Msindisi Monthly July 2009

SALVI AND DI’S
MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 60 JUl 2009
PO Box 1481,
Vryheid 3100,
KwaZulu Natal,
SOUTH AFRICA.
TEL: +27 (0) 72 831 1008
EMAIL: msindisi@gmail.com, salv.di@gmail.com
MORIEL KWAZULU WEBSITE http://morielkzn.googlepages.com

PERSONAL WEBSITE: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

Psalm 150: 1 – 2 “Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.”

Here we are in Springs ready to go back to KwaZulu. We have been here almost for three weeks. We had to come up and do various things and at present we are just waiting for the last bits of repairs to be done to a gas fridge we were given before heading off to KwaZulu tomorrow morning.

Earlier last month we saw the arrival of Caleb, who lead the Moriel KwaZulu Mission between 2002 and 2005. He arrived with his brother in law Raph, who had been doing mission work in various African countries over four months, and Lynden who is from America and is to marry Raph’s sister. They did the roofing of our hut and helped with fetching of river sand, heaps of river sand so that the builders could finish the flooring and the plastering of the hut. They also encouraged us immensely. Our hut is a rectangular hut with a tin roof. It is different to the local huts in that we have put in a bathroom and we hope that the idea may catch on. In the future we will put in a toilet which will mean that we will have to build a septic tank and a french drain. Salvador has never done this before so we won’t rush into it. A couple of people have helped give information about french drains and septic tanks.

When Caleb was here he taught a few bible studies around the place and did a special teaching day on the saturday. On the sunday that Caleb preached, he and Salvador laid hands on Phumulani to recognise his call to the ministry and to set him apart to the work that God had called him to. Phumulani is such a humble man. He doesn’t elevate himself or want promotion. People have told him that all he needs to do is to bribe a local college and he could get a teaching post. But he won’t do that. He continues working at the local farm. He invited his bosses daughter to the church meetings and so on sunday it was quite a multicultural mix. Raph and Lynden took kid’s club on Saturday and on the sunday Lynden and Phumulani preached to the Mondi workers. We haven’t been able to see Thomas as he has been away but we should be seeing him on Sunday. We hope and we trust that the Lord will work in his life.

After that sunday we had to come up to Springs, even though the builders had not finished their building work. Being in Springs has been a time of catching up with people. We went to hear Jacob Prasch preach a couple of excellent messages. One was on the typology of the grain offering and the other was on the fallacy of Calvinism. He also did a questions and answers session and it was great to catch up with him briefly. We are grateful to the Lord that He spared Jacob from what doctors believed would have been a fatal stroke. He is back in the UK and this is the latest information posted on the Moriel website.

“Jacob remains in persistent arterial fibrillation at the moment although Blood Pressure is under control and phlebitis has thankfully receded from his ankle. Please pray the current therapy corrects the arrhythmia. Failing this the next resort would be a prolonged blood thinning with anti coagulants to avert risk of stroke while electro shock is attempted to jolt the heart back into normal rhythm (a procedure given a 50% chance of being effective). It was clear that The Lord intervened providentially in his crises in Cape Town as his physicians agree he was on the verge of fatal stroke that was narrowly averted.”

On the monday we got news from Phumulani that the builders had finished their work on the house. Graciously the Lord led a church in the UK to contribute towards the cost of furniture which we were going to use for a bed. But a bed has been given to us and therefore we will use the offering to go towards the cost of fixing the gas fridge. We are amazed at the Lord’s guidance and provision and our feet are burning to get back and finish off the house by painting and hanging doors, putting in glass and then moving out of Phumulani’s hut which he has so kindly and willingly given up for us. The sooner we can move into our hut, the sooner that we can go out and start preaching the Gospel. We are thinking about going out about three times a week to preach. This will leave time to organise future bible studies, preperation for those studies, time for Salvi to continue his theological studies with KEDS and Di to keep up with community crafts, house work and her Zulu. We have been given a manual sewing machine so this can be used for local people to either learn or to have access to make some clothes or pillows. Di has been taking this opportunity of being round electricity and an electrical sewing machine to sew curtains out of fabric given to us. We went out and cut some wild bamboo sticks and these have been cut into pieces and Di has been threading them with beads onto fishing line to make a fly screen to hang over the doorway. Di was frustrated though that her knitting was left in KwaZulu which has meant that the last bits and pieces on Salvador’s jumper have not been worked on. Darn!

We have taken the opportunity to visit a few churches. The first week we visited Aletheia and to report to them as they are our sending church. Di’s Zulu had slightly improved so she could understand a little of the message and the testimonies.The second sunday we visited Truth Ministries where Salvador was asked to lead worship. Yesterday we went to Elijah Ministries in Joburg, a place that also preaches truth and where we know some of the congregants. During our time here we have also visited the guys at Vita Nova. We cannot visit here without visiting them. They make us feel so welcome and the visits really do cheer them up. People with learning difficulties and handicaps are really some of the most forgotten members of society. We also visited some friends on the settlement. One of them, a lady called Winnie is due to move to Heideberg. Her husband has purchased a plot of ground in a nice area which means that they can raise their children away from the depravity of alcohol and drug abuse that surround them. It reminded Salvador of his childhood growing up in a council estate in Bolton that saw the same things plus robberies and three murders in their street. His parents tried for eight years to move before the opportunity was granted to them. So we are very happy for Winnie and look forward to visiting them sometime in the future. In his studies Salvador has one book to finish and to read a number of articles before he starts his assignment for this module. He has been trying to read whole books. For those who want to know about the bat situation; the bats are still there and when one manifests you will hear the cry of ‘Salvi!’ a thumping sound as it falls to the floor, the very quiet sound of flying and after a few moments the scurrying of the dog’s feet heading towards the landing spot.

We value your prayers and we thank the Lord for His involvment in our lives. Learning lessons of contentment and trust in the Lord who is the living God and in whom we depend reminds us we are on a journey reaching a heavenly and eternal destination.

Shalom,
Salvi and Di

The Adoption As Sons

Romans 9: 4 “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons…”

Romans 8: 23 “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

What do we mean when we talk about the adoption as sons and what do we mean when we say that we are receiving that adoption? Does it simply mean that we are called sons of God and are adopted into God’s family? It does mean that but it refers to something much, much more. The whole teaching about sonship is intrinsically linked to the idea of gaining an inheritance. As the writer of Hebrews puts it, if you are a son, then you are an heir. Israel were given promises such as having the land of Israel as an inheritance, such as having a king to reign on David’s throne; bringing in an era of peace and prosperity. But the adoption as sons is even bigger than the inheritance of these things. In Romans 8:23 Paul defines the adoption as sons in terms of the redemption of the body. In other words being adopted as a son is inextricably linked to our future bodily resurrection. It is a future event that we have not yet received. We are not yet sons in the fully realized sense. This teaching might trouble some people. They might feel that it goes against the teaching that we are now truly sons of God and we can call God our Father. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father” and therefore how can Paul teach that we have not yet received the adoption? Paul tells us that we are still awaiting it. This is the paradox of the Christian faith. We are saved now, but we are not yet fully saved. We have been redeemed and yet we are still to be redeemed. It is only when we realize that redemption is about more than forgiveness of sins that it will make sense. Forgiveness of sins is essential and primary but redemption is about more than that. In verse 20-21 of Romans 8, Paul teaches that redemption is cosmic and extends to the whole of the created order.

God does not only want to forgive us but He also wants to redeem the whole universe. God not only wants to save our souls but he also wants to save our physical bodies. There is a heresy in the Church called the “Word of Faith teaching”. It teaches a gospel that God wants you rich and well in this life. They take a half truth in Isaiah 53:4 and say that Jesus took our sicknesses on the cross. That is to say, there is healing in the atonement. Matthew 8:17 uses this verse as the basis of Jesus’ healing of people. It is true that Jesus not only died for our sins but also took our illnesses for the redemption of our body. Therefore they say that all Christians should claim the promise and take their healing now. However it is a half truth in that Paul tells us that we are still awaiting the redemption of our body. It is something Christ dealt with in the past but our experience of it is to be realized in the future. It is true that we have been saved. That is past and that is fact. Yet it is in hope that we have been saved. Hope does not speak of something past but of something future. Hope is a word that means a confident expectation of something that will come to pass. These verses teach us that we do not have it all here and now. We have not yet received the sonship. If we did have it all here and now then we would not need hope. Romans 8:24 says, “who hopes for what he already sees?” We do not see it all here and now. But how can we have assurance and a present day experience of something that has not yet come to pass? We call God our Father and thank Him for making us into His children. And yet we are still awaiting the adoption. Is that not a contradiction in terms?

“By grace you are saved, through faith.” Faith is the key here. Hebrews 11:1-2 says that faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith takes what is future fact and brings it into our present-day experience. Faith is something that we grow in and so Paul said in Romans 1:16-17, that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. It is not a stagnant thing; it is a living thing. As Paul also says, the just shall LIVE by faith. Faith is based on God’s word and is staking your whole life on what God has said. It is so certain that we will be completely saved to the utmost if we are and remain in Christ. So if we are still waiting to receive the sonship, what right do we have to call ourselves Children of God in the here and now?

Romans 8:16 says “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” In this context the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption. He enables us to call God our Father even before we have received the adoption. We receive this Spirit of adoption when we are born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who lives in us, testifies that we are Children of God. The Holy Spirit is the One who makes our faith a reality in itself and our hope is not in vain. This is because the Holy Spirit is God almighty. He is the “I AM” as much as the Father and the Son are. In the beginning “He is I AM”, He now is I AM and in the end “He is I AM”. The Spirit is eternal and not bound to the limits of time. He knows us now and, in the same measure, He also knows what we are when we are glorified. He is there in the future just as much as He is here in the present. He ministers to us the reality of what we shall be. We are dealing with something so big that we cannot grasp it with our limited minds. How can someone that is outside time relate to us who are trapped by time? God sees the finished product but we do not and therefore we have to travel the journey to reach the destination of full salvation. When we look at salvation by faith we are looking at it from an eternal perspective. We are seeing it from God’s perspective, who has made us spiritually alive and caused us to be born again. When we look at the salvation yet to come, we are looking at it from a perspective of time. We are looking at it from a perspective of us being made perfect and being physically redeemed. But the adoption of sons even refers to something much, much more than our future resurrection.

In Genesis 15:5 God tells Abraham, then called Abram, to count the stars. Then God tells Abraham, “So shall your descendents be.” God used the stars to show Abraham that his descendents would be innumerable. That is the primary sense of what God was communicating to Abraham. By the time we come to Deuteronomy we see that God had made them like the stars in number. But there is a theme or an application that can be taken from this passage that indicates more than that. God never ever promised to make any other nation save Israel like the stars. Nahum 3:16 says that Nineveh had multiplied her traders more than the stars of heaven. But this comparison does not constitute a promise of God towards that nation. In Genesis 16:10 the Angel of the Lord promises to make the descendents of Ishmael too numerous to count. But why is there no promise to make his descendents like the stars of heaven? Why is Israel the only nation that God promises to make like the stars?

This theme of being made like stars is taken up in Daniel 12:3. Those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever. There is not only a link in this verse between numbers and stars, (leading the many to righteousness) but also between the concept of living eternally and the light of the stars. Also in verse 2 Daniel links this event with a future resurrection of the dead to everlasting life. This is the adoption as sons and it was promised to the Jewish people who lived righteously and led others to righteousness. But there is more to it than this.

Stars in scripture are usually representative of angelic beings. We see this in Revelation 1:20 for example where the seven stars are representative of the seven angels of the churches. In Revelation 12:4 Satan sweeps away a third of the stars. This verse is usually interpreted by evangelical Christians as Satan’s revolt in turning away a third of the angels against God. Thus when certain people read Job 38:7 and see the morning stars singing at the beginning of creation, they interpret that as meaning that the angels sang together. This is linked to another term in that verse which also represents angels in the Old Testament. That term is “the sons of God”. When Paul used the phrase, sons of God, it was not unique to him. This phrase was used in Genesis 6:2 and in Job 1:6 and Job 2:1. In these passages this term refers to angelic beings both fallen and otherwise.

There is a lie that is taught to many children in western circles that is actually a distortion of a truth. When someone they love dies, many children are told that they have become a star in heaven or they became an angel. The eighties American TV show, “Highway to Heaven” was based on this misconception. Jesus was asked by the Sadducees about the resurrection in Matthew 22:23-33. When questioned by them Jesus responded by saying that in the resurrection we will be like the angels in heaven. He did not say that we will become angels but only that we will be LIKE the angels. Jesus’ teaching is wholly consistent with the Old Testament pictures we have looked at thus far. More could be said on this but what has been said thus far should cause the Christian believer to marvel at the privileges that were promised to the nation of Israel. And yet, as we saw in Daniel, the receiving of the adoption is dependent on the righteousness of that person and how they lead others to righteousness.

God is leading us on the paths of righteousness. It is a journey and a process that leads us to glory. In Ephesians 1: 18 Paul prays that the Ephesians would be given enlightenment to be able to comprehend the riches of the glory of the inheritence that is there for the saints. The Ephesians were grounded in the truth and not flirting with a false Gospel as were the Galatians. The Ephesians were Morally sound unlike the Corinthians who had a whole host of problems. This is kind of Church that Paul prayed for the greater light to be revealed of the inheritence. Are we still writhing in the bog of heresy or of the flesh? Are we still indulging in the same old sins? Come out, rise up, throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and run that race to glory. If we do so we may qualify to have the prayer of Paul answered in our lives and churches also. That the eyes of our hearts may also be enlightened, so that we will know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritence in the saints.

Y’varechecha Adonai