The short version of the long story is we have moved out of the mainstream institutional church buildings with its predominately false teachings, prosperity gospel and a doctrine that speaks only about God's love for everyone with little-to-no preaching on the just and holiness of God, of the Law, sin, judgment and hell. As a family we now do Church where our Lord Jesus Christ is the True Head of His organic Church. We pray, give glory to God and read Scripture - sharing with each other and allowing the Holy Spirit to have His way and to lead us. We are new at this particular way of Church and we are sure we will grow as the home Church movement gains momentum under God's guiding Hand.
We read the Apostle Paul's second epistle to Timothy in its entirety as a family and I preached and expounded on the particular Scriptures 2 Timothy 3:15 - 4:5 which reads as follows (emphasis added):
15and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 1I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Earlier - shortly before 9am CAT - I had been thinking about witnessing to Jehovah Witnesses who live on a street corner a block away from our apartment. Further Scripture I preached to my wife and son were the Deity of Jesus Christ and Almighty God (in preparation for my hopeful meeting with the JW's). The first reading was Matthew 1:23 - 23"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US." this reading was confirmed with Isaiah 8:8,10 -
8"Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will reach even to the neck;
And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.
10"Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;
State a proposal, but it will not stand,
For God is with us."
I then proceeded to read the prophecy of Isaiah 9:2-7 with emphasis on verse 6 (emphasis added) -
6For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Scripture points to Mighty God as being Jesus Christ incarnate in human form for the prophecy was fulfilled in the Gospels and the New Testament - Jesus Christ being fully God and fully Man without sin. Scripture always confirms Scripture - in light thereof Genesis 1:1-5 and John 1:1-14 testifies that Jesus is the Word (verse 14) - 14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Further Scriptures to confirm Jesus Christ as Almighty God is found in -
Exodus 3:14 - 14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
John 8:58 - 58Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."
Mark 14:62 - 62And Jesus said, "I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN."
John 10:30 - 30"I and the Father are one."
We had placed upon our hearts to also go around the neighbourhood distributing two Gospel tracts (I have designed) being the "2010" and "Do You Think You Will RIP?" into postboxes and to engage our neighbours in conversation by proclaiming the Law and the Gospel of Grace. When I looked out our window to see if the JW's were home, their vehicle was not to be seen in their backyard. But to my surprise I thought I saw a lone ranger Mormon clad in "black-and-white" doing our neighbourhood (later I was to realise he was a JW due to the material hereunder - from the Watchtower).
At this point I was hurrying my family members to make haste in getting ready - we needed to be out there on the streets; when we did get out there he had already left his material about their cult. We proceeded to leave our Gospel tracts in any accessible postbox as we wanted Truth and the True Deity of Jesus Christ to be out there.
I don't like trying to second-guess our Father God; but what was He showing us? No Jehovah Witnesses and mistaken Mormons. We proceeded into Alexander Park - a stone's throw away from where we were. I had prayed leaving our apartment block for opportunities and none seemed available. (My shallow thinking - I repent!!) There was a game of cricket taking place in the park so we went in search of fish. There were some young African teenagers and a few older men playing cricket. Thank you Father - I encountered four young men and engaged them with the Law and took them through the Gospel once they realised they had violated God's Holy standards. At the time they were warming up away from the greater group of players. They appeared to be open to what I proclaimed about their eternal destiny, but I thank the Lord the best was yet to come.
(I was so caught up in wanting to evangelise I didn't even think about taking photos) On approaching the cricket match in progress I handed out Gospel tracts to those persons sitting under the trees next to the playing field. I then stood in the midst of them and started asking the question what would happen to them the day they die? There were about 20-30 people who were in various stages of listening or not listening to what I had to say as I took them through the Law. How many lies have you told? Have you stolen anything (the size and value of the object doesn't matter)? Have you ever looked with lust? Jesus said whoever looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with that person in their heart (Matthew 5:28). What about murder? You don't have to engage in the physical act of murder, but you can use your mouth and thoughts to commit murder. If you hate a brother or call someone bad, nasty names you are a murderer at heart. When God judges you by His Holy standard He will see you as a lying thief, adulterer at heart and a murderer at heart - so, will you be innocent or guilty on the Day of Judgment? There were those who professed that they wouldn't be guilty, but I had to bring it to their understanding that they would be guilty before a Holy and Just God. It was about this stage that the issue of Shembe (Zulu - pronounced Shem-bear) came up.
Shembe is to the African culture what Mohammad is to Islam. Shembe professes to be "the way" for the black man in Africa. He is the black man's god - not all Africans ascribe to Shembe, there are millions of Christians. To see what Shembe believers follow please visit these two links -
Followers show peak of faith to Mount of Shembe
Charismatic Shembe thriving
So here I am speaking to some Shembe followers and there was peace evident in how I related with them and they with me. Glory to God for always being in control. I told them that Shembe professes to be the way, but Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6). Therefore, either Jesus or Shembe was lying and not telling the truth, but it is impossible for God to lie. I told them that believing in Shembe and saying that he represents the black man - it is them believing that he will save them because of the colour of their skin. They raised the point that Jesus is only for the white man, but I told them that if they had to cut themselves and I had to cut myself the colour of our blood is red. So is it with the blood of Jesus. Our sins are forgiven by the precious blood of Jesus - for life is in the blood and not in the colour of a man's skin. They realised that their culture tells them certain things and they believe them - like praying to ancestors. I told them that the Bible says that we only need to pray in the name of Jesus and we are to call on no other name but the name of Jesus. The enemy is blinding Africans' minds through culture and we as disciples of Christ need to be the light in the world they find themselves in. I told them that it doesn't really matter what they believe or if it has been past down through the generations from their grandparents and parents - what really matters is what is true. They therefore need to test what I had told them against true Scripture. Some said they would while others shrugged the warning off. We pray that through the proclamation of the Law and the Gospel which I shared with them that God became a Man in the person of Jesus Christ - fully God and fully Man without sin. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of a virgin named Mary - the birth was a supernatural birth - one of a kind never to be repeated. He dwelt among men and lived a perfect and sinless life giving us the pattern by which we are to live. Jesus - God in the flesh - went to the cross and paid a fine He did not owe for crimes He did not commit - we broke God's Laws and Jesus paid our fine, He took our punishment. We deserve to be crucified and to be thrown into hell as evil criminals against God, but Jesus graciously took the wrath of His Father for us. Jesus was laid in a tomb, and on the third day He took up His life forever defeating death and conquering the grave. There were more than 500 witnesses that testified to seeing Him alive and He has ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus has promised He will return on a day God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31) and what is required is that we humble ourselves before God and repent (turn from and forsake) our sins and trust only in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. For we are saved by grace and grace alone that has been extended to sinners by a Good God and we can do nothing to earn salvation by what we have done lest no man can boast.
On leaving and heading home we came across three African men leaning over their third floor balcony. I engaged them in general conversation focusing on a soccer tournament taking place over the weekend. I then started proclaiming the Law outside a block of apartments. All glory to God for allowing me to preach in the open in a setting I have not previously done before. I took them through the Law and although the main gentleman was prideful bragging that he could still live for 10-20 years we told him that he must humble himself before God. If he should die in his sins he will have to pay the fine himself as God's wrath rests upon him. I proceeded to preach the gospel of Grace and the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross - although the man I was preaching to appeared that he wasn't really concerned about his eternal salvation - because we do not know who the wider audience were who got to hear the Law and the Gospel of Grace. (See The Lawman Chronicles - Acoustic Shadows ... Just Preach)
It really does matter to Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and Shembe followers and even followers of the religions of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Seventh-Day Adventists, New-Age, New Scientists, Evolutionists, Atheists, Agnostics, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Post-moderns and any other cult practice that their theology, doctrine and faith in the real and true Jesus are correct. If they are following after the wrong Jesus - or rejecting Him in their understanding - in their deception by the devil and not worshipping the One and only True and Living God Jesus Christ of Nazareth then their place will be assigned with their father and his demons in the lake of fire that burns with sulphur.
I humbly thank the Lord Jesus for a wonderful day of fishing and doing Church out in the open. And people got to hear that there is Only One Way for salvation and getting into heaven and that is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly not Shembe - for there is no other way. Please pray for every person encountered (some of their Zulu names escape me for which I apologise, but to Lucky, Sbu and others - the Lord knows them by name) and that God will cause them to repent and believe the True Gospel of Jesus Christ in and through the Wonderful work of His Holy Spirit.
