KwaZulu Mission

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 105 Jun 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

 

This month has been full of blessings and activity.

At the beginning of the month we took Gogo (Phumlani’s mum) to Newcastle to her daughter. Gogo was going to the hospital as there as it is possible that she may have cancer or some other serious illness. She has had a difficult time at the local hospital due to incompetence and other factors. One month she was sent by the local hospital to Pietermaritzburg who then sent her back saying that the doctor’s note sent with her was not legible so they did not know what they were being asked to do. Please pray for Gogo in this regard but more importantly for her salvation. We have witnessed to her numerous times and Phumlani often.

Also please pray for Tholakele who is now in work. Her husband left to work in Gauteng and she has been left to look after her 4 children without any support from him. She has been in work for a little while and so we have not been able to see her much. Last week we found out that she is having to live near her work place and hardly gets a day off. So her children are looking after themselves. We are going to visit her as soon as she is available to see if there is any way we can help her to be with her children and to get more facts about the situation. Please pray that we may have God given wisdom and discernment to help Tholakele.

On the May 5^th, Salvi went to preach in Bethany Baptist Church as Jannie, the Pastor, had asked. The message was well received and encouraged the brethren. Di has been helping one of the church members, Magda – who works at Genrod – to set up the church library there. Slowly books are being added and various audio teachings by good bible teachers. Di also that week taught at the care bear crèche and the kid’s club.

Our friend Caleb, whom Salvi ministered alongside in KZN between 2002 and 2004, came to visit the work this month. He just caught his standby flight back to the United States of America last night. Before we came to Gauteng to fetch him we went to minister to a lady in Louwsburg whose boss had asked us to come and witness to her. When we arrived in Louwsburg we found that there was a huge demonstration and blockade in the street stopping any cars from entering or leaving the little town. There was war dancing, singing and burning of branches in this protest. These protests need to be handled with care for they are those protesting are easily provoked into violence as they work themselves up into a frenzy. Di needed to get home and so we couldn’t stay to wait for more police to arrive but this was so much on Salvi’s heart that he came back and witnessed to Zandile who gave her life to the Lord. We will be visiting her again soon to see how she is and whether or not she burned her ancestor and witchcraft things as she said she would.

Before Caleb arrived in SA we used a few extra days to visit brethren and churches. We travelled over half way between Johannesburg and Botswana to visit a precious family called Riaan and Debbie Roux. They have continually had a hard walk. Riaan is in construction and as many other people in the construction have to contend with Riaan has found a lack of willingness from clients to pay for work. They testified to the encouragement of the visit and in their area they are starved of meaningful and biblical fellowship.

The Saturday saw us in Roodepoort visiting Mark and Paula Hibberd who are involved in Home Churches on the west rand. These home churches are also related to Clayton and Mujuru’s home church in Pretoria. Salvi spoke at the Pretoria home fellowship on Saturday evening and then in Roodepoort and Randfontein on the Sunday. We were very encouraged by the sharing, fellowship and contributions of the fellowships. The discussions that arose from the teachings were a huge blessing and we feel so blessed to be linked with these brethren. We also visited the guys with special needs at Vita Nova in Springs to lead them in hymns, choruses and to share the word of God. This was a great blessing to us and they always are. Having the ability to stay with Allen and Sue Wells and all the kids at Bezaleel is also a huge blessing as we share our hearts and what we have been learning from the Lord. The night before Caleb arrived Salvi managed to purchase a replacement vehicle for Phumlani’s truck that was stolen. As we had said that the previous truck was his and registered on his name we felt an obligation to use the funds that had been given to specifically replace that vehicle to do this for Phumlani. The bakkie needs a lot of work to be done to the body but is mechanically sound. Phumlani is going to work with Craig from Genrod on it and the funds that we saved with the purchase will be used to do the vehicle up.

After Caleb arrived we have kept him busy. Phumlani had him preaching at church and we have had him teaching kids club twice with Celani’s permission, teaching cell group as part of our marriage series we have been going through, teaching at the Alpha cell group, doing a hermeneutics session with the Bethany Baptist Church and with the Friday night bible study at Jonny and Kim’s place and also preaching the gospel in the Khambi community. In between all this Caleb, Phumlani and Salvi picked up a whole lot of materials generously given to us by a farmer on the other side of Vryheid. He also gave us a huge metal tank that we could use for water which we were giving to Phumlani. But when we arrived home we saw that if we put the tank down we would never be able to move it into the right place as it was so heavy. We decided to leave in on the truck and sell it for scrap. We then we able to by a 1000 litre water jojo tank for the same price as was given for the metal tank. We are grateful for this farmer’s generosity.

After kids club this Saturday we travelled to Gauteng making to stops along the way. Firstly we visited Veronica in Secunda who, with her husband, have prayed for us every single day. The fellowship was short but sweet. Then in Endicott we visited Bernard and Mabel Mathe. Bernard and Mabel have been having it hard the last while but they faithfully run their crèche, though they make little for themselves. Having government funding enables them to pay their staff. But there is talk of mines coming into the area and people living in Endicott having to leave, because of the health risk, with the mines giving them compensation. The problem is that people are not sure if the compensation will be to the value of their properties or will be short changing them. Bernard and Mabel have given us three boxes of children’s bibles in Zulu that were donated to them. We praise the Lord for this answer to prayer which Di had been praying for concerning the younger kids in the kids club. What an encouragement that in difficult and adverse circumstances the Lord is still able to use us to bless others with God’s word, His wisdom, His guidance and with His many other gifts.

We praise the Lord that on Sunday we met up with Tony and Maria Verlaan. They are an Australian couple working in South Africa for New Tribes Mission. They took us to a house Church in a Township called Thembisa. Thembisa has a population of over 511,000 people with all kinds of churches there teaching all different kinds of things. So what a pleasure it was when we heard Sikelela preach pure truth in isiXhosa and in English. This church seems to be a hidden gem. We look forward to getting to know them more and seeing what relationships might develop between them and other like minded believers. This meeting was followed by a wonderful time of fellowship with Tony and Maria. So wonderful to see likeminded believers in the body of Christ and believers with much missionary experience and older in the faith. Fellowship is vital these days and we need a visible demonstration of the love and grace of Christ between brethren as much as we need faithfulness to right doctrine.

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

Shalom

Salvi and Di

P.S Please click on the following link to read the e-tract recently added to this website. https://kwazulumission.com/answers-to-questions-you-always-wanted-to-know/

 

 

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 didn’t 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 don’t 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 seems. 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 unexpectancy for 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. The Christians could have been deceived by these kind of people’s end times teaching. Does that sway Paul from teaching end times stuff 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 so 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 wasn’t a third of the sea turned to blood? Although there are parallels with AD 70 and indeed in every age we must see it from a Jewish perspective, which Alfred Edersheim so wonderfully describes. “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, maybe even in our life time he will be manifested. However when people said that Hitler was the antichrist, or Stalin was they weren’t totally wrong to think they were antichrists. There are always antichrists. These antichrists foreshadow the ultimate one that will come. Because 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. And 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 17: 13 – 16 we would 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 is an annihilation of the testimony of His truth, to which He promised that 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 don’t believe so. I believe that even in God’s judgments there is still mercy expressed in the way those judgments are brought about. God never once will 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 what 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 stuff 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 worse. 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. 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, sat 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 is this awesome throne to 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, all the way around. As the preacher, Bill Randles, said it doesn’t matter where God looks he sees the rainbow which reminds Him of the promise He made, not to flood the earth with water again. 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 wouldn’t have to be judged. (1 Corinthians 11: 31). We mustn’t 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 sea 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 are standing on it, then the throne is a throne of grace. But if we are under it we become like the Israelites, fearful of their lives because there is judgment. If you read Ezekiel 1 we 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 Seraphim 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. You see 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 just so that you can 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 couldn’t 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 shouldn’t 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 doesn’t 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 gizzillions and gizzillions 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. This powerful ruling creature is coming and yet what does John see? He doesn’t see a lion, but he sees a lamb. Weak, having been slain. Defenseless. In this world might is right, but God’s wisdom supercedes 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 don’t 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’s not fair God, you don’t love us, you don’t 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. Jesus has saved people from every nation and therefore He is in full rights to bring judgment on an unbelieving world. Where is the mercy in these judgments? In the Lamb, there is mercy in the Lamb.

 

The second set of judgments starts in Revelation 8: 1 – 6. These judgments start with half an hour of silence. There is mercy in this judgment, with 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 and reveals His anger in a controlled fashion. In heaven, before the trumpets are sounded there 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 isn’t 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.

 

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 any where in the text 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 over powers them. God sends plagues, which we have seen and then God is about to bring his full wrath and here we find these believers are 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 judgment seems to show less mercy, but not to the redeemed because the redeemed are delivered. I am not going to say when I think the rapture is. We should agree that it must be before Jesus sets His feet on the mount of Olives. But here, though I do not place the rapture here, we see 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 and then there is a harvest of grape clusters which is a harvest of blood shed in verses 17 – 20. It is only after the harvests 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 verse 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. He has done everything that we might be recipients of his mercy. Mercy in judgment but for you and mercy a choice between God’s mercy or His full judgment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 104 May 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shalom

GOSPEL MESSAGE

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE CREATION

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

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

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

THE FALL

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 103 Apr 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com
Dear Friends and family,

Firstly we would like to send our condolence to Salvi’s mum and her family for the passing away of his grandfather. He passed away on Tues 19th in the evening from a heart attack. He was in china at the time visiting family there. Also we send our thoughts and prayers to Di’s Uncle Ross and family at the passing away of his wife, Jan, who suffered with cancer. Di was grateful to be able to talk with her aunt before she passed away. We thank the lord she was a believer so is now home with her lord and Saviour.

Mid march bought Clayton and Jessie Wells from the UK to visit for a night. Clayton is Allen and Sue’s second oldest boy. It was truly wonderful seeing them again. Although we had seen Clayton late last year, this visit was the first time as a married couple they had stayed with us. The time went far to quickly as they could only stay the one night but we were very thankful and grateful that we got to spend time with them. Please check out the Wells family photo it is very rare to have them all together in one place.

Phumulani and Thabi have had a difficult month as Thabi has been very sick, she has had a couple of visits to the hospital and also to the local clinic. Please keep them both in your prays.

We celebrated the 37 years of marriage of our dear friend Kogie and George on the 20th of the month. Di made roti for the celebration. Sadly it worked out being only a small number who could attend but a very special time was still had. Along with this we also attended the wedding of our dear friend Belinda’s mum a week later.

Sal was asked to preach again at the baptist church on a sunday evening. His message was titled ” who is this man and what is he doing ” taken from Mark’ account of the stilling of the storm. We both have continued with care bear teaching and kids club. This month at kids club we were able to give out more small Zulu bibles to a group of children who are attending regularly so they can go home and read the verses that were taught that week with there parents, brothers, sisters, Gogo’s. A couple of the boys have been regularly attending the Sunday services with great enthusiasm, always dressed in their Sunday best. Even on a couple of occasions when they missed lifts they started walking to church and hitchhiked. At church they always pray and share what they learned at kids club in the meetings. When Phumlani or Celani asks who would like to open the meeting in a word of prayer one of those lads volunteered the one Sunday. We are praying for their salvation.

Sal was asked by Kim from the Louwsburg bible study to speak with the Zulu craft ladies in Louwsburg concerning their involvement with the ecumenical global day of prayer. On that occasion the global day of prayer meeting had a Nazirite pastor involved in the proceedings who spoke about how they are all one in the Spirit. The Nazirites believe that Jesus was the white Messiah and Isaiah Shembe is the Messiah for black people. Some even consider him to be God. This is on account of the many reported healings and miracles he did, people testifying in the genuine nature of such miracles and some believing that Shembe would speak to them in their dreams. Even today you will see cars with bumper stickers saying “Shembe is the way!” This meeting in demonstrating why biblically the global day of prayer is unbiblical turned out to be a wonderful time of discussion. Where people asked questions to get understanding. Salvi emphasized the need for people to be truly born again and for believers to be faithful to the Lord stating that mixing with ancestors and Isaiah Shembe or partaking of the mass, prayers to dead saints or trusting in Mary in the Roman Catholic Church is spiritual adultery.

At the end of this month we were asked to house sit in Vryheid. This gave Di an opportunity to complete the yearly finance report and Sal to finish his latest assignment that was due. We continued with kids club, church and bible study on the Friday evening with Johnny and Kim and Nicky and Guy. Also we were able to attend the friday morning service at the baptist church. However the break away was timely for Di, the ease of being in a normal home environment was gladly received to recharge the batteries.

Phumlani and Salvi have almost finished preaching throughout Ngenitsheni, which they should finish in 2 weeks time. Then they will start preaching in an area called Khambi. There they have met a physics teacher called Trust Moyo. He is a lovely brother in the Lord who has started leading a house church. He has been enjoying the teachings we have given him and is very teachable concerning the truth of God’s word. He has testified concerning how they Lord has chastised him concerning things he has said or attempted to do and has changed accordingly. Please pray for him. He has a visa to work in South Africa but the department of home affairs in Witbank needs to send a letter of confirmation to the department of home affairs in Ulundi in order for him to receive payment for his teaching services and no one seems to be helping him. He has not been paid since december last year and even before that time there have been other sagas where there has been reason given to him concerning why they cannot pay him. He testifies that the Lord is providing his needs but please pray for him. We are hoping to partner with him in evangelism so that if people in that area respond to the preaching of the gospel we can put his phone number on the tracts so they may contact Trust.

Today, a small group of students from the Union Bible Institute should be visiting us to evangelise in the area of Ngenitsheni and tomorrow teaching kids club. This bible institute are one of the few publishers of Zulu bible commentaries in the country. We have their commentaries and use their hymn books for our church meetings. We trust this will be a blessing for them.

Hopefully next month Caleb Massey, who started the Kwazulu mission back in Aug 2002, will be visiting and we trust it will be a time of spiritual blessing for all. The people on the area always ask about him and his wife bearing witness to the impact and the godly witness Caleb and Sophie left in this community.

In Cell group Salvi has started a teaching series on marriage. It is a timely series as we see people marriages being changed by the Lord as husbands and wives humble themselves under God’s word. We find it is one of those vital areas that are seldom preached about in pulpits. Phumlani states that these teachings are revolutionary for Zulu culture and unlike Zulu marriages where the husbands dominate their wives and rule as kings. We told him that western culture would also find the teachings to be uncomfortable or offensive for western culture does not accept that men should have first place in marriage or to be in authority over their wives. The Bible does not match any culture but is critical of all. Meanwhile, Phumlani also brought us all a teaching concerning syncretism in the faith and asking us which God/god were we actually serving.

To all our friends and fellow laborers may we press on looking always to the return of our coming King.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

________________________________________________________

For those who are interested the KwaZulu Mission teaching website has more teachings uploaded with a couple by the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid and Mark Van Niekerk of Hazorim. Some teachings are also in Zulu. http://www.sermon.net/msindisi . More teachings will be posted in the future.

EMETH – A CALL TO TRUTH AND CONSISTENCY

PART 4: EMETH IN ALL AREAS

The problem we must face in the business of discernment is that we can easily focus on what is wrong in the church. It is unfortunately a necessity to be critical in this day and age. We feel everywhere we turn the danger of compromise acutely. We know that if we are not on the alert we can easily be swept away unawares. Thus it becomes so easy to become absorbed with the errors and heresies in churches that we can speak of little else. This is not what it means to stand for truth. It is only a part of the story. We have gotten so caught up with guarding orthodoxy, and I feel I must emphasise that we MUST guard orthodoxy, that we have gotten slack in our own relationship with the Lord, with seeking the Lord for His fruit to be manifested in our lives, and pursuing Holiness, which means a close abiding and separation unto the PERSON of Jesus Christ. There is little talk of intimacy, God’s discipline in our lives, victory over sin and the simple but marvellous exercise of adoration as we consider His work and attributes afresh. Oh to adore the Lord like a child marvelling at a beautiful sunset as if it was the first sunset he ever saw! In my mind I can hear the murmurs of agreement because it is the doctrinally right thing to say but how much do we take this very thing to heart?

In 1 Timothy 1:9-11 Paul lists sins such as rebellion, profanity, immorality and lying as contrary to sound doctrine. Those of us who make a stand against heresies pervading our churches, how is our private life? Are we rebellious to the Lord? Are we entertaining immorality, pornography, adultery or fornication? Are we lying? Do we use profanity and foul language? Are we taking what does not belong to us without the express permission of its owner? Are we harsh and abrasive to people whom God calls us to be gentle towards? If so we do not hold to sound doctrine, no matter how much we rail against Benny Hinn, or Kenneth Copeland! Doctrine is not only about profession or public action but it involves our private and personal lives. Truth must be truth in all areas. In 1 Timothy 4:16 Paul warns Timothy to pay close attention first to his own life and then equally to his teaching. When we stand in the pulpit, or seek to instruct those younger in the faith, or if we make strong stances against the blatant abuse of God’s word by various preachers, but then we compromise on our lifestyle, excusing it because it is not as bad as what the heretics are doing, we give those whom we are trying to reach an unnecessary reason to reject the Truth of what we are saying! They reject the profession of truth to some extent because of our rejection of the possession of sound doctrine in our lives. Of course for a number of people, our failure to live it, is a convenient excuse for them to reject the Truth. But woe betide us if we use that fact to excuse our failure to live out sound doctrine! As Titus 1:1 says, Truth is according to godliness.

INTRUSIVE, GENUINE AND PRACTICAL EMETH

Truth is not merely on the level of public, ministerial and corporate. Truth penetrates into the secret place. Truth is intrusive. God is Truth, He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. We all know Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7:24-27. The one who hears Jesus’ words and does them will be like the wise builder building on the rock. What we often forget is the context in which Jesus gave these words. The context was the sermon on the mount. Which words was Jesus speaking about? In Matthew 5:20 Jesus told his readers that unless their righteousness surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees they would not enter the kingdom of heaven. When we hear that we generally think of Pharisees, on the whole, as the bad guys. But from a Jewish perspective of that time, Jesus’ words would have seemed radical. From their perspective the Pharisees were holy people. The modern equivalent would be that we would have to be more holy than Mother Teresa. This is a good equivalent because Mother Teresa, like the Pharisees, appeared good before men. When you criticise her many people get upset. But before God she was a deceiver who withheld the gospel from people, not that she believed the gospel herself. She wanted to alleviate people’s pain before they faced a lost eternity of suffering hell-fire. She did not believe in sharing the gospel and seeing them saved, http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/mothertereasc.htm .

To appreciate what Jesus was saying you have to understand Israel’s history. Because of Israel’s sins and treachery against God’s covenant with them, God sent Assyria and then Babylon to judge them. Upon their return to the land with Ezra, Israel experienced revival which soon waned as we see with Malachi. Later the Greeks came in and under Antiochus Epiphanes many Jews turned their back on God’s law and followed wickedness and God’s temple was desecrated. Because of the radical actions of the Maccabees, Israel had their temple worship restored and there was an understanding that the law had to be kept or else judgment would fall on Israel yet again. The Pharisees came out of this group of pious Jews and truly sought to keep God’s laws. Through their own human reasoning they figured out that to keep people from breaking God’s law they would build a hedge around God’s law composed of man made commandments that were meticulous. The idea was that you had to break the fence before you could get to breaking the law but if you kept the fence you were automatically keeping the law. The fence of man made commandments were known as the ‘traditions of the elders’ and this was the stream from which arose the idea of the oral law in later Talmudic Judaism. The problem with that is, despite the denial of later Rabbis, when someone raises man’s commandments to the same status as God’s laws, inevitably they will end up breaking God’s laws in order to keep their own man made commandments. In other words they allow the law to be broken so long as no one touches the fence so that they may appear righteous before men. When Jesus said “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” Jesus was not saying that we are to be without any failing whatsoever. It is in the context of keeping the fence and ditching the law. The Pharisees would make a show of righteousness but they did not allow the law to intrude into the secret places of their heart. They looked righteous before men but did not deal with their envy, greed or lust in their heart. What Jesus meant was that our outside life is to match our inward life. We must not be white sepulchers, lovely on the outside but inside full of all wickedness and death. We must accept God’s intrusion of Truth for when we take God out of Truth we are left with death. Jesus agreed with many of the tenets of the Judaism held by the Pharisees. He accepted the resurrection, the existence of Demons and Angels, the reality of the miraculous and the afterlife. But though the Pharisees held to these ‘truths’ they did not have THE Truth for they would not accept a Truth that was intrusive and would show them up for what they really were.

The Greek word for Truth is Aletheia. It comes from the word, Alethes which means Truth as not concealing. Aletheia is reality in its unveiled form. This does not simply mean that through Truth we see new and wonderful things we have never seen before. It is much more personal than that. Truth is showing the nakedness of a thing. Truth cuts through all pretense and reveals something as it really is. No wonder we say, ‘the truth hurts’ or that ‘we cannot handle the truth’. Truth gets right to the nerve, it touches the bone. Truth is not only intrusive but it lays us bare just as we are and makes us face it. In the marketing world, and the journalistic world it is not about what a thing really is but about the way you present it. A website called Honest Reporting commented on a photo that was used on a Facebook page to show that Israel is oppressing ‘Palestinian’ people. The photo shows an Israeli soldier with his foot on a palestinian boy and a gun in his face. However when one looks at the photo, “in this case, the “Israeli soldier” is carrying an AK-47Kalashnikov – the weapon of choice for Arab regimes and terrorist organisations around the world. The IDF standard issue weapon is the US made M16. In addition, the uniform is not IDF issue either.” http://www.honestreporting.com/false-photo-incites-on-facebook/

In advertising, a product is presented in a way so as to motivate the consumer to put their money into that product and not someone else’s. So advertising companies and journalists become spin doctors. Some of it is obvious. The advert does not say that it is a bar of coconut covered in chocolate but that it is the taste of paradise. In the above example there is not much problem because everybody knows that it is an advert. When someone says that they are starving to death we do not immediately rush them to hospital so they can be rehydrated. We know they are just saying that they are very hungry. However, as in the case of the anti-Israel journalism of spin, it is a problem when people really lead others to believe that their story, as it is presented, is reality. When that person observes the real story, the actual case, they feel that they have been misled. In that moment they have experienced Aletheia. All the verbal chocolate coating has been stripped away and they now see things as they really are. This is what Paul meant in Titus 1:13 when he comments that the claim of the Cretan prophet of the circumcision is true that Cretans are lazy. He means that the claim of the prophet describes the reality as it is. Thus Truth is also sincere and genuine.

In Philippians 1:18 Paul states that some people’s motives in preaching the Gospel was to cause some emotional distress to him, as Paul was not able to minister as they freely could being imprisoned at this time. They were probably boasting of their efforts while Paul was stuck in a cell. Paul said that those who preached with wrong motives were preaching in pretense but those who were pure in motive were preaching in Truth. When it comes down to it, Truth must be the manifestation of something as it is, internal and external. Thus, if it is not genuine, it is not true. If it is an act, it is not true. If it is an exaggeration portrayed as reality, it is not true. If it is spin and hype, it is not true. If it is claiming to be what it is not, it is not true. In short Truth is reality in its naked state and the Lord wants us to apply this to all our secrets and the hidden motions of our hearts. If we are not willing to do this, we fall short of Truth.

EMETH AND LOVE

Lastly it is imperative that we recognize the need to hold Truth together with love. In Ephesians 4 Paul teaches that God has given the eldership ministries to the church that every body in the assembly may be equipped to do works of service in order to build up one another unto maturity. The result is that we will not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men or by craftiness in deceitful scheming. The antidote to such deception is found in verse 15. We are to speak the Truth in Love and thereby grow up in all aspects unto Him who is the head, that is Christ. Thus if we do not speak the Truth in Love I doubt that we will grow up in all aspects. Truth needs to be spoken in love. If we confront someone with the Truth and they retort that we are not showing them love, how do we react? If our defense lies in saying, “Of course I love you. I am telling you the Truth. If I did not love you I would not be telling you the Truth” then we may not have grasped the truth of what Paul is saying. The fact that Paul admonishes us to speak the Truth in love is an indication that it is very possible that we can speak the Truth without love. While I agree that love is not soppy emotional slush, yet there must be something of genuine concern for the person we speak the Truth to or else we will not experience that growing up in all aspects.

In Matthew 23 Jesus vehemently opposed the Pharisees and scribes for their blatant hypocrisy and refusal to submit to the Truth. But at the end Jesus wept over the coming judgment. Jesus desperately desired the Pharisees to come to Him. He desperately wanted their salvation. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'” How can anybody read this, especially a Jew who knows God’s love for Jerusalem, and not sense the pain Jesus felt in speaking these words? Do we have this concern for people stuck in error? When we try to reach them that they may be sound in doctrine do we weep out to the Lord for the Lord to touch their hearts? Are we heart broken or are we simply trying to win the argument and show that we are right and the other person is wrong? Is the extent of all we do and say dominated by combatting false teaching? Where is our love? Where is our genuine concern? A loveless discernment is a stench in God’s nostrils. Does this make you feel uncomfortable? It does make me uncomfortable. How I have so failed in this regard throughout my walk but the Lord is still calling me to love. But conversely what does it mean to love? Does it mean to help people, feed the sick, look after the downtrodden and despised? Does love mean to tolerate people that really get on our nerves? Does love mean self sacrifice? According to 1 Corinthians 13 we can do all those things and still not have love. I can give all my possessions to feed the poor and still not have love. In Romans 12:9 we are told to let love be without hypocrisy and in 1 Peter 1:22 it says “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart”. How often do we see two faced love. We see people tell someone, “Brother we love you” and then behind that person’s back they make disparaging remarks and cut them down. We make an appearance and show of love but it is not from the heart. This is not God’s Truth. God’s Truth is to be held together with love.

When I look at these things, which are just the beginning of the practice of Truth, I see how I have failed the Lord and no doubt you will have seen how much you have failed Him. We have all failed Him. But with repentance and facing up to the Lord, confessing things as they really are, we are to push forwards, onwards and upwards. Is there somebody in the body that you need to put right with? If there is, go to them and seek the Lord to empower you to change towards your brother or sister. Forgive. If your brother has offended you or has sinned against you personally, go and show him his fault in private and sort it out. But do so with a genuine concern for your brother, looking to yourself lest you also be guilty of the same thing. If there is wrong doctrine in the local assembly contend with a gentle spirit as much as possible, patiently instructing. Do not be arrogant towards the person whom you are trying to reach. Listen to the genuine concerns your brother has and answer with scripture. If your brother sees something wrong in you do not be proud and hold it against him. Confess your sin and put it right. The blood of Jesus cleanses from all unrighteousness. If your brother is slow to turn away from wrong doctrine be patient. As long as they are responsive to the word, to some extent, there is hope. It takes time and the person may have many issues. Do not minimize the need for long-suffering. Do not contradict your profession with unrepentant sin. Then forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead we are to press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This is what EMETH is about. Not just profession of true doctrine but the experience of Truth in all areas of our lives. May the Lord richly bless you.

What Is it About Obama and Israel ?.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 102 Mar 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

Dear Friends and family,

February is over and we head into march!!!!!!

For those who may have missed the news in our last newsletter on the 1st of Feb Di finally
received her visa. As you can imagine this news was gratefully received. The beginning of Feb we continued in our usual routine of kids club, discipling, care bear teaching, bible studies, counseling, language lesson, etc. Mid Feb we made our way to Stanger. Magda kindly dropped us at the bus we arrived that evening and were met by Mark and Marie-Anne. On the Friday we visited with St Luke’s a home for disabled people. Marie-Anne ministers there each Friday, sharing the gospel and doing crafts. We had a wonderful time with the residents. Salvi had taken the guitar so we sang and then bought a simple message about Mephibosheth. In the message he spoke of how we all have things we cannot do but as we read in the bible that king David desired Mephibosheth, someone lame and limited in his physical ability, to come and dine at his table everyday. This picture is so true of our Saviour. Though we have nothing to offer Him but our lives broken, stained with sin, He desires all to come to Him, to be cleansed by the precious blood of his son Jesus and come and dine at His table.

The weekend bought the arrival of Alan Mackenzie from Port Elizabeth. Then on the Monday Jannie from Bethany baptist church in Vryheid arrived. This meant a wonderful time was had meeting up and introducing fellow believers to each other. Allan had not met Mark and Marie-Anne before. They had only spoken over the phone. We had a blessed time when Calvin from, Carmel and New Guelderland churches, and Kevin Edwards from “Coming Kings Ministries” also got to visit together. Our friends Sean and Catherine from Joberg happened to be in Ballito over that time celebrating their wedding anniversary so they also got to meet everyone. It really was a wonderful time of fellowship and networking the body together.

On the Sunday Salvi preached firstly at the New Guelderland Fellowship bringing the message of “our inheritance that awaits us: the adoption of sons” . The second service held in Stanger itself at the Carmel Church and was the message on “the root of bitterness”. Monday, Jacob Prash arrived to speak at a meeting that was held that evening in Stanger. He had flown from Joberg and would fly out the next day with Alan to port Elizabeth to continue his speaking tour of South Africa before ending in cape town. Jacob spoke on “the signatures of Satan”. This proved to be an excellent message as after the meeting some of the local pastors asked if they could meet together so they could get a better understanding of the scriptures. Leslie Crickmay and Calvin were passionate in wanting to follow up with people who were left with many questions and desired to know more. Just that morning the pastor if the building that Calvin had arrived to have the meeting in, had spoken with Salvi about extra biblical experiences and Salvi had been explaining to him that the “slain in the Spirit” experiences are unbiblical. He was one of the pastors that wants to have follow up bible teachings from Leslie. In this we see the body of Christ working, each having his part to play. Walking with people is vitally important as they grapple to renew there minds and seek the truth of scripture. This takes time, pray and patiences as the scriptures are taught through. (2 Timothy 2 v 24-26.) We thank the Lord for His faithfulness.

We returned home on the Tuesday. Phumlani had faithfully continued ministering to the believers. Genrod had kindly continued to allow the use of there truck over this time.

While in Stanger we were given the provision of a vehicle, a ford ranger truck with a diff lock that someone graciously provided a interest free loan for. The truck is registered in Road to Recovery’s name which is under Alan Mackenzie. We are truly grateful to our lord for this opportunity to have a truck we can use. The last truck which we used was reg in Phumlani name. This was stolen when we were using it, so we are endeavoring to purchase another truck to replace his. We thank the lord that people have felt lead to help in replacing this loss of his truck. He was using the truck for ministry and selling to the local community. Please keep this in pray that we will be led to the right vehicle for Phumlani.

After cell group on the Tuesday and catching up with everyone we returned to the prayer meeting and Bethany baptist bible study on the Wednesday. Earlier in the year Sal had been invited by Mark Hibberd to return to Roodepoort and share the word with home churches which included Mujuru’s fellowship. So on the Thurs morning we headed to our dear friends Jozua and Veronica who live in Secunda to spend a night there. They are dear brethren in the Lord who are constantly praying for the work and have done so since we were in Springs. For those who are interested in Allen and Sue Wells and their family ministry, Bezaleel:

Allen and Sue Wells have been adopting and fostering children who have been infected or affected by AIDS / HIV for coming up to 20 years. They were one of the first families in South Africa to do a cross cultural adoption when Apartheid ended. Their model is that of a family, the children are their own so that we cannot speak of the children as orphans. They are situated in Springs, Gauteng. Sue has given numerous talks and addresses about AIDS to churches and businesses. More information to follow.

For Video of the Bezaleel ministry please click the following links:

Wells Family Part 1:

Wells Family Part 2:

Wells Family Part 3:

(https://kwazulumission.com/associated-ministries-and-churches/)

The next day we visited Allen and Sue Wells and the children on the Friday before reaching Roodepoort on the Saturday where Mark and ourselves drove through to Mujuru and the brethren that side for Salvi to share that evening.

Salvi shared from Matt 7 v 21-27, and other scriptures about ministry and endurance in the last days. Our ministries can not be our security or justification but must overflow from our relationship with Christ. After much fellowship and a meal we drove back to Mark’s and proceeded to talk into the wee hours of the morning ( as you do !!!!!) lol

On the Sunday morning Sal shared the message again on the “Root of Bitterness”. Our friends, the Roux family, were able to visit the fellowship so we we enjoyed catching up with Bianca, who had stayed with us in 2011, and the rest of her family. We have really enjoyed getting to know the people in Mark’s home church. Monday we hit the road early to avoid morning traffic. We stopped in at the Wells to collect a desk for Phumlani and grab a coffee then back on the road for home.

We met Phumlani in town where we returned Genrod’s truck to them. We would like to thank Genrod for their huge support to the work of the Lord. Every time something has come up with the vehicle wether that be, crashed, broken down, stolen they have provided us with truck for that time. We are truly grateful Genrod !!!!!!!

This month we look forward to the visit of Allen and Sue’s son, Clayton with his wife visiting from the UK with a couple of their South African friends. We have almost finished the book of Romans and so next month we are hoping to start a series on marriage as we have found Christian marriages to be under attack. We are at the moment counseling one couple in particular in the area we live to work through certain issues. Please pray for them.

To all our friends and fellow laborers may we press on looking always to the return of our coming King.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

________________________________________________________

For those who are interested the KwaZulu Mission teaching website has more teachings uploaded with a couple by the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid and Mark Van Niekerk of Hazorim. Some teachings are also in Zulu. http://www.sermon.net/msindisi . More teachings will be posted in the future.

EMETH – A CALL TO TRUTH AND CONSISTENCY

PART 3: EMETH AND THE SCRIPTURES

TRUTH IS BOUND UP IN THE WORD

As we have seen in the previous studies, Truth is a vitally important subject. Truth is more than correct doctrine but is also personal, for Truth is manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. Truth is important for God is Truth. Truth is dependable, stable and accounts for all reality because Truth is bound up in the infinite creator God. We said that when we come to God’s word we are not to have the mind set of being engaged only in an intellectual exercise but we are to know that we are cultivating intimacy with the Lord. We are to get into the word and the word is to get into us. In this study we are going to look at the relationship between the Truth and the Bible. In John 17:17 we see that Truth is defined as the Word. “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” God’s word is not simply true but it is Truth. One of the problems with Post Modernism is that it supposes that Truth must be known through experience. Now I do believe in an experiential theology. I believe in experience. When the scripture speaks of belief and repentance and the working of the Spirit through the members of the body with spiritual graces, God means for us to experience these things and not merely to give verbal assent. However I am strongly against experiential based theology. We must not argue concerning the truth of something based on subjective experience alone.

In Acts 15:1-18 Paul and Barnabas testified to all the signs and wonders that God worked among the Gentiles as evidence that God had accepted Gentiles into the kingdom without the need for them to become Jews. When James makes his pronouncement he completely ignores the issue of signs and wonders and highlights how Simeon’s argument had the clear backing of scripture. In this case the man with the argument was not at the mercy of the man with the experience. We can praise the Lord for when He has allowed us to experience Him in unusual ways that do not contradict His word. We may experience the Lord charismatically, according to His will and timing, which can not be invoked. However it is highly dangerous to be seeking the experiential high or to use experience as the barometer of Truth. Signs, as the word suggests, are not the reality. They are merely pointers to the reality. When God gives us a sign it is pointing us to something greater than the sign. If I am on the N2 to Durban I may see a sign pointing to Durban. If I stand under the sign and glorify in the sign, the drivers watching me as they go past will think that I am a lunatic. The real issue is not, do we have signs in our church? The issue is, IF there are signs what is the significance of those signs and what are they pointing to? The ultimate question then is, ‘Is the significance of those signs in line with the Word in its scriptural context? We cannot know the Truth by experience alone or even primarily by experience. Truth is bound up in the Word.

The way to know the Truth is explained by Jesus in John 8:30-32. “As He spoke these things many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”” Many times we quote verse 32 without reference to verse 31. We say that because we are a Church that stands for Truth, then we will know the Truth and the Truth will make us free. But verse 31 says that if we continue in Jesus’ Word, then we are truly His disciples and THEN we will know the Truth which will make us free. What does it mean to continue in Jesus’ word? Does it simply mean to keep preaching correct doctrine? That is part of it but we can preach Truth without continuing in Jesus’ word. Abiding in Jesus’ word is seen more clearly when we compare John 15:7 with John 15:10. To continue in Jesus’ word means to practically do what He has told us to do, not merely to speak correct words. The Hebrew word for disciple is ‘Talmid’ and comes from the verb ‘Lilmod’ which means to study. A disciple is a student or a learner. The problem with looking at this concept from a western mind is that we think of a classroom situation and the apprehending of intellectual knowledge. But the education that a Jewish Rabbi gave was more holistic than that. The student did not only learn intellectual knowledge but also observed and emulated the living example of his teacher.

In the Jewish tractate ‘Pirke Abot’ there are two stories concerning Rabbi Hillel. One day Hillel was walking somewhere and people asked him where he was going? Hillel answered that he was going to carry out a commandment. When asked which commandment he was carrying out Hillel would say that he was going to the lavatory. Then people asked if that really was a commandment and Hillel then answered, “Yes indeed, so that the body does not deteriorate.” In the other story Hillel equates having a wash in the bathhouse with obedience to God’s commandments. In other words God’s law, His teaching, was to apply to every area of life. There was no theological ivory tower separated from the concerns of everyday life in Jewish theology.

Jesus walked in this vein as a Jewish Rabbi. When Jesus said “if you continue in My word” He meant a practical abiding in His teaching throughout the reality of everyday life. It is through obedience to the Word, in this context, that we will know the Truth, and then and only then will the Truth make us free. It is the Word that defines and explains Truth to us. Obedience must then be a response to the Word of God. This is why 2 Timothy 2:15 enjoins all preachers and ministers to be diligent to show themselves approved to God as workmen that do not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of Truth. The reason for this is because our handling of the Word and how we interpret the Word will affect our obedience to it. So on the one hand we keep in mind that the purpose of Study of God’s word is primarily to know God. But we also keep in mind that our study must lead us to walk in His ways actually in the daily reality of all the spheres of our lives. If we wrongly handle the word we will not be walking in God’s ways but in that which we assume to be His ways. This is why James 3:1 warns us not to let many be teachers for they will be judged harsher than the rest of the body. The reason for this is because of the great potential of the teacher to lead everybody down the wrong path, not only in wrong doctrine but in speech that is full of cursing towards brothers in Christ. Just as a small rudder can change the whole course of a ship, so too the small tongue of the bible teacher can change the whole course of the congregation.

Obedience implies subordination. Our relation to the Word must be that of subservient obedience. What right do we have to hold the Word over other peoples heads when we pay no attention to our own transgressions of the Word of God. As Psalm 50:16-21 states, “But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant to your mouth? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you associate with adulterers. You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.” When someone does not have a disposition of subservient obedience to the word of God, when they will not bow their knee to the authority of God’s word there will be a necessary distortion of God’s character in their mind. This is acutely related to the phenomenon that Bible theologians call ‘the hermeneutical circle’. When we get saved and start to read scripture we often still have the same cultural way of looking at things as before we got saved. This is where Gnostocism arose from. People who were platonists before they got saved would interpret the bible in light of their platonic thought and then those ideas were expanded and developed over time. Romans 12:2 relates to us the importance of having our minds renewed so that we may be transformed. As long as our old way of thinking is compatible with scripture then we have no problem. But sooner something in scripture will not gel with our way of thinking and we find that in someway the scripture does not make sense or is not agreeable with us.

There are two ways to deal with it. Firstly we can subordinate scripture to our way of thinking. This alienates us from scripture and keeps scripture obscure to the realm of our understanding. Therefore we are locked into a never ending cycle where we get no where nearer to really understanding scripture and claim that it is impossible to know what large sections of it mean. It is a never ending hermeneutical circle. The second way we can deal with it is to submit ourselves to the authority of God’s word so that if we find that scripture genuinely contradicts our world view that we change our world view to conform to scripture. Either conform scripture to our beliefs or we must conform our beliefs to scripture. When we take the first route scripture will be seem so difficult to understand. We may believe that we are following God but in changing His revelation we distort His character and like Psalm 50 says, we presume that God is just like us. When we take the second route we find that scripture starts to make more sense because of the life of Christ in us. We are not locked in a never ending circle of interpreting scripture but never able to come to the meaning but as we are constantly changed we get nearer and nearer to the scriptural worldview and so the hermeneutical circle has become a spiral narrowing closer and closer to an accurate understanding of scripture in its own context.

In showing the Jewish people their own lostness and need for a saviour Paul, in Romans 2:17-23, highlights Jewish privilege. Israel had a name of Jew, they relied in the law and boasted in God. They claimed knowledge of God’s will, were able to discern the important things of God’s law, were called to be a light to the blind, a corrector of the foolish and a teacher of the immature. Paul asks a very personal question to them in verse 21. When they teach another, do they not teach themselves? Are they guilty in any shape of form of the same sins they speak against? Such double standards and hypocrisy brings dishonour to God’s name. In verse 24 Paul quotes from Isaiah 52:5. When ever you see a New Testament writer quoting the Old Testament you need to take time to see what the Old Testament quote means in its own context. Only then will you fully understand the point that the New Testament writer is making and how it applies. In the context of Isaiah, God’s name was blasphemed among the Assyrians who had captured the northern tribes of Israel and exiled them. Ezekiel 36:20 shows why the Assyrians would have been blaspheming God’s name. When a nation went to war, it was not only they who were fighting. They believed that the gods of their tribe were fighting the gods of their enemies. God had to surrender Israel to Assyria because their sins needed to be judged. But Assyria did not see it in that light. From their point of view, their gods had defeated YHWH, the God of Israel and so they mocked Israel asking where their God was. When we profess the Truth of God’s word faithfully, God will hold us to that standard. There is something really disconcerting about being a church that stands for Truth. God will not be more lenient with us for holding to being on ‘the right side’ of His Word. The only church in Revelation that Jesus threatened to remove the candle stick of was Ephesus, the church that most notably held to doctrinal truth. The only thing that they had wrong with them was not heresy, or immorality, nor was it heavy shepherding. The only thing that was wrong with Ephesus was that they left their first love. That was enough for the Lord to put an end to that congregation!

The Lord is calling us to be obedient to God’s word. Then we will know the Truth. Then we will shine the light. Then we will see God as He is and not according to our preference. Our attitude to the word of Truth must be one of subservience. There is no one above the word for the word is the embodiment and arbiter of Truth. By it we seek to walk in righteousness and without it we are lost. This concerns more than doctrinal statements but touches all of our Christian life as the next part in this series shows us.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 101 Feb 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

Dear Friends and family,

We thank the Lord for His faithfulness to us this month. Quite a number of things have transpired. Towards the end of last year we made a DVD of our lives and ministry in KZN, South Africa which we sent to friends and family. We have now uploaded the video files onto you tube and they are available to all interested in viewing them. To view them please find the links by clicking on the following page:

KwaZulu Mission Video

At the beginning of the month we had a couple visit from New Zealand. The husband was originally from Vryheid and his wife was from New Zealand and is a hair dresser. We were taken by surprise when we found out that she had done her training at the very same college that Di was employed as a tutor before coming out to South Africa. In fact his wife was taught by Di’s colleague the year after Di left New Zealand and she had heard about Di and here she was sitting in our Zulu house with her husband. They both love the Lord and are seeking His truth.

During this month we went to the physiotherapist to see about Di’s shoulder and for Salvi to pick up massage techniques to help with Di’s frozen shoulder. We found that on one of Di’s movements there was a 5 degree improvements but in all the others her movement has improved by 50%. That was so encouraging. Now Di has other exercises she has been given to do. While we were in Gauteng in December, Di’s laptop crashed, and so we were stuck without a computer to work from. Some friends in New Zealand wrote that they had put money in Di’s account feeling prompted by the Lord to give towards a new laptop.

Around the same time, we had gotten the windscreen refitted on the truck and after Salvi picked it up he parked it on the road to pick up new windscreen wipers and upon coming out of the shop found that the truck had been stolen. Salvi first went to the police station and opened up a case. While at the police station Hendrik and Craig, from Genrod, turned up with keys for one of their business vehicles which they have loaned to us. Their business Genrod has been such a huge blessing and source of help and support without which we would have been stranded on several occasions. Sadly we heard that five other trucks of the same make had been stolen on the same day. Most people we speak to think that it was a syndicate from Swazi land who cross the border through farm land. No body in Vryheid seems to hold out any hope that the police are capable of tracking down the criminals. This was disappointing to hear because we had the bakkie signed on Phumlani’s name and the keys were going to be handed back to him once we and the brethren in Port Elisabeth had saved enough to get a Nissan 4×4 that was offered to us. During this state of emergency we found out that the Nissan bakkie had been sold but our brother and the guy who heads up the ministry we are under, Alan Mackenzie, had found a Ford Ranger 2.5 Diesel, one and a half cab with a diff lock that the owner agreed to sell. Another lovely brother in the Lord from KwaZulu Natal has given an interest free loan and so they purchased the vehicle for the ministry and it will be in our possession until one day, we would have to leave South Africa. There will be scriptures sign written on the vehicle which will make the vehicle very noticeable and hopefully a deterrent to thieves as well as being a “vehicle” for communicating the gospel, excuse the pun. Some other brothers have given some finances, as well as Phumlani himself and a little bit of finances have been raised towards a new truck for Phumlani. We are busy trying to find something within the price range so please pray that we are guided to the right vehicle for him. He then may be able to start his small business again which he has not done since Salvi had the accident.

On a very positive note Di received her visa yesterday for 2 years. Her last visa expired 2 years ago so in effect Di has been given 4 years in the country which is one more year than she originally applied for. We were really jubilant.

Cell group has been going well. We are still going through Romans and as a cell group being united more and more in our understanding of God’s word and in our love for one another. After we do Romans Salvi is planning on doing a series on marriage as we feel that marriages are under huge pressure and attack in these days. The discipleship group at Alpha as well as Church and kids club faithfully continue and exponential growth is clearly evident in Mr Khumalo. Please pray for the children of kids club concerning their salvation, especially the older children, Zanele, Zuzu, Menzi and Ntandeka. They understand the gospel very clearly but have not given their lives to the Lord yet. This last month we received toy Koala clips from Pam Mott in Australia and the kids loved receiving these prizes.

This last month Salvi preached at Bethany baptist church one Sunday evening on the root of bitterness which is a teaching he will share with other churches. During february Salvi will be teaching it in Stanger with the brethren at Calvin Josiah and Mark Van Niekerk’ churches. While we are in Stanger, God willing, we will pick up the ministry vehicle and be able to drive back to Vryheid in it. The following week end we will be traveling up to Gauteng to speak at a meeting of three home churches that we spoke of last time. They are keen to have Salvi speak there at various intervals during the year as they were touched by the last time we visited them. Glory to God that He knows how to stir our hearts. But we are so grateful that Genrod have agreed to leave the bakkie with Phumlani until we get back from Gauteng.

This week we had the pleasure of Mark Van Niekerk and his wife MarieAnne visit us for two evenings. They stayed in Vryheid but put Mark to work in ministering about Israel. Mark is an preaching who has been doing short term mission trips to Israel since around 1997. His passion for Israel is unrivaled by anyone we have personally met. The ministry enables anybody who loves the Lord to gain opportunity to witness to Jews and Arabs in the Land of Israel in the most natural way while enjoying the study of God’s word at the historical sites. Their website is http://www.hazorim.org for those interested. We had Mark share his heart at the discipleship group at Alpha and Mark, being a fluent Xhosa speaker shared in isiXhosa which is very similar to isiZulu. The guys received the truth of the word so easily which had a profound effect on Mark who said that “uneducated” Zulus can understand that God has not finished with the Jews. He said, “It takes you to go to bible college to learn replacement theology.” Mark also shared on the Tuesday evening with the cell group which met at our place. He left an impression on our hearts and one of the members is positively reeling with questions as so much has opened up for her. A Zimbabwean believer, teaching in a local school and who is somewhat sound in the faith, visited the meeting and was very blessed as we were to meet him again. We plan on working somewhat with him when we share the gospel in his area. We also had Mesuli visit from church before heading down to Rhodes varsity to study pharmacy. He is probably the only Zulu in the whole of the surrounding areas who is in university. Please pray for his needs to be met and for biblically based believers to surround him. He is yet to be grounded in the word but has a heart for truth. He shared that when he hears Mark, Phumlani or Salvi teach he can’t stop thinking about his christian friends who have no idea about these truths of scripture. On the previous Sunday we had a special leaving service for Mesuli at the home of his family. It was a huge testimony to the grace of God on Phumlani’s life. On Wednesday evening Mark also shared at Bethany Baptist Church with similar effect and peoples’ hearts we’re also stirred.

Evangelism has continued with Salvi now being able to join Phumlani with sharing the gospel through Ngenitsheni. Mrs MaNqele seems to have gone colder towards the Gospel but we still pray for her.

Sadly we have heard that our brother in the Lord at Alan’s church in Port Elisabeth, has gone home. James has left behind Nella, his wife and our prayers are with her. We are happy for James as he was a real man of God with a jubilant and gracious disposition. We know he is with the Lord but we also know how hard it can be for loved ones left behind.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

________________________________________________________

For those who are interested the KwaZulu Mission teaching website has more teachings uploaded with a couple by the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid. Some teachings are also in Zulu. http://www.sermon.net/msindisi . More teachings will be posted in the future.

 

EMETH – A CALL TO TRUTH AND CONSISTENCY

PART 2: GOD IS EMETH

In the first part of this series about EMETH we saw that we live in a world that is skeptical that absolute Truth exists or can be known. This mindset has crept into churches who are more concerned about promoting harmony and peace than being in the Truth. But we have also seen that Truth matters and must be predicated on God’s word. There are also pastors concerned about error and doctrinal apostasy but Truth must concern more than right doctrine. Our understanding of Truth must be more comprehensive and apply to all areas of Christian life. During the next 3 parts in this series on EMETH we are going to look at various aspects of Truth. But first we must start with God. God is the foundation, the beginning and the end of Truth. God is Truth.

In John 14:6 Jesus claimed to be the Truth. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” From this we automatically see that Truth is not to be relegated to the level of a tick list, that if we can tick all the right boxes then we are in the Truth. Truth is something personal and relational for Truth is manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is THE Truth. This automatically calls for a reorienting of our perspective. I want to emphasise here that Truth cannot be separated from dogmatism in certain areas. The idea of Truth being something personal does not negate the reality that with Truth there are black and white issues. For example, if I do not believe that Jesus was born of a virgin I am not in the Truth. If I deny the Lord ship of Christ and teach that Jesus gave all authority to the church, I am not in the Truth. There are fundamentals that need to be held on to tenaciously if we are to be concerned about Truth. Truth concerns the acceptance of correct statements concerning God, the Word and the world in which we live. There can be no hobnobbing with erroneous teaching. However if purity of doctrinal statements is all we have, I feel that we have the true and necessary crust of Truth, the right container, but we are lacking the kernel and the heart. Truth is ultimately the person of Jesus Christ and this means we have to relate to Him. Jesus cannot concern less than right doctrinal statements but He is more.

If we look at the word EMETH, we see something remarkable. The Hebrew word means Truth as something ‘stable, certain, established, faithful, right, firmness and sureness’ and comes from the verb Aman meaning, ‘to build up, confirm and support’. In other words, you can depend on Truth. Truth is sure and will never let you down. Aman is where we get the words “emunah” meaning faith, faithfulness or truth, and the word “Amen”. When Jesus said to His disciples “Truly, truly” or “Verily, verily” He literally said “Amen, amen” meaning that it was more sure than sure, or that what He was saying was emphatically true. In Hebrew thought a word that is repeated twice makes that word intensive. It is very, or thoroughly true. EMETH does not merely mean that something is correct. EMETH means that something is so strong, so sure, that it does not matter what is thrown at it, Truth always prevails. Thus Truth must be big enough to account for all of reality. Truth is not only true in one context of life. Truth is not only true when people believe in it. Truth is true even if no one believes in it. That is why Jesus could claim that He is the Truth. Jesus, being God, was able to claim that He is the Truth because only God is infinite. Only God is big enough to account for all reality whether scientific, moral, psychological, artistic or spiritual. One reason why error has crept into the church is because people have doubted this one tenet and believed that God cannot account for everything. They relegate the bible to the level of doctrinal truth but do not see the bible as having anything to say concerning church growth. So they turn to the philosophies of the business and marketing world which are based on a world view that has more in common with pantheism than it does with the bible. Pantheism believes in the interconnectivity and God and all nature and between all living things.

God must be the beginning and end of Truth. The very Hebrew word for Truth demonstrates this fact. The word EMETH is made up of three Hebrew letters. Remember Hebrew does not have written vowels. In both ancient and modern Hebrew vowels are not used. Only with the transcribing of the Old Testament by the Masoretes were the markings, called vowel points, added to guide pronunciation. But the three letters that make up EMETH are Aleph (which is a silent letter given a sound by the vowel point assigned to it) Mem and Tav. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, Mem is the 13th letter and Tav is the last, the 22nd letter. At the beginning of EMETH there is the Aleph and at the end is the Tav. These two letters have the place in the Hebrew Alphabet that the letters Alpha and Omega have in the Greek Alphabet. In Revelation 1:8 God says that He is the Alpha and the Omega, which Jesus also claims to be in Revelation 22:13. So when we convert this into Hebrew we see that God is the Aleph and the Tav. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. God is at the beginning and end of Truth, Truth is in Him. Not only this, but when we look at the numerical value of the Aleph, this also demonstrates the theological truth of God as Truth. Each letter of the Hebrew Alphabet has a numerical value. The Aleph, being the first letter has the numerical value 1. This number represents God for God is one. Deuteronomy 6:4 says that Yahweh God is ‘one’. There is no other God except the God of scripture. Thus when you take that which represents God out of Truth, when you take the Aleph out of EMETH, you are left with the letters Mem and Tav. You are left with Met. Met means ‘dying’ or ‘dies’ or ‘dead’. When I want to say ‘He is dying’ in Hebrew I would say, ‘Hu met’. In other words when you take God out of Truth, you are left with death and Truth dies. Truth undergirds everything and so only God can encompass Truth.

Look at John 1:14. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” To understand the significance of this verse one must understand the influence of platonic thought on the Judaism of Alexandria. John, in his Gospel, was hitting against hyper platonic thought. Plato was a Greek philosopher from Athens born in 428BC. One of the main ideas Plato taught was that everything in the physical realm was a pale and dim picture of the higher spiritual reality. Platonic thought developed over time and was a huge influence upon a Jew in Alexandria called Philo who lived between 20BC and 50AD. Philo believed that Plato got his best ideas from Moses and also taught that that the literal sense of scripture was unimportant. What mattered most was the hidden spiritual meaning. This would lead into the ‘Christian’ Gnostic theology that was conveyed by later apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas. Though it is true that Gnosticism as a theological system was not in existence until the second century AD, the seeds of it are evident in the Apostolic era as Apostles like Paul in Colossians and John in 1 John were obviously battling those developing Platonic ideas. Ultimately one of the fundamental premises of Platonic thought at the time of the Apostles was that everything physical, was not only a lesser reality than the spiritual, but was even evil. Only that which was spiritual was good. Thus the idea developed that the spirit was from God but the physical was from the Devil. These ideas would even develop later in church history to the idea that the creator God of the Old Testament was evil and Jesus came from the true spiritual God to liberate us from the God of the Old Testament. But one of the fundamental ideas was that man’s spirit was trapped by evil flesh and so salvation concerned the liberation of that which was spiritual from its enslavement in the flesh. The path of salvation was that of ascending through various levels of knowledge hidden from those who had yet to reach that stage of enlightenment.

So the quest for salvation was an ongoing journey of ascending and being initiated into new and higher levels of secret knowledge. The higher you got the more spiritual you were. John wrote his gospel to correct these ideas so that his readers might obtain real salvation. For John there IS a hidden knowledge but that knowledge is hidden from those who reject the gospel. There is only one initiation and that is to believe on the Son of God. There are no other levels of hidden knowledge. Jesus came to manifest the Father to people born in sin who cannot ascend to know Him because they are blinded by sin. Jesus came to make the seeing blind and the blind seeing. The main problem is not a lack of enlightenment but moral guilt and rebellion against the creator. So the first idea John hits against is that spiritual and physical cannot mix. The physical realm is fallen but is not intrinsically evil. The Word BECAME flesh, human flesh. Gnostics and hyper Platonists could not accept this. But secondly Jesus manifested the knowledge of God for ordinary people to see. People only need to believe in Jesus’ words as taught by the Apostles to see it. In John 1:14 John writes that the Word became flesh and ‘dwelt’ among us. The word in Greek for ‘dwelt’ is ‘Skeenee’ and if you look at the consonants, skn, you will be interested to know that they are derived from the Hebrew word ‘Shachen’ which means ‘dwell’ or ‘tabernacle’. The modern Hebrew word ‘Shachen’ means neighbour. But this is where the Jews developed the word ‘Shekinah’ meaning God’s glory which dwelt in the tabernacle. The Old Testament text was paraphrased into Aramaic by Jewish people who wanted to explain their interpretation of Old Testament passages in people’s ordinary language. These paraphrases were called Targums and were used in Jewish synagogues to help the hearers understand a passage in scripture. Often, in the Targums, the word Shekinah is used to speak of God’s glory in the tabernacle.

This is exactly what John is trying to communicate. We do not have to ascend to God’s level, indeed we cannot even try, so God’s glory came down to us and tabernacled in the flesh. John says that the glory of the only begotten of the Father was full of grace and truth. What is this glory? The Hebrew word for glory is ‘Kavod’ and it comes from a word meaning heavy. Often we think of glory in a visual sense as something that radiates light and this surely fits in with what John writes in the first chapter of his gospel. But what exactly is the Glory of God? How can we define it? John 17:5-7 speaks of the glory that Jesus had with the Father before the world began. In John 1:4 this glory is defined as life, which is also the light of men. Life and light are synonymous but describe different aspects of God’s glory. This heavily ties into John 17:3 which defines eternal life as the knowledge of God. In fact scripture contains the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is eternal life, the life is the light of men and hardly surprisingly Psalm 119:105 declares that God’s word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Life is the knowledge of God and that life is also light. Hence, the knowledge of God is the glory of God. This is made even clearer when we read Exodus 33:18 where Moses asks God to show him His glory. God says that no man can see Him and live but in Exodus 33:19-22 God says that He will make all His goodness pass by Moses and in verse 22 refers to that goodness as His glory.

In Exodus 34:6-7, when God passes by Moses, the way that God reveals His glory to Moses is by preaching His own attributes. And God’s attributes can be summed up in two phrases. Firstly they speak of ‘God’s abundant mercies in forgiveness’ and secondly they speak of ‘God’s uncompromising judgment of His truth.’ God’s glory is full of grace and Truth. Truth cannot be separated from God’s grace and God’s grace cannot be separated from His Truth. When we dismiss one for the sake of the other we fall short of God’s glory as it is and hold onto a mere caricature. God is Truth and everything about His nature are all aspects of His Truth. Thus to not permit God to touch certain aspects of our lives, beliefs and preferences is to stop short of Truth. But Truth is first and foremost about God. Without Him there is no Truth, and Truth involves a personal relationship with Him in 2 way interaction. In short Truth means walking with Jesus. When you come to scripture do you study with the knowledge that you are having a personal encounter with the Lord? He will meet you in His word. As knowing Truth is more than intellectual assent, there must be a readiness to do what the Lord tell us to do. I want to encourage you to appreciate the personal aspect of Truth, that you study of the Word as a form of intimacy with the PERSON of Jesus Christ. Your study of the Word is a form of worship. There are two relationships that we are to have with the Word. We must get into the Word. That means that we must take time to read and to study it. But also we need to let the Word get into us, into our hearts and minds. We must receive the word implanted which is able to save our souls and the relationship of Truth with scripture is what we will examine in Part 3 of this series.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 100 Jan 2013

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

Dear Friends and family,

We thank the Lord for His faithfulness throughout 2012 and for bringing us safely into 2013. We have just returned from 3 weeks of house sitting for our friends Morne and Doret Lombard in Boksburg. Boksburg is between Springs and Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng. We went there because we promised them to look after their place while they were on holiday, as a blessing for them, but it became a real blessing for us. Before we went to Gauteng we had a party for the kids at kids club. Our friends at Pilgrim fellowship in Melbourne, Australia sent some bookmarks and lots of goodies which we gave to the kids for the end of the year. We bought some party food and the kids had a great time. Also we celebrated the birthday of a little girl called Lusando. Her mother bought her a cake and a present which she wanted given at the kids club itself! On the Sunday Salvi taught on biblical giving as previously he had taught against the imposition of the tithe on born again believers so felt that some practical instruction on the right way to give was in order. The meeting was a huge blessing for a couple of new people from Ngenitsheni came with MamaNqele who we still pray for concerning her salvation. She still has not committed her life to the Lord. At the same time we also had an old friend from Alpha visit the church for the first time. His name is Lancelot, a very good English speaker who used to work for the South African Police in Gauteng. He has made a mess of his life and needs the Lord. While Salvi was picking up the brethren from Alpha, he was sat waiting by the side of the road to be picked up for Church. Also at Church we had our new neighbor, Mrs Mtshali visit. She had Thabi visiting her which caused Mrs Mtshali to want to ask Phumlani questions on the bible. Both Salvi and Phumlani visited her and both shared with her concerning the Gospel. So it was encouraging to see her at the meeting. After Church Phumlani and Thabi dropped us off in town so that Kim could take us through to Gauteng. This meant we could leave the truck for Phumlani to continue doing the ministry. Kim had to go through to fetch her mother from Gauteng and so that saved us the bus fare to get there.

While we were away, Phumlani continued with the church and the bible study in Alpha. The cell group took a break for the Christmas period. He also gave out some of the children’s jumpers sent from the faithful knitters in Australia as he went through to evangelise in Ngenitsheni. Several people asked for prayer for various things and last week Phumlani drew quite a crowd to hear the Gospel. One man in particular was very aggressive wanting to know what Phumlani was doing in the area. After Phumlani gently explained that he was there to share the word of God the man calmed down and thanked him! It has been a blessing to see Phumlani growing in confidence, especially when teaching in the cell group. There is an authority in his teaching and the group has grown to know and respect him.

In Gauteng we spent some time with the Lombards before they left and then visited our brothers, Mujuru and the home fellowship in Pretoria. Salvi shared at their cell group in the evening on the stilling of the storm and Jesus’ identity and mission. Mujuru was very encouraged as it has been hard since his wife passed away. We met up with him on another occasion to give him some bible teaching at a mall in a place called Irene. While we were looking for somewhere to have lunch Salvi stumbled across some Israeli Jews selling skin care products. Salvi shared his limited Hebrew with them which opened up a conversation of getting to know one another. As we are believers in the Jewish Messiah it was inevitable to share something of the gospel but their minds were very post modern and did not see the Old Testament as something they needed to read stating that they can feel in themselves whether something is true or false. But we shared what we could and invited one of the young men to visit us in KwaZulu Natal if he is ever around so we can take him to see some of the sites around us and to bless him.

We met up with other friends, Tony and Sonja, Sean and Kathryn and Salvi’s Hebrew teacher, Carmit and her friend Val on a couple of occassions, as well as Carmit’s husband Jason the second time. At Jason and Carmit’s home we had a braai. It was nice to get to know Val and we look forward to Val and Carmit’s possible visit this year.

On the first Sunday Salvi spoke at a meeting of two home cells in Roodeport. One of the home cells started up after a certain church in Gauteng closed down. Salvi encouraged them with the message on Haggai about building God’s house. After the meeting one young girl who had given her life to the Lord the day before was baptised is the pool. This was at the home of a precious couple, called Mark and Paula Hibberd whom the Lord is using to encourage and bless these brothers.

We visited an old friend from a special needs home, Vita Nova, called Sue Rabie. Salvi has known her for over ten years. She was in hospital after a bad fall. We also visited the guys at Vita Nova and Salvi played some hymns and choruses for them and shared a bible story about the handicapped man, Mephibosheth, whom David had sit at his table. It is always a blessing to see them worshipping the Lord with all their hearts and without inhibition. This was followed by a Braai at Alan and Sue’s place. Alan and Sue, for those who do not know, run a family based ministry called Bezaleel in which they adopt and foster 11 children full time, plus two grandchildren part time! Their ministry details are on this website, just click on the tab above entitled “Associated Ministries and Churches” and scroll down. The food was all provided by a couple called Martin and Jenny from Alan’s local church which we visited the next day. On Christmas day Alan, Sue, kids and grand kids came to the Lombard residence for a Braai and to celebrate their second eldest daughter, Lizzie’s birthday.

It was good to catch up with friends and also a couple called Rob and Rosa. Rob is the pastor of a baptist church. It was such a shame that we didn’t have more time with them but we had to pack to get back to KwaZulu Natal. The youth from Rob’s church should be visiting us at some time this year. Salvi also finished his assignment of his first module for his degree level. So four modules to go! Di sewed herself a top and did the recording of our finances. We also had a suitable rest while in Gauteng and were able to take a few days just to relax and swim.

We came back on the bus and today Salvi and Phumlani went out to preach the Gospel. Many people left when Salvi hit on ancestors but two older ladies stayed to listen. One of the ladies looked very serious and stern but Phumlani said that she came to hear him speak and stayed for the whole message last time he was there. Phumlani has made huge progress through the area and by the end of next week we should be ready to start preaching in another area of Ngenitsheni, the last area before we leave Ngenitsheni and go to Khambi.

Some really good news to share with you! When Salvi first came to live in the area with Caleb and Sophie, they learned to speak Zulu with the help of a young man called Simon Khumalo. Simon also interpreted and translated bible materials into Zulu when the guys could not. However, Simon never committed his life to the Lord, understanding what it entailed. Just before we left to go to Gauteng we met up with him to record a message for Caleb and Sophie and found out that the year before, March 2011, Simon had given his life to the Lord. He testified that after his grandparents died it was like God gave him his last warning. Simon is married with children and teaches at a local primary school. We plan on visiting him soon now we are back and catching up properly with him. Our friend and brother in the Lord, Mesuli, who got baptised a come of months back has a place at Rhodes University to study pharmaceutical science. He got his place confirmed for university after the deadline for applying for government grants was terminated. Thankfully the bank has awarded him a student loan but he is still R20,000 short of his fees for this year. Please pray for the Lord’s provision for Mesuli. We have good brothers in Port Elizabeth which is an hours drive from his university. Some other good news it that there is slight improvement in Di’s shoulder but a long way to go still. We thank the Lord for His amazing Grace, His faithfulness, His lovingkindness. May the blessing of the Lord be upon you, as we press on!!!! Thank you for your prayers, love, contact and support in its various ways.

Shalom

Salvi and Di

________________________________________________________

For those who are interested the KwaZulu Mission teaching website has more teachings uploaded with a couple by the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid. Some teachings are also in Zulu. http://www.sermon.net/msindisi . More teachings will be posted in the future.

 

EMETH – A CALL TO TRUTH AND CONSISTENCY

PART 1: WHAT IS EMETH?

In Europe, during the Middle ages, the Catholic church kept learning and education restricted to the elite. The Roman Catholic Church was the arbiter of Truth and whatever she pronounced was to be accepted as Truth. Generally speaking, the masses were kept in ignorance and for this reason we term this era ‘the dark ages’. With the crusades of the 11th – 13th centuries, learning, science, technology and Literature, which had been preserved by the Byzantine and Islamic east, were recovered by the west. Thus the west regained Greek editions of the New Testament, where as they previously had only kept the Latin Vulgate. From this Greek text type, called the Byzantine text, along with other texts Erasmus, a Catholic scholar of the 16th century, compiled a Greek New Testament text which came to be known as the Textus Receptus. With the recovery of Greek learning and Erasmus’ monumental work people were able to translate the New Testament into various common languages. People could now plainly read passages of scripture that contradicted the dogmas of the Catholic Church. The Church ceased to be the arbiter of Truth in the minds of Protestant countries. But Protestantism held the Bible to be the ultimate authority and source of Truth. However in the 18th century, with the advancement of human learning, humanism not only rejected the Church as the authority, but they also rejected the Bible. People started to believe that, given time, scientific study, could yield all the answers to life’s questions. If there was a contradiction between conclusions drawn from scientific theory and the Bible, the Bible had to be subordinated to scientific theory.

Yet, despite its claims, humanistic science (which denied that there was any supernatural phenomenon and stated that reality was only to be found in what could be perceived by the five senses), could not prevail over mankind’s innate belief and unshakeable conviction that there must be more to life than this. Some accepted scientific theories have changed. Where as scientists used to hold to the big bang theory, many scientists are starting to hold to the complex theory known as ‘string theory’. Alleged evidence for evolution, such as Piltdown man, Nebraska man and Heidelberg man have been shown to be at best, mistaken for human, at worst deliberate frauds. With the rise of multiculturalism and the phenomenal ability to travel, the west’s caricatures of other religions and people groups have been contradicted by first hand experience of members of those groups and religions. Now we live in a marketplace of ideas, religions and spiritualities that all claim to be true. Some people do not care about eternal matters as long as they can maintain personal peace and affluence. Others, such as Tony Blair, seek to bring dialogue and acceptance between proponents of different religions in the cause of promoting world peace. When one looks at the Catholic Crusades, the inter religious fighting among the Moslems and the failure of Atheistic Communism to create just and fair societies people are inclined to reject dogmatism from any camp. We live in a Post Modern age where people have given up on the notion that any one religion or culture has all the truth. Where as the modern age naively believed that man could discover the Truth through their own objective study, the Post Modern age is skeptical that Truth can even be known.

Though this is a simple analysis of the rise of Post Modernism it does give us some understanding of how the west has gotten to its rejection of absolute Truth. We have an inborn sense that Truth is important. When we feel that we have been deceived in some hurtful way we become skeptical of anything the deceiving party may assert. But Truth still matters. One cannot play about with chemicals the way people play about with religion. To pick and mix ones intake of medication can yield disastrous results. In the areas of chemistry, mathematics, engineering, and medical science, precision can be a matter of life and death. One must deal with things as they really are and not pretend they are something other than they are to suit ones preference. Yet people seem to think that with the spiritual realm anythings goes. I once told a lady, in the nearest town I live to, that my wife and I are sharing the Gospel to Zulu people. She smiled and said, “Oh, that is nice” to which I responded “Only if it is true, only if it is true”. If ones belief system can be likened to a bus service, you can catch the bus that goes to Durban but you are not going to end up at Cape Town, no matter how much you believe and wish for the bus to get there. Truth matters. The New Penguin English dictionary defines Truth as ‘the state of quality of being true or factual’, as ‘distinct from being a lie’, ‘real life’, ‘sincerity in action, character, and speech; honesty’ and ‘loyalty, fidelity or constancy.’ To sum up from the perspective of the English language, Truth speaks of what is really there, whether on a scientific level, a historical level, a relational level or a psychological level. EMETH is a Hebrew word meaning Truth. When we observe churches in South Africa, just like in the Post Modern west, we see mixture. Christian bookstores and TV act as theological candy stores where preference and fashion determine what gets put on the shelves. Various streams of error run simultaneously and not everybody in these streams of error necessarily condone every other stream of error. Those who are into spiritual warfare, in the sense of binding and loosing territorial spirits, are not necessarily into the prosperity gospel. Some people who make a stand against ecumenism may well adhere to the word of faith teaching. But somehow, when we make a stance against one error we can be quite blinded to some of our own sacred cows. Yet it seems that often there is no major concern whether people are in Truth, but more concern about getting churches together in promoting peace and harmony. But if we are to hold to Truth then there needs to be an objective standard by which to judge all experience and doctrine and that standard must be the word of God.

Thank the Lord that there are truth-preaching pastors and leaders concerned about these discernment issues but we all have feet of clay. Pastors have fallen in various sins or have failed in their pastoral and leadership roles, have not set an example, have failed in their concern for the flock and have not maintained the purity of the assembly though they have preached against heresy. There are dangers we face when this happens.

We can turn against the notion of holding onto Truth as being essential because we see those in error sometimes show more integrity in their lives and ministries.

Or else we can do the opposite and maintain “purity of fellowship” by withdrawing from everyone and any church, treating every imperfection as a divisive issue.

Or we can go so hard on the pastor or elder, that not only do we expect him to do the right thing and step down, but WE can ALSO FAIL to do the right thing by not walking with him, supporting him and loving him so that he will start to repent and be restored.

Or lastly we can compromise in order to keep the status quo and turn a blind eye to the issue as something that is unimportant.

These are highly complex issues and we have all failed in some measure to walk the biblical line.

So Truth must concern more than verbal profession. A cursory view of 1 John makes this point very clear. In 1 John, John was battling the claims of the emerging Gnostics, something we will look at more closely in the next part of this series of studies on Emeth. The word Gnostic comes from the Greek word ‘Gnosis’ which means knowledge. These people believed that they were on a higher spiritual plain than other people because they had ascended through various levels of knowledge hidden from ordinary Christians. They boasted that they knew Jesus better than the ordinary believer because of their special revelation knowledge. In 1 John 1:1 John uses very descriptive words concerning his experience of Christ. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-” Notice that John does not say that “I have seen, I have touched.” He speaks as part of a group. The group is the band of apostles who walked with Jesus while he was in the flesh. Even after the resurrection they still saw and touched Him. Basically John is presenting the True Jesus who is the True God and eternal life in contradiction to the false Jesus of the Gnostics which was an idol. In writing to his readership about the Gnostics John is saying, “Yes, the Gnostics say they have seen Jesus. But their Jesus told them that they have total freedom to sin? They saw Jesus in a vision? Well I did not see Jesus in some vision of my mind. I saw Him in reality, in the flesh with others who were also eyewitnesses. And my real Jesus disagrees with their visionary Jesus. So who has the real Jesus? Do not let these phonies disturb your faith!” In verse 6 John writes, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” In other words you can profess all you like but unless there is a nakedness before God, and acknowledgement of the reality of where we are at, we are not practicing Truth. There is no liberty to sin when one is in Truth. There can only be a liberty from sin as one is cleansed. Truth goes hand in hand with holiness.

In 1 John 2:4 John writes “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”. It is not only enough to be honest but we must be consistent with what we profess. In other words we need to practice what we preach. If we do not, it does not matter how much our messages are biblical or how much we claim to be spiritual, the Truth is not in us. Ryrie claims that the word Truth in this verse not only speaks of “correct knowledge, but the demonstration of the reality of God’s love”. Even John writes in 1 John 3:18-20, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is bigger than our heart.” To be in Truth it is imperative to love the brethren. Love is not an optional extra that we should maybe try to get around to some day. Even if we claim that we love the brethren but we cannot give them the time of day then we lie and the Truth is not in us. In 1 John 2:21-22 John writes, “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” If ones doctrine is wrong they are not in the truth. Truth means to see God as He is and not what we suppose He must be like. Doctrine means the verbal and intellectual expression or explanation of that vision of God as He is. Doctrine means teaching. Our teaching has to be right if we are to be in Truth. So we see that Truth cannot be less than right doctrine but it has to be more.

We need a more comprehensive and biblical understanding of Truth, one that consists of more than contending for the faith. Truth must be professed but more importantly it must also be practiced. Does this challenge you in any way? Do you find that you are so focussed on one aspect of Truth that you have an incomplete appreciation for the significance of Truth in all areas? If so, please do not merely acknowledge it intellectually and speak it verbally. Will you pray today and each day for the Lord to guide you into all Truth by the leading of His Spirit? Do you desire Truth in all areas of your life, your family, you ministry and your churches? Take time to meditate and dwell on Truth as something that applies to every area of our lives and in the next study we will look at the aspect of “God is Emeth”.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 99 Dec 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

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

Dear Friends and family,

Thank you to the knitters in Aussie the last box of Jumpers arrived safely this month many have been given out in the community but more still need to go.

This month we had Kevin and Michele with the three boys visit us from “Coming King Ministries “. They arrived from Salt Rock on the Friday night so we where able to visit with Johnny and Kim, Guy and Nicky as we are going through the Francis Schaeffer DVD series on church history. Sat morning was kids club where Kevin taught on “talking with God” both groups stayed together after the singing. That week we also gave out what
Oakhurst Insurance had kindly donated for each of the kids at kids club, a fleece blanket and T Shirt embroidered with Jesus loves me in English and Thanda UJesu in Zulu (Love Jesus). The kids where delighted and now wear there T shirts each week. Thank you !!!

Kevin and the family had to leave on the sat due to there own ministry comments on the Sunday. It was a pleasure having them with us and we were grateful to see them later in the month when we visited Stanger sharing a meal with them and Leslie then attended there bible study.

After many delays due to bad weather Lorens ( Johnny and Kim’s youngest boy ) decided he would get baptised in Bethany Baptist church. He asked Salvi if he could do it. So Jannie led the service and the message while Sal baptised Lorens. It was a lovely morning with family and friends. A couple of hours after the service we were both on the bus heading to Joberg.

Phumlani and Salvi have been able to resume evangelism in Ngenitsheni and we have caught up with Mrs MaNxele who still showed interest in the gospel. We trust that she will commit her life to the Lord. Phumlani baptised Jabulani’s brother, Jeffrey who has been visiting our meetings on and off for a year or so depending on where he is living. He testified that he had given his life to the Lord a little while ago at an evangelistic meeting and understood the gospel.

Sadly our dear friend Murjuru lost his wife Rachel to cancer. Rachel left behind a huge testimony of her love for the Lord. Many people shared of her witness. Our prays and thoughts are with you Mujuru at this difficult time. She was a special lady and mother but we give thanks that we are only parted from her for a time because we will see our dear sister again.

At the same time of Rachel’s death we also got news that Clayton Wells, dear friend and best man Jaques had died suddenly. Our hearts were broken for Marianne his wife and Seth, their boy. While there we were able to attend his service and get to see Clayton who had flown out from the UK to support Marianne. We continue to pray for you both who have lost your loved ones.

Gogo had an appointment this month in Pietermaritzburg hospital which is a 6 hour drive away for a further consultation with a specialist concerning her cancer. This was a huge thing for her and she was very fearful. After getting there she discovered it was a waste of time due to the specialist not being able to read her Vryheid hospital report and that the appropriate test had not even been done. She was told to return to Vryheid hospital to get the tests done then return. Sadly this is common. Vryheid hospital has a shocking reputation for its lack of service and care. Many public hospitals in SA tell you to bring your own blanket. The conditions can be shocking. Please keep her in pray over her health and salvation.

Our church fellowship “Ibandla Lendlela Eyodwa” had the opportunity to visit another fellowship in the area of Cliffdale who follow the word of God. Bonginkosi Zakwe is the pastor. This man had married Phumlani and Thabi over a year ago. Salvi had been asked to help interpret for Jannie from the Bethany Baptist church as he was preaching there. We saw it as a way for all the church to visit if they wished. All were keen, so we all piled into the back of the bakkie with blankets to keep warm. Phumlani introduced the church and at the time of singing Zuzu and Zanele sang a solo beautifully.

The end of the month was ‘Care Bear Preschool’s graduation for grade R preschoolers and the Christmas break up party. These two days were very special to us, Belinda, Chris and all the staff do an amazing job. The kids and parents love it. Salvi was invited to share with the parents the gospel and give out bibles.

After this and cell group on Tuesday we headed to Stanger to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary for a few days and catch up with friends. Salvi shared at the two morning services at New Guelderland and Carmel Reformed Pentecostal churches. Calvin has been unwell so it was good to see him and his precious wife Gracie.

On the Sunday evening we were blessed to spend time with Mark and Marianne Van Niekerk and their family along with Bill and Kristin Randles and Matthew Fanning who were out visiting. It truly was a blessed time of fellowship together, sharing stories, scripture and food. Bill spoke on the monday evening then before we knew it it was time to say goodbye.

What a amazing time we shared !!!! Psalm 133 v 2 .

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing-life forever. (Psalms 133:1-3 NASB)

Thanks Marianne for all your hard work with food preparation, etc. We pray that Bill, Kristin and Matt have a wonderful time in the Cape and return safely to the US taking with them our love to the fellowship there.

We thank the Lord for His amazing Grace, His faithfulness, His lovingkindness.
May the blessing of the Lord be upon you, as we press on !!!!
Shalom

Salvi and Di

________________________________________________________

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

 

ELIJAH AND ELISHA
FULFILLING THE COMMISSION 2
PART 20
2 Kings 9: 1 – 10, & 13: 14 – 21

1 Kings 19: 15 – 18.

There would be three agents of judgment under God’s anointing and as we will see they will bring an end to the house of Ahab. There will be a remnant left, of 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to Ba’al and because of this we may see why we have been looking at the narratives of Elisha concerning how they typify and illustrate truths about Israel’s hardening, judgment and restoration. The first fulfilment of this verse happened when Elijah anointed Elisha. The second fulfilment was what we looked at in the last session where we studied the anointing of Hazael and tonight we will look at the anointing of Jehu and the end of Elisha’s ministry.

9: 1 – 10 THE ANOINTING OF JEHU

This section is not an attempt to look at the person of Jehu. We must look upon him to some extent because such an analysis of his person and commission is part of the ministry of Elisha. The commission to anoint Hazael and Jehu was given to Elijah but the commission was transferred to Elisha. The proof of the possibility of this transference of the commission is seen in verse one where Elisha himself transfers this commission onto one of the servants of the prophets. And so we see this is also the case with the church. In Matthew 28: 18 – 20 Jesus gave the eleven disciples the Great Commission. But in this commission Jesus promised that he would be with the disciples, even till the end of the age. In order for Jesus’ words to be fulfilled, He must have been speaking by extension to the Church at large because the Apostles died out well before the end of the age. Therefore, even though the commission was given to the 11, there is transference of that commission to the whole church. Concerning the commissioning of the son of the prophets we may note some things. Firstly, the flask of oil is something that was paramount. The whole object of this exercise was to anoint Jehu. This holding in the hand of something seems to be indicative that nothing was to sway the prophet from his task and nothing was to interfere with the oil itself. It is similar to the instruction given concerning the yearly festive tithe. (Deut 14: 24 – 25). The Jews had a notoriety for taking the instruction of the scriptures literally. If so we can easily see that the prophet would have kept the flask of oil in his hand for the entire journey. Secondly, besides searching out Jehu, he was to anoint him secretly. And often in the scripture someone’s calling is manifested to them privately before it becomes evident publicly. Joseph received the dreams of grandeur as a boy and shared them only with his family. It was not until years later that the fulfilment came about. Moses knew he was to deliver Israel when he was 40, but the ministry did not come about until he was eighty. (Acts 7: 24 – 25). David was anointed in his house before he was anointed as king publicly. Even Saul, (Paul) was given his commission before God brought it about. (Acts 22: 14 – 16).

God may reveal to us the direction we must go but, often, He first does this privately before He brings it to pass. It is a case of God initiating and we respond so that everything is by His grace and His leading. Our part is to respond in faith and obedience. A pastor of mine once said, ‘I believe that God wants to give everyone a vision, and really there is only one true vision. That is the vision that Isaiah had of God on the throne. Every other vision stems from that.’ He said, ‘I believe God wants to give each one of us a vision, but then we must die to that vision. Why? Because then He raises it up so that the glory goes to Him.’ And that is so true. We see that Jehu does not assert himself in verse 11 but tries to keep it to himself.

But thirdly, in verse 3, the prophet is to say, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I have anointed you.”’ In other words, though the prophet did the physical act of anointing, and though it was Elisha that sent him, and though the commission was originally given to Elijah, in reality it was not any of them that was doing the anointing but God was the one who anointed Jehu. One thing that I dislike are these books that contain questionnaires that are supposed to help you find your spiritual gifts. This makes a mockery out of the work of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 2: 14 – 16. The things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned and not discerned by natural methods or wisdom. The Holy Spirit gives the gifts severally as He wills. Any unbeliever can take one of these books and find out their supposed spiritual gifts, and they are unbelievers. Jehu was not anointed by human choice or human will but by the will of God. Granted he was suited for the job in hand but ultimately it was God’s choice to use him in that particular role. The anointing comes from God and not from a man. The prophet poured the oil but it was God who did the anointing.

The rest of Elisha’s words are found in verses 7 – 10. Jehu’s role is to strike the house of Ahab and the reason is for vengeance. Note here that Elisha commissions this judgment after a long period of grace. Here, it is said, Elisha is an old man which is probably why he commissioned one of the sons of the prophets to take the journey. The point of the judgment is to avenge the blood of God’s servants. Rev 6: 9 – 11 & Rev 16: 4 – 6. Here we see that one of the main reasons for the judgment of the bowls of wrath is to avenge the blood of God’s saints and prophets. God is very disturbed when people martyr His servants and He is very angry about it too. The sin of killing Naboth in order to get the vineyard is repaid severely. It was not the murder of Naboth only but it was the murder of all the prophets that the house of Ahab was being judged for but Naboth seems to be the representative head for all the righteous that were killed. (cf 1 Kings 19: 14 – 17 and 2 Kings 9: 25 – 26). We see a similar phenomenon of judgment in Matthew 23: 34 – 35. The blood of prophets sent to that generation is seen as encapsulating, or as representative of, all the blood of all the righteous in the Old Testament. And it is almost like God has a measuring jug for sin which God waits to be filled up to a certain point before He dispenses judgment. (cf Gen 15: 16 & Mt 23: 31 – 32). So Hazael and Jehu are called to be instruments of judgment and how does this work out? Those who escape the sword of Hazael, Jehu will slay and those who escape the sword of Jehu, Elisha will slay. (cf 2 Kings 8: 28 – 29 & 2 Chr 22: 5 – 9.)

2 KINGS 13: 14 – 21 DEFEAT AND RESURRECTION

So now we arrive at the last narrative concerning Elisha in 2 Kings. We have seen how Elisha prefigures Christ in his ministry of grace during the age of the Church and in bringing judgment and, as well we will see, ultimately restoration. Between the last passage and this one there is nothing more written concerning the prophet Elisha. The reason for this must be because the details of Elisha’s life where not so important as his ministry of bringing judgment to Ahab’s house initially but as heralding God’s judgment on all the northern tribes. God’s judgment is always speared at the leaders of God’s people first before it is given to God’s people. The house of Ahab have received their judgment but the judgment against Israel was still on its way and it would only be about 13 years between the death of Elisha and the rise of the Assyrian kingdom who were God’s chosen vessel of judgment against the northern kingdom. Jehu has died and although Jehu was obedient in getting rid of the house of Ahab and in trying to get rid of Ba’al worship, he was not wholehearted in his obedience to the LORD because he did not walk in His ways and he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam. Jehu dies and Jehoahaz becomes king in his place but follows in his father’s footsteps in doing the sins of Jeroboam. 2 Kings 13: 3 says that God’s anger was kindled against Israel over them following the same sins and even though God shows grace in delivering Israel, those sins were never repented of.

After Jehoahaz dies, his son, Jehoash becomes king in his place and he also walks in the same sins. It was during this king’s reign that we read about Elisha’s death.

Elisha’s death is imminent and so Jehoash (or Joash as he is now called) goes to visit him and weep over him. What is interesting is that Joash says the same thing about Elisha as Elisha said about Elijah when Elijah was taken up to heaven. Remember how inadequate Elisha was back then, how normal he was and that he was not anything special. It was the same with Jesus. Jesus lived a normal life as a carpenter, in normal society. So much so, that His own people in Nazareth rejected him. They had seem Him grow up and His glory had been veiled. It was not until the wedding in Cana of Galilee that Jesus performed His first miracle. So Elisha was just a normal, average person, working in a normal job when Elijah called him but now he was regarded in the same way as Elijah. As Jesus said in Luke 6: 40. A student is not above his teacher but after he has been trained by him he will become like his teacher. But look at Joash. He is weeping over Elisha, and he says to Elisha the same thing that Elisha said when Elijah was taken away. He is saying that Elisha is Israel’s only true defense against the enemy. Do not be overly taken in by outward shows of piety. It is not to say that we despise them or shouldn’t desire that piety be outwardly manifested. But we should always bear in our minds the fact that God sees the heart. We cannot judge on face value. Sure Joash was weeping over Elisha and sure, he spoke the truth about Elisha but he was still involved in a form of worship that God had not ordained. He was involved in Jeroboam worship and the spirituality of the Asherah which was occultic. He looked like a believer but he was not a believer in the true sense of the word.

So Elisha tells Joash to do something, a little ritual if you like. But this act that Joash would do would reveal something about his character. Firstly he was to take a bow and arrows and to shoot one out of the window towards the east. In verse 17 Elisha clearly spells out the interpretation of this act. The arrow signifies victory. In scripture, on at least two other occasions, a bow has something to do with conquest. Firstly with Nimrod, it says he was a mighty hunter before the LORD and this is in connection with him founding cities and taking governance over many people and secondly we see the same in Revelation with the rider on the white horse carrying a bow, the signification of which is explained by the words, he went out conquering and to conquer and thus he is seeking some kind of global dominance. But this arrow is significant in a particular sense. It represents victory in a battle against Aram. Now Israel had experience more than one battle against Aram in the past and so we can see that Joash should have understood the significance of what he was doing. Through striking the ground with an arrow he was securing the victory with Israel’s battle at Aphek, which is east of the sea of Galilee. However, Elisha did not say that the Arameans would be destroyed at Aphek. They would simply be defeated but that battle would start a process that would ultimately have ended up in the destruction of the Arameans. This said, Elisha then tells the king to take the arrows and strike the ground. But the king strikes the ground three times and then stops. Thus, Elisha is angry because the king has limited Israel’s victory over the Arameans to three battles. But they would not now be able to destroy the Arameans. The victory on the real battlefield depended on his obedience to God’s word off the battlefield. We have been talking about being ready for the mark of the beast and anti-christ while doing revelation; that is if we are here. Our victory is dependant on our obedience. Joash wanted to defeat the Arameans but when Elisha told him that striking the arrows into the ground was going to secure the victory he was half hearted. We would all like to be victorious over the beast to our death. But if we are not defeating the antichrist things in our own life, then what will we do when we face the ultimate one. We are to hate even the garment stained by sin. But often we can accommodate sinful thoughts and the flesh in our own lives and expect to hate everything that the Antichrist stands for when he comes on the scene. Joash was to have the same vehemence against the Arameans in shooting the arrows as he was on the battlefield. So we too are supposed to hate what is antichrist now as much as we will hate the person of antichrist when he comes. But Elisha dies. Israel for the time being was still in a period of grace which would last for about 82 years.

The last story concerns the resurrection of a man who touches Elisha’s dead body. It is obviously a foreshadowing of Christ’s death bringing us life. Elisha means ‘God is salvation’. But what is not obvious is the parallel that we see with what will happen prophetically with Israel. There is no doubt that the invasions of the Moabites here is a foretaste of the judgment to come under the Assyrians. We saw that the revolt of the Moabites was a judgment because of Ahab as after Ahab died, Moab rebelled. David was Israel’s greatest king and Ahab was Israel’s worst. Isn’t it interesting therefore that the victory that King David won in subjugating the Moabites in 2 Samuel 8: 2 was undone in the judgment against Ahab’s house? Despite this judgment there is still promise of restoration. This narrative is coupled with the summary of Hazael oppressing Israel but Joash recovering cities from Hazael’s son, Ben-Hadad. There is always the threat of judgment looming, and judgment will come. But because of the grace of God there is always the promise of resurrection and restoration. Think of this in terms of Jer 31: 31 – 34. Jeremiah made this prophecy around the time of the Assyrian invasion. The Northern kingdom had ceased and there was no house of Israel. What was left of Israel became Samaritan with the remnant intermarrying with foreigners. And the Samaritans became even more divorced from the people of God during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah where they opposed the building of the temple. At the time of Jesus the Samaritans and Jews hated each other.

The house of Israel was dead. Not only were Israel cut off from the source of salvation but their Jewish counterparts were also rejected when they rejected the Messiah. Romans 11: 11 – 15 & v 25 – 26. Thus after all these judgments that God has caused His people to go through, God will restore their fortunes, bring them into the New Covenant and bring them back as if they were getting life from the dead. There are two applications of the New Covenant. The spiritual application and the national application. The spiritual is a foretaste of the national. We experience the spiritual and we are not bound to Mosaic Law because of that. But the national one will firstly bring salvation to the Jew but will then enable them to keep the Mosaic law, which was previously impossible for them to do. But this covenant was inaugurated with the blood of the Messiah. It is because of His death that people may enter this covenant. And so when Israel come back to life, as it were; when they have their fortunes restored it is because they have been touched by the death of their Messiah, and His death will bring them life.

SALVADOR and DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 93 May 2012

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

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

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

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

Dear Friends and family,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shalom

Salvi and Di

 

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

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

VERSES 1 – 7 NAAMAN’S ENCOUNTER WITH JEHORAM

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

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

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

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

VERSES 8 – 19 NAAMAN’S ENCOUNTER WITH ELISHA

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

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

VERSES 20 – 27 NAAMAN’S ENCOUNTER WITH GEHAZI

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

I want us to notice some things about Gehazi.

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

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