Morning devotions by Rev. E. Masangwaye http://www.aluka.org/action/showmetadata?doi=10.5555/al.sff.document.ydlwcc2160 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsconditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org
Morning devotions by Rev. E. Masangwaye Author/Creator Date 1990-11-00 Resource type Language Subject Coverage (spatial) Rustenburg Conference (1990); National Conference of Churches in South Africa; Masangwanye, E. Speeches English Coverage (temporal) 1990 Source Rights Format extent (length/size) South Africa World Council of Churches Library and Archives: Programme to Combat Racism; microfilm created by the Yale University Divinity Library with funding from the Kenneth Scott Latourette Initiative for the Documentation of World Christianity., Yale University Divinity Library, Programme to Combat Racism [microform], 4223.9.15/8; mf. PCR 157 (from frame 416 to 662) By kind permission of the World Council of Churches (WCC). 5 pages http://www.aluka.org/action/showmetadata?doi=10.5555/al.sff.document.ydlwcc2160 http://www.aluka.org
NATIONAL CHURCH LEADERS CONFERENCE - 5-9 November 1990 NATIONAL CHURCH LEADERS CONFERENCE - 5-9 November 1990 Morning Devotions - Rev E Masangwanve Before I start I would like to thank the leadership of this National Conference of Church Leaders, for the privilege I have to share with you from the Holy Scriptures. I am reading from Psalm 85, vs. 8: "I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints, but let them not turn again to folly." Our contemporary world is in great trouble at every level. And SA is no exception. We are in trouble not because of a lack of scientists, artists, technologists and politicians, we are in trouble because we lack genuine men of God and genuine women of God. Men of God and women of God can make a big difference in this world. If men and women of God bring God's answers and God's solutions to this torn confused world. We are in trouble spiritually, mentally, physically, socially, economically and politically, and the powerful verses of Scripture which has been read by our sister, contain answers to the problem of the home, the church, and of our society. "If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves" - to me the word humbleness, means to realise your total dependence on God and other people and pride is when you are blind to realise your dependence on God and you think God is an unnecessary item in the agenda of life. If we humble ourselves, turn away from wickedness and we repent and we start praying, God will heal our land. Somebody this week asked me very important questions and I believe these questions are relevant to us here as servants of God, as Church leaders, in this great country. Here are the questions: How will you recognise the voice of God? How will you know God has spoken to you? When last did God speak to you? If ever there is time when all the people of SA must hear from God, it is now. There are three outstanding observations I would like to bring to your attention from the text I read. Number 1. There is will involved in order to hear from God. If we want to hear from God as a nation, and as a body of Christ in this country, we must submit our will to the will of God. There is will involved. And that is the reason why this verse of Scripture opens with the words "I will hear what the Lord will speak." We must submit to God our will, we need to repent from denominational prejudices, doctrinal prejudices, theological prejudices, tribal prejudices, colour prejudices. We need to repent of bitterness, hatred, animosity, pride, fear, a false I
sense of superiority and a false sense of inferiority. The Bible says we have all sinned and we all miss the mark. There is no single person here who can say "I have not sinned, I am better than so and so." We have all sinned and we need to hear from God for our own lives. Number 2. God promised peace to all those who will suffer for truth. God is not a man that he should lie. Many of us have suffered, many different forms of suffering. When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, just that alone, it makes you to suffer. Those who are in darkness do not understand you. Those who are not saved, do not understand. Those outside the kingdom of God do not understand you. Those who are not born again do not understand, those who have not yet crossed from death to life, do not understand. I was born in a dark home, my mother was a witchdoctor, my father was a habitual alcoholic. In that big family of 14, 1 was the first to come to know Christ as my Lord and Saviour. Can you imagine the suffering, the persecution. I had to differ with my father for the first time and you know according to our African culture, you don't just differ with your father. And I started culture. For many years all human cultures are unique, valid, dynamic and sinful. I have no right to judge your culture by my culture, and you have no right to judge my culture by your culture. It is only God's supraculture that has the right to transcend all cultures. But after the Lord saved my soul miraculously and Jesus cleansed me from sin and He removed all the fear of witches, witchcraft and all satanic forces, my father one morning called on us as a family to worship the Shangaan Gods and he swallowed beer, to splash it. Then I said "Daddy, as much as I respect you, please allow me to differ from you. I am a child of God, I cannot worship any other God. Because there is only one God. All of us must worship in spirit and in truth." My brother came from behind and he gave me a hard slap and he said to me "You stupid boy! It is high time you listened to what your father is saying. And do what he says." I looked at him deep in the eyes, like Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo. I said "I will not worship the Shangaan gods, because there is only one God." Number 3. The third observation in this text is a warning. We are warned not to go back to our old ways again. We must hear from God as a country if we want to survive. We must hear from God as a church, the whole body of Christ in SA must hear from God. And the pulpit, clergy, pastors, ministers, preachers of the gospel, we must hear from God for ourselves. It is not enough, friends, just to know our exegesis, our hermeneutics and our theology. It is all wonderful, we have also started, but we need to know God for ourselves. Sometimes we theologians, we find it very difficult to obey God because God demands from us a childlike faith. He does not want us to understand him intellectually all the time, you see. Spiritual. things are not achievements, not attainments, they are gifts from God. God gives us these gifts by grace. But sometimes we Christian leaders want to earn, swot, study, reason very hard, and
that is why sometimes when we read the Bible we don't read it with that childlike faith, that passion to know God, that hunger to know God, the thirst to know God. Whenever we read the Bible we analyse it until we get paralysed in our analysis. Because sometimes theologians are people who are very good at taking simple things and complicate them. I humbly appeal to you this morning, by the mercies of the Lord, let us obey God, let us hear from God. We should not depend on our old experiences. God is alive and He is fresh. He is ready to bless you and me and to make us see wonderful things. You remember in the Psalms, someone prayed "Oh Lord, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things." Did you know that this world is full of wonderful things? But sometimes we don't see these wonderful things, because of the kind of goggles we are wearing. If you wear dark goggles it darkens everything. You can start insulting people, yet there is nothing drastically wrong with them. There is something wrong with your goggles. I can witness to that as a Pentecostal preacher. The Lord had to open my eyes and to deliver me and I had to repent from certain things that blinded my vision. We Pentecostal people have this false sense of spiritual superiority and we are sometimes so proud whenever we read Joel 2:28, we think it refers to us! "On the last days I will pour my spirit upon all the flesh" and the flesh is us Pentecostals. If any of you from other denominations, Anglicans, NG, DRC, Episcopals, Lutherans, Methodists who are full of Methods, with our pride, whenever you want the Holy Spirit, we think we must give it to you in a small teaspoon. That's how proud we are. This pride comes from a wrong theology. It comes from a misguided theology. I think the day that the so-called Holy Spirit believers called themselves Pentecostals was the day they went wrong, because somebody must tell them that the Holy Spirit is not necessarily Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is God. If you want to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, you don't have to resign from your denomination and join the Pentecostals. You can receive him in your own church. I have travelled the world, I was privileged to meet Mother Teresa four times in India. She loves the Lord. I have met clergy from the NGK and hulle is lief vir die Here. I have met Methodists, they taught me something. I met Anglicans in Singapore, in fact the Anglicans in Singapore, in fact they are more alive than my own denomination. If ever there is time when all the people of this beautiful country must hear from God, it is now. We should stop playing church, stop working against each other, condemning each other, discrediting each other. We should stop this tendency of being always negative. We don't seem to see good in other people. We must hear from God and as I close, we need to hear from God when He speaks to us in these six areas. i) We must hear when He speaks to us about repentance. We must repent. Repentance is real, is not theology, it can be experienced. It is not a science, it is
a reality and when you are repentant, you should know about it. Even if you are a Christian, born again and saved, you still need to repent from many other things, like I had to repent from my Pentecostal prejudices that made me so legalistic and judgemental whenever I saw something wearing clerical, attire, I would dismiss him immediately and say he was not saved. Who am I to judge? This repentance we must reduce to our own personal life. It must go to our homes. Tension between husband and wife, parent and child. We must repent. As men we must repent from serious prejudice between us and our wives. Many of us men only see tea, coffee, lunch when we look at our wives. ii) We need to hear from God when He speaks to us about our relationships. We must have good relationships with God in order to have good relationships with other people. iii) We need to hear from God when He speaks to us about relevance. The church must be relevant in SA, she must not answer questions that are not asked. She must answer questions that are asked. The question of poverty, violence, prejudice, spirit of tribalism. All these practical things that exist in our country, they are more spiritual than political. iv) We need to hear from God when He speaks to us about radicalism. The church must be radical. We must have radical love, forgiveness, understanding, forgiving people in advance, accommodating people, understand people who don't understand you. That Is what we mean by radicalism. The church needs to be bold in her witness in preaching the gospel of our resurrected Christ. v) The church must hear from God in this country when God speaks to us about revival and not revolution. Without a revival from God, there is no survival. vi) Lastly, we need to hear from God when He speaks to us about reconciliation. Genuine, lasting reconciliation can only happen at the foot of the Cross. The word reconciliation was taken from 2 Greek words - dialose and catalage. We will not be successful in reconciling ourselves between husband and wife, parents and children, person to person, different churches, countries, nations, tribes, until we are reconciled to God. It is my prayer that God will continue to bless us this week so that we can hear from God.