SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 75. Dec 2010
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,
It seems such a long time since we wrote our last newsletter and much has happened. We trust that this month’s edition will be encouraging and will glorify the Lord. In order to update you concerning the status of the missionary work we would like to assure you that the work is continuing as normal, though with some interruptions. We believe that it was the Lord who brought us here and we pray that He would keep the door open. But our lives and work are ultimately in His hands. We have thought much about the work which at first we renamed the Msindisi KwaZulu Mission. We have finally come to the agreement that the name Msindisi should be removed and now we refer to the work as simply ‘KwaZulu Mission’. The Lord may bring others to work alongside us and eventually take over from us. Also, the name Msindisi is Salvi’s Zulu name (it means the same as Salvador) and we want to keep from building a ministry named after one of us. Jesus wants us to be about building His church and not our own. Thus the Msindisi name is relegated to our personal newsletters. We will continue to keep informal, open and relational affiliations with other churches and Christians who have the same doctrinal base as we do and who are not swept away with the errors plaguing the churches at large. Our relationship and openness to them will create our accountability as we allow them to speak into our lives as they observe our work when they come to visit us or in communication with us. Ultimately our accountability is to the Lord. We also are in talks with a network of home churches in South Africa which we may come into a legal affiliation with if they are happy with us and vice versa. They also share the same views of affiliation and accountability. Please pray that the Lord guides them and us in making the right decisions as to this move. All things are in the Lord’s hand. Our local church is the Zulu church that Caleb and Salvi planted, ‘Ibandla Lendlela Eyodwa’, and the Louwsburg Bible Fellowship has become like a mini home church and the members are growing in the Lord. If anyone has any questions concerning the operation of the work, please feel free to contact us.
We have had two visits this month. The first was of our friends, Tony and Shaun from truth ministries. They were an encouragement to us and Tony was able to encourage one of the Louwsburg Fellowship members who was struggling in his walk. He and his wife have been struggling to walk in victory and have been under conviction to a deeper commitment and walk with the Lord. So when our friends Mujuru, Clayton and Abel, from Elijah Ministries, came we knew that this visit was also an appointment from the Lord. As they talked about the commitment to change Mujuru encouraged them greatly and urged us to engage in regular weekly discipleship with them aside from the small group. Mujuru had a discipleship booklet but encouraged them rather to read the whole of 1 John every day for a week and for us to meet with them personally to discuss it on a weekly basis. This has been a life changing experience for them. The husband has devoured the word of God and he now has a hunger that he never had before to read the word. We were challenged to rise up to a more pastoral role with them and to meet with the group members individually every week to encourage them in their walk. As the group is small this is not a burden. Salvi sees that this is going to be a very educational process for him and an expansion of the ministry. This last Saturday we had the husband teach us what he had learned from 1 John and it was such a precious time although we had to reassure him that we weren’t sneakily setting him up for the teaching ministry. That would be the Lord’s doing to raise him up. The idea worried him a little.
In the early part of November we did the assembly at the Care Bear crèche in Vryheid. Salvi spoke on creation and was thankful for the use of the Sunday school material that Wendy Thome, another member of Elijah, had given a while ago. What was also great was that we were able to put in a foundation that would help combat future evolutionary teaching in that God made a man and a woman in the beginning and all human beings come from them. People don’t come from monkeys. We asked the question if a person can marry a monkey and of course they said ‘no’. People come from people and monkeys come from monkeys. Salvi has been reading a very interesting book called, ‘The Signature in the Cell’ by Stephen Meyer. The fact that a precise and complex arrangement of four ‘nucleotide bases’ to create a sequence of information screams design so much so, that Meyer notes that Watson, who with Crick discerned the structure of DNA, stated that Biologists must “constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.” Romans 1:18 speaks of the wrath of God being against men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that which can be known about God is clearly evident to them through the things which God made. It was therefore a pleasure to add just a little piece of biblical foundation that God is the creator and evolution is a lie. Of course it must be the Lord who brings others to sow the gospel seed into their lives when they are older and to see them come to repentance.
Di and Kim were able to take Jabulani to buy plants for Mr Khumalo’s garden. Please keep them both in your prayers. It can only be the grace of God that keeps them from wavering. We have been encouraging them to keep in the word. Because of time taken up for discipleship and because Jabulani finds learning difficult, the reading classes have really suffered. Jabulani never completed his schooling and now he is in his 40s. In one of our reading sessions, he would remember the letter U and later on in the same session he would get it mixed up with O. In the New Year we hope to do two sessions a week with him. One for discipleship and the other for reading. But we will see how it goes. They are still coming to the Sunday services although Mr Khumalo is still having home problems that prohibit him from coming sometimes as he has to look after his father when his wife is not at home. Jabulani is looking really healthy. He has put on so much weight and the Lord has brought people to him to fix TVs, fridges or other implements which is a blessing as he does not get a government grant. Please pray that the Lord increases his work load as his soul prospers in the Lord.
We were very encouraged a couple of Sundays ago. A girl called Thabi, who used to attend Caleb and Salvi’s bible study in Khambi has been visiting the church regularly, though she now lives in Vryheid. A couple of Sundays ago Di was counseling her and she knew that she was not saved. Di led her to the Lord and since she has been showing some fruit of walking with the Lord. She is now reading the word for herself and striving to walk under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Please pray for her that she will continue to walk the walk. But we can see some change in her already and that is a blessing for us.
Di has done a couple of clinic runs this month. She also went to visit the kid’s club as our Australian friend Pam had sent presents from the children of Pilgrim fellowship for the children here. Pam has also just sent some ‘bonbons’ for them so Di will be going this Saturday to give them out. Di’s garden continues to flourish. It is such a small garden but we have had an endless supply of spinach and lettuce. The tomatoes are still to grow but too many tomato plants were planted for such a small space. We are also still waiting for the peppers to grow. We have had some good rains and that has keep the plants well watered.
We were blessed to have a couple of nights away to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. It was especially a blessing for Di to have access to electricity, water and a shower. We have started the book of Revelation in the Louwsburg bible study but we will continue the series in the New Year. This coming Tuesday night Phumulani will be bringing the teaching and the following Tuesday we will be watching a DVD produced by Jews for Jesus about holocaust survivors who came to believe in Jesus as their Messiah. Please pray for the local farmer who is Phumulani’s boss. Willem Weites is Dutch and an avowed atheist. He was involved in a serious crash which ruptured his spleen. He was rushed to a hospital in a place called Newcastle, over 100 kms from Vryheid. We are praying for his salvation and for a miracle. The last we heard was that he was stable but still in critical condition. We hope that either we, or Phumulani, would get the opportunity to witness to him though he is not open to the gospel.
Last Monday we visited some Zulu ladies and Salvi shared the gospel. He did a prophetic message concerning the times of the Jews and the fact that today is a day where God has extended His grace to the gentiles. Though the promises belong to Israel God at present takes believing Jews and believing Gentiles and makes them one people in Christ. At the end we sang the song Hallelujah Hosanna in Zulu, Pedi, Afrikaans, English and in Hebrew with the knowledge that one day it will be sung by the Jews. After we sung the ladies burst forth in spontaneous prayer, unlike our last visit to them. One lady in particular was crying and saying, “Lord, you love us, you love us, we who are people (‘abantu’ meaning the black people).” Di felt prompted to speak concerning the need to give all our lives but stayed silent as this is what she knew Salvi was saying at virtually the same time she felt prompted. We saw this as a confirmation that the Lord was working. We plan on visiting them again in the New Year and see if the Lord builds up a relationship with them and if any need to commit or recommit their lives to the Lord. But as the Lord leads.
We still enjoy the prayer meetings with Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid on a Wednesday night. We are trying to make their Sunday evening service once a month for extra encouragement and bible teaching. Next week we will be going to Boksburg, Gauteng, to house sit for our friends Morne and Doret as we have done for the last 2 years. It will be a time for Salvi to catch up on his Bible College work, to do one of his assignments and for us to catch up with quite a number of friends around Gauteng. We hope that it won’t be too busy a time and we look forward to the fellowship. Mujuru has asked us if we would consider visiting a home church that he and a friend planted in Harare, Zimbabwe in January. If we go it will be just after we have house sat and we will go for a week. We would like Phumulani to have the opportunity of going but may have to leave that for a later time when he has a passport sorted and some time off work. If we do go to Zimbabwe it will be from the 5th of January to the 12th otherwise we will postpone the trip to later in the year. Next year we look forward to a couple of overseas people visiting us. There may possibly be a girl from the United States of America and in March our friend Jacob Meads from Di’s former home church in New Zealand, Emmanuel Congregational Church.
We just want to thank you all for your prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry here. All glory to the Lord for His salvation and grace in and through us.
Salvi and Di.
1 John Part 3
THE ANTINOMIAN ANTICHRISTS –
WE ALL HAVE AN ANOINTING FROM THE HOLY ONE.
1 John 2: 12 – 29
Why are we going through 1 John? 1 John is dealing with questions such as, how do you know that you know God? What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it possible to interpret the bible according to extra biblical visions? John is writing into a situation not too dissimilar to the liberal and the Charismatic streams within Christendom. Like the Charismatics of today there were many people who had dreams and visions of angels and spirits which would bring new revelations and this meant that these people were on a higher, untouchable plane of knowledge and the rest of the church were supposed to follow. As in Charismatic churches today the Gnostics of John’s day were full of the scandal of things such as immorality and drunkenness. These Gnostics were antinomian and because they had special access to “new revelations” and “special visions” they claimed that they could do whatever they wanted with the body, yet their soul would still be saved. Some “spirit” told them. Thus these leaders were not even saved and definitely not qualified for leadership.
Titus 1: 5 – 9
“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.”
Some bible teachers, such as John MacArthur, believe that ministers who fall in these areas are permanently disqualified from ministry but others, such as Tim La Haye believe that a minister who falls in these areas may be restored to office after a process of restoration and repentance. It is difficult to make a stance in either case with any sense of dogmatism as this passage, nor the one in Titus, does not speak of the cases of those fallen ministers who have, over time, regained a good reputation with outsiders. It speaks of those who do not have a good reputation with outsiders at the time of office or appointment to office. But whatever the case, either immorality, or drinking too much or being quick tempered disqualify one from the ministry. And this is more so with sins such as drunkenness, immorality or adultery. It only takes one occasion of falling and being caught out and then one is left with a bad reputation which is enough to disqualify one from ministry. How can someone in the ministry preach about being morally pure or against drunkenness if they are guilty of the same things? The outsider will just point the finger and shout ‘hypocrite!’ As a former pastor of mine, David Hamilton, said concerning ones testimony; “It takes a life time to build up and only a minute to lose it.” If leaders who have fallen in these areas are disqualified (till at least a good reputation is regained with the unbelievers that surround them), how much more these Gnostic teachers should be excommunicated from the church for teaching and encouraging people to think that these things were perfectly legitimate for Christians to practice. These things are serious problems which need to be dealt with and these Gnostic teachers needed to be stopped. They boasted that they knew God in a way that other Christians could not and they were disturbing the faith of the believers who may have been left thinking, “well I guess that we do not really know God then like these guys do!”
Now in terms of baby Christians who do not know the Word and have little experience in the Christian life, we might think there would be something plausible in that claim. But John also writes to the Fathers, those who have seriously walked with the Lord for years. I do not mean those who have been ‘Christians’ for the longest period of time because it is possible to have been a ‘Christian’ for a long time and not be mature, or not be a spiritual father or mother. But I am referring to those who have actually walked with the LORD and have mined the Word time and again. Those Gnostic visionaries would claim a more direct line with God, than even these spiritual fathers because they ‘have been initiated into a more secret level of knowledge’. But the situation also resembles the Liberal arm of Christendom. And we see Gnosticism on the rise again when we look at the interest in Gnostic literature, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas. The programs on TV like ‘The secret Jesus’ are really pushing for conservative or evangelical Christians to accept Gnostic Christianity as a valid expression of Christianity. But Gnosticism is not Christian in any way.
Gnostics in the churches were syncretistic and as I have asserted they never actually got saved. As John says 1 John 2: 19, “They came out from us but they were never really of us”. Jude says in verse 4 of his epistle, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” These people, it seems, were Gnostic before they came into the churches and remained Gnostics afterward. The same happens today. People from tribal cultures bring in Ancestral worship and mix it with the bible; people from a South African apartheid belief system bring in a derogatory view of non whites; people from New age bring in new age teaching clothed in Christian terminology; successful business people bring in mammon worship; arty people bring in experience based worship; we ourselves bring in our flesh, our love of self, our will to be in charge of our own lives… that is, unless we crucify those things and have repented. In Christ we become a new creation. Yes we still carry about this body of death, yes we still have temptations to turn back to those things but we have died to those things with Christ and we die daily. These Gnostics did not die to these things.
1 John 2: 12 – 14.
“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
John states his motivation for writing this letter. Paul had laid a foundation in many of the churches, the church was built up and had become a great witness in the world and then these Gnostics came with their visions and dreams, with their false teaching and sensuality and started knocking holes in the walls. John here was repairing the holes in the walls. He was getting his readers back to the first things. Again it is not new stuff; it is what they have already received. And John is writing to three groups of people, little children, fathers and young men. The Greek word for little children is ‘Teknion’ and it means infants, relating to Christian converts, but the word for children in verse 13 is ‘Paidia’, meaning an infant, or a half grown boy or girl. According to one commentator, this term refers to a child who is subordinate to discipline. New borns have assurance of forgiveness of sins and that is for Christ’s name sake. Jesus is the saviour and His name is holy. There is no other greater reason for God to forgive us then for the sake of His own name.
“1Sa 12:22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
Ps 25:11 For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
Ps 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
Jer 14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.”
If there is no other reason that God will forgive us, it is the honour of God’s own name, as Jeremiah speaks, ‘even though we have no defence, (our iniquities testify against us) yet still do it only for Your name’s sake.’ God is not a liar and he preserves the honour of His name. Therefore, though others may try to rob them of that assurance, of having been ‘truly initiated’ into salvation, they should not let anyone snatch that away from them.
Of the fathers John says that they know Him who was from the beginning. Now notice that, concerning the children in v 13, it does not say the same thing exactly. It says something different. Children know the Father but the fathers know Him who was from the beginning. In other words the children know God as their father and are being trained and disciplined by Him. The children must not be made to think that they do not know God if they are learning to follow His commandments. Because they know God it means that even fathers can learn things from children too. But the fathers know God – not only as their Father, but their knowledge and experience of the Father has deepened over time, over their personal discipline and therefore they definitely should not be shaken by Gnostics with their one off visions. As Donald Guthrie says in his commentary on Hebrews “Spiritual maturity comes neither from isolated events nor from a great spiritual burst. It comes from a steady application of spiritual discipline.” They do not know a god who has just appeared in a one off vision, or a demi-god who was a created being, but they know the God who was there from the beginning and what they have to say carries more weight and authority than anything the Gnostics have to say.
A child is someone who is learning to walk the spiritual life. A young man, however, is one who has grown in strength, gone through the testing and stood. They have overcome the evil one. How? Verse 14 says the word of God abides in them. Their strength comes from the word of God. There is an amazing parallel between this verse and psalm 1. The person who does not follow the advice of the ungodly (i.e the Gnostics) and meditates on the Law of the Lord day and night, shall be like a tree. The Hebrew word for tree is ‘ets’ and means that the tree is firm and immovable. These young men are solid and have overcome the wiles and the temptations of the Devil.
1 John 2: 15 – 17.
“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
Do not ‘agapate’ the world or the things in the world. Now what are the things in the world? Are we dealing with going out and enjoying a film or going to a restaurant for a meal? John explains. It is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. John does not give us a list of ‘dos and don’ts’; he gives us an understanding and expects us to hear him with an honest and open heart. We are supposed to see how this applies to the world in which we live. What about our society? There are many ways this verse can be applied, both in things that are common to everybody and in individual weaknesses.
A main one in western society is advertising and marketing. Advertising feeds on these three things. Adverts are supposed to be very pleasing on the eye and feed some desire in yourself that might compel you to buy their product. That is why we get the words luxury, silk, smooth, tempting. No one tells you, ‘Buy Cadbury’s bounty because it tastes alright because coconut tastes nice doesn’t it?’ No, they say, ‘Cadbury’s bounty, the taste of paradise’. What about Cadbury’s Milk tray? It is not ‘A box of chocolates is a great idea for a present’ but it is ‘And all because the Lady loves Cadbury’s milk tray.’ What about the corporate sector? I went to an interview for a Time Share company, who went to great lengths to tell us how they were not a time share company and then in the private interview the guy told me how much he earned last year and that he thought I had the makings of being successful. He was using the pride of life. Like these poetry competitions where your poem is so good that it has been selected to be published in their book, which they will offer to you for half price exclusively. It is the pride of life. We should not love the world because if we get caught up with it all, then the word will be choked within us, then we will not be strong, not stand the test and the Gnostics will pump us so full of flattery, pride, appealing to the senses and what feels good to the flesh. Then before we know it we will be on that slippery slide to seduction. But we must get away from a temporal mindset onto one that is set on eternity. The Hebrew concept of eternity and victory are linked together. The word for victory in Hebrew is ‘Netsach’, which in the strong’s means both ‘victory and eternity’. Man is like the grass of the field, the grass withers and the flower falls off but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And when we give the Word of God its rightful place in our lives then we gain victory.
After giving the young ones assurance, reaffirming the years of experience and obedience the elders have with the Lord and after stating the fact that the young men have overcome the evil one, John now enters the battle field with the antichrists. He calls them antichrists because the term antichrist means “replacement christ”. In the first session we saw that there is a link between deception and the return of Christ and John shows us that a sign of it being the last hour is the fact that there are many antichrists. Notice that there are antichrists before antichrist has come and so we may say that every age has its own antichrist. Antichrist is not just a person but it is a spirit, an attitude, it is sinful man trying to stay on the throne of his life. That is why the bad kings in scripture are forerunners and teach us about antichrist. Saul did not want to bow his knee to David so instead he tried to kill him because David was a threat to his kingdom. But notice what John teaches about the antichrists, they have come out from among us, but they were not of us. Where do they come from? They come out of the church and they go into the World. That is John’s view of antichrists. Therefore I do not think it is a stretch to say that the antichrist comes out of the church and into the world. It is not known at first but when this person starts to be the solution to all the world’s problems it will become apparent.
The Gnostic teaching is that the Christ spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism, and He became the Christ at that point and then left Him at His crucifixion. Modern Gnostics also believe that the Christ spirit has been on different people, i.e Buddha, Confucius etc. But notice what John says in verse 20.
1 John 2: 20
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”
You have AN anointing, not THE anointing. Jesus is THE anointed one and he remains the one with THE anointing. We have AN anointing, which we all have, we all know. Jesus has the pre-eminence. He is THE Son of God, we are sons of God, He is THE King of kings and THE high priest, we are just kings and priests. We need the anointing, we need unction, empowerment to be witnesses that is true, but it is an anointing in a general sense, where the spirit distributes spiritual graces severally as He wills. It is not THE specific anointing in the sense of Jesus being the Anointed one. John is saying, ‘look you are all anointed, every one of you, you do not need any special initiation because you all know’. Who is the liar? But the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. These people would say, ‘Yes of course Jesus is the Christ, but so am I because I have the Christ spirit and I am one with Him. Buddha had it. You see that was not Christ on the cross when Jesus died. The Christ spirit left Jesus on the cross. Jesus was just a plain man when he died. Why else did you think he cried out ‘My God, my God’ instead of my Father. Jesus became Christ at His baptism.’ Can you see how they would wrest the scriptures to say what they wanted? In fact Origen claimed that “They bring forth works in many volumes in which offer expositions of the evangelical and apostolic writings…” Do we think that the antichrist will be ignorant of the scriptures? He will use the bible to back up his claims.
Our view of Jesus determines whether we are in Him or not. We need to abide in the teaching of scripture and not allow another Jesus to be entertained. The antichrist attitude is all around. The Gnostics are here. Did you know the Gnostics believed that God was mother and was father? Did you know that they believed that the God of the Old Testament was harsh and therefore different to the God of the New Testament? They believed the God of the Old Testament was the Jewish God but the God of the New Testament was not. I wonder if that had any thing to do with the change of attitude in the early church towards the Jewish believers. Did you know that these Gnostics, who held the New Testament God to be kind and compassionate, believed that there were different manifestations of gods both male and female? They believed in the Mother, the Father and the Son and they also called this Mother by the names of Sophia (Wisdom), Mother Earth, Jerusalem, Holy Spirit and Lord. You see to confess that Jesus is the Christ goes beyond saying the words, ‘Jesus is the Christ’. It means that the teaching should also be consistent with the profession. These people would say ‘Yes, Jesus is Christ, I believe in Jesus but He did not rise physically from the dead.’ These are the ones who say there is no resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15: 12. Therefore they deny the son and by denying the son, they deny the Father also.
We still have the same problems today and what is Paul’s answer?
1 John 2: 24 – 27
“As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”
We are told to ‘Abide’. The way to abide in Christ is to allow his teaching to abide in us. Those who do not hold to sound doctrine are not abiding in Christ. This is the claim of John. What we heard from the beginning, the Gospel, the first things we must hold onto. Yes we are to move on from milk to meat but that does not mean that we stop drinking the milk, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2: 2, like new born babies we are to crave the pure milk of the Word. The Gospel is our starting point but everything else flows out from it and is derived from it. You have the Spirit of God and He is your teacher. This does not mean that we do not have teachers in the church. It means that no person can claim that they are the only ones with spiritual insight and understanding. They do not need that kind of teacher. As God has taught us so we should abide. And notice that the Spirit and the Word go together. Remember in the first session. When the Son of man returns, will He find faith on the earth, will He find faithfulness on the earth? Will His servants have stuck by Him crying out to Him for justice or will they have turned to another for the answers? Will they wait for Jesus’ return or will they turn to their golden calf? Will they hunger for Jesus’ kingdom or will they try the short cut of antichrist’s kingdom?
1 John 2: 28
Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
Jesus kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, and the kingdom of antichrist is unrighteous. These antinomian Gnostic teachers are dangerous and should be kept out of ministry. They will lead the flock into unrighteousness, gross error and gross sin and endanger people’s salvation. Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness and does our personal and corporate doctrine teach it? Let us shed off the former things from before we were saved. Let us be sure of the forgiveness that has been given us. Let us be subordinate to God’s discipline and let us walk with the Lord. Let us face the antichrists that rise amongst us, get them out of our churches especially out of ministry from which they are disqualified and finally let us continue in God’s word.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 74. NOV 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Msindisi KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
Well, please excuse us for writing this newsletter not long after the last one was written. This is because we are taking the opportunity to access time and power where as all next week and possibly the week after we will be too busy to write one. So here we go. The first thing we would like to praise the Lord for is that Phumulani has passed his driving test. This has brought him much joy and gives him enough qualifications to be an apprentice mechanic if that is what the Lord wants for him to do and is the direction that he wants to pursue in the future. He is so very happy about this and it has been a hard slog to get to this point. He has been so very busy once again in the last couple of weeks tearing down one room of his hut and re-roofing his bedroom. Salvi and he have started preaching in an area called KwamaBokkie which lies between Eastmine and Alpha. Yesterday we had Olaf and Charnel visit us after they attended the Baptist Church service in Vryheid where a 17 year old zealous young man got baptized. Thank the Lord for this report. The last month has seen battles with the congregation members’ lives and the bible study. After Mr Khumalo got baptized his wife suddenly decided to start going back to the old church. The problem with this is that they look after an old blind gentleman who needs someone to be at home. So for two Sundays Mr Khumalo was stuck at home unable to attend the church meeting. Last Sunday, also, Jabulani had all his chickens stolen in the morning and had to go to the police. Thus, this Thursday, Salvi did a teaching with them concerning the trials of the faith – Satan’s purpose in them and God’s. This Sunday they were both able to attend and Mr Khumalo shared with Salvi that he is so glad he is saved and has had joy in his heart. One of the lady’s in the bible study group had a little debate with bible teachers at an end time’s seminar where the teachers apparently were saying that we are not waiting to be glorified, we are already glorified. She asked questions, including, ‘what about carrying our cross.’ Apparently the bible teacher said that people are putting too much emphasis on the cross which rang huge alarm bells for her. The blessing was that she felt empowered only by using the word of God and that is a blessing for us to hear.
Salvi has started preaching the gospel in a brand new area in Ngenitsheni and the hearers are looking forward to our return next week. With the bible study Salvi has just completed looking at the Olivet discourse from the perspective that Jesus was addressing His disciples as Jewish believers awaiting the return and redemption of the Lord. Di has just finished painting Gogo’s hut a terracotta colour with a black strip at the bottom. The outside toilet still has some teething problems with plumbing but the glass is in and the door is almost put on. We thank the Lord for His supplying of this for the Kraal we live in. Di’s Zulu has suffered in the past number of weeks. For her it is like the never ending story but she has come a long way since we moved into the area that it is easy to forget the progress when it has seemed to come at a snail’s pace.
This coming month we are expecting visitors next week from Truth Ministries in Johannesburg. Shaun and Tony have visited us before and are such an encouragement to us. Phumulani loved their visit as the always made him laugh. In December we hope that Mujuru and Abel from Elijah ministries, Johannesburg will be visiting us for a few days. They are lovely brothers in the Lord who have come out of error and are well established in the truth. The Lord has used Mujuru in the lives of some people to pluck them out of the fire also. Next week we will also visit our friends Olaf and Charnel in Piet Retief and seek to encourage them. Just before we reach them we will do our last Care Bear Pre-school assembly for the year. We had to pop in today and it was a joy to hear the children singing ‘hallelujah hosanna’ which we have sang with them on every visit.
We just want to thank you all for your prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry here. All glory to the Lord for His salvation and grace in and through us.
1 JOHN PART 2
CHAPTER 2:1-11
The Preservation of the truth.
Last time we looked at 1 John, you will remember that John was written against a backdrop of Gnosticism. Gnostics believed that everything physical was inherently evil. They would either despise all physical pleasure or believe that you could do what ever you please because, although the physical realm was evil, it was your spirit that would be saved and your spirit cannot be tainted by the physical. Because of this ‘doctrine’ the Jesus that these Gnostics believed in was different too. Because the physical was totally evil, Jesus could not have been fully God and fully man. He either had to have been fully God, who only appeared to be a man, which doctrine was called ‘docetism’; or He was only a man who received ‘the christ spirit’ at His baptism. Thus he was a lesser God. These Gnostics did not build their theology on the writings of the apostles but they boasted a more direct line to God through initiation rites into secret levels of knowledge. They took their stand on visions and dreams. The scripture is pro visions and we should never despise visions or prophesy. If we do we grieve the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, we are never to take our stand on someone’s vision or dream. The only visions we can take our stand on are those which are recorded in the scriptures. If a vision is from God it will never contradict the plain meaning of scripture. Even with something strange that God may command someone to do, God will never contradict his own character. When God commanded Hosea to marry the woman of harlotry, it was the woman who committed harlotry and never Hosea. God can never be tempted by evil nor does He tempt any one to commit evil.
Last time we also saw that John is like the protective father who loves his children and would be cut up over the down fall of his children. He speaks out of love but John’s love is a tough love. This is why John seemed so harsh against Gnostics like Cerinthus. They were teaching it was good and perfectly acceptable to sin, because it does not affect your salvation. John replies that they cannot hold onto this teaching and the teaching of the bible. We cannot follow Christ and follow sin. But John is also gracious and acknowledges our fallen state. He knows we stumble and when we do he says we have an advocate with the father, someone to plead our case. But we have no case, we are just plain guilty. That is right but Jesus has a case, He is our propitiation. This says John who saw Jesus in the flesh and spent time with Him. Note when John claims apostolic authority in the first chapter, he does not claim it individually. (1 John 1: 4 – 5), but he acknowledges that there is a body of apostolic authority. He is not saying, ‘I have a Word from the Lord’. He says ‘We collectively have received it’. But the Gnostics had the secret knowledge, that is above the likes of you or me, so how can we know who is right? And this is what the next chapter is dealing with.
Read chapter 2.
Notice how often the word ‘know’ is mentioned in this chapter. If I have counted right it is contained in this chapter 12 times. You see the Gnostics claimed they had ‘the knowledge’ but John tells us, ‘no they do not… this is how you know’. It is not through initiation rites or by visions and dreams. 1 John 2: 3 is very practical. How can we be sure that we know God? We know that we know Him when we obey Him. Is that meaning that we obey His visions and His personal words or to obey His commandments? We know that we know Him when we obey his commandments. And where would we find those commandments? We find them in the bible. It is not superhuman revelation we need. God’s commandments are not like quantum physics or mechanics. We do not have to bend our minds to get round this. Just take heed to what Jesus says in his word and do it. Commandments are to do with Law. We follow the Law of God and this Law is manifested to us through Christ. John is saying this, ‘This is the test of knowing God and this is what eternal life is about. It is not how many revelations, visions, prophesies, tongues or miracles you have seen or done, it is about obedience’. You see the Gnostics regarded the main problem as being ignorance and without the special revealed knowledge, mankind could not be saved. People today may argue the same. ‘Well the scripture does say in Hebrews 3: 19, ‘So they were not able to enter because of unbelief.’ Maybe ignorance is the problem’. But the bible does not teach us that unbelief is due to ignorance, but rather unbelief is due to our rebellious nature that does not want God to be in control. Instead our unbelief is due to our pride and this pride is very apparent in the boasts of the Gnostics. Hippolytus writes of a guy called Marcus who boasted that the Tetrad, (a god type being – which some would call mother earth, or the Holy Spirit or Sophia – think of the angel wisdom) would visit him in female form, because the world could not bear the male form of this Tetrad. This is what they would claim. “I know something that no one else does”. But John tells us the opposite. To know God is not to have knowledge that no one else has but to be obedient to the commandments that Jesus tells all believers in the context of the scriptures that they are found in.
Now as John does in other places in this epistle, so in this chapter he compares things with their opposite. Light with darkness, error with truth, and he does not give any grey area. In 1 John 2: 4 he says that the person who says, ‘I have come to know Him’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar. John is quite blunt. He does not say; ‘well they might only be deceived’ or that they are misguided. The truth is not in him. Now firstly, in light of what we have already seen this is a doctrinal, teaching issue because these people were not giving their hearers the truth of scripture but a false gospel. So they were liars in the fact that they were teaching error. But let us apply this to other scriptures, especially in terms of evangelism. We will see this later with the letter 1 John but for now let us look at Romans 10: 9. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” When we use this scripture to share the gospel with people we must remember that it is a two point scripture. A verbal confession without real faith equals a lie. This is what John is hitting at. The belief has to be in the heart and the confession in the mouth. What happens when we meet people who say “Yes, Jesus is Lord, I know Jesus”? Does that mean that they are saved? I do not mean we are to doubt everyone’s salvation but what it is to say is that John does not regard confession alone to be an indicator of whether someone has the truth. It is the life that goes with the confession. We must also listen to the whole teaching that is to be consistent with the profession but we will look at that later on. John continues 1 John 2: 5. It is another contrast. It is like being at school. You are going to take a test and the tutor is preparing you for it by reading the marking criteria. I do not know what your tutors did, but mine read the criteria for the top grade first and then he would read the criteria for the bottom grade and say that this was what we were not to aim for. But then he would point us back to the top criteria and tell us to aim for that. The higher we would aim the better chance of getting good marks. In a similar same way John gives us the example we should follow and then the example we are not to follow and then gets us back to a good example. And notice that having the love of God is bound up in honouring the word of God. The division that has been made between doctrine and love, as if we can have the love without the right doctrine is a false dichotomy. Whoever keeps the word of Christ, in Him the love of God has been perfected. That is to say that if we do not have regard to the word of Christ we do not have the love of God perfected in us. John shows us that the idea of, ‘we do not need doctrine, we just need love’ is bogus. If you do not honour the word of God then you do not know the love of God and all you have is the love of man, which is not pure. It might not seem as exciting as the revelation that Marcus was getting or as exciting as a vision from one of our contemporary prophets but John shows us that what we need most is what has already been given to us.
In 1 John 2: 7 we see that unlike these false Gnostics who are always getting new revelation, John is saying, ‘I have not come to bring you anything new. What I am writing is what you have had from the beginning.’ John is calling us back to the first things. Just like Jude, he shows us this faith was once for all handed down to the saints. We have arrogance that because we have heard something once, we have heard it and therefore we know it and therefore we need not hear it again. ‘Oh Grandpa, we have heard that story before’. The Jewish people however were the opposite. The same stories were drummed into their brains and even the very fibre of their being year after year and then we wonder at how stories can be preserved through oral tradition without it succumbing to the same fate of Chinese whispers. The reality is that we are forgetful. The fifth book of the bible is called Deuteronomy, which means 2nd law giving. Why does God need to repeat Himself? It is not for his benefit. Yes, in Deuteronomy, it was a new generation of Israelites but also we are prone to forget. In the book of proverbs we keep seeing the repetition of the words, ‘Listen to the instruction of your father, hear my words, do not forsake the teaching of your mother.’ 2 Peter 1: 12 – 15 also highlights this need. No we do not need new revelation knowledge, we need to be faithful to what the Lord has shown us already. But is that not a little stagnant? Are we not supposed to grow in knowledge? Are we not supposed to learn knew things? Any one that says they have arrived at a complete knowledge of the scripture is arrogant and unteacheable. But just because there is no new revelation knowledge to be obtained does not mean that there are not any new personal revelations. A revelation might be new to me but it will not be new in the sense of adding to scripture or as authoritative as the scripture. What is revealed to us is not unique to us but God will have revealed it to others and the scripture will attest to it and this is what John refers to next in 1 John 2: 8. On the one hand, it is not new, it was given at the beginning, it was always there. But on the other hand it is new because we are beginning to understand it more. What does it mean by the darkness is passing away? Does it mean that as you go through new initiations and rituals you will tap into the secret depths of knowledge? No. We must not build doctrines on obscure passages of scripture. To understand this phrase we must look at the rest of the chapter. What is darkness attributed to? 1 John 2: 9 shows us that to hate your brother is to be in darkness, to love your brother is to abide in the Light. In other words when we grow in the love of God towards one another, the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. We will learn new things about what it means to love the brethren as we walk in love. On the one hand it is not new because the commandment has always been with us, but on another hand it is new because we will see it apply to situations that we never perceived before. And does that not happen to us in the Word?
Now what does it mean to love the brethren? Our concept of God’s love is often moulded by our own subjective experiences, so that we might say certain things are unloving. For example, to point out someone’s sin might be termed to be unloving, or to point out wrong doctrine is also called unloving. Sometimes people are right, it is done out of a motive that is not love. But as a preacher said at a wedding in the year 2005, ‘love is not God, God is love’. Love does not define God, God defines love. 2 Peter 1: 7. Peter makes a distinction between brotherly kindness and love, just as there is a difference between faith and moral excellence. Both are essential to the Christian life. We need both brotherly kindness and love but they are not the same. Sometimes love can be tough as we saw in the last session. The Greek word for love is agape, and often it is defined as unconditional love but it can also mean benevolence. This is different to the emotionless connotation we usually attach to the word love, God’s love is emotional but it is not governed by emotion and that is the difference. The noun love comes from the verb ‘agapao’ which means to love (in a social or moral sense). Most times it means to do what is socially or morally best for the person concerned. It is to love in a big sense. It was this love that drove Jesus to the cross. It is not governed by emotions but by God’s will. As Jesus prayed, yet not my will but Yours be done. Yet love must also be sincere and from the heart. Love must be without hypocrisy as we reject what is evil and cling to what is good. And we see this aspect of God’s love demonstrated by what John writes in 1 John 1: 10. The one who walks in love will build up another person in Christ. They will not seek to cause that person to sin or stumble in their faith. It is doing and helping other people to do God’s will. If something will offend someone weaker in faith the one who walks in love would rather go without it. And that goes for issues such as food, drink, clothing, music, all manner of things that might be OK in themselves but which means someone else may stumble in their walk. Look at how Paul deals with it in Romans 14: 1 – 17. You see, I might like classical music for instance, say Gershwin, or Chopin. Now there is nothing wrong with the lyrics to Rhapsody in Blue or to Prelude in C minor, (by the way there are no lyrics to them) but someone might come up to me and say ‘please do not play that in front of me because I used to get high while playing that stuff, I used to shoot cocaine to it and when I hear that music the temptation comes back’. Now what do I do? Do I claim my rights and say, ‘well that is your problem mate!’? No Paul says to accept the one who is weak in faith, not for the purpose of passing judgment. There are some issues in scripture that are issues of personal conscience and we are to learn to accept each others’ restrictions without feeling superior over them. But if I stop listening to my Gershwin am I not communicating to that person that I also believe that music is bad? That is why Romans 1: 16 says ‘Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken evil of’. When they sin because of that it brings reproach on the act that you have the liberty to do without sinning. At the same time, it is better to go without these things than to ruin someone else’s salvation because these things do not really matter in the long run.
But there is another application to not being a cause for stumbling and you can only see this from the comparison John makes. John compares the one in the light, in whom there is no cause for stumbling, to the person who hates his brother, in the darkness, and cannot see where he is going. In other words the one in the light sees where he is going and can see the pitfalls that are to come. As Jesus said, ‘take the plank out of your own eye first’. He does not then say ‘leave the person in the condition that you saw him’. But He says ‘then you will see clearly how to take the speck out of your brother’s eye’. You will have the wisdom for the situation because you have gone through eye surgery yourself. You know the procedure. You know what is required and how to do it without causing damage to that person in other areas.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 73. OCT 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
This has been a full month for us with much happening. Time seems to have flown since we last wrote. On a personal note we can now say that our hut is completed. Di finished painting the doors over the month just in time as some of the rains have started. We were given a water tank to collect some of the summer rains this is now installed and doing its job. This will make a huge difference we will use this water for the toilets, garden, and clothes washing. Water is very precious when you cannot just turn on a tap. Di is still in the process of finishing painting Gogo hut. This will help keep some of the damp out. Gogo is delighted. There is much activity at the Kraal has Phumulani is also doing work on his hut as it has been leaking badly. We are eating from our veggie garden which is always a pleasure to go out and pick from whatever you need. We also have a small herb garden that is full of basil, rock, parsley, coriander.
This month we have had a lot of truck troubles, the stabilizing bar snapped in half and also the bearings have gone. The carburetor also needs replacing. We work the truck like a pack horse as it is needed everyday for the work. Due to these few hick ups sadly we have had to postpone a few visits to evangelize in the Ngenitsheni area. Friends have been so good in helping us out, lending us their car and a couple of Christian businesses in Vryheid whose owners attend the Baptist Church have also done work on the truck at short notice. Many many thanks. On a Sunday we often have up to 16 people in the truck taking them to church. Last week was a particularly special time. As we arrived to pick everyone up, Mr. Khumalo (an older gentleman who has been coming to church with Jabulani) approached Sal and explained that he was unable to attend this week. He then went on to say that he really wanted to leave all the old stuff behind and follow the Lord. Sal said that was wonderful and asked when he decided to follow the Lord. He said “today”. Sal then asked “Would you like to pray now?” To which he replied “yes”. They both dropped to their knees there and then and prayed. These are very precious moments in the work as the path is narrow and few are traveling on it. We give all Glory and Honour to God for his gracious leading of Mr. Khumalo into His eternal Kingdom. Just yesterday he came over with Jabulani for his baptism even though it was a cold day here in KwaZulu in the same place that Jabulani was baptized. Jabulani was grinning from ear to ear. Sunday had taken him by surprise because Mr. Khumalo had said nothing to him about his decision to follow the Lord. Another wonderful time was had. As we left he said to Sal “I left the old man back there.” They both do some small scale farming and sell vegetables to the local community. Mr. Khumalo has even tried to plant Pineapples and is seeing how it goes. They are hard workers who work with what they have.
We have the pleasure of having 2 families from the Baptist church coming over for lunch on Saturday. We have made some great friendships. One of ladies runs a pre-school for Zulu kids in town (Vryheid) called Care Bear. She asked if we would come and share with the kids one morning which we were very happy to. This has turned into a regularly monthly time of singing and sharing the gospel.
The Louwsburg bible study is still going well. Sal is now going through last day teaching. Over the last few weeks we went through the different interpretations on when the rapture maybe. This was helpful for many. Several are now looking at the different possible options and realizing that whenever the time we must be ready. We are never promised that we will not have persecution and suffering just because we are Gods children. It gives you a much deeper concern to pray for all presucted Christians out there who are suffering for Christs name today. It is essential that what ever our view of the rapture, we are committed to following the Lord, whatever suffering or persecution awaits us and to long and hope for our Lord to return and grant us our new bodies. The nearer we get the more we should long for Jesus’ coming and make the most of the time we have left to share the Gospel.
Kim, one of the ladies who attend the Louwsburg bible study, asked if we would give a message to a women’s group in Louwsburg in the month. This is group which is set up for older woman and younger woman to come together on a Monday and share craft ideas. However, just before we were to go, Kim’s farm had been set alight by a kid, playing with matches, and the veldt fire took off being aided by a strong wind. We tried to help but it was pointless until the local forestry guys and a couple of farmers came to help before which we left for the ladies group. We were late but the group was very open to hearing the gospel and asked Sal many pertinent questions about their culture and the bible. Some of their craft work is just beautiful. In the future Di will be sharing with the group how to knit the little jumpers that the Aussie ladies send over for the kids.
The month sadly saw the moving of an Afrikaans couple who lived across the road from us. They had been staying in the home for 10years. However when the land was sold to the government, a few years back, it was given to a small community. Gogo tried hard to keep them their but the family are scared of certain community members turning to violence and harming their children. We helped them to move their stuff over two days. Salvi was able also to witness to them of his faith.
Evangelism continues in the other areas. On Sunday afternoons Phumulani and Salvi have finished the area called Esihlengeni and are starting to do the area between Eastmine and Alpha mine. While they were finishing the area around Esihlengeni they managed to witness to a guy called Muzi. Muzi has quitted the ancestral and witchcraft. He says he only prays to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However he is still in the Zionist church and is torn between that and the Shembites who believe Shembe was the black messiah. He said he was a Zionist in his mother’s womb and insinuated that he cannot change. Salvi said, “You are 100% correct. You were born a Zionist, you need to be born again.” Please pray for him. The guys gave him a bible and he promised to read it every day. Salvi has almost finished the Eastmine area. It will be completed in a month or two. To make more progress in Eastmine, Salvi has stopped doing the gospel study at the KwaNyandeni Kraal and will invite them to church instead.
Salvi has completed his Greek assignment and is now studying the next Greek module. He has also been training on a Friday evening with Arsenal Football Club… no, not the Premier English team but the local Zulu club who named themselves after that club. The guys are great and have a really good manner. When someone starts to get upset at a fowl or mistake the others say, “Calm down, calm down” in a Zulu-liverpool accent. Unfortunately Phumulani hasn’t been able to write a report for the church for this month’s newsletter. Time is unfortunately against us.
We just want to thank you all for your prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry here. All glory to the Lord for His salvation and grace in and through us.
Salvi and Di.
1 JOHN PART 1
CHAPTER 1
The Preservation of the truth.
I believe that certain epistles in the New Testament are placed in their order for a reason. The letter to the Romans comes first, and I believe that is the case because it is a letter that expounds the Gospel, full of foundational truth. Then the letter of Corinthians is to do with sanctification, adding to ones faith moral excellence. Then the letter to the Galatians speaks of the threat of the Judaisers in perverting the gospel; adding to ones moral excellence, knowledge. But when we come to 2 Peter onwards every letter is dealing with the problem of false teachers. This is not presented as a side issue or one of many issues in these letters but as a main issue. 3 John is slightly different because the person who John is speaking out against is not so much teaching heresy but is teaching the believers not to be hospitable to other believers. If they did, this person (whom John names as Diotrephes) would put them out of the Church. So in effect John says, ‘Watch out for that guy, when I come I am going to challenge him.’ ‘I will call to mind his deeds which he does.’ Now why are the letters that major on deception put at the end of the bible? Is it because they are the least important?
Jesus said, when the son of man comes, will he even find faith on the earth? That word faith is ‘pistis’, (Lk 18: 8) which not only means trust and persuasion but it also means faithfulness. Are the elect going to keep crying out to the Lord for justice, are they going to stick by Him and trust in Him or are they going to turn to another?
2 Thessalonians 2: 1 – 12. In this Church it seems that there were people who were going around saying that the day of the Lord had already come. Now look at verse 3. Let no one deceive you! Automatically deception is linked to Jesus’ return. We see this in Matthew 24 when the disciples asked Jesus what the sign of His coming would be. The sign that he spoke of most was deception, false christs and false apostles. Now 2 Thessalonians warns of 3 deceptions. One for the present time, one as a setting up for the antichrist and the last as a deception from the Antichrist and false prophet. The first deception is what we read in verse 3. Paul deals with the deception of the timing of Jesus’ return. That is why it is wrong when people say, ‘Jesus is coming back on such and such a day’, ‘the rapture will happen on the 5th of June 1996’, etc. Paul said, ‘Even if the letter looks like it has come from us do ot believe it.’ But the second deception lies also in the same verse and this is called the apostasy. The Greek is ‘Apostasia’, and this means a falling away or a defection from truth. It is the feminine for of the neutral, ‘apostasion’ meaning divorce. Because when we separate from Truth we are separating from Jesus.
But why is this connected with the end times? Because look at the last deception in verse nine and onwards. The last deception is to do with signs and lying wonders. When people speak against the anti-christ many will rebuke them and say “How dare you speak against God’s anointed, who had a fatal wound that was healed. How can the devil heal a fatal wound?” “How can you say this prophet is of the devil? This great prophet caused fire to come down from heaven, just like Elijah. Would you saying Elijah was of the Devil too?” The man of lawlessness is preceded by the spirit of lawlessness. His deception is preceded by a deception within the church. There would be no way that churches would accept the anti-christ if they were not conditioned to accept him in the first place. And what is the antidote to this spiritual sickness? How do we protect ourselves from the delusion that God is going to send? Verse 10 shows that we need to receive the love of the truth to be saved. I like how Paul writes it because he uses the word receive. Because naturally we do not love the truth, at least in the way God expects, therefore the love of the truth has to be a gift given from God. Do we truly pray, ‘Father, please give me a love for the truth’, and start to soak in the Word of God or are we going to go through the motions of church attendance and ‘going with the flow’ of universal Christianity. 2 Peter says these false teachers secretly bring in destructive heresies. They do not say “this is heresy”. Rather they say they have received new revelation from the Lord. And this is what John is writing into.
Paul writes that we should share the truth in love and John is a very good embodiment of this. He talks more about love in this epistle than any other epistle in the New Testament. But John’s love is not a ‘namby, pamby’ love that is scared of offending people. His love is a love of protecting his children. He is like the father who is protecting his daughter from the lad who is notorious for knocking up young ladies. It does not seem loving to the guy or the daughter but it is full of love for the purity of his daughter and the protection of having her heart broken. John tells us the reasons he has for writing this letter in different verses. I will pick out three of them for this introduction. Firstly in 1 John 1: 3 he states that the apostles declare their message so that his readership can have fellowship with them and with God. Secondly in 1 John 2: 26 John says he has written these things concerning those who are trying to seduce them and thirdly, in 1 John 5: 13 he has written to them that they may believe in the name of the Son of God and that they may know that they have life. You see these Christians had had contact and had been disturbed by Gnostic Christians. Gnosticism was a stream of Christianity that started to developed during the time of the apostles but became more systemised by various groups after the apostles died out. It’s foundation was based in platonic ideas. Plato who lived about 400 years before Christ believed that anything physical was a pale shadow of the spiritual reality and was inferior to it. He also taught that there was something of the divine in everybody’s soul. This developed into the idea that everything physical was evil and everything spiritual (i.e non physical was good). Those influenced by Plato, such as Philo the Alexandrian Jew, would often treat the bible’s history, esp Genesis, as merely containing symbols of higher spiritual truths. He found the historical context unimportant and possibly viewed Genesis as mythical. Even Christian bible interpreters coming after Philo, such as Clement of Alexandria and to a lesser degree, Origen, (both of which lived after the apostolic era, regarded the literal, historical sense of scripture as inferior. What really mattered was the higher spiritual truth. So they were heavily allegorical in their handling of scripture.
During the time of the apostles these platonic ideas, that everything physical was evil, started infiltrating the Church. This started to conflict with the teaching of the apostles at various points. Firstly the view of the resurrection was rejected because a physical resurrection would be something evil, so this was spiritualised. The physical return of Christ was spiritualised. Towards 100AD these ideas began to develop more and after 100 AD more complex Gnostic theologies emerged. Working from these platonic presuppositions and changing scripture to fit in with them it was argued that God was spirit and was good. But because everything physical is evil, it was reasoned that a good spiritual God could not have created the cosmos. Therefore the teaching was asserted that many emanations (deities) flowed from the Divine and the further these emanations were removed from the source the less good. Thus a lesser deity, who was far from the Divine source created the heavens and earth. He was seen to be the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Jews. Only, when man fell it was not because he sinned against God but because he was tricked by the Jewish God into believe that He was the only true God. Thus man lost his knowledge of the Divine source.
The true spiritual divine God therefore sent Jesus to free people from that evil God of the Jews and to restore the lost and hidden ‘knowledge’ hence we have Gnosticism. This ‘knowledge’ was seen as the ticket to salvation and was attained by different levels of knowledge into which certain Christians were initiated. All other Christians were seen by the Gnostics to be on an inferior level. The Christians who had not yet received this revelation knowledge were carnal and the Gnostics were spiritual. These Gnostics were attaining to higher levels of secret knowledge, through their visions and experiences with ‘wisdom’. After ascended through the various levels of secret knowledge, one came to the revelation of knowledge that had been lost through the fall that man also has the spark of the divine within him. Man is God. More could be said about Gnosticism but this is enough information to help us understand the situation John was writing into. These Gnostic Christians were coming into these churches and upsetting the faith of Christians whose faith was not informed by dreams and visions but only by Apostolic teaching, such as we find in scripture. For them, revelation knowledge was apprehended by all Christians and not only those who had a certain experience. The claims of the Gnostics, who would claim to see Jesus, or ‘Sophia’ (the angel wisdom) were unsettling them.
We see that on our own day there are types of Gnostic teaching. Some claim that the Bible is OK but they have a more direct line to God. “Yes you have the Bible but Jesus appeared to me and told me.” “You have head knowledge, but we have the revelation knowledge.” Gnostics in the early church believed that Jesus was either the Christ who appeared to be a man, but was not or he was a man who received the Christ spirit and became Christ at his baptism. This is the same spirit of the statement by Kenneth Copeland who stated that if he had the same knowledge as Jesus He could have died on the cross for our sins. The heart of it is to bring Jesus down to our level and to raise us to God’s. One such person of John’s day was a guy called Cerinthus and it is documented in Eusebius’ history of the church that John went to have a bath in the public bath at Ephesus, recognising Cerinthus being inside, rushed out shouting “Let us get out of here, even let the bath house come down because Cerinthus, the enemy of truth is inside it.”
1 John 1: 1-4
With these first four verses I want us to gain 2 perspectives; a negative one and a positive one. Firstly, from the introduction we have looked at can you see what John is driving at? You see these Gnostics were saying, “Jesus told me this. I have divine revelation.” If a Christian said, but “the bible teaches the opposite” then that person would have been looked at as one who is not initiated. ‘You have not received that special experience, you have not gone through the right rituals and so obviously you are ignorant, unenlightened and you cannot understand the bible in the way that we can.’ What John is saying in effect is this. ‘Oh these people have seen Jesus in a vision have they? I have seen Jesus too, except the Jesus that I saw was not in some vision that could be argued to be a figment of my imagination. This Jesus I touched with my hands and saw with my eyes. I lived with Him, ate with Him. He was not an esoteric word. I did not get a word from the Lord. The Word became a man and lived among us. We were his friends. And this Jesus is saying something different to your Jesus, so which is the real Jesus?” The last verse of John’s epistle is “Little Children keep yourselves from idols.” Do you think he is talking about wooden little statues? He does not even mention idolatry once in the letter. No, rather he is hitting against the Gnostic ‘Jesus’ because if we are worshipping a Jesus that contradicts the bible then we are committing idolatry and that is why doctrine is important. Doctrine does not only concern beliefs about someone that can be taken or left. Think about yourself and the things you dislike in other people. Maybe you have a real aversion to lies. You hate lies more than anything and you hate liars. What if someone went around calling you a liar? ‘But it is just a doctrine, is it not? Can you not take it or leave it? Does it really matter?’ God forgives wrong doctrine but he hates wrong doctrine because wrong doctrine is maligning His very character. In fact 1 John 1: 3 says that what they (as the apostles) have heard and seen, they declare to the readers that the readers may have fellowship with the apostles and with God. In other words if we do not hold to the teaching of the apostles as they taught it, if we go against scripture and twist it we are not fellowshipping with the Lord. Fellowship and Biblical unity has to happen through Truth, holding onto the teaching of scripture. And the outcome of this is also joy.
The second perspective I want us to draw from these four verses is a more positive one. You see when John first saw Jesus he saw Him as a man, just like them, but a special man and John hoped that He would be the Messiah. But somewhere down the line came the realisation that this ‘man’ who he ate with, who he hung around, who he leant on the bosom of, was actually there before the creation of the world and that must have been a scary realisation. Look at Revelation 1: 17. This same Jesus who John was close to, intimate with, who John was so familiar with, is the same Jesus in Revelation but when John sees Him, there is no familiarity. Rather John describes Jesus as if He was someone he had never met before and the same Jesus who he rested on at the last supper is the same Jesus before whom he falls down as one dead. Just when you think you know someone! Have you ever had that experience? It is an awesome thought, that someone who you think you know so well turns out to be someone that you barely knew at all. In most cases people feel betrayed, but not John because Jesus was not deceiving them. He was always who he was but they were too dull, and often we are too dull to perceive it. For the Gnostics the Word, the logos, was a concept, a spiritual thing beyond the realm of the physical, experienced by only the privileged few who had a special initiation. But John came to the realisation at some point in his life that this elusive logos was actually so near to them it was unbelievable. This logos was a man who was there for all to see and the only initiation needed was to believe in the one whom God had sent. By believing we may have life in His name and what is eternal life? John 17: 3; eternal life it is to know God.
1 John 1: 5 – 2: 2. Next John explains what the message is that the apostles gave. At the crux of the whole issue is the Truth that God is light and in Him there is no darkness. There is white, there is black but there is no grey. God deals in truth, the devil deals in lies mixed with the truth. I knew of one church where the pastor forbade new Christians to read any book other than the bible. I would not say something like that should be imposed but I can see the sense of it. God is light and in Him there is no darkness. You see light is connected with Truth and darkness is connected with non truth or lies. John makes a distinction between the two, he makes a sharp contrast. We either walk in darkness or we walk in light. We must decide which way we are going to travel in. If we are going to walk in the grey area then we are deciding to walk in darkness because in God there is no darkness. I know we are human, I know we fall. Even John acknowledges this in verse 9 but we must make a conscious commitment to walk in light. Light is painful and revolutionary. Why is light painful? Because it exposes your sin and your shame and brings your muck and filth out into the open for God to see. I have to face up to my shame. John 3: 19 – 21. Why is light revolutionary? Because the world is in darkness and light is in stark contrast to darkness. Therefore we are different to the world. The world pretends that it is good but we own up, with hands raised that we are guilty as charged and need the grace of God.
In this passage John gives us two types of lies and because of this we can say there are two aspects of Truth. Firstly John states in verse 6 that if we confess we have fellowship with God but are living a life that is not consistent with that profession we are lying and we do not practice the truth. Your profession may be biblical but it is only truth if the practice of ones life is informed by the truth. We are not saying if someone falls and sins, they forfeit their salvation. What it is to say is that if you sin, do not go on sinning. Walking is not a one off action but is a course of life. We cannot walk down a path of sin and say that we have the truth. Our profession may be theologically correct but we are still lying. Secondly Truth has to be theologically or biblically correct. It has to accord with the scriptures. Verse 8 says that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Doctrine is not just words that people spout out. What we confess and teach must be in line with scripture. But we are so fallen and after hearing this we may feel that there is no hope for us. We may think, ‘I have a problem with sin, maybe the truth is not in me’. Take courage and lift your head up. John does not want to bring his readers under a weight of guilt without lifting a finger to help. John knows what we are like, he knows that we kick ourselves for stupid sins that should never have been committed. He was a son of thunder himself and wanted to see whole cities wiped out. He was selfishly ambitious, seeking for place and position in Jesus’ kingdom, but he says in verse 9 if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Why do we need to confess? Because God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. To confess our sins means to be vulnerable. To open up about our sins to God is to tell him things about ourselves that He finds so hideous that He must punish it. To open up to God about your sin is to say to Him, ‘Lord, You deserve to squash me. I only deserve condemnation and judgement.’ To open up to God means to allow ourselves to be broken. So why would we even do such a thing? Because of the promise God gives us. If we can just stay in the light; if we can open up and allow ourselves to be broken; if we would put ourselves in that place that God would be able to squash us; if we would do all that, He will not squash us. Instead He forgives us. Why? Because we are so special? No, but because God is love and though he is angry with the wicked everyday, He never delights in the death of the wicked. Because God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. But it does not stop with forgiveness. The blood of Jesus cleanses from all unrighteousness. We must not only seek for forgiveness from God. Many people, including ourselves at times, love the first part of this verse but not the second part. People want the forgiveness because it delivers from hell and the judgement of sin. People want that but they do not want to be cleansed. Why? Because being cleansed means letting go of sins that we would rather hold on to, that bring us some sort of temporal pleasure, or because it excuses our weaknesses so that we do not have to do anything about it. But the verse does not say that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from some unrighteousness but from all unrighteousness. Forgiveness and cleansing are part of the same package. We must not think that we can take one without taking the other. They come together.
Why does John seem so harsh? Why does he come across as so strong on them? There are a couple of reasons. Firstly, the Gnostics with their special revelation knowledge which came ‘directly from God’ believed that everything physical was inherently evil and so God being good couldn’t be connected to the physical. This was the whole thing of the Secret bible series on National Geographic. The Gospel of Judas is one such Gnostic work because it says that Judas was actually doing Jesus a favour when he betrayed him because Jesus was trapped by his physical body. Judas was the enlightened one who understood what Jesus was getting at and so delivered Jesus to death in order that Jesus be freed from his physical body and be released into a spiritual being. So why was John so harsh? Because these people who believed everything physical was evil were split into two groups. The one group is what Paul hit against with the Colossians, people who despised any sort of physical pleasure. They did long fasts, denigrated marriage as something unholy, they would saying drinking alcohol was a sin. Etc. But the other camp was of people that taught the flesh is evil but it will perish anyway. It is the spirit that gets saved and the spirit cannot be tainted by evil. Therefore I can do whatever I want in my body because it is my spirit that will be saved. And let us not be under a false impression. It is not like these people were malicious people. People who hold that teaching today can be some very kind and nice people that help others. It is just that they believe it is alright to sleep around, it is alright to get drunk, it is alright to give in to the flesh because it does not affect your salvation. But as Paul says in Romans 12, what we do in our body is spiritual. It is worship.
The second reason that John is harsh is love. 1 John 2: 1 shows that he regards them as if they were his own little children, who he wanted to protect and see them flourish. He did not want to see them sin. He knows they will sin and when they do he assures them that God is not going to cast them out into the street. If they sin, they still have an advocate who took their punishment for sin, who satisfied God’s anger. And he shows them how big Christ’s sacrifice is. It covers the whole world. Some people say that where it says that Jesus was the propitiation for the whole world that it is not referring to those that are not saved but only Christians. This does not make sense of the text. But John says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sin. If ‘our’ refers to all believers because of its context of salvation, then the word ‘our’ must refer to all believers past, present and future too. So if the word ‘our’ means all believers, then to what is John referring to when he says, ‘not for our sins only but also for the whole world’? Jesus’ atonement is not limited by God’s decree but by human rejection of it. Jesus wept over Jerusalem that stoned the prophets and rejected him in Matthew 23: 37 and said, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” The provision has been made on the cross. The satisfaction that was rendered on the cross was sufficient to save everyone in the whole world but the reality is that not all will come. And in the case of 1 John, even among those who come into the churches there are those who do not truly come but pretend to. They continue to live by the philosophies of the world and combine them with verses of the bible, mixing truth with error.
John is hitting against this Gnostic anti-nomianism. This has everything to do with the last days because anti-nomianism means lawlessness and that is what the anti-christ is. He is the man of lawlessness. In other words, “Do whatever you want, whatever floats your boat, and it does not matter because we will all still get into heaven. It does not matter what you believe or what you do because God is love and He will forgive you anyway. There is only one God and we all believe in Jesus do we not? Even the Hindus and Moslems believe in Jesus. Who are you to tell anyone else what to do? You are too narrow minded?” “We know God wants this because the pastor got a vision.” “Who am I to question him because he is closer to God? God speaks to Him in a special way.” When someone says ‘but Jesus told me, I saw Him in a vision and He told me so you have to believe it’ and contradicts the Jesus of the Bible, we can say to them, but I know of someone who touched Jesus and saw Jesus in real life, not in a vision and his Jesus contradicts the message of your Jesus. Which Jesus should I believe?
Paul writes to the Thessalonians that God sends a delusion on those who do not receive the love of the Truth so as to be saved. John shows us that Truth not only consists of right profession but of our life informed by that right profession. Yet Truth does not exist in wrong profession. We cannot accept this message of cheap grace but if we have fallen, stumbled and are not right God is ready to forgive and cleanse us if we own up and turn away from that sin, because Jesus took our punishment. Do not let someone stumble you in your faith because they claim you have head knowledge and they have revelation knowledge. Walk according to the word, the word stands authoritatively above all believers, pastors and so called ‘spiritual brethren’.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 72. SEP 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
We thank God for another month of His faithfulness and guidance. Shortly after writing the last newsletter we visited the ladies group in Louwsburg. Salvi took his guitar and after we all sang hymns we challenged them with a message asking them to test if they are really saved. This dealt with aspects of true conversion and living a true Christian life. The issue of baptism came up and a couple of ladies were adamant that infant baptism was valid. The ladies are mostly members of the local Dutch Reformed Church. The main lady who runs the ladies group was challenged to examine the scriptures to see if these things are so. She answered by saying that she reads the words of a certain pastor and that the bible is too difficult to read by itself! Salvi welcomed her to put aside the pastor’s words to read it straight from the scripture and then to bring any questions she had to us so we can talk further. Speaking of baptism, we are really pleased that Jabulani got baptized last Thursday in obedience to the teachings he has been receiving. Salvi has been going through the foundations of Hebrews 6, looking at their significance from the OT in pointing to Christ and the experience of the new birth. Jabulani testified forcefully that Jesus is now the Lord of his whole life. It was a wonderful experience for Salvi as it was the same river where Phumulani was baptized.
We continue as ever to saturate the local areas with the Gospel. Phumulani and Salvi have almost completed preaching to all the Kraals at Esihlengeni. We want to visit one lady there who said that she have her life to the Lord years ago at a tent crusade. Salvi has ventured into new territory at Alpha and will finish East mine within a couple of months. In Ngentisheni another section is almost completed too and for the last couple of weeks Di and Khetiwe have shared with groups of children numbering around 20 – 24 while Salvi preaches. Salvi has been continuing to hit against the practices concerning ancestral spirits, knowing that it is such a bind for the people in these areas.
This month Salvi and Phumulani attended the funeral of one of Phumulani’s relatives. For those who visited the mission when Caleb and Sophie were running it, it was the mother of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The people, including the community leader asked Salvi to share the word with them but Phumulani had something that was already on his heart to share. Without causing a scene, Salvi asked that Phumulani be allowed to share as he had his bible and had prepared something and Salvi agreed to do the prayers – he ended doing the last rites which he used to share that those who truly follow Christ will be resurrected to everlasting bliss and those who did not will be resurrected to everlasting judgment. There are many funerals in and around these areas and such a time is so crucial because it is a reminder of the reality and severity of death and the importance of being ready to meet our maker. Only Jesus can make us ready.
We are continuing meeting with the Louwsburg Bible Fellowship on Tuesday nights. It is great to see that the Lord is working in their lives. We meet from house to house, have a meal together, have communion, sing, have open sharing and have a teaching from the word. Our fellowship is really deepening and we are seeing some fruit as we all are encouraged to keep picking up our crosses. Salvi is teaching through 1 Corinthians. After this Phumulani is going to give a message before we look into end times teaching. Please pray for Phumulani as English is not his first language and that is the medium he will have to teach in. We trust this will lead onto other opportunities for him to teach in the group. Last week an old friend of Salvi’s from the area, called Veli, attended. He wants to continue attending.
On Wednesdays (our shopping and doing day in Vryheid) we are having the privilege of attending a prayer meeting at Bethany Baptist Church. They are a church whose members listen to bible teachers such as Dave Hunt, and Bill Randles, and maintain a strong stance against error while at the same time being involved in a local mission and fellowship. We have been attending the Wednesday nights for the last month and have been very encouraged. One such day we asked for prayer after visiting home affairs. Di needs to have her visa renewed and so we went to enquire what she needed to have prepared before she applies for the visa extension. The lady behind the desk was very helpful and pulled up Di’s details on the computer. But then she exclaimed that she could not help us as someone had typed in the data base that Di was born in 1801 and her visa expired that year also. Aside from Di feeling very flattered that she could look so good at the age of 209, she asked if the lady could change these details. Unfortunately the Vryheid office could not change them. We had to go back to Johannesburg Airport where they had made the mistake upon our arrival back into the country. When we asked at the prayer meeting, one lady told us that her sister is high up in home affairs and she would ask her and get back to us on Friday. When she called she explained that her sister had been in meeting that day and the day before with the general of immigration and he agreed to have our details changed in his office in Durban. We have to do nothing!
The last 2 days were hectic as we were having our hut plastered before the rains arrive. The men worked so hard, starting at 7.30am and finishing 7.30pm working by headlamps. They couldn’t do all of it as two windows and the blocks on the roof were left unfinished, which Phumulani and us did yesterday after Church. Now our place looks like a real Zulu hut but we will destroy that appearance by painting over it with some paint given to us over a year ago. Phumulani continues teaching in Church and he is working through the letter to the Hebrews. We are praying that the Lord will really stir the congregation into deeper fellowship/participation in the meetings. We have asked Phumulani to start contributing a monthly report on the church to be included in our newsletter. Please pray for him as he is trying to apply for other work, and is recently applying to the Police service. May the Lord’s will be done in his life.
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Here is Phumulani:
My name is Phumlani Mthembu at KZN[KWANGADI]. I am the one who got baptized by Caleb and Salvador a few years ago. I am still looking forward to our Lord Jesus as the one who saves us from our sins, as He promised His followers that no one can take us from His hand and He gives us eternal life.
I am currently giving God’s sheep food here in my home church but it is not a big group: we are few. But at this time I have my brother, Salvador, and Dianne who are doing missionary work here. They preach in this place which is around us during the week. Then on weekends I go out with Salvador to preach with him as we know that it is God’s desire that all men should be saved and His word has power to save all people who believe in it.
My prayer request is that: May God’s will be done to us as a church and to our missionary brothers.
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It is a very interesting experience ministering in South Africa. Since the end of Apartheid, the services in South Africa have deteriorated, mines have closed, jobs, health care and schooling is suffering. We are seeing the third week of public service striking while 1.3 million public servants are seeking pay increases. There is threat of violent protests, but not where we are. Still we are faced with racial attitudes and tensions with some people blaming Apartheid and the whites for the present problems and then others claiming black people are under a curse, are to be subjugated to the level of slaves and they misuse the bible to back it up. They go so far as to say that black people are stupid, do not know how to build up and can only break down and consume. Such attitudes sadden us and are a denial of the gospel which states that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, no slave or free. Saved blacks will not be the slaves of saved whites in heaven! God’s house will be a house of prayer for all the nations. Neither does the blame shifting all present woes on past wrongs encourage us either. When we see these things we long for Jesus to return and install His righteousness and justice. There will be no corruption in His administration.
Thank you for all your prayers and fellowship in the work. God bless you all.
Salvi and Di
Devotional 13
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TEXT:
James 1 v 5a, 6a & 8:
“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God… in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea…being a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
James is writing to Jewish believers going through trials, being persecuted with the temptation to turn away from the Lord. The trials were from the Lord to strengthen their faith but the temptation came from their own flesh. Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted of the Devil. Sometimes the trial and the temptation can be so inextricably linked that we can get confused by the phrase, ‘God sends these trials to test us.’ We wonder why God leads us into temptation. Such times need wisdom to distinguish God’s purpose and that of the flesh. But such asking for wisdom must be done in faith without doubting. One who doubts is double minded, or more literally ‘double-souled’. They wanted God but they also wanted riches and an easier life. They were spiritual adulteresses seeking to get something out of God to spend on their own pleasures. Wisdom will not compete with such rebellion. When James writes that ‘if we lack wisdom we should ask’, he is not implying that only by asking for it we get it. This is why he qualifies the promise. We must be careful how we ask. James is the New Testament version of Proverbs. In Proverbs 2: 1 – 10 there is also promise of wisdom to the reader but it elaborates that finding wisdom is dependant upon seeking for wisdom with the right attitude. V2: we are to prick up our ears and stretch out our heart for it. V3: We are to be vocal and cry out for it. V4: We must look for it just as people look for silver or hidden treasures. Proverbs 11: 4 states “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death.” In a day when prophets prophecy for gain and ministers treat the ministry as a career ladder, there is no prizing of God’s word as something precious. The ministry is merely a means to an end. Whether it is self aggrandizing, using the pulpit to make a living or to build up our own little empires the value of God’s treasures have been cheapened and thus people request of God as double minded men who should expect nothing from the Lord. Steve Camp wrote a song in the 1980’s called “Playing marbles with diamonds” in which he comments, “There’s a whole lot more than raising lots of money, Building our churches and spreading our fame. Faith is just a dice that you roll to get lucky; we’re even playing marbles with diamonds.” How are we this day? Are we seeking the gift rather than the giver? Is God the means to our end or is He the end? Is God and His treasures of wisdom worth more than all the treasures of this world or do those things rival the Lord and His wisdom? The greater things are those which last for eternity. The greater gifts are those which help build up the church in such a way as those works stand the test of fire. The greatest of these is love because one day we will not need faith or hope but love is forever. Throughout this day may we continue to remember that this world is passing away and the lusts there of. If the Lord does not build the house they labour for nothing who build it. Let us be busy about God’s agenda and not our own, seeking His glory, His fame and the things that last for eternity.
He is a sad man who sells out on his everlasting inheritance,
To gain a bowl of ‘temporal popularity and riches’ stew.
Biblical texts taken from ‘NASB’. SUH
PLAYING MARBLES WITH DIAMONDS. (by Steve Camp)
Waking up to a very different world,
We’ve got mud on our flag before it’s even been unfurled.
Our heroes have fallen and a leader is hard to find,
The clock is ticking out, we’re casting our pearls before swine.
CHORUS 1: There’s a whole lot more than preaching to the choir,
Kneeling at the altar and paying our tithe.
We’re even treating God like He’s happiness for hire,
We’re even playing marbles with diamonds.
Isn’t it a shame how His name gets thrown around.
We pat God on the back like a buddy from out of town.
We thank ‘the man upstairs’ for the things people praise us for.
Oh we give God the glory but we’re happy to take the award.
CHORUS 2: There’s a whole lot more than raising lots of money,
Building our churches and spreading our fame.
Faith is just a dice than you roll to get lucky,
We’re even playing marbles with diamonds.
There are precious things of God and we must guard them with our lives.
Like an unborn baby’s dreams, like a husband loves a wife,
May the hope of His returning, may it purify our faith,
As we hold onto His holy word, may the chaff be blown away.
Can we ever live up to the things that we say we believe.
Cause the world is watching, looking for some honesty.
Have we been riding down a freeway instead of on a narrow road,
We’ve turned a passion for the lost into a business of saving souls.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 71. AUG 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
At the moment we are in Piet Retief, visiting our friends Olaf and Charnel and sharing mutual encouragement of each other’s faith. It has been almost 3 months since we last saw them. They travel a lonely and hard walk. There are no suitable churches it seems that they can be part of in their area. Many are into charismatic teachings and things such as word of faith. We recommended a church that they might be able to check out and we hope that they might get good fellowship there. We have been able to share some encouragement with them from Matthew 24. It speaks of the exhortation to endure to the end throughout whatever persecution or tribulation we may have to go through before the Lord comes for us. It was a lovely time of fellowship and we will be doing part 2 tonight.
In last month’s newsletter we mentioned that Mesuli, a young lad who had asked to be baptized, has since asking, got cold feet. We have followed up with him and he seems to have shrunk back from that decision out of concern of what his father may think. We have left the ball in his court and pray that the Lord will convict him. Whether he gets baptized by one of us or by some other believers the important thing is that he obeys the Lord. During this month we went to see Mesuli, and his school choir, sing at the Natal Youth Choir concert in Vryheid. We were able to take Celani and her children to see the different choirs perform wonderfully. It was a very pleasant event.
For those who don’t know, we have made friends with a guy, called Jabulani, from Alpha. A month ago, Salvi was asked to pray for him. He was too weak. A week later Salvi visited and found out that he was feeling a little better and walking about. Salvi tried to witness to him and speak about ancestral spirits but he didn’t look interested. Salvi said he would bring his bible the following week and speak then. When he came back Jabulani was so open about hearing it and was agreeing with everything Salvi was saying. Then Jabulani shared that he had prayed and God had showed him in a dream that the other pastors were preaching lies. Upon being asked when he got that dream he said it was the day after Salvi last visited. Salvi gave him his bible and then asked about his medication and it seemed like Jabulani has AIDS. When Salvi left him he looked so downcast. 3 weeks passed without seeing Jabulani and when Salvi returned to speak to his family Jabulani turned round to them all and said, ‘There are no Ancestral Spirits!’ To which a girl replied, ‘There are!’ After sharing from the word about the subject Salvi handed out tracts about God delivering us but with a certain young man Salvi decided to give a different tract about where our home is. The man looked puzzled but started reading it. Jabulani asked Salvi to wait for him and everybody left except the young man reading the tract. Salvi felt he should speak with him and the guy was fairly open and of a friendly disposition. During the course of conversation Salvi felt impressed to tell him ‘The Lord knows the pain that is inside you and he can heal your heart.’ He replied by saying that he had a lot of pain in his heart and asked if God can heal his child. He was comforted that God can turn all things round for His glory and was shared about the story of Joni Tada but he needs to repent from his sins, believe that Jesus took his punishment and give his life to the Lord. Salvi does not preach to people about God healing hurts, so it was totally out of character. But Salvi shared that he doesn’t know what is hidden in his heart but God sees it and He used these circumstances to minister to him. Please pray for him, his name is Sibonelo. After speaking to Sibonelo, Jabulani came back and they started speaking about the Lord. Salvi asked him if he had given his life to the Lord. ‘Yebo’ he replied. ‘When?’ Salvi asked. He said the day that Salvi last visited. Jabulani came the following Sunday to church and said that he had shared with the local Zionist preacher that he is teaching lies. The Zionist preacher said, ‘But the ancestors speak to us.’ Jabulani replied, ‘Yes but God tells us not to do it.’ When we picked Jabulani up the Zionist preacher came and asked for the bible references about ancestral spirits. Last Sunday the Zionist preacher came to our church meeting and shared that he has changed his mind about ancestral spirits. We tried to encourage him that he still needs to turn to the Lord to be saved. Salvi has started discipling Jabulani and found out that Jabulani cannot read… That explains why the Lord in His grace gave him the dream! So yesterday Salvi taught him, with his mother and another relative present, about repentance from dead works. Afterwards we started the first literacy class with him and the 2 relatives. AEIOU were covered and we will see if they can remember them next week. We had so much fun as they tried to remember what sounds the letters represented. They looked excited by the prospect of learning to read. Please pray for Jabulani and Mr Khumalo, the Zionist preacher.
Salvi has been given the opportunity to teach this month at church and has been doing a short series on the Songs of Ascents from a prophetic perspective. It has given the opportunity to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom for some who have not been born again. With Salvi’s voice feeling strained this month it has been great for Phumulani to take up some of the slack at Esihlengeni on a Sunday. It is great to see his confidence and boldness in preaching. He can preach quite loud for someone who is so quiet. Phumulani is the humblest man we have ever met. He is not self seeking, does not want to be in the limelight and only wants to follow and serve the Lord. He is a faithful and trustworthy African disciple of Christ who never asks for himself and would rather give than receive. How precious to find people like him in a continent where so many pastors are busy trying to build up their empires and constantly asking for funds to do so. Phumulani works on a farm but would love to find some work in Vryheid, as something like an apprentice mechanic or some other semi skilled position. He has studied and passed up to N4 level of Mechanical studies, 2 levels shy of a diploma. Please pray that the Lord opens this door for him.
We have managed to finish the building of the outside toilet. All that is needed is for the toilet and sink to be installed, windows puttied in and door put on. Di has relegated her clinic runs, if any are to be done, to a Tuesday morning which means that her Zulu classes are not interfered with as much as they have been sometimes. Certain things are starting to click in with speaking Zulu and those times have been very exciting for her but still a long way to go. She has been able to put a fence around her garden, dig it over and add manure. She got Salvi to help with the erection of the fence and such working together in the garden was a good test of ourr marriage. But we just about managed to pass the test. Lol. The rains shouldn’t be too far away and soon Di will be able to plant. Di has been able to visit kids club again for a couple of weeks and help out. In fact last Saturday Celani sprung on her that she was to teach it. Di was able to share the gospel with the kids and give them a visual aid to take home. Khetiwe has continued going with us to share in Ngenitsheni and her sister, Zanele has also been asking to attend. Please pray for Zanele, we feel that she is near the kingdom. But while Salvi has been preaching, Khetiwe and Di have been able to read bible stories for the children and Zanele is getting to hear the gospel preached to her again and again through these occasions.
We would just like to say thank you to all those who faithfully pray for us and share in this ministry. Our hope is that this newsletter should always be an encouragement to you in your lives and Christian walk. May the Lord richly bless you. We have had encouraging feedback from other newsletters and we want to open the invitation that if anyone would like to write with questions or comments to feel free to contact us. It is an encouragement to us to hear from you.
Salvi and Di
LIVING UP TO YOUR NAME
A SHORT STUDY OF PHILEMON
“[Heb. 8034] shem
a primitive word (perhaps rather from 7760 through the idea of definite and conspicuous position; compare 8064); an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality; by implication honor, authority, character:–+ base, (in-)fame(-ous), named(-d), renown, report.”
What is in a name? I have a dictionary called a dictionary of Etymology. Etymology means ‘the study of word origins’. In today’s western culture names no longer carry meaning in everyday life. Names have become merely labels. In Cape Town there is a place called Llandudno. I would think that hardly anyone in Cape Town knows what it means. I used to live in the original Llandudno in North Wales, UK, and through speaking to Welsh speakers I learned that Llandudno means ‘Chapel of St Tudno’. The word Llan means chapel. Tudno was a real person. There is the smallest chapel near there called Llandrillo, which is the chapel of St Trillo. It has six chairs in it and is hundreds of years old. These were real missionaries who pioneered their own work in Wales. In the bible, names are not merely labels to distinguish between places and people. Names are descriptive of characters and events. You just have to read Genesis and the naming of places and children to see the importance of names. Adam named the animals and he named Eve, showing that he had ownership and authority over the animals and had lordship over Eve. Names also gave a sense of identity or character. Just think about Jacob. His name means ‘supplanter’ or ‘deceiver’ because that is the character he exhibited at birth by grasping at his brother’s heel. This was his natural character and this is how he behaved for much of his life. When he wrestled with God he received a new name, a new nature, Israel. Now although this idea of names describing people’s character is common through out scripture we must be careful that we do not think it is so with every single person in the bible. Some bad people had good names. In verse 2 of Philemon, Archippos is named but his name means horse ruler. I do not think we can read much from that one. But it is true that names do indicate something.
Proverbs 22: 1 says, “A good name is to be more desired than great wealth”. This is saying we should desire to have a good name. Now this is more than just our name signifying something good. When people hear our name it should bring good memories with it. It is about our reputation. When someone says the name Salvador Ung Hayworth, it should not carry evil connotations with it. When someone says your name what connotations are carried with it? In fact this is part of the criteria for picking elders in 1 Timothy 3: 7, where it says of the man that he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach.
Philemon is such a book.
Philemon 1: 1 – 25.
When I have read this letter this aspect of names has really stood out to me. This letter was written while Paul was in Rome as a prisoner under house arrest. We can read about that in Acts 28. When Paul had visited Jerusalem the Jews rioted while he was in the temple. The commander, upon learning that Paul was a Roman citizen, sent Paul to Felix for his own protection. Felix kept Paul in prison until he was succeeded by Festus. Festus wanted to try Paul and hand him over to the Jews because he wished to do them a favour. Paul hearing the threat of being sent to Jerusalem used his right as a Roman citizen to appeal to Caesar and thus he was sent to Rome. There he remained under house arrest but was allowed to have visitors. One of these visitors was a run away slave, Onesimus who had run away from Colossae, from his master Philemon. We will look at him later. Paul was living up to his name. Paul introduces himself in this letter as ‘Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus’. The name Paul means ‘little’. This speaks of humility. He did not hold onto his rights but endured all things for the sake of Christ’s name. Paul was not in prison for wrong doing, but he was there because of Jesus. The word prisoner in Greek is the word ‘desmios’ and it means, ‘captive’, or chained. In other words it was not the Romans who he had been made captive by. It was Jesus who he was a prisoner to. What has this to do with living up to your name? Turn to 1 Peter 4: 15 – 16. Paul was identified with the name of Christ Jesus, he was a Christian. And by going to jail because of his preaching of the gospel, he was glorifying God in this name. He was living up to the name of ‘Christian’. Before anything else we must be identified as Christians. That is before occupation, past times, hobbies, abilities, before anything, Christ must be supreme. In Philippians 3:8 – 9 Paul says he regarded all things to be loss for the sake of Christ and counted them as something not fit for humans, but something to be thrown to the dogs. All human acclamation and achievement was refuse, he said it was all dung. Christ was the name he cherished.
Now who were Paul and Timothy writing to? To Philemon, who may have been an elder, as Paul says that he was a fellow worker. Philemon was in the Colossian community of Christians. But we know from verse 2 that he was definitely host to a congregation of believers. Philemon was a man who was doing God’s will in his life. Now the name Philemon means ‘friendly’. His name tells us about his character. In verse 5 we read about Philemon’s character, of his love and of the faith which he had towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the saints. In verse 7 we read that Philemon refreshed the hearts of the saints. He had given the saints rest and ease. He was a soothing balm on sore hearts, he was a comforter, a Good Samaritan, he was a friend… he lived up to his name. Philemon had a good name and he lived by it. He was friendly. Now read 1 Peter 1: 6 – 7. Peter was encouraging born again believers scattered through out various regions who were facing difficult circumstances. These believers had faith, they had an inheritance waiting for them, and they had a living hope. But why did they have to go through these distressing times? Because, as Peter writes, the trial of their faith, more precious than gold refined in the fire, would result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus returned. They had faith, for sure but faith still had to be tested. As Romans 5: 3 – 5 shows, first there is tribulation, then perseverance, then proven character, then hope and hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been shed abroad in our hearts. It is not just enough to claim to have faith, faith must be tested. Through tribulation comes proven character. You do not prove gold in a frying pan, or a bread oven. You must turn the heat much higher. It is easy to love people who love you back. That is no proof of our love. What happens when you are required to love someone that has wronged you? Philemon was not the only one of his disposition. In fact at the beginning of the letter to the Colossians, (1: 4) we read of their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for all the saints. It was a whole community of love. There were a number of other Philemons loving each other and loving other saints of Jesus. But could Philemon extend that love to a criminal that had wronged him?
You see, in this letter we read about one of Philemon’s slaves who had run away from him. Paul seems to imply in verse 18, that Onesimus had wronged him and cost him a great damage. Onesimus ran away. He was like some of us that run away from our problems and seek to start a new life. He did not want to face up to Philemon. So he ran to Rome. And once there, who should Onesimus meet but one of Philemon’s good friends, Paul? Now running away does not seem a big deal to us. We do not think that Philemon would have been that harsh on him, because after all Philemon was a Christian and Christians forgive do they not? But Roman slaves would wear a badge that read, ‘Seize me if I should try to escape and send me back to my master.’ According to John Drane, there were legal penalties for anyone harbouring a slave. Slaves had no rights. Two years prior to this event, according to Dean Farrar, there was an instance in Colossae where a slave had murdered a prefect. In this instance the senate ordered the whole familia of slaves be put to death. Though runaway slaves were not an uncommon phenomenon, the wrath of their masters was not uncommon either. Paul had led Onesimus to faith and now he was in a dilemma. Paul was under obligation of Roman law to return the slave back to his master. But there was a more pressing issue than the obedience to Roman law and that was the salvation of Onesimus’ soul. How does Paul fulfil his obligation while maintaining his love for Onesimus? He gets Onesimus to go back willingly and pleads on behalf of Onesimus. He sends him back to Philemon, (the friendly one, the one who loves and refreshes the hearts of the saints) and tells him that Onesimus is his own heart. (v 12) He says that he would love to have Onesimus with him on behalf of Philemon as that help that Philemon, being too busy, could not be to Paul. But Paul respects Philemon’s position. Paul constantly puts himself at Philemon’s discretion and respects his authority. Paul does not command or compel Philemon to do the right thing? Why is Paul taking this route with Philemon? Why does he leave Philemon with the choice?
John 15: 2. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Now Jesus has made a promise that if we abide, or remain in Him, and He in us, we will bear much fruit. The key to keep from being a fruitless branch is not to strive to bear fruit. It is to remain in Christ and to have His word remain in us and to respond to it. But when we bear fruit, it says that he prunes us so that we may bear more fruit. Why is it when we seem to be doing so well for the Lord and we are in a good place, that God then strips that away from us and we are put into something where we are out of our depth? Why does God not leave it alone? If it is not broken why fix it? It is because God is pruning us, so that we will bear more fruit. Philemon had it good. He walked in love, he served God and he brought rest to the hearts of the saints. Why was Paul now requiring this of Philemon? Why did Philemon have to forgive and love this person who had backstabbed him and ill treated him? It was because God wanted Philemon to bear more fruit. Paul wanted Philemon to do this of his own volition because any obedience done grudgingly would not be of the same quality. Paul wanted Philemon to grow in love and the only way for this to happen was out of a willing heart. He wanted Philemon to live up to his name. In Philemon 1: 20. Paul was basically saying ‘Yes, Philemon, you have brought rest to all these other people, what about me? What about my turn, do you not care about me too?’
God stretches us and brings us to the end of ourselves. We see this with Peter. His name was originally Simon, the hearing one, but Jesus gave him the name Peter, which means a piece of rock, like a boulder. He was supposed to be immovable, steadfast, in the image of the bedrock, Jesus Christ. And what happened when it came to the crunch, after Jesus was captured and taken to Caiaphas? He had protested that he would never forsake or deny Jesus, but when push came to shove, he caved in. He did not live up to his name. What was the answer to this? Jn 21: 15 – 19. Jesus asks him a question 3 times. ‘Do you love me?’ One question was given for every denial. Peter had denied Jesus by the fire in the court and now Peter has to face up to Jesus near the fire that Jesus had made. Jesus does not let him get off Scott free. Yes, Jesus showed decency and respect to Peter, he fed him just like the others but there is no pretence with Jesus. He knows exactly what we are and what we have done. Peter had to face Jesus about it. He asks the first time, “Simon son of John (Jonas)”; you see Jesus does not call him Peter but he calls him Simon. And you have this sense in the text that during this time with Jesus, he is Simon Peter but after being confronted with Jesus he becomes Peter once again. It is stretching it far to apply it to the whole of the post resurrection appearances but this is the way it seems here. And how does Jesus confront him? He puts forth God’s ideal. He says, ‘Simon, son of John, do you ‘agape’ me? Do you love me with God’s love, with a stong unconditional love, no matter what?’ And how does Simon Peter respond? ‘Yes, Lord, You know that I ‘phileo’ you, you know that I am fond of you, I like you.’ What is Jesus’ response to that? Does he say well that is just not good enough is it? No, instead he commissions Simon Peter as a pastor. Again a second time Jesus puts forth God’s ideal, ‘Simon son of Jona, do you ‘agape’ me?’ And again a second time, Peter just does not make the grade. ‘Yes Lord, you know that I am fond of you.’ Peter is honest. He does not pretend like nothing has come between them; he tells it as it is. He did love Jesus, he could not wait to meet him but it was not God’s grade of love that he had. But the third time Jesus asks differently. He says, ‘Simon, son of Jona, do you ‘phileo’ me? Are you fond of me? Do you only like me?’ And this is what gets Peter. You see he is broken over his sin and his failure. He is back to being Peter, he is back at the cross. ‘Yes you know it Lord, you know all things, you know that I am fond of you, that I only like you. I cannot fool you. You know. This is how I am. I am not the macho tough guy that I thought I was, I am not rock solid.’ But look at verse 18. ‘Hey Peter you never were rock solid for me, you did what ever you wanted. You did what pleased you, but look, one day you will get to a place where you will live up to your name, you will be a rock, you will go to your death for me’. And what was it that restored Peter here? It was the grace of God. That is what Jesus showed Peter all the way through and it would be by Christ’s enabling that Peter would be able to live up to his name, live up to his calling.
It is just like Paul wrote to Philemon’s group of Christians in Colossians 1: 9 – 12. In verse 10 Paul prays that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. How is that possible? Verse 12 says that God had qualified them to share in the inheritance. He has made it possible. The answer is in Him. In verse 11 he prays that they would be strengthened with all power, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. He is the one who qualifies. Now how does this relate to Philemon? As far as we can see, Paul was confident of Philemon’s obedience. It was almost like Philemon’s acceptance of Onesimus was in the bag, so to speak. But not even Philemon is so strong to love just as God loves. Paul knew this and this is why I believe that he starts and ends this letter wishing grace on this household. In verse 3 Paul wishes Grace and Peace. Why grace? They needed grace because grace is God’s influence on the human heart. May God influence you and help you to forgive, to let go of the hurt because sometimes we cannot do it ourselves. And why peace? They needed peace because Philemon and Onesimus were not at peace. They were at enmity with each other and Paul was dying to see reconciliation. So much so, that Paul followed the example of Christ and took on himself the price of Onesimus’ crime. Paul said, charge it to my account. But Paul ends the letter in verse 25 wishing grace upon Philemon’s spirit. Though Philemon was being stretched God would enable him to live up to his name. This is not even to mention about Onesimus and the fact that he also was brought to live up to his name.
But for us, we bear the name Christian and the world is watching us. It is easy to bear that name in the good times but God wants to stretch us. Maybe we have blown it like Peter did but God can restore. We can seek his strength and grace to help us. Maybe we are more like Philemon, with a good reputation. God may want to prune us or stretch us so that we will bear more fruit. Let us not think we are self sufficient, but seek His grace to help us to do so and by God’s grace we will.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 70. JUL 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
This month has been a huge blessing for us. It started with the arrival of our friends, Tony and Shaun from truth ministries. The Lord used them to speak to a few friends of ours and Tony was able to share at the Louwsburg bible study about the day of the Lord being near. What has been a bigger blessing is that the Lord has been ministering this to us in very different ways and different places; we are to be walking in readiness for Jesus’ return. The guys also brought clothes and toy diggers to be given out to various families. They helped with practical things around the kraal and came out with us evangelizing. We visited the Kraal that Salvi witnesses to every week. They had been wearing the ancestral bands and the week before, Salvi had dealt with it. With Tony and Shaun there we found a couple of ladies asked more questions about these things. But it is such a bondage over their hearts and minds and the Lord needs to break it. Last week we also had the visit of our friends Allen and his son, Clayton Wells. Allen, with his wife, run Bezaleel which is a foster and adoptive family for 11 AIDS affected children. Clayton has gone to the UK to work and has made a spiritual home for himself with Bridge Lane Christian fellowship. He came over for the world cup and they travelled all the way down to see us for a night. We had such a lovely time of fellowship with them as Allen shared his testimony and all shared from the word. Allen assembled and put up a metal awning for our front door.
The Louwsburg Bible Fellowship is going well. The LORD has knitted our hearts together and we continue to press on by His grace. It is wonderful to see the LORD working practically in people’s lives and relationships. When one brother or sister is down, others are up and so we encourage one another. The members are being ministered to through various ways about being ready for the coming of the LORD and we have been able to give them discernment material about the wrong teaching of things like word of faith. So we have a pro-active stream of teaching and a re-active stream and we trust that makes us well rounded in the LORD. There is something about open testifying that builds each other up. So when we are all sharing in the open time our faith is being built up. As for the actual teaching, we are going through 1 Corinthians and it is amazing how it is speaking into different situations the brethren are facing. God really does guide our study and preparation of these studies.
In the Zulu church, Ibandla Lendlela Eyodwa, Phumulani has just finished going through Ephesians. It has also been a blessing to see more people share in the open time there. With it being the holiday period we have also seen more visitors. One person who regularly attends, Mesuli, has come out with Di, Salvi, and Khetiwe in ministering the gospel in Ngenitsheni. Although he didn’t want to preach out loud, as his voice is weak, he was able to read to the children. Salvi is very happy as Mesuli used to attend the children’s club when Salvi taught it a few years back. And now, after being challenged a few months back about baptism, he has approached us about doing it. So on Sunday we will, God willing, be going to the river to dunk him. During his holiday time (South African schools have been given 5 weeks because of the world cup) Salvi has been going through some end times teaching with Mesuli and Mesuli has really enjoyed it. Phumulani has continued to preach with Salvi in Esihlengeni on Sunday afternoons. They both take turns to preach in different areas and it can be discouraging if no one turns up to hear. It is really good that sometimes people gather to hear when Salvi speaks and others they gather to hear Phumulani. God uses all His people.
This month we were able to finish the building of the outside toilet for Phumulani’s kraal. The floor still needs to be laid and the toilet and basin installed but the structure is up and looks really good. We thank the LORD for this provision that we did not ask anyone for. We thank the LORD for all our provision and meetings needs. Salvi got to lay some of the blocks but the following week Phumulani took over laying the blocks before the building became dangerous.
Salvi has continued to go out 4 times a week preaching. In Alpha one guy was prayed for, with TB and AIDS and the next few days saw a marked improvement in his health though not healing. Salvi has shared with him about the ancestral spirits and he claimed the Lord showed him in a dream that those churches who do those things are teaching lies. One day there, Salvi was going to preach and felt the Lord tell him that he wasn’t to preach. Upon speaking to a guy in the kraal he felt led to go with him to his home. The gentlemen asked what Salvi was going to do over there. Salvi said, he didn’t know, he only knew he had to go with him. On the way they picked up a guy who turned out to be a Roman Catholic, a little disappointed with the Catholic Church because they didn’t teach the bible there. Salvi was able to share that his family on his mother’s side used to be Roman Catholic and explained some of the differences between Catholicism and biblical Christianity. He found out that this Catholic friend was not Zulu but Sotho and had moved here to work and was staying just next door to a biblical Zulu church meeting in that area. Salvi encouraged this man to attend the church and said that the Lord was calling him, bringing him all the way here to get the Gospel. Wonderful!
Salvi is continuing in his studies in Greek at the moment and is about to do an assignment looking at the greek text of Romans 1. He got his mark from Hebrew and it was 80%. Thank the Lord. We have been able to give out all the jumpers that were sent from Australia. Over a few weeks we went to our local areas with them while evangelizing. We also gave a box of new born jumpers to a lady who works at the local hospital, one box to a children’s home and another to our friend who knows an AIDS, TB hospital. One day we also went on a run with our friend Jonny, a local farmer who is part of the bible study, to a place called Skhwebezi. All along the journey Jonny sells milk, maize and chickens to people who are waiting for him. It was wonderful to see mothers’ smiles as their babies received the jumpers. Our condition was that we only gave to mothers who had their babies with them, as to guard against people who would abuse the gifts. One women claimed that she had her twins with her but we couldn’t see them. The reason she gave was that she was still expecting their arrival. Thus we put two jumpers on her belly and took a photo for the knitters. So, knitters, if you see that photo you will know why.
Very sadly, this month saw a very bad accident in Alpha. 13 people were killed as a lorry lost control and sliced through a taxi carrying 15 people (which is the legal capacity for those taxis). The taxi driver had tried to avoid the lorry by going to the side of the road. 2 people had jumped out of the taxi and just saved their lives. Last week saw a memorial service attended by many people. It was a very loud, African affair. But we were sat next to a pastor of a sound biblical church who was also sat next to a pastor from a church that believes in a prophet called Shembe. They believe Shembe is the black Messiah and there are many cars with bumber stickers saying ‘Shembe is the way.’ Salvi and the sound pastor were both able to witness to this guy and we hope the Shembe pastor will be challenged by what he heard. But what happened in this accident should sober us all up to make sure we are right with the LORD and to serve Him with whatever time we have.
We are glad to say that Walter, Phumulani’s brother, has responded to his medication and he is looking much better. We continue to buy him Aqueous cream and his skin looks much better. Please pray for his salvation. Celani has mentioned that he is more open to the gospel and both Phumulani and Salvi have had different opportunities to witness to him. One week Jonny in the bible study said he sold milk to a guy from that area and he had the impulse to pray for the guy… we found out this guy was none other than Walter.
Di has started to prepare her own vegetable garden, just outside the house. It will need to have chicken wire to keep chickens and cows out from eating whatever she plants there. At the moment the ground is only dug. More updates to follow. Please pray for her as she continues slowly with her Zulu classes.
Please remember that the ministry website has changed to the following address, https://morielkzn.wordpress.com.
We would also like to promote a petition for British citizens or British residents to read and sign if they wish.
“Romans 13 Declaration”
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/test12/
I really think this is an important cause for evangelical believers to support which will go to petition parliament, and I’d like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It’s free and takes just a few seconds of your time. Please click on the above link to find out more information.
We would just like to say thank you to all those who faithfully pray for us and share in this ministry. Our hope is that this newsletter should always be an encouragement to you in your lives and Christian walk. May the Lord richly bless you. We have had encouraging feedback from other newsletters and we want to open the invitation that if anyone would like to write with questions or comments to feel free to contact us. It is an encouragement to us to hear from you. Below we enclose a written version of the message Salvi preached when he was in the UK. May it encourage us to treasure true biblical fellowship with believers.
Salvi and Di
FOR ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE HAS CONSUMED ME
AND THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU HAVE FALLEN ON ME.
This message is really about the importance of fellowship. I was doing some research and I came across a survey on church attendance and what they discovered was this; about 50 years ago about 50% of English people went to church every week and now about 12% go at least once a month. So that is a huge drop! And if you think about it, that would include the Church of England, your institutional churches, your free churches etc. So you have got a wide range of churches within Christianity of which only a portion of that would be born again, bible believing Christians having true fellowship. And they estimated that for every one person that is a church goer you have got two people who claim to be Christians, and possibly are who say “I believe in Jesus and I follow Jesus but I will have nothing to do with the church”. And maybe you know some people like that because they have been hurt and abused. I do not know all the reasons for this phenomenon but what I do know is this; fellowship is fragmenting. And the scripture shows us that in the last days, fellowship becomes even more important. And this message is not really anything profound. It is pretty basic but it is something that cuts to the core of each of us.
Psalm 69 will be our base text. It is notoriously difficult to position the psalms, to actually know when they were written unless there is some kind of title to tell us what happened. But I believe it speaks of what happened between 2 Sam 15-19; the time when David’s son Absalom rose up against him. Absalom conducted a form of smear campaign against his father. He would wait at the gates for people who where bringing their cases to the king and he would say “No one is seeing to your claim and your claim is good. If I were king I would have this sorted”. So he turned the people’s hearts away from David. After Absalom stole their hearts, he said to David, “Hey father I need to go back and fulfil a vow to the Lord, please excuse me.” What he did not tell his father was that he had organised a private party and invited 100 people from Jerusalem to attend his coronation as king. So David hears of this and runs away for the hearts of the people were with his son. Absalom is very good looking, very talented and very strong. David knows what he is capable of because Absalom had killed his half brother after a long time of successfully hiding his ill feelings towards him. So David escapes and the people who are faithful to him go with him. And they all weep. David weeps. They cross the brook of Kidron and the sons of Zadok bring the Ark of the Covenant to him as at this point the tabernacle must have been located in Jerusalem. And David says, “No, return the Ark to Jerusalem.”
2 Samuel 15: 25 – 26. “The king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favour in the sight of the LORD, then He will bring me back again and show me both it and His habitation. But if He should say thus, ‘I have no delight in you,’ behold, here I am, let Him do to me as seems good to Him.””
These verses reveal David’s heart. I find that David was an amazing man. We can be very quick to point out the faults of the men and women of God in the bible sometimes to show that they were people just like us. But David was a man who loved the LORD with all his heart. David was not quick to justify himself. He was wronged and he was mistreated. From a human perspective he did not deserve his own son to stand against him. But he was open for the LORD to correct him. In fact, soon after they get to the Mount of Olives and then they went onto Bahurim. It was then that Shimei, a relative from the house of Saul, comes and starts throwing stones at David and all his servants.
2 Samuel 16: 7 – 8. “Thus Shimei said when he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of bloodshed, and worthless fellow! The LORD has returned upon you all the bloodshed of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. And behold, you are taken in your own evil, for you are a man of bloodshed!””
So Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, turns to David as says in v9, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over now and cut off his head.” There are preachers today who would say stuff like that, especially on TV. “I am calling down a curse of God on you, how dare you speak like that against me! I am the Lord’s anointed.” Shimei had no right to speak to David like that but David’s response is then recorded in vv 10 – 11. “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if the LORD has told him, ‘Curse David,’ then who shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ Behold my son who came out from me seeks my life; how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him.” All the way to Mahanaim Shimei follows and throw stones at him. Now what was David saying? David knew that the LORD had prophesied this event as punishment of his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah. (2 Samuel 12: 11 – 12). But the Lord had already taken the life of David’s illegitimate son and David had repented. In his shoes would we not be inclined to think, “But I have paid for my sin and I have repented already!”?
With that in mind read Psalm 69: 1 – 9.
“Save me, O God, / For the waters have threatened my life. / I have sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold; / I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me. / I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; / My eyes fail while I wait for my God. / Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; / Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies; / What I did not steal, I then Have to restore.
O God, it is You who knows my folly, / And my wrongs are not hidden from You. / May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; / May those who seek You not be dishonoured through me, O God of Israel, / Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; / Dishonour has covered my face. / I have become estranged from my brothers / And an alien to my mother’s sons. / For zeal for Your house has consumed me, / And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.”
Notice David’s character. He does not say, “How dare they treat me like this!” He says, “Lord, let it be that I do not cause someone to stumble.” But why did David allow someone to defame him? Why did David stop Abishai from killing the one who was wrongfully accusing him? Why did David think, ‘Well, maybe the LORD is cursing me? Maybe this is for Uriah’s blood’? Why did David do that? Because he had already said, “If I find favour with the LORD, He will return me to His house.” For zeal for God’s house had consumed David, it had eaten him up. Being in God’s presence was more important than his acclaim with the people. Being in God’s house was more important than him being wrongfully treated. You see, we live in an age of ‘rights’. “It’s my right!” Kids know their rights. God’s house was more important. But today the house of God is not a tabernacle, or a temple, or a building anymore. The tabernacle of God is His people, the Church. We are the temple of the living God. Individually we are temples of the Holy Spirit and collectively we are the temple of God. Have we got a zeal for God’s house? I think it is severely lacking!
Ephesians 4: 7 – 10. “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.” (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
What Paul is saying is this: Jesus went down to go up. God’s way to go up is to go down. Man’s way is to pull yourself up and pull everyone else down on your way up. Man’s way says, “Blessed are the strong. Meek is weak. If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will. Take it while you can. Get that promotion and don’t worry about trampling on other people… everyone is doing it.” God’s way is, “Humble yourself and God raises you up in His time.” David didn’t take his own vindication. That is God’s way… humility and reliance on Him.
Ephesians 4: 11 – 12. “And He gave sine as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;”
Apostles today are not the same as the 12 apostles or as those like Paul, James and Jude who were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. They are merely sent out by the church to plant other churches and to lay a doctrinal foundation. There should be no sense in any church today that an “apostle” or group of “apostles” should sit in oversight watching over the other ministries and churches. An apostle today is simply a missionary and church planter. A prophet today is not supplying the church with new revelation. A prophet today is someone who gives God’s specific message to a specific people at a certain time but the message will always have theological significance. It is not Nostradamus full of predictions that are totally unconnected and difficult to interpret. And then there are evangelists and pastors/teachers all as ministries given to the church at large. Now here is a question. Who is to do the works of service? Because in some church cultures there is a belief that the pastor or elders should do it all. “Who is doing communion this Sunday?” “Pastor John.” “Who is doing Sunday school?” “Elder Sam.” “You can not baptise someone if you are not ordained!” And thus we have a clergy in this bracket all by themselves. And in terms of preserving the doctrinal and moral purity of the church the leaders have a responsibility and must give an account to the LORD. Paul would assert his authority when there was a danger in the church. But ALL believers in the church are to be involved in ministry in some way. It is not down to the leaders.
The early Jewish believers in Jerusalem went to the Apostles and complained that the widows who were being neglected in the handing out of food. The Apostles said, “Our ministry is with the word. You appoint the men, we will give the criteria.” We are to do the works of service. It does not mean the leadership do not do the works of service, they lead by example. But the point is this: we ALL have a part to play and this is what Paul is saying as we see in Ephesians 4:15 – 16.
I love Ephesians. It is the first epistle to a church that we read that did not have to deal with problems in that church. In Romans there were Jewish believers and Gentile believers having barriers to their fellowship together, especially in regards to the love feast. In Corinth they were a moral mess and the Galatians were worse for they were entertaining a different gospel. But the Ephesians had it all together. They had truth, they tested those who claimed to be apostles and found them to be false. Initially, and probably at this point, they had their first love. When the Ephesian’ elders met Paul in Miletus, they wept. When Paul initially taught in Ephesus, the Christians were meeting every single day when Paul was preaching in the school of Tyrannus for three years. They were zealous and they had everything together. And Paul writes to them and he does not write, “You have got it all together. Keep it up!” He starts the epistle by saying in Ephesians 1: 18 – 19a:
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
He is basically saying, ‘Yes you have it all together. You have got truth. You are walking in holiness. Yes you have got all that BUT there is much more to the faith than that.’ Salvation is not merely redemption. It is not only “getting saved.” That is just the base line. Think of it in this way. The prodigal son ending up feeding and eating with pigs. And when he came to his senses he said, “My father’s servants fare better than I. I will go to my father and say, “Father, I’m not worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired men.” But when we went to his father, before he could request to be made a servant his father said, “Kill the fatted calf, bring out the robe. My son was dead and is now alive.” Can you see what happened? He came to his father for salvation and his father elevated him to sonship! And we have this cloudy, hazy kind of distinction between salvation and sonship because really it is all part of the same package in one sense. But in another sense, if we were saved to be only God’s servants that would be salvation enough. But our inheritance is far above that. We cannot even imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him. Scripture says that we will judge angels. God’s idea of ruling is David, the shepherd king. The judges were to be servant hearted saviours of the people who brought the judgment of God’s word into people’s situations and disagreements. They were to be servants to the people. Compare 1 Corinthians 6:3 and Hebrews 2: 5 – 9 to Hebrews 1: 14. Now the angels are sent to serve or minister to us. One day we will return the favour, we will serve them! I cannot imagine what that will be like, or what it will be like to rule and reign with Christ when He returns. You see, we have to attain to this inheritance and our inheritance is tied to our becoming Christ-like. I think that is why the scripture says that we do not see it yet but one day we will see Him because we will be like Him; we will see Him as He is. It would be dangerous for God to give us that authority now.
So then, until we reach that place and time when we will be like Christ, God has given ministries to the Church and called us all to work together to become MORE like Jesus, even now. It is not, “Well, I’m a Christian now, one day I will be like Christ but in the meantime I will simply wait!” No!! God has purposed that we walk in the path of holiness and sanctification to reach that picture as much as possible until we all attain Christ-likeness. We must go the journey.
Ephesians 4: 13. “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
The word ‘until’ links that verse to the last verse. The saints are to build up one another ‘until’ we achieve maturity. The journey is to be travelled now! Some people have this idea, “I will be perfect one day.” That is true. But Christ means for us to start reaching that place now and attain to it as much as we can by the working of His grace. We must go the journey.
Ephesians 4: 15. “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up into all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,”
You need both truth and love. Truth and love. Sometimes we can be very harsh with the common person. “Oh, of course I love him. I tell him the truth. If I did not love him, I would not tell him the truth.” And that is truth, there is a truth to that. But if I was automatically telling him the truth in love simply by telling his the truth, there would be no need for Paul to insert the words ‘in love’ there. To state that we must speak the truth in love clearly implies that it is possible to speak the truth without love. Yes, Jesus was hard with the Pharisees. He was hard with the religious leaders. Jesus was hard with the people leading other people astray. But with the common person who acknowledged the truth but was working through the issues there was grace. Be gentle in your speech with them because maybe you will win them. That is not to say that we should not be firm, or that at times love cannot be hard. Of course love has a hard side but love acts out of concern and not self interest. So we are to speak the truth in love and by doing so we are to grow up into all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.
Ephesians 4: 16. “from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
We are being built up into Christ-likeness. And it says the way that God has ordained for this to happen is by every person playing their part. This tells me that fellowship is God’s ordained way for us to become like Jesus. And as we see that we are nearer to the last days, a time when it is even more important to fellowship, fellowship is rather fragmenting more and more!! People are staying out of fellowship. You might hang out with Christians but unless there is sharing and participation that is rooted in the word it cannot be classed as fellowship! It is worldly fellowship but it is not biblical fellowship. If we do not walk the path of true fellowship (which is not going to church but rather believers participating and sharing freely with one another, everyone playing their part, feeding into one another in truth, sharing a message, sharing in each others needs) yes God can make us like Christ and He does help us become like Christ apart from fellowship. But the point is this: fellowship is God’s ordained way of fellowship, from scripture, of how God makes us like Christ. That is the means. And if you reject fellowship why should you expect God to use another way. You rejected God’s ordained way in order to turn to your own! But it is hard, because this person says this behind my back, that person has a funny attitude towards me and some one else does this and that. What we find is that, as we are in the flesh, fellowship fragments over non essential issues. The biggest barrier to fellowship is ‘me’. ‘I’ am the problem that fragments fellowship. And the answer to ‘me’ is the cross.
2 Corinthians 4: 3 – 6. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Remember that Ephesians spoke of attaining to the knowledge of the Son of God, the mature man. The gospel of Christ is the message of the cross. Now, one light precedes another greater light. And the first light in this passage is the light of the gospel, the message of the cross. In other words, if you accept the message of the cross God will give you more light. And what greater light will He give you? He will give you the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ. The message of the cross is our train ride or bus journey to lead us to Christ-likeness. If we reject the cross, we will not reach Christ-likeness. And in verse 6 Paul spoke about this gospel.
“For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Both Paul and the apostle John had an understanding that Genesis and the first creation is actually a picture of the new creation. Jewish rabbis had this concept of ‘the rules of history’. They believed that Genesis not only spoke of the past history of their nation but also their future history. In fact it shows God’s workings in the everyday lives of His people. And the reason is that it is the same God who worked then, who works now and who will work in the days to come. So God works according to His nature and character. Therefore, the way that God worked in the first creation says something of how He works in the new creation. So it says,
John 1: 4. “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
2 Corinthians 4: 6. “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Genesis 1: 3 – 4. “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”
God then separated light from darkness. And here is what this means for the Christian experience. God put light in your life, the message of the cross by which you have a new nature which is light. And that light is good. When you were born again you received peace, joy, your sins were forgiven and you thought “Great, I am a new person.” Then sooner or later you sinned. Then maybe doubts crept in and you asked, “Am I really saved? Was my conversion real? Was it all an illusion?” It wasn’t an illusion. You have a new nature and the new nature is good but… the light needs to be separated from the darkness. We have a new nature but the old nature clings to us and wants to make us believe it is still alive. That is why Paul tells us to reckon ourselves dead to sin and to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is our spiritual worship. This is what God wants us to do in order to overcome our flesh; to take up our cross. You see, the Corinthians had not figured that out yet.
1 Corinthians 2: 2 – 8. “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;”
The Corinthian church was a church that was full of flesh. It was full of enmities, rivalries, jealousies, immorality, idol worship and most probably with some members using prostitutes. It was a mess! And the reason was this: they had not accepted the message of the cross in its entirety. There are two crosses in Christianity. Firstly there is the cross of justification. That is the cross that saves us. Jesus took this cross and Him alone because He was sinless. You cannot add to this cross or take away from it. You can only believe in it and thereby enter into salvation. Secondly there is the cross of identification. Jesus said that if anyone would come after Him they must take up their cross daily. This is an experiential cross. It does not save us but rather it is part of the package deal of salvation that we agreed to when we entered into salvation. And the problem with carrying a cross is that it hurts. It is not nice. Roman crosses were not metallic ornaments but were rough and ugly things. Corinthian society detested the idea. A cross was reserved for the lowest of the low and those criminals were nailed to the wood they carried. And that is what God has metaphorically told us to take up. The Corinthian Church had accepted the message of the cross theologically, that is the cross of justification but they had not embraced the experiential aspect.
Corinthian society, especially the upper echelons, loved rhetoric, the rules of argumentation, clever speech. The Romans also loved rhetoric but there was a difference between the two societies. The Romans actually cared about the truthfulness of an argument presented. The Corinthians did not. All that mattered in Corinth was the competition of seeing who the better speaker was. But the members of the Church in Corinth, for the most part, did not come from that section of society. They came from the poor, the foolish and the weak section of society. (1 Corinthians 1: 26). Yet because of God’s grace given to them they were filled with all knowledge and wisdom and spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 1: 4 – 7). So now they felt quite pleased with themselves. “I am as good as the rhetoricians. I am as prophetic, more so, than the pagan prophets. I can speak in tongues better than the Delphic Oracle.” Corinth was a competitive place. Corinth hosted their own version of the Olympic games and the city was highly successful. Thus the Corinthian Christians were thinking in the same way as they did when they were Pagans. They just wrapped it up in Christian wrapping paper but it was the same thing. So Paul writes to them saying, “I do not bring you anything except a message of a crucified Christ, because you are immature, men of flesh!” He said, “It is not that we cannot be clever, or we do not speak wisdom. We do but wisdom is reserved for a different kind of person.”
1 Corinthians 4: 6. “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;”
Who are the mature? The mature are those who have the knowledge of the Son of God. The light of the message of the cross precedes the greater light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ which is a mature man.
1 Corinthians 4: 7 – 8. “but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;”
Suddenly Paul mentions glory twice. Now the cross not only speaks of suffering but it also speaks of glory. It is pointing forward to an inheritance. And here is the issue: He is saying “I cannot tell you about the wisdom that speaks of glory because you have not experientially embraced the cross.” That is the problem with the word of faith teaching. They are jumping to the glory and bypassing the cross. So they say, “You are a King’s kid, you are a child of the King. It is your right to be healed, it is your right to be wealthy, all things on earth belong to you!” And they make the people chant; “I am a child of the king, I am a son of God. I am a god” and all these kinds of statements. There is a lot of ‘I’ in there. So when hard times come, and when they are buffeted, and when they are tested they do not stand because they never really accepted the message of the cross. You cannot bypass the cross. The cross is the way of glory. Kenneth Copeland dismissed the cross. He said that the victory of Christ was not won on the cross but in hell. He said that if the victory was to be won on the cross even he could have died on the cross for our sins if he had the knowledge of scripture that Jesus had. The cross to Kenneth Copeland does not make sense; it is foolishness to him. So Copeland tried to bypass it to get to the glory. But you cannot have the glory without the cross. You cannot have resurrection without death. You cannot have glory without suffering. And the cross is marvellous because it deals with ‘me’. And ‘me’ is the biggest barrier to fellowship. And fellowship is God’s ordained way for us to reach maturity and Christ-likeness. And the light of the message of the cross leads to the greater light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ, which is maturity. It is all interlinked in fellowship.
We think fellowship is something solid, something strong. We go to a church and we think, “It does not matter if I just sit at the back and do not get involved. It will still be there. I have no influence.” On the contrary, fellowship is so fragile. In 1 Corinthians 5: 8 Paul talks about malice and wickedness and he equates it with leaven. And the thing with leaven is, if you put it in the mixture it infects the whole of the mixture. You come with your selfish ambition, you come with your pride, you come with your malicious remarks or attitudes and you will infect the body of Christ with it unless God intervenes. Fellowship has to have us speaking, not prideful, selfish and malicious words to one another but speaking the truth in love. These are the two elements to having a zeal for God’s house. Truth can often be perceived to be the negative aspect and love is often perceived to be the positive. Francis Schaeffer wrote, “The Christian is to exhibit that God exists as the infinite-personal God; and then he is to exhibit simultaneously God’s character of holiness and love. Not his holiness without his love: that is only harshness. Not his love without his holiness: that is only compromise. Anything that an individual Christian or Christian group does that fails to show the simultaneous balance of the holiness of God and the love of God presents to a watching world not a demonstration of the God who exists but a caricature of the God who exists.” Both these aspects are to be found in the New Testament. The seemingly negative part can be found in John 2: 13 – 17.
John 2: 13 – 17. “The Passover of the Jews was near; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making my Father’s house a place of business. His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.””
Now a little bit of background information to John 2. Jews were to sacrifice in the temple but they could not bring their own animals into the temple. Instead they had to buy the livestock from the temple. But they could not pay for the livestock with roman coinage so the high priestly kingdom worked a racket where the people could come to them to exchange roman currency to temple shekels, at a highly extortionate rate and the high priest’s family grew rich off this. So Jesus’ actions were not over the top. When Jesus made a whip of cords He was not whipping the people, He was using it for effect. Once you start turning God’s house into a business it turns into robbery. Look at verse 7. This is taken from Psalm 69:9, the base verse. By intersecting these verses from John into the base verse we see that if you have a zeal for God’s house, truth and holiness will not be compromised. This is the aspect of having a zeal for God’s house that your discernment ministries and truth loving churches get a handle on but your liberal, ‘all you need is love’ type groups struggle with to say the least. But the doctrinal and moral purity of the Church MUST be preserved and they will only be preserved if God’s people stand up and contend for it. That is having a zeal for God’s house. It is not taking a back seat and saying, “Well, it will work itself out. I am too busy with my personal luxuries, my playstation, TV programmes, my music” etc. No!! The word consume means to eat up. Zeal for God’s house will eat me up. I cannot rest unless something is done about this because this is more important than my personal luxuries. But then we must marry truth with love, sacrificial and selfless love. And this is something that even people in discernment and truth loving groups can struggle with. Having a zeal for God’s house is not simply about purity but is also about laying down any rights for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Romans 14: 15. “For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.”
Paul is dealing with the tensions in the Roman fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. They would have had love feasts together. This was a practice of the early church and the Jews would have had a problem with certain meats or certain things being incorporated, or with the failure of the Gentiles to keep Sabbath. Paul is saying, in these issues, tolerate one another’s differences. It is not important. It is not black or white, it is grey.
Romans 15: 1 – 3. “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbour for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME.””
We are not to jump to every whim of our neighbour in order to please him. Paul says we are to please our neighbour for his good to his edification. In other words, we must do whatever is necessary to maintain the cause of our neighbour’s spiritual and eternal good, even if it costs us. Jesus did not stand up for His rights. He did not look for His own good. He looked for the good of God’s people and He laid down His life for them. And this is the thing about having a zeal for God’s house. If ‘me’ is not dealt with by carrying the cross, having a zeal for God’s house is impossible. You cannot have a zeal for God’s house in the flesh. It is impossible. Your flesh will not allow you to put others before yourself. You cannot do it. And in these last days we desperately need a zeal for God’s house. And the only remedy or answer I can give for the poverty of that zeal, if we can see that poverty in ourselves, is to get on our faces before God and to beg His mercy. Because there is no method, formula or 40 day plan to bring it about. It has to be a miracle. But we cannot make God do anything. The only way we can do it is to beg Him and implore Him. If a fellowship falls apart do not say, “It is his fault” or, “It is her fault.” Pray and ask, “Lord, is it me, is it my fault?” And if each of us did that, and got more rooted in the truth and the love of God, you are going to end up with a strong church, because the church will be made up of individuals who are rooted and grounded in God’s word and love.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 69. JUN 2010
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Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
We just thank the Lord for His goodness in this month and for the opportunities He gives us to serve Him. Much has happened in the last few weeks. Before we sent the last newsletter out, we had come back to KwaZulu finding Phumulani’s brother Walter with a terrible skin condition and ill. His 18 month old daughter had also come out of hospital after 3 days of being put on a drip because of severe diarrhea. When Di went to see her on the Monday night after she had just returned from hospital the little one was not doing well at all. Di made her a sugar/salt rehydration solution and took her to the clinic the next morning who also gave a rehydration solution. The next day we went to town and stayed in Vryheid for the night. The following day we returned and found that the girl had died. This was very sad because the family had already lost 2 children who had died drowning a few years ago. The other shock was that we thought that the people who had congregated had come to mourn, such is the custom. We told them we would return in the afternoon. We decided to go back sooner and good job we did, for it was the actual funeral they were having!! Since then we have been helping to get Walter aqueous cream and now some yoghurt to help with mild sores in mouth and throat. His skin has started to look better. We were also grateful that we were able to give him a bible, which he gratefully received and Salvi shared the gospel with him. Walter has heard the gospel through Phumulani but we thank the Lord for this opportunity nonetheless.
Thanks to the Lord’s provision we have purchased 1000 Zulu tracts (they just need to be delivered) and been able to buy some Zulu bibles which are being sold for only R30 each. We will not engage in bible distribution as in the past we have known people to want a free bible in order to sell it but we will give to people whom we feel impressed upon to give. We have had numerous blessings this month. More people have been evangelized. We have broke into a few new areas. One of them has come about as a result of the lack of interest at Mondi. For 2 Sundays we saw that people were reluctant to come out and hear the word. Because of this Phumulani and Salvi have decided to go to the nearby community and start preaching. This is the furthest community from us that we want to reach. The first week, Phumulani preached and had no response from anybody. We went to another spot and then we had quite a few people come to listen and we were invited back the next week. When we visited them this Sunday they were challenged by the need for new birth and not trusting in the baby baptism. One of them is a Lutheran. She seemed very receptive to the preaching and asked us to come again. She shared with us her grief. Her husband left her (or went missing) several years ago without an explanation. She does not know what has happened to him. But it is not uncommon to hear that men have left their wives, or found other partners or cheat on their wives but the wife is expected to wait for her husband and not cheat. Such gross abuse and perversion of the biblical marital roles (where not only the wife is to be submissive but the husband is to love and to lay down his life for his wife) is spoken strongly against in scripture; if a man does not honour his wife his prayers will be hindered.
We are also pushing deeper into Ngenitsheni and Alpha mine. Di has been joining Salvi in going out a lot and we have been able to give away a great number of the knitted jerseys sent from Australia. We have struggled to give away the tiny jumpers knitted because many babies in KwaZulu tend to be big but yesterday we phoned a trustworthy lady who works at the hospital as a nurse. We gave her a box of the tiny jumpers and bibs etc for her to make sure they get to new born babies. It was a blessing making contact with this lady because Di was able to ask her if she knew a doctor that could write a certificate for someone who is on ARV medication to qualify them for a government grant. Thembi is a lady in the community who is on ARVs and she told us that she would have to get such a certificate from a ‘special’ doctor who would charge her R150 for the service. Someone else we know paid another doctor R190. Thankfully she knew such a doctor and said she would ask him for us. We should be meeting a Scottish guy today who works with orphaned children in an area not too far from where we live to give a number of jumpers for them.
On Sunday, we visited a church who was having a tent crusade in Alpha mine. Salvi had met with them to listen to their doctrinal persuasions. They are a South African church group called, ‘The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ’, started by a South African. They have about 30 different churches around the UK. Salvi had met with them before and rejoiced that so much of what they believed was what we believe, even down to bible prophecy. But there was a fear that they were oneness. They baptize in the name of Jesus only, which they do according to the pattern of the apostles in Acts. But there was some confusion over Mt28. When Salvi explained the doctrine of the trinity they agreed with every bit of it but there were still communication problems. On Sunday we met with one of their main pastors who spoke English fluently and they presented the doctrine that God is one and He is three. This was wonderful because it is a church that we can encourage the people of that area to go to if they respond to the message.
Yesterday was a great blessing. We had to get the back lock fixed to the 4 x 4 that we use. At the end Salvi started talking to the mechanic who was from Zimbabwe. The mechanic mentioned Dave Hunt in conversation, upon which Salvi remarked, ‘I know Dave Hunt!’ Allen, the mechanic, stated that he listen to Dave, Bill Randles and all of them. It was an amazing crossing of paths that the Lord had engineered because we had just started to get to know the new owner of the local Christian bookstore who is the wife of an independent Baptist pastor who is discerning. Allen is a member of their church! The pastor’s wife yesterday gave us a children’s Zulu book of bible stories for which we were very grateful. We look forward to getting to know Allen more. God is amazing; Allen also knows and made good friends with Caleb and Sophie Massey whom Salvi used to work with in the area and even drove them to Gauteng when the Massey’s went to live in America.
In Louwsburg we are going through 1 Corinthians but with lower numbers. Our friends Olaf and Charnel have moved to Piet Retief which is too far for them to travel every week as it is too late for them to get back but they are able to visit Elijah ministries, Sundays on occasion. We hope to visit them soon over there. In Vryheid we have made friends with the Laundry lady who goes to an Afrikaans speaking Pentecostal church. She has started asking questions about truth. We gave her the details of a website and she was touched and blessed by the teachings. She said she is boxing all her Christian books and sticking to reading the Bible. This was a huge blessing for us to see. We also purchased a double bed with some belated Wedding present money Salvi’s Grandmother gave us while in the UK. This will allow us to give up our hut with ease when we get visitors staying with us. We will be able to stay in one of the other huts at this time. While we were loading the bed the helper got talking to Salvi and confessed that he was a Jehovah’s witness. Salvi showed him in the pocket New Testament where the scripture referred to Jesus as Jehovah. He was shaken up by this and Salvi offered to meet up with him again with his New World Interlinear translation if he wanted.
Next week we look forward to the arrival of our friends Tony and Shaun, who are members of Truth Ministries. They will be bringing clothes, toy diggers for children and God willing doing some evangelism and leading the bible teaching on Tuesday night. Soon after we will be having the pleasure of our good friends Allen and his son Clayton Wells, while Clayton is visiting South Africa for a short holiday.
We would also like to promote a petition for British citizens or British residents to read and sign if they wish.
“Romans 13 Declaration”
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/test12/
I really think this is an important cause for evangelical believers to support which will go to petition parliament, and I’d like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It’s free and takes just a few seconds of your time. Please click on the above link to find out more information.
We would just like to say thank you to all those who faithfully pray for us and share in this ministry. Our hope is that this newsletter should always be an encouragement to you in your lives and Christian walk. May the Lord richly bless you.
Salvi and Di
Devotional 12
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TEXT:
Esther 2 v 22 – 23:
“But the plot became known to Mordecai and he told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. Now when the plot was investigated and found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.”
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Esther was a replacement for King Ahasuerus’ former wife Vashti who he had banished after being angered by her ‘supposed contempt’ for the King’s royal position when the king wanted to show her beauty off to the courtiers at his banquet. Hadassah, whose gentile name was Esther, was rounded up with other young women and brought into the Harem from which the king would replace Vashti. When you read Esther, God’s name is nowhere mentioned. The people are in Exile. The Persian king is lewd and his society did not serve the God of Israel. The wrath of the king was feared. A person could wonder where God is when he reads these opening chapters. Was it God’s will for Esther to become part of the king’s harem? Then when Esther takes Vashti’s place her uncle Mordecai came to know about a plot by two of the king’s officials who sought to assassinate the king, possibly angered by the king’s treatment of Vashti but we cannot be sure of that. Esther presents this information to the king in Mordecai’s name. Mordecai does not even get a thank you from the king. Whether it was protocol to give the name of the informant or it is an incidental detail to the narrative, it causes you to wonder are the little details important in the big scheme of things? Then there was Haman, the king’s right hand man who is honored by all except Mordecai. Being angered by this Jew’s lack of reverence he seeks to enact a plan to annihilate the whole Jewish nation within the kingdom, just as in the Pogrom’s in Russia, the holocaust and the disgraceful organizations of Hamas, Hezbollah and other Palestinian and Arabic Islamic militants have sworn to do today.
However Haman decides that every day he will draw lots and on the day that he draws the right lot, fortune will be on his side to seek the king’s permission to execute his plan. He does this for a whole year until he pulls the right lot. Fortune seems to be on his side, his superstition has worked because the king grants him his request. The judgment is made. The Jewish people mourn and fast. Esther is challenged to speak to the king even at the danger of her life. Where is God in all these details? That is not all, Haman puts up a gallows in order to hang Mordecai and was about to come to the king to seek permission. He does this before Esther has been able to petition the king and request the liberation of her people. God seems to have abandoned His people. But the night before Haman arrives, the king cannot sleep and asks for the book of Chronicles to be read to him and he hears the story of Mordecai’s uncovering of the plot to assassinate the king. Asking whether Mordecai had been rewarded he found that he had not. Before Haman could present his request for Mordecai’s neck the king ordered Haman to lead Mordecai around and honour him in front of all the people. It ended up being Haman that was hanged on the gallows his own hands had built.
Is it possible that the incidental details of our lives as believers that we think are not important, or the terrible and pointless challenges that we have to face are the very materials that God wants to weave into his plan? I believe they are. Romans 8: 28 says, “For we know that God causes all things all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” The little paint strokes that God works upon your life today seem insignificant but are necessary to create His highly detailed masterpiece. God uses the light strokes and the dark strokes. He takes the seemingly good material and the bad and weaves them together into His great tapestry. But God does not do that for everybody. There is a qualification. It is for those who love Him, as He has presented Himself to be in scripture, and who are called according to His purposes.
When Vanities prevail and are seemingly rife,
When ugliness and darkness mark out your path,
The flesh casts doubt that you have everlasting life,
But faith sees the guidance of the great shepherd’s staff.
Biblical texts taken from ‘NASB’. SUH
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 68. MAY 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
Dear Friends and family,
This newsletter is proving so hard to write! As much as we write in it we end up deleting. It is hard to express all that has happened in an interesting and meaningful way. So please forgive us if the newsletter sounds bitty and uninteresting. Our time in the UK gave us a sense of gratitude for where the Lord has called us to in ministering in South Africa, for however long the Lord wants us to be here for. By his grace, as written in the last newsletter, the Lord gave us the opportunity to serve Him in UK churches. For the majority it was a word in season. After the last newsletter we visited Starbeck mission (Yorkshire) and caught up with old friends, Becca and Susie who faithfully served at Ebyown for 6 months with us. The week before we had been at Ainsdale church (near Southport), which gave us opportunity to spend a few days with Aaron and Erin Royle who also were diligent co-workers and friends at Ebyown. During both these weekends our friend, Clayton Wells (son of Allen and Sue Wells who run Bezaleel), came up to visit us. While in Yorkshire we stayed with Susie’s family, who were so hospitable and took us round York. From Yorkshire we went to visit our friend Pam, from the Moriel office in Australia, who was visiting the UK at the same time. It was a blessing to catch up with her down south, though it was such a short time. Pam is one of the many Aussie knitters who send us little baby jumpers, hats and booties to give out to the community.
The following weekend saw us visiting Salvi’s old Baptist church in North Wales. We stayed with Salvi’s old flatmate, Anthony Royle, and his wife and children. Salvi preached twice at the fellowship and it was encouraging to see new members there who have a love for truth. We left North Wales to visit our friend VJ from Walsall and while there for one night only the Lord brought another friend, Rocky, to visit. Salvi was up with them fellowshipping till 2 o’clock in the morning. The day after we visited Jo Rumley and his family. Jo did short term mission with Salvi in KwaZulu Natal in 2004 and they have been good friends since. Jo had just gotten back from South Africa where he got married to Gemma. We want to wish them every happiness and God’s blessing in their marriage.
During the last week end of our stay we visited a couple of churches and it was a blessing to hear the preaching of the word. One church was a messianic fellowship in Manchester that have a very Jewish flavor to their worship but without the Judaising tendencies of the hyper-messianic movement. The pastor preached from Ephesians. The message centred on what the Lord has done for us causing us to raise our eyes to focus on His doing and His grace. After the meeting we joined Salvi’s parents in Manchester who were out witnessing with Miguel. We both handed out tracts and Salvi was given the opportunity to share with a Sabre (Jew from Israel) called Shai. Shai asked many questions and was confronted with the Gospel witness, bible prophecy and even the claims of Jewish scholars themselves. When confronted with Moses’ requirement that blood is needed for atonement he said that God has given wine for the blood. Salvi upheld that Moses specified that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins and that this commandment was not given as metaphorical but literal. Shai stayed a long time but was unwilling to read the New Testament himself. We pray that God will lead other people to him. Finally we visited a church that Salvi used to attend in Stockport. The Pastor preached on how God has made us a holy people, a royal priesthood and the celebratory nature of being such. It was wonderful to catch up with many people all over the UK and we hope that we were as much an encouragement to them as they were to us. We want to extend a great thank you to all our family, friends and churches that showed hospitality to us while we were in the UK. You were an encouragement and a blessing to us.
After a good flight home we had a few days to catch up with friends Allen and Sue, Lorraine and others however our time was short. Salvi finished his Hebrew assignment which completed the certificate stage to the degree. On arriving in Kwazulu we were welcomed back with hugs and smiles from Phumalani’s family. While we were away the bible study that we meet with had got together and taken on a project of there own. Before we write what they did we have to explain that while we were in the UK three churches asked us to share about our work and a couple asked us to show photographs. We had not gone to these churches to publicize our ministry or to raise support, Salvi’s heart was to preach the word where it was wanted. However we were happy to meet their request and the photos of our hut showed a primitive looking bathroom. Much to our surprise we returned to a toilet installed in our hut with a tiled bath and basin. This was incredibly overwhelming as the bathroom now looks completely different. So, for those churches that saw the old bathroom please scrap those pictures. The group has also started to install a toilet for the Kraal, this will be wonderful for Gogo and the family, along with future visitors.
We have slotted back into life like we never really left, the Tuesday Lowsburg study has started again and Salvi has started his preaching again in the community. We have had our first clinic run for a guy who has TB that lives near to us. We have received 11 parcels of baby clothes from the Australian knitters which have arrived in perfect timing as winter is now here and we are looking forward to giving these out soon.
Please note that the ministry website has changed to the following address, https://morielkzn.wordpress.com and is no longer under googlepages.
We would also like to promote a petition for British citizens or British residents to read and sign if they wish.
“Romans 13 Declaration”
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/test12/
I really think this is an important cause for evangelical believers to support which will go to petition parliament, and I’d like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It’s free and takes just a few seconds of your time. Please click on the above link to find out more information.
May the Lord richly bless you.
Salvi and Di
GOD’S MERCY IN JUDGMENT
The ‘end times’ is a subject that has gripped the imagination of movie makers and Christian authors alike. The ‘Left Behind’ series has been swallowed up by numerous Christians while their movie counterparts are to be seen on the shelves of many Christian book stores. However, I think the musician Larry Norman put it well saying that, when Christians are asked, ‘Have you read the Bible?’ The answer they give is ‘No but I’ve seen the film’. The Bible is the Word of God and though these products take much from the Bible they are no substitute. Books like ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’ brought millions into watching out for the signs of Jesus return but the trouble is that this sensationalism that was sparked off did not see the return that many expected. And the experience of life going on as usual and certain prophesies in these kinds of books not coming to pass generated a cynicism within people so that some people almost do not want to touch the book of revelation. They hear stories of world disasters and state that these things have always happened and thus are no indicator that Jesus is coming back. And so end times prophecy is put on the shelf, as if Jesus may or may not come back in the way Revelation indicates. To these people, to wait for the signs of Jesus’ return is to be so heavenly minded so as to be of no earthly good. Why wait for Jesus to bring His kingdom when we can set it up for him?
However this indifference concerning the return of Christ goes against the teaching of scripture. In 2 Timothy 4: 8 there is a reward for those who have loved Christ’s appearing. This is said by Paul who had to deal with the deception that the second coming of Christ had already happened in his day. We read about this in 2 Thessalonians 2: 1 – 4. People were saying that the Day of the Lord had already happened. These Christians could have been deceived by these people’s end times teaching. Did that sway Paul from teaching end times doctrine himself? Not at all. He corrects the lie with the Truth, not with the absence of the Truth. Revelation is a book to be studied. Why? 2 Timothy 3: 16 says that ‘ALL scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness.’ One thing we note about Revelation is that it connects to much in the Old Testament, from Genesis with the Cherubim and to man’s fellowship with God, to Exodus with the song of Moses, to Daniel with the beasts and Ezekiel with the vision of God’s chariot and to many of the Prophets when they speak of the day of the Lord. Some people say that Revelation is not a future prophecy but was rather portraying the events of 70AD and encouraging the suffering believers in John’s day. But this does not account for everything in the book of revelation. When has Satan been bound for a thousand years? Who were the two witnesses in Jerusalem? Why has a third of the sea not been turned to blood? Although there are parallels with AD 70, and indeed in every age, we must see these from a Jewish perspective.
Alfred Edersheim so aptly stated “the place occupied by symbolism, not only in the Old Testament, but in Hebrew, and in measure in all Eastern thinking. Symbolism is, so to speak, its mode of expression – the language of its highest thinking. Hence its moral teaching is in parables and proverbs; its dogmatics in ritual and typical institutions; while in its prophecy the present serves as a mirror in which the future is reflected. To overlook this constant presence of the symbolical and typical in the worship, history, teaching, and prophecy of the Old Testament is to misunderstand not only its meaning, but even the genius of the Hebrew people.”
That is why the book of revelation bears relationship to people of every time. There will be one big antichrist manifested at the end. However when people said that Hitler was the antichrist, or Stalin was they were not totally wrong to think they were antichrists. There are always antichrists. These antichrists foreshadow the ultimate one that will come. Antichrist is not only a person but is also a spirit. That is why in 1 John 2: 18 it says that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared, from this we know it is the last hour. The main bulk of Revelation deals with God’s judgment on a world that hates the concept of God’s Law and God ruling. They want to have all the blessings of the Messianic kingdom without the true Messiah. They want a Messiah chosen by themselves rather than chosen by God. God is angry with sin, God hates sin and so God must punish sin. And yet God is still love. God is merciful and so what we have, I believe, in the scripture is a patient God who has come to the end of warnings, who has waited over 2000 years for people to repent and therefore has said enough is enough.
We think that things are not that bad. We think that things are going to get better, but when we turn on the news or pick up the paper we see that things are not getting better. In South Africa, since Apartheid ended, which was a racist regime and should have come to an end, there has been more robberies, more violent crime, a greater spread of AIDS, more corruption. In Genesis 15: 13 – 16 we read that God would wait 400 years for the sin of the Amorite to be filled up before judging them. That is called long suffering. When we are wronged after a few times within a year we will start to take action against that person but God is patient. In Revelation you have a treading down of Christians and Jews and unless God does something there would be an annihilation of the testimony of His truth, to which He promised… ‘man is like the grass of the field, the grass whithers and falls off but the Word of the Lord endures forever.’ God is judging humanity which is under the Antichrist and the rule of Satan himself. Has God therefore stopped being love? I do not believe so. I believe that even in God’s judgments there is still mercy expressed in the way those judgments are brought about. God will never ever lose control of His anger.
I want to look at the preludes to the three types of judgment in revelation and see what they teach us concerning this issue. We will start with the prelude to the seal judgments, then onto the trumpet judgments and then finally onto the bowl judgments. Each set of judgments is more drastic than the former. In the seals we see things that are similar to events that we hear about today. The first two seals indicate that this is a future event because the white horse goes out and then peace is taken from the earth after. (Rev 6: 1 – 4) In order for peace to be taken from the earth, there has to be a temporary peace brought about for peace to be taken away. But after that we deal with phenomenon like famine, a ¼ of mankind killed by sword, pestilence and wild animals and famine. At the end of the seals is something drastic, the great earthquake. Then in the trumpet judgments it gets worse. A 1/3 of all the earth, trees and green grass is burned up, a 1/3 of the sea becomes blood and so on. But the bowl judgments are the worst. The whole sea becomes blood, all the waters become intoxicated. There is severe sun burn on those who take the mark of the beast and huge darkness over the antichrist kingdom.
Where is the mercy in that? Let us start by going to Revelation 4. Before we get onto judgment we start with the throne room of God. The throne room of God is a heavenly tabernacle and its whole characteristic is holiness. The first statement about God made in this room is found in verse 8 where the 4 creatures call God, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’. The scene takes you back to Mount Sinai where there are terrible peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. It was before the throne that Isaiah balked at being a man of unclean lips. To the Israelites at Mount Sinai (in Exodus 19) touching the holy mountain while God was on it meant death. Only those consecrated could go up the mountain. There were loud trumpet sounds and in Exodus 24: 10 the elders would see up the mountain to the LORD and under his feet was a pavement of clear sapphire like the glassy sea in Revelation 4. In heaven the Lord, seated on His throne, is surrounded by Cherubim. This is just like the mercy seat on the ark where God’s glory manifested between the Cherubim and this mercy seat, (lid to the Ark) was in the Holy of holies where the priest could go only once a year to make atonement for the sins. All eyes would watch the priest go in. We are now told to come boldly to the throne of Grace. How can this awesome throne be called a throne of grace when it is so terrible? How can we call this throne a throne of Grace when this is the starting point for all the terrible judgments that are to follow? Because look at what is round the throne. A rainbow which goes all the way around the throne. As the preacher, Bill Randles, said it does not matter where God looks he sees the rainbow which reminds Him of the promise He made, not to flood the earth with water again. God is merciful. The next judgment is with fire but the rainbow reminds God of the covenant he made with man. Thus God is patient. God does not delight in the death of the wicked. When Jesus died, the veil that cut man off from the Holy of holies was rent and thus opened the way for all to go in. The throne is the throne of grace because Jesus has made a way for us to approach it boldly without being struck down dead because Jesus consecrates us by His blood.
In fact, there is also a sea of crystal there in the throne room. This is called a sea of glass. If you have looked at the tabernacle, there is also a sea there too. It is called the bronze laver, and in Solomon’s temple it was called a ‘sea of cast metal’. (1 Kings 7: 23). This was the place where the priests would wash their hands and feet. It was made of bronze. In the New Testament we also have to have our feet washed. Jesus told the disciples to wash one another’s feet and we know that the washing for cleansing is with the Word of God. The bronze of the laver speaks of judgment in that if we judged ourselves we would not have to be judged. (1 Corinthians 11: 31). We must not be judged and judge each other by personal sensibilities because that is hypocritical and it is putting ourselves in God’s place but we are to judge only by the Word. The aim of this must only be for the cleansing of self and others. In other words we help each other on the road of sanctification. When we become Christians we are saying to God, ‘Change anything about me that You want to. Take anything away or add anything You want to. I am not my own anymore, Lord I am Yours.’ Above this sea we see a throne of grace. Judgment starts with the house of God. That is what Revelation 2 – 3 was about. A two edged sword, the Word of God, came out of Jesus’ mouth to separate all that is profane from the holy.
If we endure and persevere with the Lord’s discipline, if we stand on the sea of glass, then the throne is a throne of grace. But if we are under the glassy sea, we become like the Israelites, fearful of their lives because there is judgment. If you read Ezekiel 1 you will see the something like the throne room but from under the glassy sea. It is seen as an expanse of something like crystal. Above the expanse is the throne and below are 4 living creatures very similar but not identical to the ones in revelation. In chapter 10:15 we read that these living beings are Cherubim. But in the midst of the Cherubim there are burning coals darting to and fro. In chapter 10 a man clothed in linen is told to go in between the beings and to fill his hands with coals and to scatter them over the city of Jerusalem. This signifies God’s judgment over a people whose spirituality was relegated to meaningless ritual, a people who adopted the worship practices of other religions and mixed them with the Temple worship of the Lord; these people, to whom the true God seemed less real than Tammuz, or the sun. Their religion was a joke and God was angry at having His glory perverted and stained. Above the sea it was a throne of grace but below the sea it was a throne of judgment. If we would judge ourselves by the Word of God, then we would not have to be judged. If we enter into a life of sanctification then God’s throne is a throne of Grace. You were not redeemed with perishable things like Gold or silver but with the precious blood of the Lamb; blood that can wash away every sin and clean you. You are not saved only to stop yourself from going to hell, or to be a part of the church group. You and I are saved to be like Jesus. This is the predestination that God foreordained before the world began, that those who are in Christ, would not only be in Christ, but would be made a brother to Christ and share the inheritance with Christ. This is God’s work in you. But you must want it. Do you want to be made like Christ? You must seek after him, no religious games! Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, not in your own steam but because it is God who is at work in you to will and to work for to His good pleasure. It is a partnership between us and God because God is a relational God. There is mercy in judgment.
But then in Revelation chapter 5 we see that God on the throne has a book in his right hand which is sealed up. The book is a book which contains judgment. The seven seals on the book unleash judgments. Now, what right does God have to bring these judgments on the earth? Verse 11 of chapter 4 tell us that the 24 elders sing that God is worthy of all glory and honour and power. Why does God deserve all that? Because He created everything and everything was created for His pleasure but for some reason most of our human race could not care to give the creator the time of day. We owe our very breathe to Him and that is why He should be number one in our lives. Did you never ask those questions when you were a kid? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where did the stars come from? Why do we have the impulse to ask those questions? Because a sense of identity is integral to what it means to be human. And our identity is bound up in our creator.
The greatest sin, worse than murder or theft of embezzling money is to turn our backs on the one to whom we owe our existence. What is antichrist about? Making himself to be like God. We decide to be gods in the driving seat of our own lives and no god, no christ no nothing is going to tell us what we should and should not do with our lives. This deserves judgment. If you break national law you must face the court and if you are found guilty you must pay the price for your crimes. If you are guilty it does not matter how many old ladies you have helped cross the road or how much charity you have given, the price still has to be paid. All you can face is judgment. Where is the mercy in that?
But the cry goes out in heaven, ‘Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?’ And there is no one in heaven, on earth and under the earth who is worthy. Now we are talking of trillions and trillions ad infinitum of beings who have ever existed in the physical and spiritual realm and there cannot be found even one, who can open the seals! What is John’s response to this? He starts to weep. John is not weeping out of curiosity to know what is in the book. That is not why he is crying! John has been suffering in Patmos for the word of God. John would have known many, many believers martyred for the faith, unjustly killed. John knows how this world is not what it should be and we are in a mess. He knows that God has promised to restore the fortunes of His people Israel. But now there is a problem, no one can open the book. Were the believers suffering for nothing? Where is the justice in that? You think if someone were to take a sword and mutilate a baby. What if the judge showed that person mercy and let him off. The nation would be incensed. So on the one hand when judgment is rendered we cry ‘Where is the mercy?’ But when wicked get off we cry ‘Where is the justice in that?’ That is why John is crying; where is the justice, who is going to set all the wrongs right?’ And then John is comforted. One of the elders says in verse 5. “Stop weeping, the lion from the tribe of Judah has overcome.” The lion is a majestic, powerful creature and yet what does John see? He does not see a lion, but he sees a lamb. This lamb looks weak, having been slain, and looks defenseless. In this world might is right, but God’s wisdom supersedes the world. The message of the cross is foolishness to the world but to us it is the power of God to salvation. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Why meek? Because God will set right all the wrongs, we do not have to start a violent, anarchistic revolution. Here the Lamb comes to set right all the wrongs, to bring judgment. But why a Lamb? Why did Jesus have to appear as a Lamb in order to break the seals? Because the Lamb is the animal of sacrifice to take away the sin of the world. In other words no one can point their finger to God when the judgments come and say, ‘It is not fair God, you do not love us, you do not care, this is not just’; because it is the Lamb who brings the judgments. The reply for those who accuse God is, ‘Look, I did everything to spare you from this judgment, because I love you.’ “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Where is the mercy in these judgments? In the Lamb, there is mercy in the Lamb.
The second set of judgments start in Revelation 8: 1 – 6. These judgments start with half an hour of silence. There is mercy in this judgment, concerning God’s patience. The anger of man is uncontrolled and is something that flies off the handle. God is not like that. That is why God can say in Psalm 4: 4 ‘Tremble with anger, and do not sin.’ This is called righteous anger. God is in full control of and reveals His anger in a controlled fashion. In heaven, before the trumpets are sounded there is silence. Everything is orderly and there is a sequence of events. No angel is allowed to run riot. The shofar, the trumpet, is an instrument of warning. Trumpets in scripture, especially in Numbers 10: 1 – 10, were there to call people to an assembly or to sound an alarm for battle. We see the use of 7 trumpets in the downfall of Jericho in Joshua 6 where they marched round the walls once a day for six days and then on the seventh they were to march round the city 7 times and then they were to blow the trumpets and shout. Thus the walls fell down. God is declaring war on the Kingdoms of the world in Revelation. He will take over and put an end to the corruption and the evil. He will install His kingdom. So where is the mercy in that? These judgments only touch a third of the earth. This is not even the full manifestation of God’s wrath. It is still only a taste of what is to come. When these things come God is saying, ‘Wake up, I am taking over, the end has come’. We live in a world where politicians carry a connotation of being corrupt, power hungry people. Dictators are treated with disdain. Jesus is coming back to take it over. His mercy lies in the fact that he has given clear signs before it is too late to turn back; God’s mercy in judgment.
And lastly there are the judgments of the bowls of wrath. We see in Revelation 15 that in these bowls the wrath of God is finished. In other words it will be completed. Whatever went on before, was just a taster of these judgments. How long or quickly these judgments go on for is not stated but they are terrible. Where is the mercy in God’s judgment here? Firstly we see that those who had been victorious over the beast and his image are on a sea of glass mixed with fire. In chapter 15 they sing something called the song of Moses. You can find the song of Moses in Exodus 15 but the words are very different in the two songs. So what is the link between them? In Exodus Pharaoh was the king who oppressed the people of God. God sent plagues on his kingdom so that Pharaoh would let God’s people go. Pharaoh’s armies chase God’s people and after Israel walk through the red sea, Pharaoh’s army is destroyed and Israel are taken away. So here too, there is another type of Pharaoh in Revelation 13: 7 who makes war with the saints and overpowers them. God sends plagues, which we have seen, and then God is about to bring his full wrath and here we find these believers have come out of the tribulation. In their weakness they overcame. How did they overcome? Not in overthrowing the antichrist but as 12: 11 says, they overcame Satan because of the blood of the lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even till death. These judgments of the bowls, being the worst judgments, seem to show less mercy, but not to the redeemed because the redeemed are delivered. Here we see the saints who have been victorious spared from the bowls of wrath. This is after the two harvests in Revelation 14. There is a reaping harvest in verses 15 – 16 which then leads to the discussion of a harvest of grape clusters which is a harvest of blood shed in verses 17 – 20. It is only after the first harvest and the victorious saints are on the sea of glass that the bowls of wrath are handed out to the angels.
But there is one more manifestation of God’s mercy in judgment. Read Rev 15: 8. In this verse we see that during the 7 bowls of wrath, the temple is filled with smoke and no one is able to enter the temple. Why do you think that is? Because man, angel or any other created being would not be able to take it! Therefore God puts a restriction on His wrath and a hedge of protection around His people. God is totally unlike us. He is so high and Holy and we cannot perceive the burden that God carries. God is holy and must judge but God is a God of mercy too. God has always been mercy and forever will be mercy. God does not change. But God must judge sin or else He is not a good God. Yet He has done everything that we might be recipients of his mercy. God will always have some measure of mercy in His judgments. Who do you choose to serve; yourself or the Lord? God’s mercy is always there but it is there for those who belong to Him, who have received His free gift of salvation and forgiveness on the basis of Jesus’ completed work on the cross. In the end this will determine whether you will be recipient of God’s mercy or His full judgment.
SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 67. APR 2010
PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008
Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com
This month’s newsletter is being written from the UK as we wrote in our last newsletter we are away from KwaZulu Natal for 3 more weeks. Before leaving Salvi finished evangelising three different areas in Eastmine, Alphamine and Ngenitsheni. One visit he ended up at the local chief’s home however the chief was out so he spoke to the men there. In Alphamine Salvi started to preach in a new area. A young man called Lancelot has shown interest in starting a bible study in the area so once we return from the UK we will follow this up. Di continued to help out with Kid’s club and sorted out what was needed for our trip overseas. We continue to work with the family of Fikile, who died of AIDS a few months back, the process of getting the kids tested for HIV proved to throw up one obstacle after another. When we initially took them there weren’t enough nurses to deal with everybody so we were told to come back. The second time we tried the nurses said that the Gogo had to come with an affidavit saying that she was the legal guardian of the children and gave permission for the kids to be tested. We tried to take them again but the Gogo was too busy so we will try again when we get back to SA. The Louwsburg Bible Fellowship is going well. Little foxes started to creep in but the Lord has caused a number of us to humble ourselves before Him. We ended with a great time of fellowship before we went to Springs, including the celebration of a Passover meal and we left them with a diet of Bill Randles for the weeks we are away. The Gospel bible study at the KwaNyandeni Kraal will continue when we get back to KwaZulu but we will see if their interest wanes when we get back.
In Springs, Salvi managed to do a draft of his Hebrew assignment which was submitted to a tutor for evaluation. He will complete the assignment when we are back in Springs and that will be the last module of his certificate level. The Lord blessed us with an opportunity to fellowship with believers in Pretoria and in South side of Johannesburg. Salvi preached the message that he had prepared for the UK, on Saturday night for a bible study in Pretoria. The group had some people attending it who are part of a word of faith church. We had the privilege of talking through the issues of that teaching with them. On the Sunday Salvi preached at Truth Ministries, Johannesburg. Salvi normally leads worship when he visits that church this time however the Lord opened the way for Salvi to share the message that was on his heart for the UK trip. Apparently while Pastor Wayne was preparing his message he felt the Lord telling him, ‘You are not going to be preaching this week.’ Meanwhile Salvi was praying that if the Lord wanted him to share that He would bring it about. So when Salvi was asked if he would like to share the way was clearly opened. After Salvi preached that Sunday we found out that Wayne had been preaching the same message for the last 5 weeks. The Lord is good. But this was part of the Lord’s confirmation for the UK.
We have visited 3 churches up to now in the UK. The people of a couple of the churches shared that it was a word in season. Two of the churches also asked us also to share about our life and work in South Africa. Di will be giving a children’s talk at the next church we visit. It has been a strange experience being in the UK, especially with visiting Manchester. From quiet mud hut to busy metropolis is quite a difference. But we can see the materialism and how easy it is for people to fill their lives with stuff that eternal issues are put on the sidelines. It is just like the parable of the sower. Some seed is sown among thorns, where the cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things choke the seed and make it unfruitful. Scripture portrays all three disciples falling asleep in the garden of Gethsemane and all of the virgins falling asleep before the bridegroom came. Not one of us can say we are exempt from the warning to watch and pray. Now is the time to get oil in our lamps.
On a side note, it has been good for Di to meet Salvi’s family for the first time and for Salvi to catch up with them. It is the first time for either of us to meet our nephew, Joshua. Salvi’s grandmother’s husband has been in hospital. We have been able to visit him a couple of times and Salvi wrote him a letter explaining the gospel to him. We pray that the message may speak to him and that he might ask us questions the next time we visit him. Di has really enjoyed travelling around the UK and seeing the beautiful countryside. The fellowship with believers in Bournemouth, Cornwall, Swansea and in Southport has been encouraging, challenging and lovely. It has been wonderful meeting the people who having been praying for us and the work. The fellowship has been very encouraging and we thank the Lord for the family of God and seeing the body at work. We are in the UK for another 3 weeks travelling in weekends to churches were Salvi has been invited and will return to South Africa early May.
Please could you pray for Salvi’s health. Salvi has to see the dentist at various times in order to have root canal treatment done on a couple of teeth. Obviously this can be inconvenient when we are travelling around a lot, but the Lord is good and has provided for us to meet this need.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support
May the Lord Bless you
Salvi and Di
THE THRONE ROOM AND THE TABERNACLE
REVELATION CHAPTER 4
The prelude to the seal judgements starts in the throne room of God in heaven. There are certain similarities between it and the tabernacle that was built under Moses. Hebrews specifically teaches that the Mosaic tabernacle was not the reality in itself. It was based on the pattern that Moses saw on Mount Sinai. In this is a great truth. The things that God does in the temporal carry with them the significance of eternity. The tabernacle was real, and its elements all carried a temporal weight all of their own. Yet the tabernacle was not THE reality in itself. It was a copy of something that God showed Moses on the mountain. There is a greater tabernacle which has not been pitched by human hands. It is something so big and great. So what has this to do with the throne room of God? Read Psalm 11: 4. The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven. In Isaiah 6: 1 – 5, Isaiah sees a vision of God on the throne, with Seraphim above Him and the train of the robe filling the temple. Again Hebrews 12: 18 – 24 shows us that we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. There is a link between the throne room in Revelation and the tabernacle. What is the tabernacle? It is the place where God’s presence is manifest and where He communes with His people. In the garden, Adam and Eve had perfect communion with God but something happened… sin. And there came a separation between man and God. What is the tabernacle but a way of bridging that gap before Christ came to deal with the sin problem? The tabernacle is a foreshadow of the Gospel message. But the throne room? That contains something different. Psalm 9: 4 speaks of the throne in terms of judgement.
Revelation 4: 1 – 11.
John in this chapter has just finished hearing what Jesus has had to say to the churches and some of the churches were in a real mess. They had problems with a loss of their first love for the Lord, tolerating a false prophetess, putting up with the heresies of the Nicolaitians and enduring persecution. But now John has left all this when he saw a door open in heaven and he went through in the Spirit. As soon as he is in heaven, there is no mention of the problems of the church. It is like all that stuff is forgotten. Doors in various places in the Bible speak about salvation. There is the door in Noah’s ark, Jesus said that he was the door for the sheep. In Exodus the blood on the lintels of the doorway brought salvation to those inside. This one is a door into heaven itself and there is one door, just like Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ no man comes to the father but by me!’ It does not matter what we go through in this life; the tears, the pain, the suffering, and the joys. These things will be wiped away because they belong to the first things and the first things pass away. No! John’s focus turns to something else. And what is it? It is the throne of God, and the One who is sat on the throne. There is so much to see there but his eyes are drawn to God Himself and His throne. He is primary to everything. It is a terrifying place because there are flashes of lightning and thunder sounds, just like there were at Mount Sinai. It is a powerful sight, it is a holy sight. There is a rainbow about the throne. There are twenty four elders on thrones who have white garments and crowns on their heads. There are four living beings that are around the throne. There is a sea of glass. It is awesome, but John’s attention, first and foremost, is on the LORD.
Now this vision in Revelation 4 bears similarity with Ezekiel 1 and 10. I would recommend that you also read chapters 8 – 11. I like Ezekiel a lot because he was not just a prophet but he was an actor. He was sent out to communicate God’s message, not only by preaching but also by acting it out. He had to eat a scroll which was sweet in his mouth. He had to take a brick and act out the siege as a model siege having written Jerusalem on the brick. He had to shave his head and divide his hair into three. A third he was to burn with fire, one third he had to walk round and strike with a sword. A third of hair also had to be scattered to the wind. But in Ezekiel 1 Ezekiel is stood by the river Chebar, looking out to the north and there was a storm wind blowing. And Elijah looks and sees a great cloud but this is no ordinary cloud; fire was flashing continually and there was a bright light about it and in the midst of it was something glowing like metal in the midst of a fire. As the cloud gets nearer what do we find? Firstly we see four living beings similar to what we found in Revelation 4. They are similar but not exactly the same. In Ezekiel 10 we see this same vision but this time the creatures are named as Cherubim (verse 15). In their midst there was something that looked like burning coals of fire. There were wheels under the four living beings, and above their heads was an expanse of something like crystal. This is important to notice. Above the expanse there was a throne and on it there was an appearance of something like a man. There was also a radiance around Him which looked like a rainbow and this radiance is referred to as the glory of the LORD.
It seems that we are looking up into the throne room from under the expanse which seems to be the sea of crystal around the Throne. We are dealing with something terrifying, so terrifying and Holy that Ezekiel has to fall on his face. So let us look at the throne room bit by bit and look at its relationship with the earthly tabernacle. If you want to know about the tabernacle you should read Exodus 25 – 40 and it will describe every detail that Moses had to know in order to construct it. Now we will not be dealing with every single aspect of the tabernacle but only the main pieces of furniture which correspond to what I have seen in the throne room. It is interesting that when we look at the tabernacle we see the outside and we must work from the bronze altar, onto the bronze sea or laver, then we move into the tabernacle itself with the menorah, the table of the presence and the golden altar of incense and then through the veil, into the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant is. That is the last thing we see. However Moses was first commanded to make the Ark of the Covenant and the first image that John sees in the throne room, is the One who sat on the throne and the throne itself. Everything else is secondary. Now why is that? It is because God is the primary thing and everything else is secondary. When we get to heaven, the primary thing will be God. And if we desire to go to heaven, first and foremost it must be to be with the Lord and not for whatever else heaven might have in store. But the reason why our journey into the tabernacle is from the outside in is because the tabernacle is God’s provision for a holy God to have fellowship with sinful man. We start from the outside because we are on the outside. We are sinners separated from an angry God who yet still loves us and wants to bring us back to Himself. You cannot get any more basic than that.
The first item that is described in the tabernacle is the Ark of the Mosaic Covenant. It is a box that measures 2 ½ cubits long, by 1 ½ cubits wide and 1 ½ cubits deep. It was made with acacia wood, accordingly a tree that grows in the desert. It was overlaid with gold, having four rings and 2 poles of acacia wood overlain with gold to fit through the rings in order to carry the ark. The next item built was the lid, which was called the mercy seat. This was 2 ½ cubits by 1 ½ cubits and was made of pure gold. On top of the mercy seat are 2 cherubim of gold which have their wings outstretched above, overshadowing the mercy seat and their faces are looking down. There is a mention of the Ark in Heaven and we read this in Revelation 11: 19 but it does not tell us anything about the ark itself. However there is another parallel in Revelation and indeed the whole of the New Testament. Inside the Ark are Aaron’s rod that budded, that signified that Aaron was God’s chosen High Priest, the jar of manna which God had sent to provide sustenance for His people in the wilderness and the tablets of the covenant. All three relate to Christ. Christ is the true bread that comes out of heaven. The forefathers ate manna in the wilderness and died, but Jesus gives life. (Jn 6: 51) For us it represents Christ’s flesh which was given for us that we might live. Aaron’s rod symbolized God’s choice of himself as God’s High priest, but Aaron died and another had to take his place. However we have a High priest according to the order of Melchizedek who forever lives to make intercession for us. (Hebrews 7: 23 – 24). And lastly there was the tablets of the covenant containing a Law that promises life to those who keep it but never gives life because no one ever keeps it. It stands over us in judgement but Jesus is the fulfilment of the Law and He gives us life (Romans 7: 8 – 11 & 10: 4). Christ meets God’s righteous requirement for us. Christ meets the religious requirement of God in that we need a high priest and advocate for us and He also meets the penal requirement for us in that he gave His own body as a sacrifice for our sins. And the product of this is life. And what is life? Eternal life is to know God, and the tabernacle is there for God to have fellowship with man. Now the lid itself corresponds to the throne of God. The lid is called the mercy seat. Why is it a mercy seat for us? Because it speaks of what Christ would do that we might be forgiven. In between the Cherubim was the place where God’s glory would manifest and once a year the priest would have to make atonement for the sins of the people in the Holy of Holies. It is a mercy seat. In Revelation 4 God in his glory sits on his throne and He is awesome. From out of the throne come flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. And this glory on the throne is in between the four living creatures which we know Ezekiel identified as Cherubim. God’s glory rests between the Cherubim. God is so holy, so righteous and powerful that Cherubim overshadow him. It was in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3: 24 that God stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. We know that the Ark represents Jesus in the details that we discussed. He is the Word and His word is the written manifestation of His truth. Jesus said that we are to abide in Him and His words are to abide in us. His word is bread and life to us.
But next in the throne room of God are 24 thrones on which are seated 24 elders all wearing white robes and crowns. What do these 24 elders represent because there is no clear interpretation of them from the text itself? One thing is certain that there are 24 elders but who are they? They have white garments just like redeemed people wear. They have crowns on their head meaning that they are in a position of ruling or judging. Jesus said to his apostles that they would sit on 12 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Mt 19: 28) There are promises that believers who overcome will sit with Jesus on His throne. But one thing is apparent is that the 24 elders never actually class themselves as God’s redeemed specifically. Even in Chapter 5: 9 – 10, they speak of the redeemed as a group separate from themselves. But the trouble with this is that they are presented as distinct from Cherubim, angels and other spiritual beings and are said to be rulers. However it is possible that these elders are representatives of God’s people. In that sense they form a part of the redeemed but can also speak of God’s redeemed as a separate entity. If we are dealing with the patriarchs and the apostles on the thrones, then John must have seen himself in there, as he was one of the twelve. Whoever the elders are I think Bill Randles is right when he says that in Revelation 2 – 3, John sees the church on the earth, slugging it out in the day to day. But in Revelation 4 he sees the Church glorified in the way that God sees the church. As Hebrews 12: 22 – 24 says. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the general assembly, to the church of the first born…
This church is not a Gentile entity, but as Romans 11 portrays the Church is principally Jewish. We are in a Jewish covenant and as such there is no replacing Israel. Believing Gentiles are grafted in as co heirs and equals. When we look at the tabernacle we see that in the Holy place there was a golden table of show bread, or the table of the presence. In Leviticus 24: 5 – 9 we see that on the golden table before the LORD they were to put 12 loaves of bread. The 12 loaves correspond to the 12 tribes of Israel. The table of the presence upheld this symbol of God’s people. This there is a correspondence in the Throne room of God in that all the people of God, both Jew and Gentile are represented and upheld. God always has His people before Him. He has not missed us out. He has set us before him. The 24 elders also relate to the division of priests working in the temple. 1 Chronicles 24: 1 – 19. They are the ones who served in God’s house. This even relates to the body of Christ in which we are to be a royal priesthood. The fact that there are 24 elders relates to their priestly function and the fact that they have crowns on their head denotes their kingly function. As Revelation 5: 10 says, you have made them to be a kingdom of priests. They are partakers of Jesus’ inheritance in which He is the High Priest, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And of course the bread laid on the table of the presence was to be eaten only by Aaron and his sons. Therefore this bread, (which speaks of intimate fellowship – breaking of bread) tells us about the community of believers we are a part of. Therefore because we are part of this community, fellowship is important.
In verse 5 of Revelation 4 we see that there are seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne. It is easy to see what this is, as the text tells us that they are the seven spirits of God. We can derive some probability of its meaning from scripture itself. There is nowhere in scripture that talks about seven separate spirits of God but there is somewhere that speaks of the Holy Spirit in seven separate ways. In Isaiah 11: 2 we read of seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit. We read firstly that He is the Spirit of the LORD. Secondly He is the spirit of Wisdom. Thirdly He is the spirit of understanding. Fourthly He is the spirit of counsel. Fifthly He is the spirit of strength. Sixthly He is the spirit of knowledge and lastly He is the spirit of the fear of the LORD. This obviously corresponds to the Menorah that had seven lamps in the tabernacle that stood opposite to the table of the presence. This was there to provide light. Light in Scripture speaks of the truth of the Word. God is light and thus the Holy Spirit is one who gives us understanding, knowledge, counsel, and the beginning of these things is the fear of the LORD. Jesus said to His disciples in John 16: 13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth”. “He will disclose to you what is to come.” The Holy Spirit is a Spirit who illumines the Truth to our eyes. That is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2: 6 – 16 that we can only have spiritual wisdom if we have received the Spirit of the LORD and that the Spirit teaches us, combining spiritual with spiritual. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit. Thus we can see why the menorah was inside the Holy place and not in the court. Not only because the Holy place needed light, but also because the light was only for the priesthood to experience. It is only when we are saved and become priests, then we really see the light of God’s word. We were not saved to be served but we were saved to serve. Thus we do not have one single teacher who has all the answers but God teaches all of us. And although we have teachers in the Church who minister the word, yet each of us can teach each other what God has taught us. As Jeremiah 31: 34 ff says, ‘No longer will a man teach his brother or his neighbour, ‘know the LORD’, for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them.’ And that is because of God’s forgiveness.
In verse 6 we see there is a sea of glass, like crystal. This must have been big because the Hebrew word, ‘Yam’ also denotes something big. This is because you cannot see the end of the sea. It is not like the turbulent waters of the ocean which symbolizes the nations in revolt against God, but it is still. This must undoubtedly be what the elders saw from the mountain Sinai where they saw the Lord and under His feet was a pavement of Sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. They were looking up into the Throne room of God. (Exodus 24:10) There was also another sea in the tabernacle of Moses and that sea was called the bronze laver. When this was built for Solomon’s temple it was actually called ‘a sea of cast metal’. (1 Kings 7: 23 ff) There is a similarity. But what was the bronze laver put there for. Bronze denotes judgement. When Jesus stood in the midst of the Churches as a High Priest, His feet were of bronze and thus He was judging His people because judgement must start in the house of God. But the laver itself was used by the priest for them to wash their hands and feet to be fit for God’s service in the tabernacle. What does this bring to mind? Jesus commanded His disciples to wash one another’s feet in John 13. John 13 was a parable of Philippians 2: 1 – 11. Jesus got up from His seat and laid aside His robe, (Even though He was in the form of God, He emptied Himself). He girded Himself with a towel. (He took the form of a bond servant even being obedient until death.) He washed His disciples’ feet in that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin. And he put on his robe again and sat down, in that (God exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name above every name). But when Jesus said wash each other’s feet, what did He mean? In John 15: 3 Jesus tells them how he had really washed them. ‘You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.’ And in John 17: 17 Jesus prayed, ‘Sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth.’ John Gill seems to think the glassy sea is akin to the Gospel of peace because we behold the glory of the LORD through this glass like we do in the Gospel. Jewish people will speak of great wisdom as a sea of wisdom. This would well agree with the cleansing of the word. But the laver in the tabernacle is bronze and therefore this would speak of our constantly being judged and washed in the light of the Word as a process of sanctification.
There are 2 things missing though from Revelation 4. One is the golden altar of incense and the other is the bronze altar of sacrifice. As far as the altar of incense goes we see this in Revelation before the throne in chapter 9: 13 (being a golden altar and not a bronze one) and in 8: 3 where the golden altar of incense contains the prayers of the saints. As the incense goes up so do our prayers and God’s incense is added to the prayers of the Spirit in that the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we do not know how to pray as we ought. But what about the bronze altar for sacrifice? There is not one! Why leave out the altar for sacrifice? There is not an altar for sacrifice but in 5: 6 we see a lamb standing as if slain. There is only one sacrifice. The whole of the tabernacle speaks of our redemption. Just look at the entrance to the tabernacle from the outer court. There are 5 golden pillars set on sockets of bronze. Bronze again speaks of judgement. This tabernacle is of the covenant of Moses and as such we see a parallel in the 5 pillars on bronze to the five books of the Law which stand on judgement. The Law was the Jews’ schoolmaster to lead to Christ. The Law exposes our sin and judges it. But the Law itself leads to something else and that is the veil. The veil rests on four golden pillars on sockets of silver. If you cross reference Exodus 30: 11 – 16 and Exodus 38: 25 – 28 you will see that the atonement money was of silver and silver has been used as a payment price in scripture. Both Jesus and Joseph were sold for silver in order that they may bring salvation to God’s people and the world. The four pillars had the veil over them and the veil was rent when Jesus died on the cross, opening the way for all to come to the mercy seat. Thus the four pillars bear similarity with the Gospel which has been recorded in scripture in four accounts which rests on redemption, the blood. The blood was Jesus’ price of redemption. The Law is not sufficient; the Gospel is the power of God to salvation. The tabernacle is a picture of our salvation. It shows us the way to intimacy with the Lord. We start with the cross and the sacrifice. Then we enter a life of sanctification with the washing of water with the word. In the Holy place we see the need for fellowship and the Spirit’s illumination of the word. The place of the Law is there to expose sin but the message of the Gospel is always there to manifest the righteousness of God by faith. Prayer is before the Holy of Holies where we see Jesus as the perfect fulfilment of all the Law speaks about, where God’s glory is surrounded by the splendour of the Cherubim and the veil has been torn which once blocked the way. Do we desire that place of intimacy with the Father? Sometimes this Christian life goes through mundane periods but if there is one thing we can take away from this message it must be this. If we continue in sanctification, the Word, the illumination of the Spirit, in fellowship and in prayer, then God will draw us nearer to Himself. If we want to boldly approach the throne of Grace, this is the God appointed way and if we travel it we are sure to get there.
If there is one thing that the Lord has been teaching us this month it must be that all things are fragile and we must lean on God’s grace. The Saturday Bible study seems to have dwindled out, the school Salvi preached at did not ask for any return visit and this Sunday nobody turned up at Mondi where Phumulani and Salvi turned up to preach. However Salvi has stilled been able to catch up with the people from the Saturday bible study informally and been able to answer questions from scripture. The Louwsburg bible fellowship has been going well, but still fragile as people work through struggles in the battle between the spirit and the flesh. But God has been merciful and has kept us this far. One of the members has had to make some hard decisions with her life and has broken a relationship up with an unbeliever. But Lord gave us the opportunity to chat with him and it was humbling to see him opening up to Salvi. We pray that he will bow his knee to the Lord, accepting salvation on the basis of grace alone and not by his own religious observance in the Lutheran Church. The Lord is calling him. This Tuesday we had a young chap attend the fellowship who Salvi had met in Vryheid and answered questions concerning his doubts towards the Dutch Reformed church of which he is a part. It looks like he might regularly attend. We have given him a couple of DVD teachings and a book by Francis Schaeffer called ‘The God who is there’. Di continues to help with the Kid’s club regularly on occasion and the clinic runs for some of our neighbours. These runs are for a TB sufferer and a guy with AIDS. The long waits at the clinic have produced the first knitted beanie for the community by the hands of Di. Obviously not Salvi!
We have been trying to help the family, who lost the daughter last month, to get to the clinic for HIV tests. It has been difficult because the Gogo has to prove she is the legal guardian of the children. We only learned this on the second visit to the clinic. On the first visit they never got to see the nurses and on the second we were told the Gogo needed to bring the affidavit. Yesterday we took her to get the affidavit done and soon we hope to be able to take them to the clinic for testing. It is difficult for people to do some things that we would normally take for granted. Many do not have work and rely on a meagre pension (benefit) and there are limited times where they can get a taxi to get to the clinic. In general if some official business needs to be done, people only get the information of which documentation they need to provide when they arrive at the government department. This is a huge time and money waster. We got a phone call from the Springs Home Affairs this month concerning a girl (about 20 years old) who we tried to help get a late registered birth certificate. She is still trying to get it!
At the beginning of the month Salvi was asked to speak at a ladies prayer meeting. He spoke about the Biblical doctrine of women’s roles in marriage and church life being a source of great good or deception. Salvi survived the experience and no stones were thrown. Whew! We also enjoyed a Passover meal with the Louwsburg fellowship. It was the first experience of one for most of them and an education into the Biblical background to the celebration of communion. The gospel has continued to be preached faithfully in the communities of Alpha, Eastmine and Ngenitsheni. About four different residential areas in these communities have been completed and we press on. Di has come out on a few occasions. She is awaiting some Zulu bible stories to be able to share with the little ones.
Phumulani continues to teach well at the Church meetings, taking us through 2 Peter. He is still working on the farm for R1000 a month. He works hard and spends his spare time doing chores and preparation for Sunday. We bought him an MP3 player that works off an AAA battery and he was elated. He has been constantly listening to Bible teachings and Christian music. He is always looking out for other lines of work in the nearest town but nothing has worked out for him. He did go for driving lessons but failed his test as he only had 6 lessons. During that week it was a pleasure having him preach the gospel out in the communities. His zeal is more with the preaching of the gospel than bible teaching but he does both faithfully and with a good heart.
On a personal note, some friends covered the cost of a couple of days away to Kruger Park. Di got to see elephants, many elephants which was the highlight of her trip. It was very find of them and we got to see many animals including a cheetah cub, hippos, crocodiles, water buffalo, white rhinos, zebra, giraffes, water bucks, baboons, impala, wildebeest, kudu and various bird life. We had to go through Swazi land to get there and back.
Our friends, Marijke and Lina who were volunteering at Ebyown, have now returned to Aussieland and Kiwiland. We want to wish them every happiness in the Lord. Marijke takes back a little part of Di to the land of the long white cloud.
At the time of the next newsletter we will be in the UK. Salvi will be preaching in a few churches while we are there. You are welcome to come to hear him if you live near one of the venues. We enclose his itinerary at end of our news. The main reason for the visit is for Di to meet Salvi’s family for the first time. We thank the Lord for using our friends from Sydney, Australia to provide a way for us to have this opportunity.
May God bless you in His truth and His love.
Salvi and Di.
Salvador’s Itinerary
March
Sunday 28th 10.30am
Crossways Fellowship,
Moordown Community Centre,
Coronation Road,
Moordown, Bournemouth
CONTACT Fred Wilding 01929 405157
April
Sunday 11th 10.30am
Ainsdale Evangelical, Merefield School,
Westminster Drive, Ainsdale
CONTACT Steve or Linda Fazakerley 01704 876427
Sunday 18th 10.30 am & 6.30pm
Starbeck Mission, Forest Avenue,
Starbeck, Harrogate.
CONTACT Dena Alderson 01423340495
Sunday 25th 11.00am & 6.30pm
Woodhill Baptist Church, Woodhill Road
Colwyn Bay. Wales
CONTACT Pastor Leonard James 01492 534343
THE HAND OF THE LORD
Now what do we mean when we say, the hand of the Lord? God does not have literal hands. We know that Jesus has a glorified physical body but Jesus said in John 4: 24 that, “God is spirit”. When we talk about the hand, or the hand of the Lord, we are, of course, speaking in a figurative sense. Human hands are amazing things. They are useful, not only for things like gripping big items, but can grip minute things like a needle and thread, pens and other such things. They can perform tasks of utmost precision and skill such as a sonata on the piano, or allow us to play different kinds of sports, like tennis. I play the guitar and my mind reels at the speed that some guitarists can do their scales and arpeggios. With our hands we can build machinery and buildings. Hands can be used in acts of affection, like stroking, hugging and holding. Hands can also be used in acts of hostility, like punching, hitting, slapping. The Hebrew word for hand is ‘Yad’ and according to the Strong’s dictionary it means an open hand indicating power, means and direction. The term ‘the hand of God’ or ‘the hand of the Lord’ is used in different situations and in regards to different things but most of them illustrate something that relates to God’s power or authority. So we will look at God hand in regards to His power, which will take up most of this study, then we will look at God’s hand in terms of His means, His empowering, His power to supply, and lastly we will look at His hand in terms of His direction.
POWER
The Bible makes reference in a few places to the power of God’s hand. Read Exodus 3: 19 – 20. You see God, being the great ‘I am’, being Yahweh Yireh, the one who sees, is not taken in surprise by anything. God knew beforehand how stubborn Pharaoh would be and eventually God would even harden Pharaoh’s heart Himself. Pharaoh would not let Israel leave unless he was forced to. And so God sent ten terrible plagues on Egypt climaxing with the death of all the first born of those who did not have blood on their lintels. God equates the performing of these terrible plagues with the stretching out of His hand. God’s hand can take drastic measures if God sees the necessity. The power of God cannot be equalled by any. As Moses said in Exodus 15: 6, “Your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power, Your right hand shatters the enemy.” We will look God’s creation power next, but think of God’s power in this way. God is the one who made every atom in the universe. What happens when you split an atom? You get an explosion. All that power from one atom, all that energy and where does that energy come from? It comes from the Lord. Now why did God manifest His power through Moses? It was not only to liberate Israel, although that was the main reason.
Turn to Exodus 9: 16 & 17. Here in the seventh plague God speaks to Pharaoh and tells him the reason he has allowed Pharaoh to remain. In other words, Pharaoh should have been removed before this point but God allowed Him to remain. It is just as Paul says in reference to Pharaoh in Romans 9: 22, that God, even though He is willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, He endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and He did it to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory. You see Israel were in Egypt for about 400 years. For a large amount of time there they had been subjected to harsh tyrannical slavery. God did not seem to be doing anything. The people called out and Moses came to their deliverance but they did not perceive it and so Moses ran away and it was 40 years later that God sent Moses to liberate Israel. God allowed Pharaoh to remain and then he kept him through 10 terrible plagues. Why? Because God was showing His power in order to proclaim His name throughout the whole earth. And this literally happened.
When Israel were going into the land, the tribes in the land had heard of the terrible plagues and the mighty works of Israel’s God in Egypt and it caused them to fear. Even as late as Samuel’s period of judging Israel, we see in 1 Samuel 4: 8 that the Philistines still remembered the stories of how mightily God had worked in Egypt by sending the plagues, although by now they obviously thought that Israel’s God may have been a number of different gods. And we see God’s hand in the New Testament being attributed to His power. In Acts 13: 11 Paul was preaching the Gospel to the proconsul in Paphos and the magician, Elymas, was seeking to turn him away from the faith. So Paul tells Elymas, in verse 11, that the hand of the Lord would be upon him and he would be blind for a time. The hand of the Lord was brought upon Elymas that God would prove his power to Sergius Paulus.
POWER MANIFESTED IN DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES
So God is powerful and his power is demonstrated in various ways:
Firstly, as we have already mentioned, there is God’s power, His hand in creation. Read Psalm 95: 1 – 5. God’s hand is a hand of creative power. We can see a few things from the text.
- Firstly this psalm exhorts us to praise God, to give Him thanks, to shout joyfully because God is a great God. The main evidence this psalm gives us is the fact that God created the sea and the earth. By virtue of the fact that God made the universe, He is deserving of all praise and honour. Think about those who have children. Who sets the rules in their house? Is it the children? No, it should be the parents. The children should respect and reverence their parents. God is our creator, so how much more respect should we give Him. He is our origin and therefore we owe Him our lives. But unfortunately many people cannot even give God the time of day.
- Secondly, the psalm shows us that by virtue of the fact that God’s hand made the sea and formed the land, means that God owns it. It belongs to Him and therefore we are accountable to Him for it.
- But thirdly as is indicated by Isaiah 66: 1 & 2, because God’s hands have made everything, we should not think that God is dependent on us for anything. The fact that He chooses to use people to fulfil His purposes is exactly what it is, down to choice. But He does not need to use us. We should not think that we can build God a house, or contain God. But rather because His hands have powerfully created the heavens and the earth, we should come to Him humbly, in brokenness of spirit and tremble at His word.
POWER IN SOVEREIGNTY
Secondly there is God’s hand, His power exhibited in His sovereignty. What do I mean by sovereignty? I mean that God is the supreme ruler and law giver in the universe and everybody is accountable to Him. In 1 Chronicles 29: 11 & 12 King David blesses the Lord and recognises that he is not supreme but the Lord is. And what does he say of the Lord? He says that all glory and power and dominion belong to God. God is ruler over all. But all the other nations had their own gods. What right did God have to claim glory from these other tribes? Yet it is God who puts these other kings in their places. David says, ‘it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen.’ I once was pastured by a guy who wrote, ‘We all have the ability to make decisions but it is not in our power to decree whether our longing will be satisfied or whether or not we will go unpunished.’ At the end of the day God has proclaimed His Law and He will judge. He will raise up and He will debase in accordance with His will, which is in total harmony with His character. God is always just, He is always right, He always shows loving kindness and patience and God not only waits but He waits to a point where every excuse man could attempt to hide behind has been stripped away and every mouth will be stopped. God’s hand speaks of His sovereignty. Turn back to Psalm 95 and this time look at verse 6 and 7. We are the sheep of God’s hand. This is the reason we are told to submit, to kneel before the Lord our king. Even if there are many so called gods, for us there is one God. We are in His hand and therefore He calls the shots, not us. No buts. As someone once said, ‘Sheep follow, goats butt.’
POWER IN DELIVERANCE
This leads me onto the next point. Thirdly, God’s power is manifested in His hand of deliverance, salvation and protection. David sought God’s deliverance many times against enemies that would take his life. He looked to God’s hand for deliverance. We have already seen that God’s hand represented His power manifested in Egypt and the purpose of this was to deliver His people. Exodus 13: 3, 9 and 14 all urge Israel to remember that God brought them out of Egypt by and with a powerful hand. His hand speaks of His desire to save. The name Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua and it means ‘Jehovah is salvation’. God alone has power to save. But again in Deuteronomy 5: 15; 6: 20 – 21; 7: 18 – 19 the Israelites were constantly being told, remember. Remember, remember. The reason I believe that there is so much repetition of this commandment is because we are so often stupid. We forget. We forget simple things and we forget big things. We too are told to remember. God’s hand was also in our salvation. We take the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him, of His death where He was pierced for our transgressions, in His feet and in His hands. God’s hands were instrumental in having our sins forgiven. God’s hand was involved in the resurrection. Psalm 20: 6. And God’s power will also be employed in our resurrection too; his saving strength in our bodily redemption. His power in deliverance will cover every part of our being, our spirit and soul in the here and now and our body in the resurrection. We should never let this out of our sight because sometimes our salvation can become common place and when that happens, when we cease to be grateful, we will turn to other agendas and the worship of other gods.
His hand is not only involved in the work on the cross but it is also involved with the preaching of the Gospel and in people coming to salvation. Acts 11: 21 speaks of some of the Christians who were spreading out because of the persecution and preaching the Gospel to Greeks. In verse 11 it says that the hand of the Lord was with them and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. The text does not explain the mechanics of this; it only links these peoples conversion to the hand of the Lord being with the evangelists. No one can speak life into another person, except the Lord Himself. He was the one who spoke life in the creation and He has to do it in the New Creation. Jesus said that He would build His Church and we know that the spiritual birth has to be just what it is, a spiritual birth. It is God’s power that brings life to the dead.
POWER IN PROTECTION
In terms of protection, God’s hand is a refuge. What does God’s hand shield us from? Read Exodus 33: 19 – 23. Moses wanted to see God’s glory. Moses had experienced many things with God, had got to know God, had been obedient and faithful so that he could ask for such a request. It was not glib. Moses had seen God at work through His hand and he knew that he was nothing before God. He had interceded to God on behalf of Israel because he knew that God had the power to destroy Israel. Moses respected God. But it was impossible for Moses to see God in all His glory. So God would let him see a glimpse, of God’s back. God’s glory passed by Moses but what was it that shielded Moses? It was God’s hand of strength. Jesus is God’s hand. We will face God’s glory one day and how will we stand before Him? We are covered with Jesus’ righteousness just as Moses was covered by the hand of God. Psalm 48: 10 says of God’s right hand; ‘Your right hand is full of righteousness’. It is just like that song, Rock of Ages, ‘When I draw this fleeting breathe, when mine eyes shall close in death; when I soar through worlds unknown, see Thee on Thy judgement throne; Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.’ The face of God is an awesome sight, which the Prophet Daniel and the Apostle John can testify to. But Jesus’ hand is a protection in another sense. According to John 10: 28 & 29, Jesus guards us so that no one can pluck us out of His hand. We are the sheep of His hand and He is the good shepherd. Are you in His hand today? Are you trusting in Him and Him alone? Because if you are then nothing can snatch you out of His hand. I am not asking if you are trusting in a single doctrine for assurance, but are you trusting the living, personal shepherd because He is our assurance and being in Him means that nothing can separate you from His love. There are real dangers, real things that try to buffet us but His hand is a hand of protection.
POWER IN JUDGMENT
But there is another side to this powerful hand and that is the side of judgement. God’s hand is powerful in judgement. This links with God’s sending of the plagues in Egypt. When God’s hand is for you, then we see the tender side of the Lord but the side of His judgement is not something we want to see. Hebrews 10: 29 – 31. The writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of Jewish believers, to Hebrews, who seem to be tempted to turn their back on their Messiah and to turn back to trusting in the Mosaic covenant. The writer has shown them in this epistle, the superiority of Christ over the angels, over the priesthood, over the sacrifices. Jesus took God’s judgement for our sins but if we reject His sacrifice, there is no other sacrifice. Therefore we will have to face the judgement for ourselves. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God in this sense. For God’s hand to be against you means destruction, punishment, it means fighting against the Lord Himself. Samuel warned people of this in 1 Samuel 12: 15 where he told the people to fear the Lord and to serve Him, because if they did not and rebelled, God’s hand would be against them. For the believer this is the experience, not of judgement but of discipline. For the believer, God’s hand becomes heavy to correct and to teach the person, though it feels like judgement.
POWER IN OATH MAKING
God’s hand signifies His power in oath making. We serve a God that does not lie, that keeps His promises and Jesus told us that our yes should be yes and our no should be no. He said this because He was raising the standard above the righteousness of the Pharisees who were using their oaths to turn their yes into a no and their no into a yes. Jesus finishes that chapter of Matthew with the words, ‘Therefore you are to be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect. Jesus said that their righteousness was to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. Jesus was looking for truth in the heart and not just outward appearances. God speaks Truth full stop and God will always vindicate Himself and His name. When God swears, He swears by Himself. In Deuteronomy 32: 40 God says “Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, as I live”. God would render vengeance on His enemies. God never promises something that He cannot keep. His hand is always powerful enough to bring it to pass, just as David said about God in 2 Chronicles 6: 15 when he says, “indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.” This is important because it affects our appreciation of the Gospel. We are saved by faith through grace and faith is simply to take God at His word. Now how can we have faith in someone who is not able to keep His promises? But when we see that God swears by His hand, that His hand brings to pass that which He promises; therefore when He says that ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’, we have an utmost assurance that He will save us.
MEANS
His Hand implies power but is also implies ‘means’. God has the means. His hand is a hand of provision according to 1 Chronicles 29: 16. His grace is sufficient for every need that God leads us through. Everything that we need to live the Christian life, to do His will comes from His hand. His hand does not only speak of His own power but it is also a hand that gives power, it empowers and strengthens. In 1 Kings 18: 46 the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah so that he was able to outrun Ahab to Jezreel. We have already read in God’s sovereignty that God’s hand is able to make people great but also to strengthen them. He holds us in His hand. Daniel 5: 23 points out that even our life breath is in God’s hand. His hand also grants authority as we see with Jeremiah 1: 9. God put His hand on Jeremiah’s mouth and put His words in it, by which he would pluck up and break down nations, but also to build and to plant. His hand grants us honour and favour. It is interesting that Ezra and Nehemiah are the primary books that state that they were able to do things; that people were in unity; that they were able to get what they needed from the King because God’s hand was upon them. The reason why I find this interesting is because at the time it was so vital that they got that favour, so that God’s purposes in bringing the Messiah to pass. They needed the temple built but they were weak, they had many enemies in the land, they were spread out over the Babylonian (now the Mede and Persian empire), that God had to step in and move His hand to get them back to the land. No other books did I find in my study, apart from Ezra and Nehemiah, speak of God’s hand in this way to the extent that they do. But not just life, not just strength or power, not just provision or honour or favour or authority but God’s hand also provides healing, as in the case when Jesus would stretch forth His hand and heal People, such as Matthew 8: 3 and 9: 18.
DIRECTION
Lastly God’s hand is a hand of direction. God communicates with His people and His hand displays the power to command and to communicate. He did it in written word on 2 occasions. The first was on Mount Sinai and God wrote the 10 commandments on stone with His own finger. The second was in Daniel 5: 5 where God writes on the wall while Belshazzar was having his drinking party. The first was the setting forth of His commandments and the second time was with judgement. It is interesting to note the only other time God wrote was in the form of Jesus (John 8: 6) with the women caught in adultery. Jesus wrote in the dust. This was not, as far as we know, writing to communicate with men. But the situation was about Grace without going against the Law. We have the commandments we have judgement and we have grace all represented by God’s hand. But the point I want to bring out is that God is not trapped. If God sees the need to, His hand can step in and make His will known even to the hardest of hearts. We don’t need to do a 40 day course for God to make His will known. The same hand of God came upon Ezekiel in chapter 8: 1 and chapter 37: 1 to allow him to see visions that God wanted him to see. Ezekiel was not doing meditation techniques or attending courses to experience these things. In chapter 8: 1 he was sat with the elders of Judah, in his own house. God is not trapped to a spell or a ritual. In the words of Francis Schaeffer, ‘God is there and He is not silent.’ But why do we doubt this? Is His hand not the hand that leads and directs us? If God is silent for a time, maybe He has good reason to be. Maybe there is something unresolved in your life. Maybe God is just testing your obedience as He did with the Israelites at Mount Sinai in Exodus 32. They promised to obey the Lord but when Moses delayed to come down from the mountain and they had no word from him, they built themselves an idol.
God’s hand is with His people and it is powerful. But He will only do that which is in accordance with His nature and with His will. His hand does not act on foolish whims but to His only glory and to the benefit of His people. Do you believe in the attributes of God’s hands? Do you believe that what God has promised He will bring to pass? Are you thankful for that? Are you experiencing the power, the provision and the direction that comes from God’s hands?
KwaZulu Mission 