and his fiancée Jessie coming to visit us from theUKfor a night and two days. They also are making wedding plans for their celebration back in theUKin August. Jessie got to sleep in a “real Zulu hut” while Clayton and Jacob slept in a “real South African tent” which was pitched on a lean. Stories from “Truth for Youth” were shared and a general good catch-up was had. It is wonderful to see how the Lord has lead Clayton with his work, meeting Jessie and now his position with the youth atBridge Lanechurch. May the Lord continue to lead them as they prepare for their own wedding.
The Friday before the wedding we were blessed to catch up with Allen, Brenda and Tayla McKensie fromPort Elizabeth. They were passing through to see their daughter inDurban. This turned out to be an opportunity for them to also meet Kim and Leanie from the bible study group as we all met up at the hut before going of to decorate the hall for the wedding the next day. That same night we had the arrival of our friends Bernard and Mabel with baby Nvobo and Doctor. Sadly Mujuru, Clayton and Abel were unable to attend as Rachel was very unwell. Our friend Hendrik kindly helped out with collecting Thabi from Khambi.
The wedding started true African style, very relaxed and very late.
We were blessed to see Zulu, African’s, Indian, Kiwi’s, English, Shangaan and Pedi all sharing in the celebration. There was much loud cheering, clapping and dancing when the bridal party (which Sal and Jacob were apart of) entered one at a time dancing Zulu style. The guys had been practicing getting into the Zulu rhythm leading up to the day. This has been captured on video… thanks to Belinda. (Copies maybe ordered lol)
Pastor Bongenkosi Zakwe preached the word and shared the gospel. Bernard shared a wonderful message welcoming Phumulani to fatherland. It’s a term used once married in the Zulu culture because you are no longer seen as Umfana (boy) but now Ubaba (Father). Bernard spoke on the authority of God above all cultural issues when they go against His Word. There are no official invites to a Zulu wedding so anyone in the community can attend. This means that a huge supply of food is needed to be prepared for the celebrations. The mother of the bride does not attend as is common in the Zulu culture. After photos Phumulani and Thabi returned to the kraal. The family of Thabi returned her to their home later that night were she wasn’t released till Monday after Phumulani and Sal went to speak to the family. The family won’t fully accept that Thabi belongs to Phumulani until the ancestors are appeased. Phumulani and Thabi will not be involved in this ritual but for now Thabi is able to stay with Phumulani. Please pray for them. Because Thabi is related to the chief of the area there is much pressure on them to be seen doing the traditional ancestor sacrifice. Although Phumulani family also follow this tradition, Simon, Phumulani older brother spoke out saying “ they are married now she just needs to come and be with Phumulani, it is finished it is over”. Continue to hold them in Prayer over this.
With so much traveling to and fro into town with preparations, discipling was missed for a week however the bible study continued meeting and going through Revelation. Two videos were watched, “Messages from Heaven” and “The Daniel Project”.
A young lady called Joanne has just started attending the group; she gave her life to the Lord earlier in the year and is now very zealous for the word of God.
This month we also had the Baptism of Tholakele, it was a very cold day and she had a serve toothache. This however did not deter her. We praise the Lord for her. Sal is discipling her each week with Jabulani and Mkulu. We were able to help her with dental work as her two teeth needed to be extracted.
Along with sharing at the ladies craft group in Louwsburg and preaching much was done around wedding planning.
Sal spoke to Mujuru this month and it looks likely that he will be going to Zim in August, we are not sure if Di will be able as her visa has still not arrived from Home Affairs, she is on a temporal visa until they have it sorted.
Finally, please note that our website address is now www.kwazulumission.com which contains our newsletter and has the facility for you to leave your comments and questions. Many thanks for all your emails, prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
Shalom aleichem baShem Yeshua, Salvi and Di
ELIJAH AND ELISHA
GOD’S PROVISION
PART 2
1 Kings 17: 2 – 24
We have started a series of teachings looking at the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. In the last session we looked at the first verse of 1 Kings 17 and basically saw that Elijah, like Moses and John the Baptist came out of obscurity to lead up to the ministry of another. Where as Moses was a law giver, both Elijah and John the Baptist were calling the people back to repentance. Malachi 4: 5 – 6 shows us that the ministry of Elijah is a ministry of restoration. Elijah’s ministry was brought forth with great signs and wonders. When he spoke to Ahab concerning the rain being stopped, he did not say, ‘thus saith the LORD’ but he gave the message simply by swearing by the Lord’s name. The rains would come back by the word of Elijah. This necessitated humility and an attitude of servitude. One of the main lessons from the last session was the fact that Elijah was servant hearted and as such was in a position where God could have used him in such a powerful ministry without Elijah going apostate, taking glory for himself.
In this session we will see God’s provision for Elijah and for the widow who he lodged with. We will look at chapter 17 in three sections. Firstly we will look at Elijah by the brook Cherith. Then we will look at the mutual provision of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath and lastly we will look at the death and resurrection of the widow’s son.
V 2 – 6 The provision of God at Cherith
So Elijah has confronted Ahab boldly and told him that there would be a drought. Now this was a literal drought but there is a spiritual application of this physical sign. Isaiah 32: 15 (& 44: 3) uses rain as a picture of the Holy Spirit bringing life and vitality to a barren land. We do not need to turn to the scripture to remember that in the book of Acts Joel was quoted as saying that God would pour out his spirit on all flesh and we see this typified by the pouring of the early and the latter rains. But what do we read in Deuteronomy 32: 1 & 2? God’s words are also likened to the rains. Again in scripture we see a link between the Word and the Spirit. So that in withholding the Spirit, God also withholds His prophetic Word. In fact Jesus is the actual Word of God and the reason we have the similarity between this aspect of rain and God’s words dropping from heaven is seen in John 1: 4 which says, ‘in Him was life and that life was the light of men.’ Again in John 6: 63, Jesus says, ‘My words are spirit and they are life.’ Now when God sends a sign or does a miracle it is not there to titillate our curiosity. God does not do magic shows but rather He uses the miraculous to teach us something about the truth of His word. For example I will look at one example from the gospel of John. In John 5: 1 – 9 we have a pool with five porticoes, water for healing and that healing brought about through the agency of an angel stirring the waters. We have a man who is unable to procure the healing through his own efforts and he has no one to help him. He strove and strove. What does this teach us? Water teaches us about two things in scripture. Living water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit but this is not living water but standing water. Water teaches us also about the word of God. The word of God in this context must be entered in through 5 porticoes, and what five things do the porticoes relate to? It must be the 5 books of Moses for a few different reasons. Firstly, just as this pool promised healing, so the Law of Moses promises life to those who keep it. (Leviticus 18: 5). This Law was ordained through angels. (Galatians 3: 19). However the man was powerless to get the healing through his own efforts because we are of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. (Romans 7: 14) Jesus comes and heals the man on the Sabbath because Jesus gives us rest from our working and He gives us eternal life. Jesus tells the man to get up, pick up his pallet and walk. That is those who have received eternal life are told to take up their cross and follow Jesus. The fact that he was carrying his pallet on a Sabbath does not mean he was working. The Jewish leaders saw it as work but for the man this was nothing compared to his condition of striving for many years to get healing. It depends on how you look at it. If you know you were a sinner and were striving to get right with God, taking up your cross is not working for your salvation. It is only when you do not know the lostness of your own soul that the Christian life will seem hard and feel like a work you HAVE to do to be saved.
That is just one example of how God brings about a miraculous sign to teach spiritual truth, but what of this drought inIsrael? What is God teachingIsraeland throughIsraelteaching us? Please turn to Amos 8: 11 – 13. Basically the physical drought is a parallel to God taking away His word in judgment. Sometimes it is only when something is taken away from us that we then realize the value of it. 2 Thess 2: 11 & 12. We see that because the spirit of lawlessness is on the rise, the restrainer will be taken away and then the man of lawlessness will deceive with a ministry of signs and wonders. The antichrist, though his coming is in accordance with the activity of Satan, is sent by God as a judgment. God sends a deluding influence on the people so that they may believe the lie. The taking away of the word is a judgment and this is what Elijah was demonstrating in the declaration that there would be no rain except by his word. Therefore in verse 2 the Word of the LORD, which is Jesus Christ Himself, visits Elijah and in verse 3 tells him to hide himself. The words ‘to hide oneself’ here mean to ‘secret oneself’ or to ‘conceal oneself’. Just like the prophecy in Isaiah 29: 9 – 12. Elijah was not necessarily hiding to be protected from Ahab. There was a real threat but that is not the main reason here. The main reason that Elijah was to hide himself was because the hiding of Elijah was the real judgment for the apostasy that we looked at in the last session. Now there is real drought inIsraeland we will see in the next session of this message that this drought extended even to the areas outside ofIsrael, evenLebanon. The hiding of Elijah is also a type and picture of the hiding of Jews for three and a half years in the wilderness during the second half of the tribulation when the Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel but that is another matter altogether.
So how will God sustain Elijah through this time? Elijah is told to go to the brook Cherith east of theJordan. Though there was a drought of the Word Elijah still was visited by the Word of God. Now notice that the brook was supposed to provide drink for Elijah. Now the word brook in Hebrew is ‘Nachal’ and it can also mean flood or river. However I do not believe we are referring to a river but a stream. If we were dealing with something big we would be able to find it on a good bible map or in a bible encyclopedia. It seems that no one knows where it was. There might be someone that knows but I have not been able to find him. It must have been something small. Here in is a big lesson. In the midst of a great judgment, in the midst of such darkness and in the hardest of times God chose to use the small and insignificant to meet the needs of Elijah. God has used the feeble before. He used a boy with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to feed 5000 people. Jesus used a handful of fishermen to spread the gospel into the world. Now this becomes an important truth when we consider the problem of persecution. It is easy to talk about it here in the comfort of the west where no threat is over us in that sense. But this truth is the truth nevertheless. Daniel 12: 1 – 3. There will be great distress. The antichrist will overcome the saints. According to Revelation 12: 17 it will not only beIsraelwho the antichrist will persecuted but also believers in Jesus. The time will be hard and we will not be able to have open ministry. We will not be able to stand on street corners to preach. But what does Daniel say? Those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. We will still be able to lead people to righteousness in the midst of that. We will be weak, impotent, ineffectual but God will still use us and probably use us more powerfully. Surely the brook would be one of the first to dry up! We do not know where the brook got its water supply from. Maybe it got it from a hidden source in a mountain if there were any mountains round about. But whatever the physical source, the real source was God Himself. He made the difference. That is the testimony of people in persecuted lands. They are used powerfully by God despite being in weakness, being hidden in secret, being ineffectual.
But it was not only the river but also through ravens. A raven is an unclean bird. Not kosher, so why would God ordain such a thing? Firstly, desperate times call for desperate measures. God is able to use the ungodly for his purposes. Secondly the whole debate about kosher foods is only in regards to the consumption of kosher foods. Elijah was to get his food from the ravens but was not to eat the ravens. But thirdly this is an Old Testament picture of how God will use Gentiles to look after his people. We only have to look at the Holocaust and the memorials to righteous Gentiles. These were Gentiles who helped Jews or saved Jews from being killed or taken to concentration camps, with no benefit to the Gentile and even to their own harm. Schindler is said to have lost a lot of money in his protection of Jews through the factory that he ran. These ravens were scavengers. Where did they usually take their food to? To their own young, but where did they bring the meat to? To Elijah.
V 7 – 16 The mutual provision for Elijah and the Widow at Zeraphath
The brook dries up. Elijah is moved from one place to another. Notice Elijah’s attitude and character in all this. Never, never does Elijah complain; not even once. When God tells Elijah to go here, he goes here and when God tells Elijah to go there he goes there. How different we are. We get comfortable in the place where God brings us so that we complain if he moves us on or we hate the place he brings us into in the first place. Look at Elijah’s diet. If you had to eat bread and sausage every single meal for a year you would go out of your mind. But Elijah did not even get any bread! How boring! How awful but what was Elijah’s attitude? Perfect obedience. But the brook dries up. Why does the brook dry up? Why do those people who have been a source of comfort, cease to supply that comfort? When Dave Royle left our church ‘Cornerstone’ in theUKto go to pastor inSouth Africa(late 1990s) people really felt a loss. There was one couple that told Dave that he was not hearing from the Lord and that it was a wrong move. What about churches that were once sound and preached the word that have gone into error? What about churches where people really cared about each other that now show no concern about anybody? Why does God allow it? 2 Corinthians 1: 3 – 7. It is God who comforts us. God may use people and situations but the source of that comfort or provision is God Himself. God dries us the brook to keep our eyes on Him as the well and spring of our comfort in life. Elijah’s attitude is amazing because Elijah has absolutely no control. Sometimes, and I can see it in myself, we would rather dry up the brook ourselves rather than have it taken away from us. Elijah was just obedient and was willing to do whatever or to go wherever the Lord wanted.
So Jesus, the Word of God, visits Elijah again and tells him this time to go to Zeraphath. Where is Zeraphath? It is inSidon. Who came fromSidon? Read 1 Kings 16: 31. Out of all the places God sends Elijah, He picks Jezebel’s homeland! Now Elijah could have been provided for by people withinIsrael. In the next chapter you will see that Obadiah hid 100 prophets in a cave and provided bread and water. You thought Elijah’s diet was bad! So if God could have used Obadiah to hide Elijah then why would God turn to a Sidonian widow? Remember Romans 11.Israelrejected God’s word and so God turned His grace to the Gentiles. Then after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in God will turn His grace back to the Jews. This is exactly the case with Elijah. God uses the judgment ofIsraelas an avenue to reach a Gentile woman, the church after 365 AD till recent times. God commanded a widow to care for Elijah. This may not necessarily mean that she audibly heard a command. Remember Isaiah speaks of the king Cyrus being God’s servant even though Cyrus did not even know the Lord. But it means that God’s hand was in this situation and God had prepared the lady to do His will. We cannot understand how God works His will in this way but we know we are capable of compelling people to accomplish our will. I am not talking about deception. But when we know people, we know what motivates them. How greater God is at compelling us because He knows us, inside and out. He knows who is ripe and what they need to hear. A man’s heart plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.
Now notice how Elijah deals with this situation. We could learn a lot from this, I could especially. Elijah has been told specifically about this widow. God showed him. So what does Elijah do when he sees the widow? Does he go up to her and ask ‘Are you a widow? Well God has told me you must provide for me!’ No, he does not do that until later. First of all Elijah tests the widow just like Abraham’s servant did with finding a wife for Isaac. If only we would not be presumptuous and test things first, even when the Lord does actually specifically tell us something! This is not the same as doubting the Lord but it is to test to see if this is the specific fulfillment of God’s promise before diving into the situation. Firstly Elijah asks the lady for a jar, or cup of water. That is Elijah wanted to see if the lady was worthy of sharing in the reward of a prophet. (Mt 10: 41 – 42) But then he asks for the widow to bring a piece of bread in her hand. The widow protests with the answer that she is down to her last handful of flour. This is her last meal, she has given up hope and is resigned to the fact that after this meal they can only face death. She has held her responsibility of providing food in the most upright way. She has not given up to the point of saying, ‘what’s the point of cooking this last meal, we are going to die anyway!’ But she has held out until the end. But now the end has come! How can she therefore be a source of provision to this prophet? 2 Corinthians 4: 7 – 10. Paul had a thorn in the flesh once and prayed three times for it to be taken away. But God’s answer was that His grace was sufficient for Paul because God’s power was perfected in weakness. The surpassing power must be from God. If we have the ability and the power sometimes the waters become cloudy and we get confused as to which is from God and which is from ourselves. Sometimes we tell people that it is all from God though we might secretly believe we had our hand in it but we say it anyway because it is the right thing to say.
So when the widow says this, Elijah knew that this was the widow God wanted to use. His answer was soft, not harsh. It was not, ‘Well lady, you better give me some or else you will lose your blessing and God will be angry!’ He says to her, ‘Don’t be afraid, make it for yourself and your son.’ He was not asking her to give away all her food but that Elijah should have a share and the first portion. This is not a rule for everyone to give to the ‘man of God’ as some TBN preachers claim. It was a specific promise for a specific lady. If there is any principle to be taken from this it is the principle of Galatians 6: 6 which says that the one who is taught the word is to SHARE all good things with the one who teaches him. It does not say the person taught is to merely give away and it does not specify money. It is sharing, not giving away and when a person has less, then that sharing will be less in man’s eyes, but in God’s eyes it is all the same if not more; it is sharing. He also gave the widow a specific promise that God would provide. My grandmother inPortugalhad this experience of God’s provision. She had no money and 7 children to feed. Every morning when she came into the kitchen every morning there was a full chorizo sausage hanging up for the family until the morning when money came in and then the sausage was used up. But notice this provision was made with my grandmother when she was in the most desperate of situations. So with this lady, she was at the bottom of the barrel; that is when God steps in. But let us move on to the last section.
V 17 – 24 The death and resurrection of the widow’s son.
What is worse than facing death? Facing the threat of death and being saved from that threat only to find that death comes anyway. Raised hopes which are then dashed are always hard to live with. God saved the widow and her son, only to find that her son dies anyway. Not only does her son die but because she is a widow all her future hope of someone to look after her dies with him. He was her welfare, he was her retirement plan, he was her old age home. Without him, she had nothing. What does she do after this death? She blames Elijah. Just as Elijah had brought judgment onIsraelbecause of her sin, she had thought that he had come to pray judgment on her because of her sin. Here we can see why God brought this sickness unto death, which through the eyes of faith we can see was not ultimately unto death. This is because God is a Holy God. We cannot host God in our lives without Him exposing our sinfulness to us. Just like Jn 3: 19 – 21 shows us. God meant more than provision for this widow. If God only sought provision for life’s necessities then everybody would be a Christian, but because God goes deeper and wants to deal with sin, many do not want to commit to him. So what was Elijah’s reaction? How did this bold, hot-headed prophet reply? With a soft answer to turn away wrath. He knew that she was emotional and grieving and therefore he did not argue or try to help her understand the situation. He simply asked for her son. 1 Peter 3: 7 tells husbands to live with their wives in an understanding way as with a weaker vessel and to give her honour as a fellow heir. Often women want to be able to share their problems without the husband trying to give all the answers, they just want to be listened to, understood and loved. There is a joke about a man who says to his wife ‘Only come to me with a problem if you want a solution. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for!’ Elijah did not have that ethic. He just listened and took the issue to the Lord. He took the boy to a room away from the widow who was distraught and sought God fervently for the restoration for the lad. Look at verse 20. Elijah asks if God’s real intention was harm to the widow. Notice Elijah does not ask why. Sometimes it is not worth asking why. The why comes later. We need to know what God’s will is and to accept it. As Jesus told His disciples after washing their feet, ‘What I do you do not realize but you will understand hereafter.’ But Elijah prays for the life of the lad to return to him. But Elijah does not only pray; he does something unusual. He lies on top of the lad three times while calling to the Lord. It is like, if Elijah could, he would pour his own life into the lad. This is the attitude that the Apostle Paul had. Paul expresses this to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 12: 15 in that he would be gladly expended for their souls. In Philippians 2: 17 he speaks of being poured out as a drink offering and in 1 Thessalonians 2: 7 – 9 Paul shares his example of being a nursing mother, working night and day so as not to be a burden to them. Elijah was willing to pour out his life that this boy might live. Are you, am I willing to live that life of sacrifice so that our prayers may see an answer? Notice that it is not Elijah’s prayer that revived the lad though his prayer accomplished much. Back in verse 22 the life came back after God heard the prayer. What did prayer accomplish? It moved the One who put the stars in space, who made heaven and earth. God heard and he answered. And the result was that the salvation of God came to the woman. She really knew he was a man of God. She already had accepted him as a prophet but now she knew that what he said was the truth. She had confessed her sin and trusted her dead son into God’s hands. Her cry was heard and now she knew the Truth that the God of Israel is the true God in contrast toIsraelwho were of two opinions that both Yahweh and Baal were equals. What an indictment on the northernkingdomofIsrael, that a Gentile woman recognizes the supremacy ofIsrael’s God whileIsraelis blind to it.
Jacob Meads Short Term Mission Report #1
May 2011
On arriving in South Africa, I was amazed by the incredible amounts of sugar cane growing around Durban. It, from a distance, looked like a lot of grass, but on getting closer I then realized it was sugar cane.
One thing I noticed, that is not so common in the western world, was the many signs that are on almost every lamppost that say things like “Pain Free Abortion” or “Safe Abortion Please Phone” etc. Promiscuity is very wide spread, and a lot more blatant than back in NZ. Unfortunately some folk do not care about the effects, namely spreading of AIDS and sickness, etc. In a similar way to back home people close their eyes and block their ears to the effects of sin.
Another thing that stands out is the attitude that some people have in regards to being quite lazy in serving customers. Often if they don’t want to serve you, they don’t even acknowledge that you are at the counter wanting to buy something. So you lose interest and leave the store and they lose a customer.
But South Africa is a beautiful country, and I have met a large variety of different people who have welcomed me into their homes, given hospitality and treated me like family. Praise the Lord for brothers and sisters in Christ who are willing to serve the Lord by serving their fellow Christians. I have enjoyed many hours with those I have met here!
I have been privileged to stay in Phumlani’s Kraal and I am thankful that he has not only welcomed Salvi and Di into his home but also that he welcomes their visitors!
We are all getting busy preparing for Phumlani and Thabi’s wedding and it’s going to be neat to see a Christian wedding of Zulu folk who are both dedicated to the Lord and His work. It has been neat getting to know Salvi and Di in a greater way and to be playing a small part in the ministry that they have here among the Zulu people and with the Afrikaans people.
There is a lot of spiritual darkness and confusion here. There are many who believe and worship ancestral spirits and some who worship Shembe (the supposed black messiah) and then some who believe that they can just add Jesus and the aspects of Christianity on top of all their other beliefs.
Pray that God will unblind the eyes of all these people who are walking in darkness and are so confused. Pray for the ministry to expand and that God will give us all wisdom as we endeavor to live in God’s way, and show the light of Christ to those we are living around and with.
From Jacob Meads.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 80. May 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,
Since coming back from the wedding at Bernard’s church in Springs this last month has been quite momentous. As soon as we got back we heard that two young Afrikaans men from Louwsburg had been killed in a car accident. We went to the funeral of one of the men which was in Afrikaans but could not go to the other one as one of Phumlani’s relatives had also died and her funeral was on the same day. At the funeral Salvi had the opportunity to preach and Di was deep in prayer. The relative was an elderly Zionist. For those of you who do not know, African Zionism is not the same as the movement that believes that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews. This is a syncretistic religion mixing biblical teaching with practices of ancestral tradition in calling up the dead and retaining the presence of departed spirits to serve as guardian spirits against evil. The Zionist movement from what we have read seems to have originally been against the notion of witchdoctors and saw the conversion of witchdoctors becoming Zionists and transforming certain of their traditional practices to have them labeled as prophetic ministry or healing ministry. Now it seems that witchcraft is accepted by a number of Zionists.
We were praying that the gospel would be preached and Salvi gained the opportunity. On the funeral service sheet was a poem that ran something like this, ‘You are on Christ’s other side and Christ on this side with me. You with Christ and Christ with me. So together we will be.’ Salvi preached that these words were true of those who are born again. The dead in Christ stay with Christ until the resurrection and Christ stays with the believer and while we praise the Lord the dead in Christ also worship Him. But this shows that the spirits of dead saved do not come back to the homes of the living. The Zionist pastors laughed because they knew exactly what Salvi was getting at which was that the ceremony of bringing back the spirit of the dead to the homestead of the Zulu was not compatible with Christianity but Salvi had used their own literature to prove the biblical point. The Christian believers at the funeral were elated to hear such preaching. One Zionist lady told us after ‘I heard the message’ but we said that Jesus said ‘Blessed are those who hear and do His words.’
Di has been busy painting Phumlani’s hut this month. With the wedding approaching Phumlani agreed that Di could get her sleeves rolled up for Thabi’s sake. Normally Phumlani says ‘No!’ when we ask him if he would like something. He is totally unassuming and never seeks to elevate himself. He would always rather take the low road. He is the humblest guy we have ever met. Phumlani has been blown away by some of the gifts he has received in relationship to his wedding and he thanks the Lord for supplying them. He really did not expect anything. Di has also done a couple of clinic runs. A few editions back of the Msindisi monthly we wrote concerning a little boy of the Mtshali Kraal who looked like he had AIDS but his grandmother will not get him tested. He has TB. The last visit to the clinic looked very encouraging as the boy seemed to be doing better. However Di has had to take him to the clinic today so it looks like it is an journey that will contain its ups and downs. Phumlani’s sister in law is a community health volunteer in the area and both she and Di were able to chat about the non-compliance of people in the area to get tested for HIV. People will listen to educators teaching about the virus and how it is contracted and will even be able to answer the questions but education does not change risky behavior or the compliance for people to get tested. Yet there are people who do comply and those people do find help. This is such a picture of the gospel and the message of sin and eternal judgment. But we hope that the grandmother one day will face up to facts and permit her grandson to be tested but that is her decision and we cannot force her.
Some of the Evangelism got interrupted this last month as Salvi had to meet the deadline for his 4000 word assignment for Bible college or he would have failed the module. We were able to house sit this month and this meant that Salvi obtained access to electricity to plug in the laptop and type away. This means that Salvi is now half way through the diploma and indeed halfway through the whole degree itself. He has now started his next module which is on Deuteronomy which he enjoying much better because he is actually dealing with the biblical text.
Also in this month we had Craig and Magda Boardman visit us with their sons. Craig and Magda go to the Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid and we have such a good friendship with them and other members such as the pastor Jannie, Hendrik and Belinda and Kogie. Magda was able to spend a lot of time with Di and Phumlani also was able to hang out as his boss had given him the day off work for the public holiday of Good Friday. So Phumlani, Craig and Salvi were able to go into Ngenitsheni and preach the gospel to people who had not gone away for the weekend. Craig thoroughly enjoyed the experience and seeing Phumlani and Salvi preach. There is no hype, no fuss and no emotionalism, just a straightforward sharing the gospel from the heart and conversation with the willing about the gospel. God may use many avenues to reach people but we must never lose sight of the fact that it is the message itself that is the power of God to salvation for those who believe. As the words of a song by John Hayworth go:
What did Jesus do without a thousand kilowatt PA,
Flashing lights and coloured smoke to reach the people of His day?
What did Jesus do without flashy suits and fancy cars,
Huge publicity campaigns and handouts and satellites in the stars?
He had the anointing.
How did He cope without tricks of the trade and gimmickry,
Computer banks and telethons, space age technology?
He had the anointing.
So let us try to keep it simple, simple as we can.
Trusting less in the arm of flesh and more on the Son of Man.
Let’s spend less on the methods of the world and more time on our knees.
Let’s trust more in the Gospel’s power and God’s ability to save.
We just need the anointing.
We also saw the arrival of our friend Jacob Meads from Di’s home church, Immanuel Congregational Church, in New Zealand. We see the hand of the Lord in bringing Jacob to us. First, Jacob had been praying about coming out to us before we had it on our hearts to invite him personally as Di felt it laid on her heart. Secondly after Jacob had accepted the offer to come Mark Van Niekerk from Stanger, KwaZulu Natal had spoken at Immanuel about evangelism to Jews in Israel. Salvi had after started speaking to Mark concerning end times teaching and there was much in agreement so that our visit to Mark and his wife last month was of the Lord. And now we find out that the father of Roy, of Bethany Baptist, spoke at Immanuel a couple of months ago. Jacob has started going out evangelizing with Salvi and preached his first evangelistic sermon with Salvi interpreting into Zulu for him. We are sure that Jacob will be writing his own experiences and perspectives of his time here so when his writes his own newsletters we will forward them to you and put them on the ministry website for you to read.
A couple of Sundays ago we had Tony and Sonja visit who were up for the wedding of Sonja’s brother. It was great to catch up with them and to hear some of what the Lord had been doing in their lives. Salvi was able to give some teaching by a guy called Art Katz who has taught some profound messages before his death. It was an encouraging time.
Last Saturday we did a Passover in Bethany Baptist Church which was attended by members of the Baptist Church, our home cell and Phumlani’s church who could speak English. There were also visitors. It was excellent as we looked at what it meant for Israel in coming out of Egypt and then working from that into seeing how that is a picture of our salvation. Salvi taught through the bulk of the service but others were able to contribute and to share. Jannie lead communion and gave a short address, Hendrik and his son did the telling of the Exodus story with the format of four questions, Jacob played his piano accordion etc. and this gave the afternoon a real sense of fellowship. At the end of the Passover we were all left with a real sense of expectation for Jesus’ return, Passover is all about Jesus.
We would also love to pass our condolences to the family of David Wilkerson whose passing has been the conversation of many brethren. David Wilkerson was a voice that stood against the apostasy of the word of faith, prosperity TV evangelists. Salvi’s uncle was one of the many drug addicts that have come to the faith and off drugs through the organization he founded called ‘Teen Challenge’. David Wilkerson was one of the pastors, whose work saw the city of New York decline from being one notorious for gangsterism and crime. The story of how the Lord lead him, as a small time preacher to the streets of New York was turned into the 70’s film, ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’ and is still used by many churches in their outreaches. David Wilkerson was someone who wept at the fallenness of the church and called people back to a separate and dedicated relationship to the Lord. Many of us have not learned to cry in this way. A true prophetic voice is rare these days. Prophets need to weep in grief or they will lose their light. May the Lord raise up voices of discernment who will be disturbed over the backsliding from biblical doctrine and moral purity and from the Lord, who will weep at the coming judgment against God’s people in the west, who will be consumed with the zeal for God’s house and who will be jealous for God’s name and honour in this wicked age without becoming cynical which is something that we all tend towards concerning the rot that has become so widespread.
Finally, please note that our website address is now http://www.kwazulumission.com which contains our newsletter and has the facility for you to leave your comments and questions. Many thanks for all your emails, prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
Shalom aleichem baShem Yeshua, Salvi and Di
ELIJAH AND ELISHA: PART 1
“ELIJAH THE PROPHET”
1 Kings 17: 1
Without doubt Elijah has been the prophet most talked about in Eschatology. When Jesus asked His disciples ‘Who do people say I am?’ One of the answers was that ‘Some say Elijah the prophet’. When Jesus was on the cross and cried out ‘Eli, Eli lama sabachtani?’ the people thought he was calling out to the prophet Elijah. In Passover, in between the third (redemption) cup and fourth (Hallel) cup of wine, the Jews pour out the ‘Kos Eliyahu’ or ‘cup of Elijah’ and send their children to the door in order to see if Elijah had come yet. The reason for this is that Malachi prophesied that before the day of the Lord came, God would send Elijah the prophet to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and of the children to their fathers. Malachi 4: 5 – 6. This is one of the reasons that people believe that Elijah is one of the two witnesses in Revelation. The miracles and signs of the two witnesses mirror the miracles and signs of Elijah and Moses, and it was Elijah and Moses who were with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration as a foretaste of the Messianic kingdom that is still to be realized even in our day.
There are certain times where God has demonstrated major signs and wonders in terms of the miraculous. In every time there are occasions where God performs miracles but with Elijah and Moses, we are talking about a huge concentration and demonstration of miracles that affects everything and every body around. The other prophets were not noted for their miracles. Even John the Baptist who came in the Spirit of Elijah did not do one miracle. The first ministry that demonstrated a major concentration of miracles was that of Moses. The second was that of Elijah and Elisha. Thirdly there were Jesus and the Apostles whose ministry carried on into the early Church and lastly there will be the two witnesses with the return of Christ. As I said God may do the miraculous in any age but here we are dealing with specific ministries that had notable, indisputable miracles in a concentrated form. I mean things like people being raised from the dead, red sea parting, walking on water, plagues coming on the earth affecting nature around about and these happening with people that speak God’s message faithfully. Note that we are not speaking about miracles that are debatable or proclaimed by hearsay. These are not miracles of healings where people appear to be healed and are proclaimed as being healed and then end up dying when they stop taking their medication, as has been the case with Benny Hinn and Morris Cerrullo. Out in the open air, on top of a mountain, Elijah called down fire from heaven onto a sacrifice dowsed in water. With simple prayer and without the showmanship of the prophets of Baal, something happens that is impossible to explain in purely scientific terms.
But Elijah’s ministry was there to bring reformation to the northern Kingdom of Israel which had become overly apostate. After the reign of Solomon, because of Solomon’s disobedience in following after other gods, God split his kingdom into two and left Solomon’s son Rehoboam with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The other tribes rebelled and appointed Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, as king over them. Thus there were two kingdoms established within the Israelite nation. The northern kingdom was called Israel and the southern kingdom was called Judah. Both the kingdoms were recognized by God. Both kingdoms went apostate but Israel went apostate far quicker than Judah. God’s splitting of the kingdom was a way of judging the nation and yet still keeping a remnant. Jeroboam brought immediate apostasy by the introduction of foreign worship to Israel. (1 Kings 12: 26 – 33). He did not want the people to worship in Jerusalem because they might return to Rehoboam and he would lose political power so Jeroboam placed two golden calves in Bethel and Dan. Now all of the kings after him followed in his steps until Omri came who was worse than those kings. Omri did not simply walk in the way of Jeroboam, nor did he merely do all the sins of Jeroboam, and neither did he only come in the likeness of Jeroboam. But Omri walked in all the way of Jeroboam. However, no matter how bad Omri was his son Ahab was worse. Ahab not only followed Jeroboam’s example but he did worse. He married Jezebel and turned to Ba’al and Asherah worship, which included sex orgies and child sacrifice. This is the Canaanite practice that caused God to order the annihilation of whole Canaanite tribes. It was in the midst of the reign of Ahab that God sent Elijah.
1 Kings 17: 1. Here Elijah is introduced without genealogy. There is a little debate about what the term Tishbite means. Some people say it is named after a place called Tisbeh, east of the Jordan. Some people say it is named after a place called Thesbon of the Arabians which would make Elijah a Gentile prophet. But whether he was Gentile or Jewish His God was the God of Israel. Elijah’s name is in Hebrew ‘Eliyahu’ which means ‘My God, Jehovah is He’. This is in opposition to Ahab and the people of his kingdom who were of two opinions that not only Jehovah was their God but also Ba’al and Asherah were their gods too. Israel’s problem was not that they rejected Jehovah and the worship of Jehovah as true but their problem was post-modernism. That is to say that Israel could not believe that truth was exclusive and that Jehovah could not hold all the truth. If rains had failed to fall and Jehovah had not answered their prayers for rain, then surely it was because Ba’al had control of the rain. Israel believed that there was much that they could learn from the surrounding religions of the day and thus started a form of ‘Emerging Judaism’ such as people like Brian Maclaren have sought to do with Christianity. However Elijah is much compared to Melchizedek because of the mysteriousness of his origins, so mysterious that according to Matthew Henry, some Jews thought that he was an angel. But the scripture shows us that he came from among men and not from heaven. Like James wrote, he was a man with passions like us. He was a real human being who felt the way we felt. But why does the scripture tell us nothing about his parentage? Like Moses, and John the Baptist, Elijah had to be presented in scripture with some level of obscurity to lead up to the ministry of someone else. Moses was of the court of Egypt but had to be lead to the wilderness for 40 years. Hence he came out of nowhere and although he delivered Israel out of Egypt he could not bring them into the Promised Land. But another who grew up among them, Joshua would lead them. John the Baptist was born to a priest but had to be lead to the wilderness before starting his ministry. He came out of obscurity so that the people asked who he was. He was known as John the Baptist, not John the son of Zechariah. However everyone knew Jesus’ parentage and where He was from. Both Moses and John prepared the way but Joshua and Jesus would lead to victory. So with Elijah, there is an element of obscurity but Elisha was the son of Shaphat and we can read about his background before he was called. The difference with Moses and Elijah to John the Baptist is that they were regarded as greater than their successors. Moses was the greatest prophet and Elijah was the great prophesied herald before the Day of the Lord. But when it came to John, he had to stress that the one who came after him was actually greater. Why the difference? It is different because Jesus is The Messiah, the Son of God. Although a type or picture illustrates something of the truth of Jesus, it will not mirror Jesus in every detail because it is only a shadow of the reality and not the reality itself.
The second thing we notice in the first verse is that Elijah was a servant of the God of Israel. He tells Ahab that he stands before the God of Israel. If Elijah was a Gentile then it tells us about the depravity that existed among the Israelites that God had to shame them with an obedient Gentile to provoke them to jealousy. But it is not necessary to believe that Elijah was a Gentile to see God’s plan for using Gentiles. We will see that truth with the ravens in the next chapter when we will look at God’s provision for Elijah and the widow of Zeraphath. But Elijah was a servant of Israel’s God. This servant mentality is vital to someone with a prophetic ministry like Elijah. When you are doing many signs and wonders, it is essential that obedience marks your every step because with such power comes the opportunity for pride. It is endemic to human nature to let the praise of man puff you up. When I was at high school I used to get very good reports at parents’ evenings, not great grades but good reports. My dad, seeing how pleased I was about myself, stopped me going to parents’ evenings with him because I would get a big head. But as Paul told the Corinthians ‘Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.’ Is there anything wrong with knowledge? No, in fact Paul praises them for their knowledge in the first chapter but there is much wrong with pride. But Elijah’s mentality was different. He stands waiting before the Lord, ready to do what His master told him and we will see this worked out in the next session. The Hebrew word ‘amad’ here translated ‘stand’ is the same in Psalm one where it talks about not ‘standing’ in the way of sinners. It is used in a variety of applications. It means to take ones stand and can suggest immovability. It can be also used of a soldier standing upright on his watch, or of a priest standing before the altar after everything he has done in sacrifice. In other words as the Vines dictionary indicates, it does not mean standing there galmless doing nothing but it includes everything a person does in ministering before God. A servant is continually at God’s beck and call.
Thirdly we can see the authority that God placed on Elijah. Elijah said that there would be a drought for three and a half years. This is very similar to what the two witnesses do in Revelation 11: 3 – 6. Remember what Elijah said to Ahab. Elijah is somewhat unique in his ministry. Many other prophets would tell the kings, ‘Thus says the Lord.’ Elijah does not say that here. He says that the rains would come by ‘his word’. In Revelation it says that the two witnesses have power to shut up the sky during the time of their prophesying and to strike the earth with every plague as often ‘as they desire’. There is a sense here that there is no waiting on the Lord for every single action but they may act according to their own desire. Now before we start to misinterpret this passage into thinking that it is possible to order God to do certain things let us turn to James 5: 17 – 18. How did Elijah cause the rains to fall again? Did he just demand that it happen? No he prayed. Now in the text of 1 Kings 18 we do not actually see Elijah praying for the rain. Rather Elijah prays for God to hear the prayer and because of his obedience God would send fire from heaven. We will look at this again when we get to this portion in Elijah’s ministry. But this is just to say that the scripture indicates this is the product of Elijah’s will, or Elijah’s word rather, but then scripture also shows it is ultimately down God’s will. In one place, Elijah does not pray for rain but in another place scripture says that he did. What does it come down to? Elijah knew God’s will. Elijah knew what God wanted and prayed accordingly. When Elijah prayed that God would answer his prayer, it was not just for the fire to come from heaven but it also included the rains because it was all part of his ministry of restoring the people’s hearts back to the Lord. 1 John 5: 14 – 15. We also know that Elijah bowed to the earth after the fire had fallen and the wicked prophets were slain and no doubt he also prayed for rain there too. The basis of God answering Elijah’s prayer was Elijah’s obedience in everything he executed concerning this event.
But the question still remains. Whose will brought it to pass, Elijah’s or God’s? The answer was that it was both. The two witnesses receive power to send the plagues to the earth as often as they desire. Just because they do ‘according to their desire’ does not mean that God does not also desire these plagues to happen at the frequency that they do. It is not a case that the two witnesses are sending the plagues according to their desire and God is in heaven saying, ‘No, I do not want it to happen like this’. No it is God’s will for the two witnesses to send these plagues but what you have in the cases of these people is a human will that is aligned with God’s will. It was both Elijah’s and God’s will that the rains came back. It was at the word of the Lord and at the word of Elijah spoken in faith that the rains came back. So the reason that Elijah was able to carry out his extraordinary ministry was because his will was aligned to God’s will. Remember, in Matthew 3: 15, Jesus came up to John the Baptist to be baptized. John saw how ridiculous the situation was because his baptism was a baptism of repentance from sin, but Jesus had no sin. But what was Jesus’ reply? It was not a direct command but an appeal. He said ‘Permit it at this time’. In other words he said, ‘let it happen for now’. He did not say ‘oh no you must baptize Me now’! But Jesus was doing as Paul did in the letter to Philemon. Though Paul had the authority to order him to do what was proper, yet for love’s sake Paul was only appealing to Philemon to forgive Onesimus. Paul wanted him to do God’s will out of his own volition. So Jesus did not want to treat John as a servant or a child but he appealed to him as an equal, though John was not equal. But Jesus did this because John was obedient and we can see John’s will was aligned with God’s. But Jesus did not only compel John to permit this gross breach of seemliness but also gave him a reason for it. It is great to get a reason. God is a reasonable God. Even when He does not explain it, there is still a reason for everything He does and says. When Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, even though the disciples did not understand it, there was still a reason behind it, which Jesus said they would understand hereafter. (Jn 13: 7) God is a reasonable God. But what was the reason that Jesus gave to John the Baptist? He continued and said, ‘for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’. He did not say ‘It is fitting for me to fulfill all righteousness.’ In Jesus’ work of fulfilling righteousness there was a place for John to genuinely share in that work. You see God made the heavens and the earth. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. You cannot put God in a place where He is obliged to do anything for you or in a place where He is dependant on you. God does not need you or me. ‘As God said to Job, ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth’? ‘Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? Or do you have an arm like God, And can you thunder with a voice like His?’ God does not need us to exist and be happy. Despite John Bevere’s assertion that God made us because He felt lonely, God is not like man that He would get lonely and need company. God is Trinity; He has always been in company, relationship and community. He does not need us to fulfill His purposes. He could go ahead and do it all without us, but that is not the point. The point is that God does not want to do it by Himself. He desires relationship. He has chosen to accomplish His purposes by using people. For certain purposes God will use the unbelieving, such as for judgment on God’s people, but for His glorious purposes for salvation and repentance God uses the obedient. Elijah’s will, like John the Baptist’s will, was parallel to God’s will and so when the rains came back to Israel they came by both the will of God and as Elijah said, by his own word.
What can we learn about Elijah in this introduction to this series? Elijah’s ministry was dramatic and spectacular. His ministry was a ministry of restoration and of leading up to the ministry of another. Elijah came out of some level of obscurity. And there are times where we are in a wilderness experience and wonder what God is going to do. Sometimes it is overwhelmingly difficult but what marked Elijah’s life was continual obedience. To have a ministry as grand and spectacular as his he had to be a servant through and through. He waited on the Lord. And because of this attitude and obedience God was able to use Him in a way that made it a genuine partnership between God and Elijah. An Elijah does not always have to say ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ An Elijah can simply swear by the Lord that something will come to pass. Elijah could tell it to Ahab straight because his will was completely aligned to God’s. He knew what God wanted; he accepted it and he ran with it without exceeding the things that God said.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 79. Apr 2011
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
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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,
Despite what we wrote about the hot weather disappearing by the end of February, this has been proved wrong by March. The sun has continued its onslaught and it is harder for Di hailing from New Zealand.
We started the month by visiting the Care Bear Pre-School which is run by Belinda from Bethany Baptist Church. Di did a lesson on the wise man building a house on the rock and Salvi did a skit on that bible story. We are always given such a warm welcome there and the kids are so well behaved. We trust that the Lord will cause these seeds of teaching from the Bible to sprout in their lives in the future. Di also did a couple of clinic runs during March one of which had her waiting for almost the whole day while the nurses slowly went about their business. But it does show how invaluable the government clinics are and we do appreciate their presence.
Phumlani and Thabi did their legal act of marriage in anticipation of their wedding ceremony next month (May). The reason they did it so early is because Home Affairs is always full of people and this way they could make sure that the legalities are covered before the actual wedding. Planning is under way with looking at suits and décor and praise the Lord, various people in and out of South Africa have been helping or contributing.
In Vryheid there was an Afrikaans singer visiting from the Cape called Oscar Ehrenberger, who was sharing the gospel in a Zulu church, Afrikaans church and in schools and prisons. We took some people from church and others including Celani’s husband who is not saved but was happy to go and hear the singing and hear the gospel. This was a rare occasion because normally he is not interested. So we pray that the Lord will continue to minister to his heart as he has now made noises that he is not interested in ancestral traditions anymore. We were told that Oscar spoke Zulu but his Zulu was very basic, so Salvi was roped in to interpret for him. Amidst many fluffs and the challenge of interpreting at high speed the majority of the message was understandable.
At Church Salvi was given an opportunity to teach a short series on Jude and at Home cell we still continue with Revelation. There are trials in the Home Cell at the moment in people’s individual walks and we continue to walk with them. Please keep praying for them. At Church, Ma Ntombela was upset at the illnesses of her children after a neighbour had claimed that he had used witchcraft against her family. Witchcraft is always there but we often do not come face to face with it. Once Salvi was witnessing to a guy who was very ill. It was only after he died that we found out that he was a witchdoctor (or herbalist as the word Inyanga can be translated). We do not sensationalize the phenomenon and do not want people to have the impression that we constantly have to deal with all the witchdoctors in the area. You can spend a long time in the area without ever coming across one of them. But they are there and there are people using witchcraft medicine. One notorious area of demonic manifestation is a school about 15km away from us that has at various times had girls experience possession where they would scream and display great strength, so the reports of eye witnesses say. But this is not usual in the surrounding areas. Numerous Sangoma’s (another type of witchdoctor) administer medicine or sacrificial rites that do not accomplish what was hoped for but they still make money out of it. So in witchcraft there are the genuine and there are the fake. In Ma Ntombela’s case it was fake as the doctor was able to diagnose the illnesses and with medication they started to get better.
Salvi has stilled continued to preach through out KwaBokkie and Ngenitsheni but this month has seen a few adults and mostly children or young people coming to hear the message. Salvi starts by playing Zulu hymns on the guitar and singing while people are coming out to hear and then after a few songs he will start preaching.
Last week we visited Stanger and Port Elizabeth. We are entering into a formal and relational fellowship with a church in Port Elizabeth which is mainly pastored by a friend of ours called Alan Mackenzie. They are in truth and have a legal umbrella that we can fall under called ‘The Road to Recovery Christian Fellowship’, which originally was a drug rehabilitation work. This will be a major help for us to apply for permanent residence. Alan has a wonderful perspective on Church structure being more organic than formal with openness for real and substantial fellowship and co-operation with many other Christians and Churches that preach truth. Before we flew there we went to visit a friend that Salvi has made who lives in Stanger. Mark Van Niekerk lives near Stanger with his wife, Marie Anne and he has spoken in Di’s home church in New Zealand concerning the subject of Israel and promoting Jewish Evangelism in Israel among Jews which he does on a yearly basis. http://www.hazorim.org
It was so lovely to find a kinship of spirit and to see his heart for the Jews and his passion for their salvation. It is also lovely to see his desire to see the salvation of Arabs also. From there we flew to Port Elizabeth for an intense weekend of fellowship and discovery. It was especially wonderful for Di as Salvi was the one who had been in close contact with Alan over the past year so she was able to get to know the family and fellowship for herself. There was a fellowship meal on the Friday night where we also met a couple from KwaZulu Natal who were friends with people that we knew near Louwsburg. On Saturday Salvi preached twice and once on Sunday morning all about the theme of getting back to the building of God’s house, how we should be building and the ultimate end of building the house of God being intimacy with the Lord. The blessing lay in the fact that the whole weekend was a confirmation of what the Lord had recently been speaking to them specifically about. On Sunday afternoon Salvi spoke at a Chinese fellowship that Alan ministers with. Eyes lit up when people found out that Salvi has Chinese blood from his grandmother. Di especially loved the whole occasion though it was hard to keep up with the Ping Ying transliteration of the Chinese songs. Alan sang with remarkable fluidity. Salvi spoke on Psalm 1 and the role of the word of God in a believer’s life. We got back to Stanger on Monday morning and in the evening we visited an Indian church that Mark Van Niekerk is part of. Salvi shared about having a zeal for God’s house which manifests in a zeal for truth and a zeal for love. This also was a great blessing.
We have now come up to Springs for a few days. Di has also taken time to help Allen and Sue with some unpacking as they have just moved house again though their lease had yet not expired as the owners had found a buyer for the house. As such we have not had time to visit other people apart from one family who live in Boksburg. We would have loved to visit other friends and churches.
Salvi has had results from 2 modules completed at the diploma level of his degree. For one he got 70% and for the second 63%. We go back to KwaZulu tomorrow and are looking forward to resettling in and getting back to the work. This month we will be seeing the arrival of Jacob Meads from Di’s home church who will be staying with us till about July to participate in Evangelism. At the end of this month we will be teaching through a Passover supper with Bethany Baptist Church which is a great tool for learning about the Hebraic background to the Lord’s Supper and its prophetic significance regarding the Messiah, our salvation and regarding the return of Jesus Christ.
Finally, please note that our website address is now http://www.kwazulumission.com which contains our newsletter and has the facility for you to leave your comments and questions. Many thanks for all your emails, prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
Shalom Aleichem baShem Yeshua, Salvi and Di
1 JOHN part 7
1 John 5
Final Assurance
Well here we are in the last session on our series on 1 John. And I just want to remind us of the reasons that this letter is significant for us. The situation that John is writing into is one of heresy. From 2 Peter to Revelation spiritual seduction becomes the predominant theme in the apostolic epistles and a major element of the book of Revelation. One thing that is intrinsic to the last days is apostasy and false teaching. Jesus is coming back bodily and there will be a physical resurrection and the rapture, which Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2: 2 links intrinsically with the Day of the Lord. But before this Day occurs Paul gives his readers and us a sign to look out for which is that the man of lawlessness must be revealed after the restrainer is taken away. This is the one who sits himself in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. He exalts himself. The man of lawlessness will not come out of the blue and will not be revolutionary in what he does and claims about himself. His signs will be amazing, that he and the false prophet do but he himself will not be revolutionary. For what does it say in 2 Thessalonians 2: 7 – 8? The man of lawlessness is preceded by the spirit of lawlessness being at work and the restrainer being taken away. According to verse three we read that Jesus’ return and our being gathered to him will not happen until the antichrist is revealed and until the apostasy happens. And this apostasy, ‘apostasia’ means a defection from the truth and is a female form of the adjective ‘apostasion’ which means a separation especially in the context of a divorce. The turning away from truth is a divorce from the one who is THE Truth, Jesus. The Gnostics who seemed to have got saved but never really repented from their Gnostic heresies were part of this fulfillment and as we ourselves, who are nearer the return of Christ, can see the Gnostics have returned, in fact they never really went away because at the heart of this system of belief is the old Satanic lie that you too can be as god, you too can ascend to the secret places of the most high. They denied sin as moral rebellion, they interpreted the New Testament in light of their own visions instead of judging their visions by the word of God. They rejected the Old Testament as being from a Jewish God who is harsh and believed Jesus came to liberate us from the harsh judgmental Jewish God. They believed that everything spiritual is good and everything physical is inherently evil and this is the warning. Once you start to mix the bible with an unbiblical philosophy or world view, you are on a slippery road to being deceived. This is why I enjoy watching the Francis Schaeffer series, ‘How should we then live, because your world view shapes everything about you. John is combating these heretics and he is reaffirming the faith of those who might be a little shaken through these Gnostics who claimed a more direct line with God. What did these Christians have? They had the bible and they had prayer. These Gnostics were tapping into secrets that only they had access to. With that in mind, let us look at the fifth and final chapter of 1 John.
Who is born again? (Verses 1 – 5)
Look at the first two verses. The Gnostics taught that there were many levels of knowledge that one had to be initiated into. The further up the ladder you got the more spiritual you were and the nearer to salvation you were. Salvation was dependant on receiving the special revelation and not really to do with sin. They perceived our problem as ignorance. But what does John show us. There is only one initiation and that is the spiritual new birth. If you are born again, you are in. Yes we do go through a journey of growth and the Word is something we have to grow in knowledge of. No one will ever deny that but the way to move forward is not ascended various levels of knowledge through initiation rites, but it is through obedience. There are three elements that are at work in the one who is born again that John shows us. Firstly there is believing that Jesus is the Christ. This means that Jesus has the supremacy, He is the Anointed one and no one else may claim that privilege. We have AN anointing from the Holy One but only Jesus has THE anointing, definite article. We are not, as Benny Hinn claims, everything He was and is. We are being conformed to His character BUT, we are only kings and priests in His Kingdom. On the other hand, He is THE King of Kings, THE high priest, THE Lord of lords. Therefore no one else can say ‘I have the Christ spirit like Jesus had it’. No one can say that the Christ spirit left Jesus at the crucifixion because John does not say that Jesus was the Christ for a time, but that He is THE Christ. Believing on this is essential to salvation. Even if someone says they are a Christian but they do not accept that Jesus is forever, exclusively THE Christ, that person is not saved. Secondly, there is loving the Father and loving the child born of the Father; to sum it up in one word, love. Note that love starts with the Father, it starts with God. God is the author of love, as we saw in the last session. We do not know how to love and so we always start with God as the author and the demonstrator of what love really is. But though it begins with God, it does not stop with God but it flows on. In other words, His love is put into us to grow within in us and to be poured out into other believers and to spill over into the world. Just because our love must start with God at the centre and focus of it does not mean that we can dispense with the love of the brethren. In fact John shows us that this is essential to the Christian life. But thirdly there is obedience. The Christian life is one of obedience, not a life of lawlessness. One stream of Gnostic belief taught that you can do what ever you wanted in your body, it is your soul that will be saved and that cannot be affected by what you do in your body. They would use Paul’s teachings in Romans to say, ‘Look, even the Apostle Paul says that we are not under Law but under Grace.’ Let us sin so that Grace may abound. But God’s love is not a lawless love. Why? Because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, it is not self seeking. Love is the fulfillment of the Law. So why have the Law at all? Why not just tell people to love and let them get on with it? We need the Law because of the fact that we are fallen. We all have our own definitions of what love is and therefore we need God to set the standard and to teach us what love really means.
Verse 3 tells us that the love of God is that we keep His commandments. When you need to learn how to use the internet you might go out and buy, ‘Dummies guide to surfing the net.’ If you want to learn how to play an instrument you might buy ‘Dummies guide to playing the guitar’. If you want to know how to love, follow ‘God’s guide to loving’. His guide is His commandments. His commandments are not burdensome. But when unbelievers see God’s commandments and they seem impossible. But this is prefaced on the first two verses. We have to be born again. With the Gospel comes spiritual power to declare us righteous at the onset and to form that righteousness in us from faith to faith. But secondly there is believing that Jesus is THE Christ. What does that imply? It implies that the focus is Jesus and not me. He is the Anointed one and so His priorities are more important than mine. God can work a miracle in us in that, what was impossible in the flesh becomes possible in the Lord. But it must flow from Him. Secondly we must love. We must have a committed devotion for the promotion of God and God’s people before the promotion of self. That is hard. At times it looks impossible. We try in our wisdom to come up with the solutions of how to deal with difficulties, with how to follow God’s commandments and we fail time and again. It is a burden, it is overpowering. How can John say that His commandments are not burdensome when we experience so much of it as a burden? Verse 4. It is prefaced on the spiritual birth and not by the flesh. It is God’s power in us that lifts the burden, it is Christ Jesus we are to cast our burdens on and it is Him who helps us. We must walk by faith, and what is faith? It is a journey, as Paul says in Romans 1: 17 that the just shall live by faith. It is something progressive and relational and it comes down to responding to what God shows us and tells us in trust and reverence. It is to see things from an eternal perspective and not from a temporal perspective. The word for victory in Hebrew is ‘Netsach’, which in the strong’s means both victory and eternity. We have victory because of something that is eternal. What is it? 2: 14. The word of God abides in you. You see we overcome the world. The love of the world and the things of the world is comprised of three basic elements. It is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. These things are temporal and passing away. But the word of God is eternal. Therefore, by the word informing and influencing me, I have victory in Jesus. It is down to Faith and it is not just a matter of believing in Jesus as being THE Christ. Even the Ebionites, or as we commonly refer to them the Judaisers, believed in that but they could not accept Jesus’ deity. As verse 5 shows, we must also believe that Jesus is THE Son of God. Not a son of God like us but THE only begotten of the Father.
The Testimony of Jesus (Verses 6 – 13)
John goes on to speak of the testimony of Jesus as being the Son of God. Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was man, but not that He was God because of that Gnostic belief that the spiritual cannot mix with the physical. Cerinthus, whom I have written about over the past few sessions, was one of these Heretics. John did not even want to be in the same bath house as this guy. But there was another group of Gnostics who believed that Jesus was both Christ and God. These people were called Docetists and they taught that while Jesus was divine, He was not really human but appeared to be human. Really Jesus was a phantom or a ghost. The nearest thing we have to this in today’s churches is a teaching that Jesus was not conceived with Mary’s egg but He was planted in Mary’s womb. This is because they cannot see how Jesus could be without sin if His body came from Mary’s egg. Mary was a woman who was a sinner. This is why the Roman Catholic Church teaches the ridiculous and totally illogical doctrine of the Immaculate Conception which says that Mary was born without sin so that she could have given birth to the sinless Son of God. If Mary needed to be born without sin to have given birth to the sinless Son of God then Mary’s mother also had to be without sin for Mary to be conceived without sin and so on till we get right back to Adam and Eve. Docetists could well agree with verses 1 – 5 so how will John deal with this group of people? They believed in Jesus, the Son of God so does that mean they were born of God? Just for clarification John says, in effect, ‘To be born again you have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and this means you overcome the world, but hang on… Let us be clear about which Jesus I am talking about. I am talking about the One came by both water and blood.’ The Cerinthian Heresy said that Jesus became Christ at the Baptism and the Docetist heresy said that Jesus was not physical. John is saying ‘Yes Jesus was declared to be God’s Son in whom He was well pleased, but He was born Human as well as being begotten of God. He was not a phantom and the blood He shed on the cross was real blood.’ A phantom does not need blood. If you have a King James Bible or a New King James Bible, verse seven will read differently to the New American Standard or the NIV. It will have an extra sentence about three witnesses being one in Heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. This is not a reflection of the translation but of the Greek documents that these versions translate from. The New American Standard and the NIV translate from a compilation of texts compiled into Nestle’s ‘Novum Testaementum Gracae’ that are dated earlier than those from which the ‘Textus Receptus’ was based on from which is translated the King James and the New King James. This does not necessarily prove one translation over another. I only say this because some people might be puzzled over the difference between the two and if you want to know more about it you can read the introductions to any good New King James or New American Standard Bible and see their reasons for the choice of their text. But I think it is beneficial to take into account what the King James says because it is putting forth that the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit all bear witness to Jesus. With the exaltation of Jesus the whole Trinity is involved. They are all three and yet they are one.
But in verse 8 we have another set of witnesses on earth. And you will notice that the Spirit is at the top of the list. The Spirit is in heaven but also on the Earth and this is because the Spirit is Almighty God who is not limited by the restrictions of a physical body. Yet instead of being ethereal, or other-worldly, He is really here. This Holy Spirit is not only here in His omnipresence but here is also here in a special way, for a special purpose. He was manifested on the day of Pentecost in what looked like tongues of fire. He was tangible and specifically arrived at a certain place and at a certain time. He lives in us, not because of His omnipresence, but because He has been given to us especially. This verse gives three witnesses, the Spirit, the water and the blood. The main sense that John is saying is this; Jesus is testified to, not only by the Spirit, and not only by His baptism but also by His death. Jesus was still the Christ, the Son of the Living God on the cross. The Spirit testifies of the Truth. He is the Spirit of Truth. And Jesus said in John 15: 26 ‘The Spirit will testify of Me’. The water speaks of His baptism, in which God said that Jesus is His Son in whom He is well pleased.’ But then there was His blood that spoke of the fact that He was a real human being. But there is another way of seeing this verses, which although does not contradict this verse, I would not be dogmatic about because water here must definitely refer to Jesus baptism because of the context of the Cerinthian heresy. However, in the New Testament, where as living water is a reference to the Holy Spirit in John 7: 38, water itself is a symbol of the Word of God. Ephesians 5:26 speaks of Jesus cleansing the Church by the washing of water with the Word. John 15: 3 Jesus says that His disciples were already clean because of the Word that Jesus gave. And in John 17: 17 Jesus prayed, ‘Sanctify them in the Truth, Your Word is Truth.’ When Calvin Smith came to South Africa a few years ago, he did a teaching on the inspiration of the Scriptures and one thing that stuck out that I won’t forget is that he said, the Bible is 100% the Word of God in 100% the word of man because it is a picture of Jesus who is the Word of God, being 100% God and 100% man. When we look at this verse in this way the doctrine of the distinct yet inseparable nature of Jesus as being fully God and fully man comes into full force. The first witness, the Spirit is someone fully divine, is fully spiritual. The last witness, the blood, is not spiritual but something fully human and fully physical. But the middle witness, the water also representing the Word, portrays something where the Spiritual and the physical are intertwined. Because of the middle witness we can say that all three are in full agreement and faith is the acceptance of what God says. If we cannot accept this we are saying that God is wrong in what He says and therefore we are accusing Him of being a liar. That is why Francis Schaeffer once wrote that Faith is to stop calling God a liar.
Why is doctrine important? Some people say, ‘we do not want to know about God, we want to know God.’ They think that Doctrine is irrelevant to a relationship with God. But John teaches us that Biblical doctrine is the way we can know God. How revolutionary is that? John says that if we have this testimony we have eternal life. And what is eternal life? John 17: 3 shows that eternal life is knowing God. The Gnostics said, ‘You do not know God like we do, we have received a special revelation that you cannot have because we are in a higher level of knowledge.’ John says, ‘no those guys do not know what they are talking about. You are the ones that know God because you accept the testimony that God has given about His Son.’ John wants to assure His readers finally that they do know God despite what these phonies say about them. Verse 13.
Conclusion (Verses 14 – 21)
The Gnostics prided themselves in knowing secrets but John gives something else to be happy about. What is better than knowing something that no one else has discovered? Knowledge is power and so what could be better than being part of a wise, all knowing elite? How about answered prayer? God answering of prayer is the opposite of Gnosticism. Gnosticism achieved levels of knowledge through initiation rites. Techniques are employed to alter a state of conscious. Prayer is not a technique. Techniques deal with laws that if performed correctly will yield results. Prayer however deals with a person, infinitely wise who has the ability to say no. That is why answered prayer carries a condition with it. Verse 14 says that we must pray according to His will. Throughout the year 2005, while living in the UK, I had been praying that God would provide the means for me to get back to South Africa and I was a bit self assured that it would come together. When I applied for my Visa they asked me for proof of funds but I was in arrears in my overdraft so I just sent in a copy of my bank statement that showed that. I did not know how I would afford the plane ticket and everything. To add more pressure, my flat mate Anthony Royle (Dave’s eldest son) was getting married on the 25th March 2006 which meant I would have to move out and find somewhere else to live. So I looked at moving down to Bournemouth and signed up to a website to find as cheap accommodation as possible. At the beginning of march I had basically lost hope that I would be going back to South Africa that year but then while I was at work and having a bad day at work I get a phone call from someone on my mobile who had put everything together for me to get back to South Africa. I was still waiting on my visa so I decided that I would move in with my friends in Bristol and work for some weeks until I was in a position to come over. However the day before the wedding I got my Visa in the post and I booked my plane ticket 3 days later. I had lost faith but God is the Living God. Before leaving to go to South Africa I went down to visit my friends, Graham and Susie Gee in Bere Regis and at their house we put on the God channel, Europe’s version of TBN. The preacher said something to the effect of this. ‘You wonder why God does not answer your prayer. I will tell you why. It is like a candy machine. If the item costs $1 but you put in 50c you will not get the item. You have to give the right amount.’ I phoned up the toll free number and asked the guy about the preacher and said that he is totally wrong and gave my experience. Prayer is not a slot machine.
We can pray and we are to pray concerning those in the church who are in sin. If you have a literal translation when you read verse 16 you will see that God is in italics which means it is not there in the Greek. According to John Stott’s commentary on 1 John the phrase in the Greek runs like this, ‘If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not to death, he will ask and he will for him get life.’ This can mean that God gives life to the one but it can also mean that the one who prays is the one who gets the life on behalf of the other person who he gives it to. What does this mean if it is true? It means that God will use the person who prays as a vehicle to answer that prayer. What ever it means two things are certain, it is God who is the origin of that life and not us, and secondly God is the one who is answering the prayer no matter who He uses to do it. John says that we will pray when we see our brother in sin. But there is another sin that John points out as something we should not necessarily pray for and that is the one to death. It is a debated point but look at the context of the epistle? It is dealing with the Gnostic heresies that elevate man to the same level of Christ, or that deny His deity or His humanity. This is to death because life is to know God but death is the opposite. There is a difference between someone who is only deceived by it or learning through these issues and someone else that teaches others to deny the truth and opposes the truth. I do not believe John would speak in the same way to an old lady that was being conned by Gnostic thought as he did to Cerinthus. I believe that he would gently reason with the lady. It is difficult to say anything like this because we are speaking from silence but one thing is certain, there is a precedent for not praying concerning Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland. It is not to say that we MUST not pray for them, but John simply says that he is not telling us that we should make request for this. But notice in verses 18 and 19 the difference between us and the World. The world lies in the arms of Satan like a Samson in the arms of Delilah but the believer does not sin and the Devil cannot touch him. The word ‘touch’ here means to attach. The Devil does not have the last say or a hold onto us. He does bombard us and we do fall but he has not got a permanent hold of us, we are born again.
Again doctrine is important because the Gospel is not about having the right formula but it is about strong content. Verse 20 says that Jesus has given us understanding. It is important to evaluate what we believe about Jesus. Having a right understanding facilitates our knowing Jesus. It is not an exhaustive understanding that John is speaking of but nevertheless it is a ‘true understanding’. It is not just an intellectual exercise that John is referring but He wants to make sure we are worshipping the right Jesus. An understanding of Jesus that contradicts the ‘Jesus’ that the Apostles preached is not the same Jesus. That is why John says in verse 21; ‘Little Children, guard yourselves from idols.’ This Cerinthian Jesus, who was only a man with a Christ spirit, is not the real Jesus it is an idol. This Docetist Jesus, who was not human, is not the real Jesus but it is an idol. This Word of Faith’s Jesus, who is like a slot machine, is not the real Jesus, it is an idol. This Jesus who only appears to those who have been initiated into secret levels of knowledge is not the real Jesus, it is an idol. The Jesus that does not care how you conduct yourself in the body and is content with lawlessness is not the real Jesus, it is an idol. Little Children, guard yourselves from idols.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 78. March 2011
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
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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,
Gone is the hottest month ….. so they say. Still very hot today !!! however March means less flies, slightly cooler days and the snakes will start to disappear.
We are pleased to report that eventually Home Affairs were able to track Di’s visa application. At present it is still getting processed but she has a temporary one until it comes through. There is always a drama when working with the Home Affairs office however we have been blessed with knowing someone high up in the office. They have been in instrumental in helping with the tracking process and we are so grateful.
This month Di finally managed to get rid of a nasty cough that she got while in Joberg. After 2 visits to the doctor and a second dose of anti biotics it moved on. Sal was also down with it for about a week. As you all know Man Flu is nearly always fatal so we are grateful he survived lol
With the current earthquake devastation in Christchurch New Zealand we have been seeking television coverage as much as possible. It has been difficult for Di to watch but we are glad to report all her family is safe but our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected.
Sal took on the role of undertaker this month. Sadly the partner of a lady who is related to Jabulani died .Before his death he had been suffering from mental illness.
Sal was asked to retrieve the body from Vryheid as our new bakkie enables us to do so. Jabulani and Sal were able to minister to the family practically and also share the gospel.
Several days after the funeral, we were able to help take Popi to her partners former employee so she could claim for UIF. This meant long distance travelling and several visits to the labour dept. Most people find it so difficult and costly to keep going back and forth with taxi fees that they forfeit the money that is rightfully theirs. The government set up the scheme which is a legal requirement so all employees could be guaranteed a sum of money when their employment stopped. It was designed to help with living costs until further employment could be found in the future.
What we are praising the Lord for after this time Jabulani continued to share with Popi and Tholakele about the Lord they then surrendered there lives to the Lord. Both have been coming along on Sunday with Jabulani to church. There is much rejoicing in heaven and on earth.
Jabulani is walking strongly with the Lord. He goes out with Sal every Thursday afternoon to evangelize in his local area. He reminds us a lot of Sam (Lorraine’s late husband) he has a great love for the Lord and a smile that lights up his entire face.
This month we have also visited the Mtshali kraal after hearing that Thembi the woman we had been assisting with visits to the clinic and hospital for her ARV medication for HIV had died in the early month of Jan. Sadly many people think once they are taking there meds and starting to feel better they can stop taking them. We suspect this may have happened with Thembi. We have tired to explain to her Gogo again about the virus and how it works but sadly she doesn’t want to know even after losing 4 children to Aids.
There is a small boy around the age of 7 at the kraal who has TB. Di has been pleading with Gogo to get him tested. This is something that only she can do. The clinic requires she must go with her ID and give her permission to test the child. As you can imagine this is very distressing to watch. We continue to visit and keep an eye on the boy. Please pray with us.
Over the month we had the privilege of having 4 visitors from George and Springs with us for a couple of days. We meet on the Friday afternoon for a few hours in Vryheid then Sal returned on the Saturday to bring them to us. While Di was preparing food Sal took the guys on tour to see the area and visit Jabulani and Mr Khumalo, Celine at kids club and others. They had very kindly bought food parcels and boxes with New Testament Zulu and English bibles. A great day was had by all. It was finished of with a brie at Jonny and Kim’s home before they headed back to Vryheid for the night to return back home the next day.
We give thanks to the Lord for the marriage of Sonia and Tony this month. We pray the Lord will knit them together and use them both in the ministry He has for them.
Sal managed about 2 soccer practiced this month. When he did go the team was thrilled to receive soccer shirts, compliments of Allen Wells. Thanks Allen.
We have returned to sharing at the Care bear pre-school and the Louwsburg woman’s craft meeting. Asimbonge the small 2 year old who lives at the kraal, the child of Babhekile who is (Phumulani’s niece) has his own personal pre-school. Di is teaching him 3 mornings a week when possible. His English is coming along well and he loves helping Di with the daily chores.
The Louwsburg bible study continues to meet on the Tuesday. We have welcomed another lady from the Louwsburg area into the group. Due to the numbers growing we are in prayer about the future direction of the group and how the Lord would have us proceed.
We ask for your prayers for Phumulani and Thabi as they continue to make plans for there wedding in May. They have had pressure from their families to follow ancestor worship. We pray with them that they will honour there heavenly Father and stand.
Many thanks for all your emails, prayers and support.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
Shalom Aleichem baShem Yeshua, Salvi and Di
1 JOHN part 6
1 John 4:7-21
In the last session we looked at the first 6 verses to chapter 4 and we discussed the issue of Doctrine. As we said in the last session, doctrine comes before love. They are both important but our doctrine actually provides a framework for our love. We cannot have God’s love if we refuse God’s doctrine and like wise if we do not have God’s love it is an indicator of our lack of belief in God’s doctrine. Now this is an area that is controversial in Christian circles in areas of discernment and confrontation of sin. In fact there are prominent Christian leaders such as Robert Schuller and others into building ‘self esteem’ with Christian psychology that would say that to tell someone that they are a sinner is unloving and unchristian. On the other hand there are people who act like love does not matter, only truth matters. The truth is that we do not understand love so our understanding of love has to grow. This is the question that faces us in this chapter. What does it mean to love? There are many definitions of love. There is the love of the Beatles, ‘All you need is love’, where love makes everything easy and is a feeling that enables you do all kinds of things. There is the love of the hormonal love crazed guy who tells his sweet heart, ‘I love you’ but as Bill Randles says, what he is really saying is ‘I love me and I want you’. There is the love of the husband who has been married 50 years and when asked by his wife, ‘Do you love me?’ he says, ‘Dear, I told you that I loved you when I married you and when I change my mind I will let you know!’ What does it mean to love?
Let us read verses 7 – 21.
In verses 7 – 8 John compels us to do something. We are to love. And John is not saying that we just love anyone but that we should primarily love one another, i.e. other believers. You see the Gnostics denied the truth of God in their teaching and they denied the love of God in their living. But John says that if we do not love we do not know God because God is love. Now the question here is; what is love? For some people in the west, love means to keep your nose out of your neighbours’ affairs and to leave them alone in terms of whatever vices or life style they choose to live. If we translate that into the church it means that if someone follows Benny Hinn, or Paul Yongi Cho, we should not take the opportunity presented to tell them it is wrong and offend them. They say that we should just love them. But this is not the biblical view of love. Remember the story that we have spoken of before. The apostle John was in the public baths and the Gnostic heretic Cerinthus entered. John got up and said, ‘Let us get out of here, let even the bath house fall down, for Cerinthus the enemy of the truth is here!’ John did not mince his words. What about Jesus when he spoke harshly against the Pharisees and Scribes that opposed the truth? You see 1 John 4: 8 says, God is love. It does not say that love is God. As a Baptist preacher once said, ‘Love does not define who God is, God defines what love is.’ You see when we had the Heartlines program in South Africa in the year 2006 churches fell for a total lie and that lie is this: Heartlines claimed it was “Based on the premise that South Africans – no matter what their race, colour or creed, share many of the same core values, the MMP aims to use multi media to create debate about, and reinforce these core values, through a variety of projects.”
And so many churches, both Christian churches such as Baptist churches and evangelical churches and also heretical movements such as Rhema and the Zionist Christian Churches fell for the lie that they all share the same core values. But the Truth is that we do not share the same core values because the ‘values’ and ‘morals’ of the Christian believer are contextually bound up in the Truth of scripture. Just look at the area of forgiveness. The world teaches, and in deed Heartlines taught, that forgiveness is free. But the bible teaches differently. The bible teaches that forgiveness costs a lot. It cost God His only son to pay for the price for our sin because without blood there is no remission of sin. Someone had to be punished in our place so that we could be forgiven. Just as we can not approach the issue of forgiveness from a worldly perspective, so it is with love. We cannot approach the subject of love with our own ideas of what we think love should be.
Firstly, from verse 7 we see that our love is a response to our being loved. He says ‘Beloved, let us love’. We will see how we have been loved shortly. But love is not something of our own initiative but something that God has given us. And this love is to be directed to other believers. If we love with our own definition of love then we are not really loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. John says that love is from God. If the love that John was talking about was just a matter of charity or doing nice things for people then we would have to say that many Buddhists, many Roman Catholics and many atheists are saved because John says that everyone who loves in born of God and knows God. This is obviously not the case. We are only truly loving when we are doing what God’s word says. As Jesus said in John 14: 21, ‘He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.’ Naturally we are selfish and self loving people. We want to feel good about ourselves and because of our fallen nature our love is fallen too. The only way to truly love someone is to obey the Lord. God loves us and therefore we are to follow that example and love one another. As He has washed our feet, we are to wash one another’s feet.
But secondly from verse 8 we read that love is an imperative. It is not right to say that I do not care about my brothers and sisters. In fact John is harsh and uncompromising about the issue going so far as to say that if we do not love then we do not know God because God is love. So what does it mean to love? How do we love?
If we look at verses 9 – 11, John teaches us a little of what it really means to love. Firstly love is something that is demonstrated and not just something said. When God loved us, He did not turn round and merely say ‘I love you’, though he did say that in John 3: 16. But God’s love was something manifested in reality and demonstrated. And I add that it must be a love from the heart. 1 Peter 1: 22. Sometimes we can do things out of a pure sense of duty to justify ourselves before others. So that even though we give our body to be burned, or give up our comforts to feed the poor, we are doing it without it being from love. If someone was to point the finger to us and say, ‘You do not love me’ we would be able to justify ourselves and say, ‘Of course we loved you, look at what we have done for you’ and yet only we know that what we did for them was disingenuous and not from a heart of love and concern for that person. And yet to shirk away from real and active love towards other believers is not an option either. And this is an area where we really lack. There are always a million and one legitimate reasons why we should not demonstrate our love for those around us. These reasons could be; ‘the person will not appreciate it anyway.’ ‘The person does not want to be bothered.’ At times our excuses are just a mask for our pride. We do not want to love when that love will be rejected or taken for granted. But Jesus’ love that was demonstrated on the cross was something that was not appreciated, was not something that we sought for or asked for. When you give the message of the cross to some people they claim that Jesus was stupid for dying on a cross because they never asked Him to do it. But Jesus did it anyway because it was God the Father’s will for Him to do it.
Secondly love is not about what we have done but about what God has done. To love means that we have to respond to God’s love. We recognize that we do not have the capacity to truly love ourselves. When John speaks of love he is not referring to acts of kindness or charity, He is speaking of something that God has done for us. Our love is a response to God’s love on the cross. When love is something we initiate it is not love anymore. Love is a gift that we must receive and it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. We should remember that the next time we look at 1 Corinthians 13 and compare it to the unsaved who seem to be so nice and fit the criteria of that chapter. Remember that God is the God who sees the heart. No! Jesus’ love was pure and holy. Our love is mixed. Love is always determined by God’s standard.
Thirdly love does not wink at sin and pretend it does not exist. Let us read 1 Peter 4: 8. How many times has this been read with the implication that we should just forget our sins and just cover over them? As if restitution and apology and repentance are no longer required of us because love covers a multitude of sins? ‘Do not worry about my sins just love me.’ Now there should not be a desire in us to pin point each others sins and if we judge each other without taking heed to our own sins we will reap judgment for it. As Jesus said, it is not just a matter of taking the speck out of our brother’s eye but having the log taken out of our own so that we will know how to take the speck out of our brother’s eye. There has to be wisdom. But the verse does not mean we should act like our sins are not important. What does it mean to cover a multitude of sins? How does love cover sins? Look at the word cover in the Greek is ‘Kalumei’ in this passage. In the old testament the word for ‘to cover’ is ‘Kapar’ from which we get the word ‘kippur’ from ‘Yom kippur’ or the Kippor’ that Jewish men put on their heads at synagogue. It is a covering. But we translate ‘Yom Kippur’ not as the Day of covering but the Day of Atonement. The word for atonement and covering is one and the same in Hebrew. The Greek word is also found in James 5: 19 & 20. You see to cover or to hide sin does not mean to pretend as if it does not exist or it does not matter, it means to deal with the sin discreetly. To turn someone from the error of their way is to cover over that sin. No I am not saying that to blurt out people’s dark secrets for the world to hear is what we should do. Those unseemly parts of the body we must treat with more modesty. But doing nothing about sin is also wrong. As John says, Love does something about sin. Verse 10 again. Love caused Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins. This means that God’s anger and punishment against our sin was put on Jesus in our place. Love rolls up its sleeves and gets its hands dirty to bring about peace and reconciliation.
Fourthly, as we see in verse 11 God’s love is motivating. It is not something that we just receive or is just done for our sakes but it is something that motivates and causes us to love one another. You could say that God’s demonstrative love for us puts an onus on us to love each other. The word here is gratitude. To appreciate God’s love for us we have to realize what sinners we really were. So if God forgives us, who are we not to forgive each other? We must be able to forgive and to clearly communicate that to the party we have been offended by. It is pride that keeps us from saying, ‘I forgive you and I will not hold this against you any more’. Some times, great men of God have failed in this area. They will not hold out forgiveness. But we must forgive and tell people that we forgive them. This is what fellowshipping in Christ means, to partake of His nature and His example. As Jesus said in John 13: 15, “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” The context to this statement is the washing of the disciples’ feet. What has this to do with love? The whole act is founded upon the context of love as John shows us in verse 1. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Washing each others feet is founded on the basis of love. That is why following Jesus commandments is the way to love each other. We do not naturally love with holy love so Jesus has to teach us what it means to love. His love for us motivates our love for each other. We should do as He has done to us. Nothing original or clever, just copy the example that God has shown us.
From verses 12 – 21 John shows us the reality of God and His love in this world. It always takes faith to know God. I have an aunt who is an atheist. She says she does not believe in anything she cannot see. So how do we believe in this invisible God? Because He is objectively real and has stepped into our time and history but we also experience this subjectively too. Look at what John says in verse 12. No one has seen God at any time. How can you experience someone that you cannot see?
Firstly through loving one another we experience something of God. It is an assurance that God is living in us when we are brought to the place of truly loving with God’s love. When we are brought to that place then what was put into our hearts by faith is realized and brought to the place it was intended to be. The verse says His love has been perfected in us and the Greek word for perfected here is ‘Teleioo’ which means to complete, to accomplish or to consummate. What we receive by faith has to be realized and when we experience that in this life we experience God Himself.
Secondly through the Spirit God gives us. In Romans 8 we read that the Holy Spirit ministers to us by faith the reality of our future glory that has yet to be realized. Though we are waiting to become sons of God, the Holy Spirit ministers to us that we are children of God and with that we are heirs. This is because the Holy Spirit is eternal in nature. He is as much the ‘I am’ as the Father and the Son. He is here in this room now and at the same time He is there at the day of our glorification. God’s Spirit convicts us, leads us and reminds us of Jesus’ words. He does not draw attention to Himself but testifies of the Son and the Son in turn takes us to the Father.
But you cannot base what you believe on what you experience. There has to be an objective reality, outside of ourselves on which we can peg our faith and our experiences and the reality is this. God became flesh. As John says in verse 14. ‘We have seen and testify’. They were Gnostics who were having illusionary visions of some spirit claiming to be Christ. The Apostles on the other hand actually came into contact with Jesus Christ in observable outward reality. What I mean is that God entered our existence in such a real way that after He left, He left His foot print for the world to see. It is so real that we cannot change the fact of it. John had experienced that reality as he lived with Jesus for three and a half years. Again he does not do as the Gnostics did who would claim ‘I had a vision therefore you must listen to me’! Rather he appeals to his authority within a body. He does not say ‘I have seen and testify’, he says ‘we have seen and testify.’ It is so true that no one in the world seriously doubts the existence of Jesus. We know that Zeus, Dionysus, the Yoruban god Ogun, the Norse gods never existed and were just myths. But no one from the west have ever seriously denied the existence of Jesus. And this writer, John, and the other apostles knew Jesus personally.
From verses 17 – 19 finally, we have the results of God’s love. The result of having love in our community, in our personal lives and in our relationships with other believers is this; when we face God we need not face Him with fear. John goes so far to say that we may approach Him boldly, without shame. There is a full assurance of faith to be had and that faith is strengthened as God’s character is manifest in our lives. As He is so are we in this world. Now I believe that when I face God I will be in total awe and in humility because I will know that I will not be there on my own merits. I know that really it is Christ who deserves my crown but I may come boldly without fear; why? Because perfect love casts out fear because fear speaks of judgment and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. To walk according to the Spirit is to walk in love because love is the principle fruit of the Spirit. This is the calling God has brought us here for. Are we willing to repent, to love as a response to God’s love for us? Will our love be something that is demonstrated, whether those who benefit realize it or not, or appreciate it or not? Is our love a love that will get its sleeves rolled up and its hands dirty to solve an issue without winking at sin? Will our love be born out of selfish motives or will it be genuine and from the heart? But it first starts with the recognition that we naturally do not have the capacity to love in the way God desires. Love has to be received as a gift and it will grow as we walk in obedience to the word. If we do this we will experience the benefits of knowing God’s presence in our lives and a confident assurance for when we shall meet Him face to face.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 77. FEB 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,
Thank you for all your prayers. Since the 10th of January we have been settling back in and started our ministry work again. On the way back from Springs we visited the guys at Vita Nova special needs home where we used to play hymns on a regular basis. We have both worked with people with learning difficulties so they have a special place in our hearts and often they can be a neglected part of society. There was much laughter and stories shared, though sadly one of the guys had lost both parents last year. One lady, called Anne, shared with us that all the songs that we had sung together she keeps in her heart. Now she says that she teaches them to new people who come to stay at the home. Since we have been back we have had teething problems with our new pick up truck but our friends in Vryheid have been graciously sorting them out and it works like a dream. It was such a wonderful gift and we thank the Lord that we are saving on diesel. On the couple of occasions when we were stuck we were helped by the local farmer’s daughters. Weites is the farmer we have been praying for who was in the terrible accident which ruptured his spleen. Through needing the help of his daughters it has opened doors for sharing about the Lord with them. We thank the Lord for that.
On the first Friday back, our friend Tony proposed to his fiancée Sonja in Vryheid up in a hot air balloon. As they needed extra people to add weight to the balloon Salvi and Jonny were asked to witness the proposal and vows. Di was not to feel jealous about it as the Lord had already given us that experience together. It was quite an overwhelming experience for Sonja as she was not expecting it. The Lord laid it on Tony’s heart that this was the morning for the flight. But the pilot was quite dubious because he had being following the weather and thought he would have to abort but at the right time he said the conditions became perfect so they took advantage and filled the balloon up. What a joy to see how the Lord had brought them together. They have done a small marriage affair in Johannesburg and they will be solemnizing their oaths again for those in Louwsburg and Salvi will be preaching and taking them through their vows at this side on the 26th February.
The Louwsburg Bible Fellowship is still going strong. This week it will be held in our hut. Last week we had a new family come and fellowship with us. They have just moved into the Louwsburg area. They are a lovely Indian family. The group seems to be growing we have an older Afrikaans lady called Lenie who is also attending now and when he is in the area there is a young Zulu man called Lucky who meets with us. Salvi continues to teach through the book of Revelation. This week we will be into the 8 chapter.
The Church with Phumulani continues faithfully and it is lovely to see the new believers start to show more confidence with their faith. Jabulani and Mr. Khumalo are keeping up their walk and continue to learn on a Thursday. We are going through 1 John together. Last week Jabulani came out with us witnessing on Thursday though he was content to hand out tracts and not to speak. Through that day some children came to the meeting on Sunday where we showed the Jesus film. Thabi is also growing stronger in the Lord and is attending the Church regularly though she is not from the area but from Khambi. But that will all change in a few months time, God willing. Both she and Phumulani have been praying recently about the prospect of marriage and her family has agreed to them getting married. He will soon start paying the bridal price and gifts for the family. They are hoping for a 28th May date for the wedding. We are very happy for them.
Last week we also did our first Care Bear pre-school assembly for the year. Di shared the gospel with the children using a colour book with each of the colours representing some aspect of the gospel. The children are such a blessing to us as they are so polite and attentive. We do one every month. Belinda, who runs the pre-school, is a member of the Baptist church we have been visiting. We have also been visiting another couple called George and Kogie who have been an encouragement also. Kogie has been asking Salvi to play some hymns on the guitar and it seems that might be something semi-regular at the prayer meetings on a Wednesday night. Jonny and Kim, from the Bible Fellowship have started to semi-regularly visit the Baptist church though it is a way for them to go. But we are encouraged by that.
We continue to preach the gospel in KwaBokkie and in Ngenitsheni. In Ngenitsheni after the preaching 2 local boys gave us a demonstration of their guitar playing and it was excellent. They were so talented. But one of the boys was distant from the preaching of the word. The other people listened intently. There is no stick up your hands and ask Jesus into your heart but they are challenged to repent, believe and to confess their sins to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. The Law, sin, the judgment, the cross, the blood, the resurrection and the return of the Lord are preached and discussed. At several times we have received questions about ancestral spirits or about Shembe (the false black messiah of the Zulus). We pray that the Lord will touch their hearts.
Please pray for Di’s visa. We are trying to track its progress. Also for prayer is that Salvi will be trying to apply for permanent residence in June, as the Lord wills. We are in talks with a Christian Fellowship in South Africa called Road to Recovery Christian Fellowship and very happy with their set up and beliefs to date. If we are happy with them and them with us then it will give us a legal affiliation that will open our doors for more fellowship and also give Salvi help with applying for permanent residence. Please pray that the Lord’s will be done. But things look very positive so far.
This month we have also received boxes of knitted Jumpers from Marg and Pam and the Aussie knitters so these will be handed out near the winter time. So thanks guys for all your hard work. May the Lord bless you.
Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Shalom Aleichem baShem Yeshua, Salvi and Di.
1 JOHN part 5
1John 4
We have already looked at the area of Gnosticism repeatedly and we have seen that we have our own Gnostics today so I will not repeat all that in this study except for 2 points because they fit into this chapter.
Firstly, there was the Cerinthian heresy which says that Jesus was a human being that received the ‘christ spirit’ (or in our modern terminology ‘christ consciousness’) at his baptism. Anyone who seeks to divide the historical Jesus from the Jesus of faith has fallen for this heresy. Whether that be the higher critics like Rudolph Bultmann or people who claim to be another Christ like Jesus was Christ. When people like Kenneth Copeland teach that Jesus had to go to hell to suffer for our sins, he does so not recognizing that Jesus’ morally sinless life merited the propitiation on the cross. Because of this he sees no difference in the crucifixion of Jesus to the two thieves on the right and the left. Copeland said if it was on the cross that Jesus paid for our sins, then if he had the knowledge of scripture that Jesus had, even he could have died on the cross for our sins. For the Gnostic it is not that Jesus was sinless but that he had the Knowledge. This is not to say that modern Gnostics, from the evangelical church, will not confess that Jesus was sinless. But what they do is mix orthodox teaching with contradictory Gnostic thought and they create a mixture in a way that is possibly more subtle than the Gnostics of the early church. In the early Church, at the time of the apostles you had Gnostics. The Gnostics were Platonists before they entered the church but when they entered the Church they reinterpreted growing scriptures in light of Gnosticism. The scriptures were mostly written by the time of one John but not totally. But in our day what we have is Gnostic thoughts and ideas reinterpreting the established scripture with established “Christian vocabulary” in churches that have held strong creeds of belief that go back to the reformation. So of course they will mix biblical words with Gnostic teaching. If it was just plain Gnosticism it would have been rejected. And bit by bit the theological, rational foundation is taken away as doctrine is ridiculed as “dead, dry and powerless”.
The second aspect is love. The Gnostics did not really love the brethren in any practical sense. Just as they had spiritualized Christ as being something out there and not physical, so it seems, they had spiritualized love too. It became about initiation and not demonstration. In fact you were only truly saved if you had received this revelation knowledge. But the issue comes down to our world view. Do we hold onto the world’s ways of looking at things or have we truly been born again? Are we being transformed by the renewing of our mind? Biblically informed thinking does not come from what I or other people say about the Bible but it comes from the Word itself as we walk in obedience to it and its teaching.
Read 1 John 4: 1 – 6
This chapter is split into two sections. Firstly we have the test of doctrine which we will deal with this time and secondly John deals with love which we will deal with the next time we look at 1 John.
DOCTRINE
In the first 6 verses John deals with doctrine. He presented the importance of doctrine at the beginning of the epistle. Now if John places doctrine (or teaching) before love, then how can people say that what you believe about Jesus does not matter; all we need is love? Why do people throw out doctrine as something that is not important because it divides? Either the doctrine is wrong, which needs to be shown from scripture. If the doctrine is wrong then it needs to be thrown out. However, if the doctrine is right, the division is not caused by the doctrine but because of the pride and unrepentance of those who have been plainly shown the truth from scripture in love. To throw critical thinking out of the window is something Gnostic in itself. If you questioned the visions of the Gnostics it would just prove that you were among the uninitiated. On the contrary John tells us in the first verse to test the spirits. To test means to scrutinize. We must use the mind and use it biblically. I have a book by Os Guinness called ‘Fit bodies, Fat minds: Why Evangelicals don’t think and what to do about it.’ And in it he says the following, “Failing to think Christianly,” (I would define that as biblically Christian) “evangelicals have been forced into the role of cultural imitators and adaptors rather than originators. In biblical terms, it is to be worldly and conformist, not decisively Christian.” This is not to say that things within a culture are bad within themselves, such as music, science, art, auto mechanics or things that affect us in our senses such as incense, light, the media, and visuals. In fact we use quite a few of these in our own day to day lives. But when it comes to living out our faith and worship, our minds must be informed by scripture. These Gnostics had dreams and visions. So therefore are we to throw out all visions or prophecies on account of the Gnostics? Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5: 20 not to despise prophetic utterances. If someone has a prophecy or a vision we must listen to them without being naïve. But what does John say in verse 1? Firstly, he says do not believe every spirit. If we are not to believe every spirit this calls us to be critical. John says to scrutinize the spirits. Do not believe it straight away. Being critical about what someone says is not nice. If you have been to university and been involved in a debate or had your work marked, or undergone a test, there may have been times of self doubt, ‘do I really know this, is what I said right?’ Being put under the microscope is not a pleasurable experience. But there are three things to remember.
1 The bible commands the Church to test what we say.
2, this is not about you it is about what God is trying to say. We claim to be giving something from the Lord so the church must test it to see if it is from the Lord.
3, Man is like the grass of the field, he withers and falls off but the Word of the Lord stands forever. It is not the prophetic word spoken by our mouths that stands forever but that which is recorded in the pages of scripture.
And if the church is genuinely seeking to know if something is in accordance with scripture and is from God’s mouth true prophecy will stand the test. This says something. We have got to know the Word of God. If we do not know the scripture, on what basis are we able to test these visions and prophecies? By our own opinions?
But why can we not take what people say on trust? John says because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Now if these antichrists, these false prophets, have gone out into the world then how are they able to affect us in the Church? Firstly because John claims that they can, thus the scripture tells us this. But secondly, just because they are in the world does not stop us coming into contact with their ideas. Kenneth Hagin’s Word of faith teaching came from the books of E W Kenyon. But where did E W Kenyon get his ideas from? From his time studying at ‘Emerson College of Oratory in Boston’ which was a hotbed for New Thought teaching originating in the teaching of Mary Baker Eddy who took from the teachings of Phineas Quimby. And Phineas Quimby came up with his beliefs through trying to turn occult practice into a science. Can you see that there is a flow and a progression of these ideas? ‘Yes but how can something that far back influence Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches today? That’s absurd!’ And because of this unbelief that is exactly how it infiltrates churches. In fact Hagin himself said that when he preached about the mind in some churches they thought they were listening to mind science. Read Dave Hunt’s ‘Beyond Seduction’ chapters 3 & 4. So even though they are in the World they can still influence churches. Therefore we are to test the spirits.
So how do we test them? Verses 2 and 3 show us. Now, as Bill Randles says, this is not a litmus test where the spirits just have to repeat the words ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’ parrot fashion and then we know that they are speaking by the spirit of God. In that case we could say that even a parrot would be speaking by the spirit of God. It is not as superficial as that. Doctrine is not just about having right words but about having a right understanding; it is about content. What does it mean that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? For one, it means that Jesus was Christ before He came in the flesh. It does not say that Jesus came in the flesh and then became Christ. Jesus was Christ before He became man and he continues to be man in a body. He was the Christ, He is the Christ and He will evermore be the Christ. Remember the two lies we looked at in the second chapter. There are lies that are composed of having a wrong confession of Doctrine, but having a right confession alone is not the indicator whether something is the truth. We must look to see whether the accompanying life and teaching is consistent with that confession. If I say that ‘Jesus is the Christ who came and remains in the flesh, but now also the Christ spirit has passed on me also and I also am the Christ’ I am a liar, though I have confessed the words ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’. In the Latin scriptures this phrase has been translated ‘Who ever divides Jesus is not from God’. This shows that the heart of the Gnostic teaching is to divide the man Jesus from the divine Jesus. This is the spirit of antichrist and it teaches us about what the antichrist will believe. He will sit himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself as being god. How can he do that? Through the same way as the Word of faith preachers do. ‘I have the Christ spirit, I am one with him, I am the Christ’.
The antichrist does not just come out of the blue and introduce this spirit or doctrine. Many things happen to make him acceptable before he enters the arena. 2 Thessalonians 2: 7 – 8. Why is the antichrist accepted with his lawlessness? It is because the world is already lawless. It is like a plugged up kettle that is boiling. When the restrainer is taken away then it all comes out. We see lawlessness now but it is going to get worse. Look at Genesis 6. In verse 2 you have the mixing of the sons of God with the daughters of men. It is an unholy mixture that God is angry about. But in verse 5 God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. And how was that wickedness manifest? It does not say initially but it says that every intent of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. It is in verse 11 that the scripture is more descriptive and explicit in saying that the earth was corrupt in the sight of God. Before it was just man being evil man personally. We see this argument for personal wickedness, ‘It is my life, mind your own business’. But now the wickedness of man affects the earth and the peoples of the earth around him. The earth was filled with violence. The earth itself was corrupt. It starts with wickedness in the heart and how can we define this wickedness? It is a turning away from God’s Lordship and turning to man as great. This was the same as in the garden of Eden. This is the same as Genesis 6:4 that speak of the fallen ones. It is the same as the tower of Babel, the same as Nebuchadnezzar, and the same as 2 Thessalonians 2. The spirit of antichrist, of lawlessness, is already at work. It is under restraint but when the restrainer is taken away, the antichrist will be revealed.
From verses 4 – 6 John makes a contrast between his readers, these antichrists and the apostles. The readers, though seeming weak, actually have the victory over these Gnostics because the Word of God has richly dwelt in them. The Word of God does not only refer to the scriptures but it also refers to the one who is the embodiment of those scriptures. Jesus Christ lives in us by His Spirit. Jesus and His truth is greater than Satan and his lies. What is the real test of knowing if you have that Spirit? Verse 6 says we must listen to the apostles’ teaching. The Spirit of truth is in accordance with the apostolic teaching. Those who are of God will listen to the scripture and those who are of the world will not listen to it. They place the ideas of the world above the place of God. But they will not prevail. Jesus said of His church that the gates of the grave, of death, will not prevail over it as opposed to the churches of the false gods. You have overcome them through Christ in you and His word dwelling in you.
So in closing, let us be much in the word of God and let it dwell richly in us. This is our protection and safe guard. We are not to despise prophetic utterance but a Gnostic will always throw greater weight on his prophecy than on the Word of God. They might sound convincing and they might have had genuine experiences but greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world. Test all things. Hold on to that which is good and abhor that which is evil. Test the Spirits to see which is from God and the test is primarily doctrinal.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 76. JAN 2011
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
We trust that you all had a wonderful New Year and that the New Year will bring with it God’s richest blessings in whatever form they need to take. It is near the time for us to go back to KwaZulu after being in Gauteng, house sitting for about 3 weeks. Before we left Salvi managed to evangelize the rest of the Kraals at Eastmine, so that whole area has been completed in spreading the gospel so that every family may hear. This will leave the rest of KwaBokkie and Ngenitsheni to complete before moving onto the areas of Khambi and Cibilili this year God willing. Ngenitsheni is a vast area with many subareas within it. At church Salvi finished the series on the foundational teachings of Christ. Thabi has continued to come to the meetings and she is being taught many things. Di enjoys her company as Thabi speaks English. Please pray that Thabi grows in her faith.
On the way to Boksburg we visited a very faithful couple, supporters and friends from Secunda. They have walked with us and prayed for us for a long time now and we thank the Lord for them. For a number of years they have been without a local church, as many faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who hold fast to biblical doctrine. Now they have found an Afrikaans Baptist Church which is teaching them according to the word. Fellowship is so fundamental in these days and we need to take every available opportunity to do so. Real fellowship sharpens and grows us.
For the first 4 days till the Monday morning we spent a lot of time with our friends, Morne and Doret. We rarely get to spend time with them and it was good to encourage them in their faith. The first Sunday we, with Morne, Doret and their children, visited our friends at Truth Ministries in Johannesburg. Salvi lead the worship. The message, preached by a guy called Donovan, concerned God’s chastisement and how He moulds us through them. He looked at David’s sin with Bathsheba and how there was grace to cover David’s sin and keep him ministering unto the Lord and the people but God could not allow David to go without bearing consequences for his actions lest God’s name be reproached. But when we are trained by God’s discipline our test becomes our testimony. It was an encouraging message. In the afternoon Salvi and Morne went off for a coffee and had a private bible study before their family left to go on their holiday the following morning.
In the week we visited our friends Paul and Ronel. Paul is on Salvi’s course with King’s Evangelical Divinity School (www.kingsdivinity.org). Ronel is currently on a biblical counseling course so it was great for Di and herself to discuss the difference between the her course and the psychology based courses that are so often taught today under the banner of Christian counseling. On that day we were able to swing by All Nations Gospel Publishers and pick up 3000 Zulu tracts to take back to KwaZulu as well as books for Salvi’s course. On Christmas day we had our friends Allen and Sue with their children come and visit us at the house we are looking after. It was great for the kids to swim in the pool and to remember the Lord as we sang hymns, choruses and carols together.
The next day we visited our friend’s, Bernard Mathe’s, church. He lives near the KwaZenzele settlement that we used to minister on a weekly basis. Bernard and his wife serve the people of the settlement by running a crèche for the families who are too poor to send their children to a crèche nearer town. To the parents that can afford to take their kids to another crèche they ask them to do so to give room for the parents that can’t. The crèche started in 2005 with the help of some friends from the UK who gave a gift to Bernard to start the work. With it they were able to build premises and use that building for the church services. The government funds the work but do not allow the funds to be used for staff wages but we pray weekly that the Lord will undertake for them. The meeting is multicultural as there are Pedi, Chichewa, Tsonga and Zulu speakers. The songs were in Pedi and Zulu. Salvi was asked to preach and he gave a message entitled ‘God’s Apartheid’ concerning how God separated the Jews from all the nations in the world to be a special people and how He has rejected those Jews who have rejected their own messiah and grafted in Gentiles. But the fullness of the Gentiles is coming in and then God will turn His grace back to the Jew. So while there is time we must pray for and invite sinners to repent. When we come into the kingdom we are then made separate to the world. The message was well received.
We were then able to visit Lorraine at the settlement and to see her new house. Her last house was problematic because when it rained her floor would fill with water and the ground around her house would become a mini-swamp. On top of this her son was living in a side hut which unfortunately burned down. If some people, including Bernard, had not pulled it down in time Lorraine’s tin hut would also have been destroyed as it was on the same property. Lorraine has now moved to a better location a block away, nearer to her Gogo and is much happier there. Please pray for Lorraine to find new work as her current employment has ended. She is a widow (her husband Sam died a few years ago) trying to raise 4 children. The Lord has provided for the family with some finances and she has peace about the future ahead.
We then had our friends Riaan and Debbie with their six children stay with us for 3 days. Allen, Sue and the kids also came to visit as Riaan had asked if Salvi could dedicate their two youngest children to the Lord. But really we all as a group gathered round the family and dedicated the whole family to the Lord. It was body ministry at work. Riaan led us in communion and we remembered the Lord’s death. It was three days of late nights and much conversation around the word and other areas of life. Riaan is a builder who has really struggled with clients not paying and this sadly leading to having cars repossessed and moving out of their home to move to a rural and cheaper location. It has been a struggle for them but the Lord has supplied clients that are paying and prospects for new contracts.
Last Sunday we visited Lyndhurst Baptist Church in Edenvale which is pastored by our friend Rob. It was so refreshing to see a multicultural church with black and white fellowshipping and worshipping in such great sense of love and community. The message was brought by a gentleman called Shepherd who spoke on how God calls us to conduct a ministry and does not accept excuses, He wants obedience. God does not substitute us, He equips us. The ultimate example was Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. He asked for the cup to be taken away from Him but committed Himself to the will of His Father; there was no one else to do that work. It was a very encouraging message. After we visited Rob and his wife Rosa and shared a meal. Rob has such a pastor’s heart and we conversed much about the ministry and our lives.
Allen and Sue came to us yesterday and we had a baptismal service at the house. Four of their children had given their lives to the Lord in June of this year. Ben, Themba, Little Themba and Precious each confessed that they have accepted Jesus as their saviour and they will follow Him for the rest of their lives. Their parents have testified about their commitment in prayer life and awakened spiritual hunger. Salvi baptized them in the pool and we all celebrated with an outdoor picnic. Our friends, Sean and Catherine from Truth Ministries, joined in and stayed after the Wells had gone home conversing about the Lord.
We do not really feel that we have had much rest this month but we are so grateful to Morne and Doret for opening their home to us so we could have friends over for meals and share time together along with having the treat of running water and access to power. Over this month Di has been able to skype family and friends in New Zealand, sort clothes that have been given for those in need and the annual task of washing all our blankets. Salvi has done his Greek assignment and has started writing a short manuscript concerning the rapture calling for understanding and acceptance among those of different persuasions within the premillennial camp. This Sunday we will be visiting Elijah ministries before going back to KwaZulu on the following morning.
We thank the Lord that we have been given a 2.5 diesel bakkie after we gave the Nissan bakkie back to Ebyown. This is such a blessing as it uses less fuel and has already saved us on those bills. We do so many kms in KwaZulu every week and so, even though it is not a 4×4 it is a welcome addition to the work. We also thank the Lord that our friend Tony is going to get married to Sonja who is one of the members of the Louwsburg Bible Fellowship. The wedding should be taking place in February and Salvi should be taking the service. We will not be going to Zimbabwe this month. We have unfortunately had to reschedule that and we trust it will transpire in April or some time later in the year. Phumulani has started applying for his passport so we hope that we will be able to go together. Later this year our friend, Bianca (Riaan and Debbie’s daughter will be staying with us for a month to get a taste of mission as will our friend Jacob Meads in March/April for about three months. We do not know what the year holds for us except that we expect the Lord is going to take us through an education and that He has a plan for a unique year. But we walk with Him and look to Him as He teaches and guides us. May the Lord do the same to you. Thank you so much for your prayers and involvement in the work which you show in various ways.
Shalom Aleichem baShem Yeshua, Salvi and Di.
1 John Part 4
ASSURING OUR HEARTS BY RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOVE.
WE DO KNOW GOD.
1 John 3
There are always 2 aspects to combating error. Both are important. Hebrews 4: 12 says that the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. Eph 6: 17 calls the word of God, the sword of the Spirit. There are two ways you can use a sword. One is to block and the other is to attack. Blocking can be likened to apologetics and attacking can be likened to polemics. You need to attack false teaching by showing where it is wrong. You need to contend for the faith, but you also need to affirm the Truth and give a reasonable defense for the hope that you have in you. You can not just attack all the time and neither are you just supposed to block. John’s aim is not just to attack the Gnostics but to reaffirm the Truth and to give his readers an assurance of the Truth. We need that assurance. We need to be strengthened because we are not always strong in faith. People may come along and rock our faith and we need someone to assure us of our position in Christ. Now remember this issue becomes extremely important as we get nearer to Christ’s return. There is a link between the return of Christ and spiritual seduction. Spiritual seduction is a test to see if we love the Lord and are faithful to Him. God has a plan for the Kenneth Copelands of the world and the Benny Hinns. God uses them to test us. (Deut 13: 1 – 5). God has a purpose in raising the antichrist up, which is to bring judgment on the harlot (Rev 17: 16) and to bring a judgment on those who did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. (2 Thess 2: 10 – 12). Remember the question our Lord asked in Lk 18: 8, ‘When the son of man returns will He find faith (faithfulness) on the earth?’ 1 John is not only about combating the antichrist Gnostics but it is also about reaffirming the disciples in the apostolic Faith and spurring them on to continue in it steadfast and faithful until the end. It is important that we also pay heed to this epistle as the times we live in are becoming increasingly like John’s day. Lawlessness is on the increase and if we are prone to going with the flow, we will get swept along with it all.
1 John 3 can be split up into three sections. As always John is comparing opposites and in this chapter he deals with 2 pairs of opposites. In verses 1 – 10 John compares righteousness with sin. From verses 10 – 18, John compares love with hate and then from verses 19 – 24 John speaks of the assurance that may be ours for the taking.
RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SIN
Really this section starts in chapter 2: 28. We are firstly told to abide in Jesus. Now how do we abide in Jesus? What does it mean to remain in Jesus? To know how we remain or abide in Jesus it would make sense to ask how a person enters into Jesus in the first place. You can not remain in something you have never entered into in the first place. If we know how a person gets into Christ it will teach us how a person may remain in Him also. Jn 1: 12. Rom 10: 9. How do we enter into Christ? We enter into Christ through faith. Faith means to take God at His word. Believing on Him and trusting on Him brings us into salvation. John 15 teaches us about abiding in Jesus. Abiding in Jesus is likened to a branch abiding in a vine. Christ is the vine and we are the branches. There is a similar parable in Romans 11 where branches are grafted into an olive tree. Now on what basis are branches grafted in and cut off? Romans 11: 20. It is to do with faith. We are grafted in when we believe. The unregenerate Jews were cut off because they did not believe in the Gospel. If we enter into Christ through Faith, then it stands to reason that we abide in Christ through faith also. John says in 1 John 3: 24 that the one who keeps Jesus commandments abides in Him and Jesus abides in him. Faith and obedience go together. In fact this is what produces the fruit of Christ in our lives, the Spirit working in us through Faith. Paul calls this the obedience of faith in Romans 1: 5 and in vv 16 – 17 Paul teaches that the righteousness of God is manifested from faith to faith. As we believe in the Gospel from faith to faith, God’s righteousness becomes manifested in us, thus we become more like Jesus. Jesus said, ‘If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you may ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.’ Because when we become like Jesus we will start to desire the things that are according to God’s will.
One of those things we must ask for should be Rev 22: 20, ‘Amen, Come Lord Jesus’. Do we long for Jesus return or are we going to take the short cut that the antichrist will offer us? Are we waiting for Jesus to make right the world’s wrongs or are we going to sort out all the world’s problems ourselves. Will we be expectant for Jesus when He returns or will we hide in shame? Waiting for Jesus to come back to right the wrongs of the world does not mean that we sit back and do nothing. It means that we are obedient to what he says. It means that we do not have a global vision of ridding the world of hunger or poverty but that those whom God sends our way, those who we see and come into contact with we help; starting with believers first and then spilling out unto unbelievers.
John says is that because Jesus is righteous then everyone who is born of Him must practice righteousness. Does this mean that Jesus is our spiritual Father? No, what it means is that we have a new birth through Jesus Christ, through what he has done on the Cross and through His spirit. Christ is separate from the Father but the Father and Christ are one. In Chapter 3: 1 it says that we are children of God, but it does not say that we are children of Christ. But the main point that John is making is this, if God is righteous in His very being, then those whom God begets (through a new birth) will be people that will practice righteousness too. This birth is wrought by the Spirit as John 3: 3 teaches and is one that births a person into a life of righteousness. God saved us to be righteous, to be made into the likeness of His Son and to be partakers of Christ’s inheritance as his brethren. God did not birth us into His kingdom to be habitual sinners. There are 4 aspects to this birth that seem apparent in John’s writing.
1 – There is the privilege of the new birth. We are able to be called children of God. John tells his readers to look, behold, perceive this; ‘how great’, or ‘what manner of love’. Look intently at this; what manner of Love the Father has given as a gift to us. The word for ‘what manner’ in Greek is ‘Potapen’, which literally means, from ‘from what country, nation or tribe?’ In other words, John is saying, Look at this, from what country is this love that God has freely given to us, that we can be called God’s children?’ It is a privilege that no human institution or nation can give. In fact it is something that is out of this world and its fulfillment is something that can only be achieved beyond this world. It is vast. It is equivalent to a pedophile or murderer on death row, being pardoned and being made heir of the queen of England. Is that fair? No it is not fair, it is grace. “But how can I be compared to such people, I would never do anything like that?” But all sin is heinous to God. One sin would be sufficient for Jesus having to die on the cross for its pardon. One sin was enough to have Adam and Eve thrown out of the garden. You see there is only one initiation into salvation and that is the new birth. There are not different levels of knowledge to be initiated into in order to attain salvation. If you are born again, you are initiated and you have more than salvation, you have a unique position in being God’s child.
2 – There is the reproach of the new birth. Because this privilege is out of this world, it is also alien to the world. The world neither empathizes, nor understands it and would try to put it down because it does not know it. When we are born again, there is a severed connection with the world and the people of the world. Where once we were close, now there is a barrier so that some people in the world may even feel antagonistic to the Faith. If we become part of Christ’s body we will endure the same treatment He received. We will not feel part of the group, we will feel outcast and like we do not belong. Why should we feel like we do not belong? It is because we do not belong. We are pilgrims and strangers. And if we have been ostracized on account of obeying Christ, then we have reason to cheer up. The world does not know us because it did not know Him. If the world does not know us on account of following Christ, then it is a proof that we know Him and that is more important than knowing anyone else.
3 – There is the hope of the new birth. We have a future hope because we have been born again. You see John shows us in verse 2 that we are children of God in the here and now but still we do not know yet what we will be like. We are saved and yet we are yet to be saved. We are children and yet we are awaiting the adoption as sons. How can you be waiting to receive the son ship and at the same time already claim to have received it? Suffice it to say, we are in salvation but that salvation needs to be fulfilled and completed. We are children in the here and now, through faith, and yet what we have received is the seed into our hearts. But that seed needs to grow and bear fruit. We are not zapped. We wish we could be. We ask; why can not God just take me out of here and just make me right? But listen to this quote from Francis Schaeffer in his book, ‘True Spirituality’;
“Eternity will be wonderful, but there is one thing heaven will not contain, and that is the call, the possibility, and the privilege of living a supernatural life here and now by faith, before we see Jesus face to face.”
There are rewards to be acquired through being sanctified and obedient in the here and now. This will never ever be repeated. It is here today and gone tomorrow.
4 – There is the challenge of the new birth. If we have this future hope then it behooves us to live in the expectancy of it. If the Queen of England was coming to visit me, then I would naturally seek to tidy my house up. If we really have the hope of becoming co heirs with Christ we will seek to prepare ourselves as much as possible for it. Do we even recognize that we will reign with Christ on this earth when he returns? 1 Corinthians 6: 2 says that the saints will judge the world. Just like the book of judges. And in verse 3 it says that we will judge angels. What person would not prepare themselves to take over the presidency of a company, or to face up to responsibility? In fact we go to university to attain those positions. God’s university is a university of sanctification. If we truly do have this hope we must be purifying ourselves, making ourselves clean just as God is pure.
This is in contrast to those who were teaching ‘it does not matter what you do in your body’. These were called antinomian because they believed they were without law. They were the ones who twisted Paul’s teaching on Law and grace. They assumed to be the teachers with the hidden and superior knowledge but in fact they were anything but teachers. As we saw in the last study, they were disqualified from ministry as teachers because they not even saved let alone they failed to meet the criteria of Titus 1: 5 – 9 it says:
“For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion, for the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”
1 Timothy 3: 1 – 7
“It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he be able to take care of the church of God?) and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”
The person must not have a bad reputation with those outside the church; must not be divorced and remarried, must rule or manage his own household well, must not drink too much, must not commit immorality, must not be known for being quick tempered or for being in the ministry for the money etc. If a pastor, bible teacher, elder is guilty of any of these he fails the criteria of being a leader. Of course this does not mean in the future that he cannot be restored but until such a time the leader should step down. These Gnostic teachers not only were practicing these things but they were also teaching others that it was okay to practice them too. They would say that Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of the law of the Jewish God. “We are not under Law, we are free from any Law!”
In verse 4 John tells us that sin is lawlessness. The problem is not ignorance of the special revelation but it is rebellion in the heart. Sin is to be without law and to refuse to be restrained by the Law of God. Because of their future hope God’s people were to purify themselves. But these Gnostics were teaching that it is ok to sin because Jesus set them free from any law. Therefore it was not sin. Here John says, “No! They are indeed sinning because sin is to be without law.
From verses 7 – 10 John wants to make sure that his readers will not be deceived into thinking that it is okay to sin. But on the contrary no one who is born of God sins. Now does this mean that if you sin you are not saved, or you have lost your salvation? Not at all! John is not talking about when we slip up or do individual sins but he is speaking as the New American Standard Bible says those who are practicing sin. These people were teaching that we should sin more. We can not go along with this if we are born again. We can not practice sin if we are born of God. Why? Because God’s seed is in us. The seed of God is the word according to the parable of the sower. His word brings us victory over the evil one. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. The term for destroy is ‘luo’, which means to loose. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead He told those around Lazarus to unbind him and to take off the grave clothes. So we are to help each other to shed off the fleshly things that have bound us. Christ came to free us from sin. That is the whole point of grace.
LOVE and HATE
Just as fundamental as the issues of righteousness and sin are the issues of love and hate. The one who does not practice righteousness is not of God but neither is the one who does not love his brother. Notice, John shows us who the ones are that we should direct our love to; our brethren. Our brethren are those who are in Christ. This does not mean that we go around hating the unbelievers because the commandments say that we should love our neighbour and we are a neighbour to anyone who is in need (so the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches). But the household of God takes preference over the outsider. John teaches that love is something integral to the Christian life and in fact we cannot have the Christian life without having love. In verse 11 John is not bringing anything new but something that we have received from the beginning. But what does it mean to love? We will look at this in 1 John 4. But love must be something that is defined by God because it is He who is the embodiment of love. Sometimes love can seem unloving but it always has the best interests of the person on whom it is bestowed and it is a love that is affectionate. It is a love that seeks for life and welfare but hate wants to kill that spiritual life and blessing. Love seeks for the welfare and promotion of others but hate is self seeking. And to drive this truth home John gives us the example of Cain.
What reason did Cain slay Abel? Because Abel’s deeds were righteous and Cain’s were evil. In Genesis 4: 1 – 8 we read that Cain was a tiller of the ground but Abel was a shepherd. Abel brought a blood sacrifice but Cain brought the works of his own hands. Abel’s sacrifice was after the pattern shown by God when He covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness with animal skins. Cain’s was after the curse of God because God had cursed the ground. Abel’s sacrifice was careful to give to God only the best because he brought of the firstlings of his flock and their best part, the fat portions. But Cain showed no such care and attention because he just brought an offering from the ground. Cain cared about himself and when God showed favour and regard to Abel’s offering, he was jealous and hated his brother. But Jesus tells us that we must lose our life to gain it. We must not love our own lives even when it costs us death. (Rev 12: 11)
And just as there were four aspects to righteousness, I can also see four aspects to love from verses 11 – 18
1 – There is the position of love. As we have seen, love is integral to the Gospel message. If we are saved we have entered into a life not only of righteousness but also of love. As verse 14 says, we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.
2 – There is the reproach of love. In that the world will hate us just as Cain hated Abel. The world is self seeking, the world wants us to be self seeking because when they are faced with true love it shows up their own sin and thus they feel guilty.
3 – There is the source of love as verse 16 says, Jesus laid down His life for us. We will deal with this more next time but for now I will say that Love, real love does not come from within ourselves but it comes from God. If we want to receive love we can not look to any one other than God. God is love.
4 – There is the challenge of Love; that as Christ has laid down his life for us, so we should lay down our lives for each other. We are to follow Christ’s example. We by nature are self seeking and we do not know how to love with God’s love. That is why obedience is the barometer of love and not feelings. We do not know how to love in the way that God wants so God has to teach us and He teaches us by His commandments. If we love someone in the way we want to then we could actually be failing to love that person. Many of us fail to share the gospel with colleagues and friends because we feel it is wrong to push our views onto others and so miss the very opportunities to witness that are God given. Such “respect” is not love but quite the opposite. God desires all men be saved, to show someone the way of salvation under God’s guidance is to love that person. If we follow Christ’s example of laying down our lives then we will learn how to love. With this challenge John gives us a commandment that parallels James’ example of what faith means practically. Verse 17 shows that love is not a feeling but it is a choice. Love contains emotions but it is not driven by emotions. It is to care, it is to help, and it is to be practical.
ASSURANCE
If we are walking in righteousness and love then we gain assurance. This does not mean the same kind of assurance when we get saved. This assurance means a full assurance. The word for assurance here is the word ‘Pitho’ and it means a persuasion or trust, confidence and obedience. In other words as we see God’s work of change within our lives it will assure us because it will persuade us of the reality of what God has promised in His word. If we are not conscious of anything against us, that we are not condemned by anything, then we have an ability to speak to God frankly and openly without fear. We can go to Him boldly and have our prayers answered according to His will. But if there is something that stands against us, we can take heart. God is bigger than our hearts, He knows all things. We must go back to the one commandment of verse 23. We must believe in the name of the Son Jesus Christ, the Saviour, who is the one who forgives sin. We must go back to Him and everything else will flow out of that. Do we desire to know God in such a way that He will answer our prayers? Will we take this message to heart? Will we keep His commandments in faith; will we commit ourselves to righteousness and to love the brethren? If so we will assure our hearts before Him, knowing that our faith is real and that we really do know the Lord. Our salvation experience will not prove to be fake.
KwaZulu Mission 