DURBANVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH

Speak the Truth in Love

“¹¹ Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. ¹² Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. ¹³ This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. ¹⁶ He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” – Ephesians 4:11-16

As we approach Easter, we are reminded of our great Saviour Jesus. This can serve as an encouragement and strengthening of our faith while also giving us an opportunity to invite friends and family to an Easter service that shares the Good News about Christ with them. When we read Ephesians 4:11-12 – “¹¹ Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. ¹² Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” – we can fall into the trap of believing that it is the responsibility of the pastor who is preaching the message on Easter Sunday to share the Gospel. We have done our job by inviting them to church and now we leave the rest up to the pastor. But if we read verse 12 carefully – “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ” – we see that the pastors and leaders of our church are called to equip us, the believers, the body of Christ. Verse 13 continues to say “This will continue until we all come to such unity…that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ”. This unity and maturity will keep us strong in the storm of the world but furthermore, it will prompt us to “…speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ”. So what does it mean to “…speak the truth in love…”?

Well first let’s determine what truth is: in John 14:6 it says “I am the way, the truth and the life; no-one comes to the father except through me”. Here we see that truth is Jesus himself. This carries massive implications for us as believers because any conversation we have must carry the truth of Jesus. So if we are speaking to a believer who is living in sin (knowingly or unknowingly) or perhaps not producing the fruit of the spirit in a certain circumstance or relationship, we need to “go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back” (Matthew 18:15). If the person is a non-believer, we are not to unfairly judge them. They have not accepted the truth of Jesus and therefore have not agreed to follow Him and commit their lives to Him. Our conversations with them need to speak about the truth that is Jesus. We need to share with them the hope, truth, life, love and joy that can be found in following Him. But we also need to tell them that following Jesus is not about what’s in it for us. The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus is King. He is worthy of all our praise and following comes at a great cost. It may cost your popularity or friendships or the things that give you pleasure but what you earn is worth so much more. We don’t follow Jesus for the reward, but we do know that we store up treasures in Heaven and not on Earth.

Secondly, we need to speak this truth about Jesus in love. When we interact with anyone, the greatest love we can show them is to share Jesus with them. We are all commissioned to share the Good News about Christ (Matthew 28:18) so maybe this Easter, instead of just inviting someone on the off chance that something the pastor says will impact them in some way; why don’t you speak the truth in love and tell that person who’s on your heart the truth.

Go listen to Love You with the Truth by Casting Crowns

Justin Alford

Knowing about something objectively and knowing it subjectively are two very different things. This applies to our knowing Jesus. Knowing about Jesus objectively means we possess some knowledge about Him. But knowing Jesus subjectively means we have firsthand experience of Him. We have personal knowledge of Him. This is the kind of knowing Christ wants us to have.

In this post, we’ll use two major examples to show the difference between knowing about Jesus and truly knowing Him.

Knowing about versus knowing by experience: the example of a photograph

We can use a photograph to illustrate the difference between the two kinds of knowing. When we look at a photograph of a person, we learn some information about them on an objective level—their height, hair color, eye color, their general appearance. We see the way they smile, and we might learn their preference in clothing. But even if we examine the photograph minutely, gathering as much as information we can from it, we at most gain only outward, objective knowledge. We can only say we know about the person. We can’t say we really know them.

Now let’s say we meet the person from the photograph face to face. We hear the way they talk, and we see the way they act. As we spend time with them, we begin to know them personally. We become acquainted with their thoughts, their feelings, their dreams, their likes, their dislikes, and their whole personality. This is very different from merely knowing about them by studying their photograph. This knowing is personal, subjective, and firsthand.

How can we know Jesus personally?

The Lord Jesus is the most wonderful, loving Person in the universe, and He wants us to know Him in a personal and affectionate way. But is a personal relationship with Jesus today possible? The disciples had the opportunity to know Jesus two thousand years ago, but after He resurrected, didn’t He ascend into the heavens, leaving us here on earth?

The Lord Jesus did indeed ascend to the heavens, but we can still know the Lord personally and subjectively today because He is also the Spirit who lives within us. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “And the Lord is the Spirit.” Physically, Christ ascended to heaven and is away from us. But today as the Spirit, He is present with us right now.

In a hymn on experiencing Christ, Watchman Nee wrote,

“Because Thy Spirit dwells within,
How real, O Lord, Thou art to me;
Not touched, yet more reliable,
Not seen, yet loved more fervently.”

Because His Spirit dwells in us, we can know Christ so subjectively and personally. How wonderful that the Lord can be real to us today as the Spirit!

The Spirit in our spirit

When we received Christ, He saved us from God’s judgment, but He also came to live within us. He as the Spirit came into our spirit, the deepest part of our being, and regenerated it with His divine life. This is why 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Christ today is with us in our spirit!

We can know Christ—His likes and dislikes, His personality, His ways—by fellowshipping with Him in our spirit. No one could be nearer or more available to us than the Lord is in our spirit. We can talk with Him, love Him, and enjoy His presence in our spirit. By taking time to be with Him in prayer, we can know the Lord in a subjective, experiential way. We’ll experience Him as our life, our peace, our hope—whatever we need. As the Spirit in us, He leads us into the reality of who and what He is to us.

Knowing about versus knowing by experience: the example of food

We can use the matter of eating to illustrate the difference between knowing about something and knowing something by experience. Let’s say we’re hungry, so we go to a restaurant and read about a particular dish on the menu. Thinking it sounds good, we go on to study everything related to the dish—its chemical composition, how it’s prepared, how long it’s cooked, its history, where it was grown or raised, its benefits for our health, and on and on. Yet after all our studying, we still only know that dish objectively. And we’re still hungry! We might be able to say, “I know all about that food,” but what good has our knowledge done us if we’re still starving?

To satisfy our hunger, we have to eat the food. Then we really knowit by personal experience. We know its taste, its smell, how it makes us feel. We’re inwardly strengthened and supplied by it. That kind of knowing is deeper and more subjective.

What’s the purpose of a menu? It doesn’t exist for memorization or study. It’s a guide, a roadmap, to so many foods that can satisfy our hunger. When we eat the food we read about, our hunger is satisfied, and the menu has fulfilled its purpose.

Knowing Jesus by eating Him

In John 6:35 the Lord Jesus reveals that He is the bread of life. Bread is food, a life supply, something to eat to satisfy hunger. This points to the Lord’s desire for us to know Him subjectively in the same way that we know bread—by eating! This may be a startling thought, but it’s in the Word of God. In verse 57 the Lord Jesus goes on to say, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.”

What did Jesus mean when He said “eats Me”? He wasn’t, of course, speaking of physically eating Him. He explains in verse 63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” This verse shows us that we eat the Lord Jesus, we take Him in, by taking His Word into us as spirit and life. By this eating, we know Jesus as our real food, as our satisfaction and life supply.

Studying about the Lord Jesus in the Word has some merit, but merely studying the Word can be just like studying about a dish on a menu. We may gain much correct knowledge, but be left hungry and unsatisfied within. We shouldn’t be content with having objective knowledge, yet being spiritually hungry. We can and should subjectively know the Lord Jesus as the satisfying bread of life by eating Him, by taking in His Word as spirit and life.

Receiving the Word by prayer

Ephesians 6:17-18 tells us to receive “the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition.” These verses, along with the ones mentioned above from John 6, show us that the way to receive the Word as spirit and life is by prayer. If we come to the Word only to study it, we will at best come to know something about the Lord Jesus. But when we exercise our spirit by praying with the words in the Bible, we touch and receive the Spirit who gives life. We eat the Lord Jesus, as He instructed us, by praying with His Word. By this eating, we know Christ subjectively as life to us.

Getting to know Jesus every day

“Self-salvation through good works may produce a great deal of moral behaviour in your life, but inside you are miserable. You are always comparing yourself to other people, and you are never sure you are being good enough. You cannot therefore, deal with your hideousness and self-absorption through the moral law, by trying to be a good person through an act of the will. You need a complete transformation of the very motives of your heart.” – Tim Keller, The Reason for God

When you hear about Jesus, what comes to mind? Who is Jesus to you? Depending on where you live, chances are you might have heard the Gospel before. Even now as you read this you might be saying to yourself “bla bla bla, yes I know the Gospel…move on to the next topic.” When it comes to Jesus, do you know Him in your head or in your heart?

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6

We can fill up our heads with knowledge all day long. From reading the internet, studying books, watching TV, listening to music, and having conversations with others, it’s amazing to think how much goes into our heads each day. What would it mean though for us to apply these things to our hearts? When we apply something to our heart, it becomes very real for us at that point. It drives our minds, emotions, and affections towards whatever that thing or someone is.

Heart Knowledge

Jonathan Edwards from his sermon Divine and Supernatural Light has a great illustration to make this point using honey. He says, “your mind can know honey is sweet, people can tell you it’s sweet, you’ve read books about it, etc. but if you haven’t actually tasted it, you know with your head, but not with your heart. When you actually taste it, you experience it for yourself, you know it in a full way, and you can know it in your heart.”

Knowing with your heart however, is not to be confused by being led with your emotions. That is not what I’m talking about here. You obviously still learn things with your head. For example, we can definitely have head knowledge, and not have the heart knowledge to go along with it. However, it’s impossible to know things in our hearts, but not in our heads. When it comes to the Gospel, yes, we need to learn in our heads what Jesus has done for us, but more importantly, we need to learn this in our hearts. It needs to become real to us, personally. That’s exactly what happened to me when I realized that Jesus died for me.

A good way to think about this for yourself is when you read the Bible, pray, or when you’re involved in the local body (the Church), are you doing all of this out of an obligation to God to pay Him back for something or to earn your way? Or, instead, are you doing all these things because of an overflow of gratitude of what He has done for you? Are you loving Jesus with your heart or head?

Head Knowledge

When we say things like “I know God loves me, but I hate myself” or “I know God wants me to be generous, but I just can’t do it,” we are stating truths about God from our head and using that knowledge, but there is a lack of understanding in our heart. If we knew God truly loved us, we wouldn’t hate ourselves. God’s love would be so real to us that we would see ourselves the way He sees us, through His son, as an adopted child. If we knew God truly wanted us to be generous, we would joyfully give our money, time, and possessions back to Him and anyone in need. Especially because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

So where are you in this? If you haven’t been using heart knowledge, there is no need be feel guilty or condemned (Romans 8:1). Pray to God, ask Him to search your heart, test your thoughts, guide you into understanding that what Jesus has done for you is very real and personal. Make a decision to become a follower of Christ today and to realize that you are forgiven by God through Christ.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” – Psalm 139:23-24

Source: https://www.beforethecross.com/devotionals/head-knowledge-vs-heart-knowledge/

Domino One – To get saved you have to call on the name of the Lord.

Domino Two – To call on Jesus you must believe.

Domino Three – To believe in Jesus, you must hear about Him.

If you haven’t heard about Jesus, how would you know that you should call on him, or believe in Him? You wouldn’t. You’ve got to build belief in Jesus by hearing about Him. Think about it, the more you hear about a great movie, the more you want to go see it. When you hear about something good it makes you want to try it. The same is true about Jesus to develop the faith to believe Him, you’ve got to hear about Him. You’ve got to learn that He’s good, that He is the only way to God. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.– Romans 10:17 So how do you begin to hear about Jesus?

Domino Four – To hear about Jesus, someone has to tell you about Him.

Think about a new restaurant you’ve tried recently. What made you decide to try the new restaurant? Most likely, someone told you about it. Maybe a friend told you the new restaurant was really good, and their review made you want to try it for yourself. The same is true with Jesus. If someone hadn’t told you about Jesus, you couldn’t have called on Him for salvation.

When you hear about the goodness of God, it makes you believe in Him and want to invite Him into your life.

Domino Five – Those who tell others about Jesus are sent.

The Bible tells us in Mark 16:15 that we are to go into our world and tell others about Jesus. As believers, we are called by God to tell others about who Jesus is. ‘And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone’ – Mark 16:15

So, take some time this week to think about this scripture. You’ve been called by God to tell others about Jesus. You are called to preach to people the message of salvation.

As you tell others, they will hear the message, then they have the option to believe and finally call on Jesus to be saved. But the process starts with you telling people about Jesus. If you don’t open your mouth, then other people won’t have the opportunity to hear the gospel. It’s up to you to share with those around you. You sharing salvation with those around you can cause a great domino effect. You could cause someone you know and care for to get saved and to spend eternity with Jesus.

In the presence of the Lord

No-one likes to wait for anything these days, instant gratification is the order of the day. In most cases people believe that if they have to pay for something they must have it immediately. Unfortunately the consumerist mindset is one we often bring into our relationship with God. We believe without admitting it to a lot of the time that spending time with the Lord or working for the Lord must show immediate results. Most of the time however this is not the case. For those of us who have been in relationship with the Lord for a while we know all too well, what it means to wait. The act of waiting in and of itself is meaningless but waiting on God is never a waste of time.

I believe waiting on the Lord is beneficial to us in three ways.

1. God shapes us and mould’s us into the likeness of His son.

Simply put God makes us, with our participation of course, more compassionate towards others. He teaches us to love others as we love ourselves, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to live a life of obedience to God and to fall deeply in love with God. Preparing us for the day we will stand before the Lord, receive the crown of glory and hear God say well done my good and faithful servant.

2. While waiting on God we learn to surrender all that we are to His will for our lives. It is the process of trading our thoughts of ourselves which are often tainted by the views of the world and the opinions of others, which are not based in truth for the thoughts God has of us which are true. Take for example Psalm 139:14 David praises God because he is fearfully and wonderfully made. God doesn’t make mistakes and He created you in His image. Never forget that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:31-39). Waiting on God is learning to let go of our desires and grab hold of the desires God has.

3. We learn to pray!
It is easy for us to allow our prayers to become centred around us. We end up praying prayers that lack the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. Prayers that have become vain repetitions, including the odd hallelujah so that we can get what we want. Prayer is communion with God. It’s a personal intimate time spent between you and God. It should not be taken lightly.

When we pray we should approach God with a fear, reverence and excitement, keeping in mind that we are entering the presence of the God of all creation.

Warfare of Our Minds

Reading: Philippians 4:8-9

Craig Groeschel has written and spoken on the topic of the way we think in a series called Words to Live By. In this series, he gives the following quote: “our lives move in the direction of our strongest thoughts”. It didn’t take much thought for me to come to the conclusion that I agree wholeheartedly with that statement! This made me think about what I think about, and once I discovered that my inner dialogue consists mainly of selfish or critical thought, it made sense why my relationships with God and with other people were not where I wanted them to be.

The thing is, our thought patterns become so habitual that it is hard sometimes even to notice when we are not thinking on things that are true, honourable, right, pure, lovely or admirable (v8), let alone correct those thought patterns!! Luckily, our God is greater than human habit, thought patterns and, sometimes, the lies that Satan tempts us to believe.

By asking for His help and relying on the life-changing presence of the Holy Spirit, we can win this battle and do as we are told in this scripture. We can also arm ourselves with this scripture as a weapon in the warfare of our minds, to meditate on when those old habits seem to gain power over us again. As we remember this scripture, we can remember that the only one who is true, honourable, right, pure and lovely is God and we begin to think on Him! We then choose Him consciously (which is a good conscious decision to make first thing as we wake up) and find our minds renewed.

Alix Taylor

Stand up. Stand firm.

What do you stand for? And how do you stand up for that, and stand firm?

Values are defined as the deeply-held principles, ideals or beliefs that we hold and adhere to when making decisions (Barrett, 2010).

My values are what I stand for. Your values are what you stand for.

Our values as individuals are expressed in our personal behaviour. Values in organisations are expressed by their cultural behaviour.

In the Christian faith, we believe in salvation by faith in Christ’s sacrifice for us.

People who don’t share the same faith may be guided by their own life experience, or family values, or philosophy. 

But as believers, our values (theoretically) are Christ-inspired. 

I’ve been convinced that I should be able clearly to state what I stand for, out of a clear knowledge of the self He created me to be, and of the tenets of my faith.

I’d encourage you to think about this, too.

Try this. Write down in one sentence what your values are . . . what makes you feel deeply, what drives you. (If you’re not sure, repeatedly ask why you feel or react strongly to something. This will always lead you back to what values are core to you.)

The apostle Paul calls on at least three audiences – in Corinthians, Galatians Ephesians  — to stand firm.

In 1 Corinthians he encourages them to stand firm in the faith (16:13), being people of courage, doing everything in love.  “Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord . . . ” (15:58).

In Galatians 5:1 he encourages believers who are set free for freedom, to stand firm – “do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”.

And in Ephesians 6:14, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”

See how Paul, when he says to stand firm, also points to the Christian values that will help young Christians do so. They are to love, and serve, and live in the freedom they have in Christ.

What are your values? What do you believe in and stand for?

Perhaps the sanctity of life? The importance of family life? Service to the poor? Equality? Justice? Stewarding the environment? Bringing people to freedom?

Values are not just integral to who we are, but to the contribution you and I make.

Assume that our values focus on the good of selves and others (which is what makes them ethical, and Christian). If so, our combined personal value systems will support our professional ethics systems, underpin or challenge the values of our organisations, and underpin or challenge societal ethics.

The values that truly guide you and me are most clearly exhibited when bad things happen.

Look at the hope-inspiring story of 12-year-old friends Evert du Preez and Mokoni Chaka who helped those affected by the Shosholoza Meyl train tragedy in January.

They took action. On behalf of others. Their humanity – a universal ethical value – shouts out loud and clear from a clip recorded by ECNA reporter Mike Appel and viewed 155,000 times so far on YouTube.

Today’s South Africa is a time and space when you and I need to stand up for what we stand for. Because when good people don’t stand up for their values, bad things happen.

A country gets captured, until whistleblowers like Mosilo Mothepo and Bianca Goodman stand up. Professionals lose their way (KPMG SA’s former leaders), or are not held to account (asset managers pursuing profits and not asking the necessary questions about Steinhoff’s growth). Organisations focus solely on shareholders and not stakeholders (Steinhoff, again).

Author Andy Stanley writes that once a person loses the authority found in consistently exercising good values, it’s difficult to regain.

When you live your life aligned to your convictions, it makes you persuasive and full of impact, he says.

Others see a relationship between who you are, what you say and what you do. There is integrity or coherence between you and your values. That’s something to ask God for in 2018, isn’t it?

Marian Griffin Kloot, February 2018

References

Appel. M. 2018. https://www.enca/south-africa/two-boys-help-train-victims

Accessed 17 January 2018

Barrett, R. 2010. The importance of values in building a high-performance culture. https://www.valuescentre.com Accessed 17 January 2018

Stanley, A. 1999. Visioneering: God’s blueprint for developing and maintaining vision. Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books.

WAMKELEKILE – WELCOME – WELKOM

to CHURCH

On Sunday I attended three distinctly different Churches.  Different is actually an understatement.  The first was a predominantly white, traditional, Afrikaans Church whilst the second a diverse, cosmopolitan group meeting in the heart of Delft and the third, the Church where I worship, a suburban mix of young and old, reformed and charismatic.

In broad strokes, style was so different; from expressive to lots more conservative.  Dress varied. In one I felt under-dressed whilst at another I was among the smart.  Durbanville is a wealthy suburb whilst Delft has many poor.  Also, racial differences were pronounced between the groups and one group was a combination of many cultures from across the continents whereas another represented a much smaller group.  Theology carried a wide-range of variety, from charismatic to reformed, etc.

As I reflected on these differences along with others I observed I was struck by the thought that, in human terms, there is so much that keeps us separated and divided.  All we would need to do is follow our natural instincts and poor would gravitate to others who are poor, rich would stick with the rich, white would meet only with white people, Xhosa would be inclined towards socialising with Xhosa speaking people, etc.  And to a large degree this is what has happened and continues to happen in post-apartheid South Africa. 

But tucked into a Bible passage dealing with relationships is this gem that has such deep significance for the Church in South Africa: “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11).  You cannot wriggle out of the implications this verse has for us.  Our biggest challenge as a nation is our diversity but it is so much more than a challenge.  It presents an opportunity for the true Church to be what it could be – one new person, united under Christ, and becoming a beautiful expression of the kingdom of God on earth.  I felt at home and welcomed in all three Churches.  When I looked out over the respective congregations I saw brothers and sisters deeply loved by the Father.  I saw family.  Suddenly the power of the One who unites us overshadows any force wishing to separate us. 

Yet we know that the Church in South Africa has not yet grasped the full reality and implication of this truth.  We, in many cases, remain a divided and poor example of what the kingdom could and should look like.  So let me take this opportunity to invite you into some relational risks as well as encourage you towards some no-brainers for those who are following Christ:

• Become intentional about stepping out of your comfort zone to befriend people who are different from you (Mark 3: 31-35).
• Behave respectfully and treat people with equal dignity. No matter who they are or what their standing is in life (James 2: 1-9).
• Become strategic with the use of your money and time so as to impact God’s family for good (Galatians 6: 9-10).
• Do what Jesus said and, practically, love your neighbour as you love yourself (Matthew 22:39).
• Pay people in your employ a proper wage (Deuteronomy 24: 14-15).
• Reject paternalistic behaviour and treat people as equals. Accept that your race, your colour, your privilege, your money, your language, your education does not put you on some higher, more favoured status in life and, in humility, accept that you can learn from others.

I close with this amazing reminder:  “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:1-4). 

We live in desperate, sad, hope filled days.  Perhaps stringing those words into the same sentence confuses you.  But they belong together.

They are desperate and sad days as hardly a day goes by without some new revelation of how those we are meant to esteem show themselves as untrustworthy gluttons of greed.  But they are hope filled days because brave men and women are choosing to speak truth to power.  As clichéd as this statement may sound it does lift a standard to aspire to when all around shouts compromise and corruption.  It helps us see that there are a few good men and women who love this beautiful nation enough to speak truth when it is, in some cases, life threatening to do so.  They do this almost recklessly but we know their words have been weighed, the cost counted and the decision made.  They are not seeking hero status or the attention they often get.  They simply cannot stand by any longer and observe men and women destroying what many gave their lives for – a better life for all South Africans.

David, the great Bible king, once lost his grip on his own mortality.  A serious lapse of character took him into the dangerous world of abusing his power to satisfy his lusts.  He saw what another man had and wanted it.  So he took it.  And in the process a man lost his life, a woman her innocence, a nation its upright leader and he, the king, lost favour with God.  There were consequences all round simply because one man believed he could take what was not his.  He was blind to this truth until a little person with no power but a big heart and a mountain of courage looked him in the eye and spoke truth to him.  God was not happy and David was the problem (2 Samuel 12).

We have these ‘little people’ in South Africa too. Some have influence that gives them an audience with those in power whilst others don’t but they all have big hearts and mountains of courage.  They come from many and varied race groups, political persuasions, Church groups and civil societies.  They have counted the cost and are speaking truth to power.  These are the men and women who need us to hold their arms up in the battle so that they would not lose heart and become afraid.  I am not implying we should be apolitical, political parties have their part to play whether governing or in the opposition benches.  But it is important to remember that political parties always have an agenda that may not directly align with what I am saying.    

The men and women I am speaking of are those who can transcend petty politicking and get to the heart of what we need, speaking truth to power.  Let us support them, love them and pray for them.  After all, when they stand they stand on our behalf!