Reasonable Service

God is so incredibly faithful to His Word. It is unbelievably powerful. After I delivered an “I struggle with Xhosa” message from God’s Word the Lord stepped in and took care of business. God has me in a “you have absolutely no way to take my glory position” right now as I struggle to get my point across in Xhosa but just when I think I have really failed God steps in and knocks it out of the park. Today I preached out of Mark 14, about Mary’s sacrificial service to the Lord and one grown woman made a profession of faith. She is the mother of a child who regularly attends Madiba Bay.

This afternoon Lubabalo will be preaching. He usually helps me go over and make some corrections to my messages. As we were going over it yesterday he was getting so excited as we went through it that by the end I gave the message to him and told him he would be preaching it. We went through the whole thing and he made it his own and has continued to work and pray over it last night and today so we will see how God uses it this afternoon.

Well, even though we don’t believe that Christ was crucified on Friday we had a great service today and had an awesome opportunity to preach the Gospel to a large crowd. This is a big day in South Africa. Everyone wants to go to church to hear “Amazwi Asixhenxe” kaYesu Kristu. In English, they want to hear about the seven cries of Christ on the cross. Many even have these words memorized.

Somewhere around 100 people turned out, that number including a van load of believers from a visiting church. Pastor/Missionary Gerald Myers preached for us and really laid salvation out in a clear and relative manner. We didn’t have any professions of faith but I am convinced that God spoke to hearts and that we will reap fruit in the coming days because of the sowing that was done today. Our choir sang the best I have ever heard them. They sang “Redeemed.” It was fantastic, and then as a little extra our young mens choir sang a song entitled, “Are You Ready?” Our little church came together today and really glorified the KING today. It was a great experience and I hope it was just a little taste of what the future holds for Madiba Bay.

Every night of the week but especially on Friday and Saturday a certain something that is somewhat personified in the Bible has non stop laughter from evening to sun up the next morning. That certain something/someone is wine/alcohol. I see drunks everday and all day but last night was just too much. People were laid out all over the streets literally. People, grown adults, were laying across the curb dazed and confused. I thought if they could only see themselves, but alcohol has done so much damaga already that a picture of their drunken state wouldn’t faze them. It made me furious. The devil is having a blast with his good buddy wine as they kick back and laugh their heads off at man as he destroys his life with alcohol.

It removes the guilt, shame, and misery of life and even gives temporal entertainment but then it goes beyond your will and abuses, embarrasses, rapes, kills, steals, and destroys life after life. It is a mocker and causes rage. It promises and deceives so it can have another laugh at the family that has no food, and children that get another beating because dad or mom have gotten drunk again. It is a serious problem in this life and causing an untold amount of people to miss out on real life hereafter.

Proverbs 20:1 - “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”

This site will show some of the effects of alcohol in South Africa
http://www.sahealthinfo.org/admodule/alcohol.htm

Well in just one week I will have lived out all three of these roles.

On Monday evening about 4p.m. my neighbor who has two mentally handicapped children came screaming over our wall yelling my name. I thought she was yelling at her husband because his name is Kevin. Well she kept yelling and finally I looked out the window and sure enough she was yelling for me! She screamed out “MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE!” My first thought was, okay, what in the world am I going to do I don’t even have a waterhose. Anyways I took off running out of the house into her bulldog infested yard. (I thought I was going to get eaten alive!) I went running into the smoke filled house not having the slightest clue as to what I was going to do in there. The flames were in the kitchen coming from the stove. I started to throw water on it which would have been a huge mistake. I then grabbed rags and began beating the fire down. I got hold of a pot that had flames coming out of it and threw it outside. When it hit the ground flames shot out like a bomb. The genuises that built the house put the electrical box above the stove. Flames are still burning all around it. I just recently got 220 volts through my body and didn’t want to have that thrill again anytime soon so I hurried and got the stove outside as quick as possible. Overall the fire was not that bad but with a screaming lady and the possibility of 220 going through my body again I was a little stressed afterward. I am sure I looked like a real idiot during the episode.

Wednesday night service went well. I preached on the fig tree in Mark chapter eleven. Jesus got upset with a tree and had a one-sided conversation with it. That is a bit unusual don’t you think. That is because he came to the tree expecting fruit and there was none. If we are truly children of God then God expects fruit. If there is none then we serve no purpose and are cursed just like the fig tree was cursed by Jesus. In other words there is no real relationship between Christ and ourselves and the wrath of God still abides over us and we will endure it for all eternity.

Today I will be turning into Mr. Mommy. It will be me and Clark for the next ten days and believe me I will be counting down the days until mommy returns. Fortunately Corli’s language partner will be keeping him during the day and his grandmother will keep him until I get home in the evenings. But at night it will be just the two of us. Actually, I am looking forward to my day off on Monday as we will be going to try out his new raft. Please keep my wife in your prayers as she heads off for the states today and is with child. Take care.

Every week it seems that we have disappointments that comes from the lives of our fellow church family. They come into the house of God dragging their baggage of sin, or they don’t make it their at all and that is not even including the lost. Why is this? Because Satan had a good strategy, he planned, purposed, and executed well. He knows he is in a battle. Every week He makes sure He has done His best to prevent your church from bringing God glory. What have you done this week to ensure your church does bring God glory?

In sports the team that practices the hardest, has the best game plan, and is mentally ready will usually win the game. Unfortunately, most church members look at Sunday as just another day in the week. They wake up, eat, do a little devotion, and head off to WAR! What kind of an approach is that? While they are loading up the caravan brothers and sisters are being killed like flies. There is no game plan, there has been no preparation, and we mosey into the battlefield like we are going to a ballgame as just mere spectators. You are going to get your head blown off, and those of the men and women around you. Wake up this morning!!! I Peter 5:8 - “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” Help your pastor. Get involved in the ministry. Prepare before Sunday. Be prepared to WIN on Sunday!!!

Today has been a good day to say the least.

Today Lubabalo and I led one lady to Christ. It was an awesome experience as it always is. God was faithful to break into her heart by the power of His Word. Pray for Junita as she begins her new life in Christ.

Also today we also got news of another new life that has been conceived. Corli took several tests to find out if she was with child and they all said no, but last night she took one more because she was confident the other tests were wrong. This test was unclear so today we went to the hospital and they took blood and confirmed that Corli is definately with child!!! We are excited and praise God for the little boy we will be welcoming into our family soon! lol