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5 April 2009

Acknowledgement of guests

A story is told of an old couple that was driving on the country side in their old vehicles that was given to them by the Husband’s in-laws as a wedding present, and they kept it and looked after it so well. The old woman in the passenger seat was sited quite and the man too looked lost in his thoughts, as they were suddenly disturbed by a fast moving vehicle with an obviously happy looking couple with a brand new vehicle painted the famous just married sign at the back and on the sides visible to anyone looking.

The old couple watched speechlessly as the newly weds vehicle disappear in the woods and the dust settling gradually. After a while the old woman broke the silence, she said: “Bob did you notice something about that newly wed couple” emotionlessly Bob responded, “nothing in particular except that they were driving faster than us”. “The couple was clung together driving and looks so happy and inseparable”. Mary despondently replied. Then Bob looked at her and said: “Mary for the past 40 years I’ve been driving and I never moved from by driver’s seat, you are the one that drifted away from me to occupy the extreme end of the passenger seat”.

The moral of the story: God has always been there for us and with us; we are the ones that drift away from God. He has always been in the same position today, tomorrow and forever. We chose to drift away from him, we chose to be the kind of people we are today. When God created man and woman, they were perfect in front of his eyes and were pleased with His creation. He gave them all, I mean all, but the biggest gift he gave them was the gift to choose between right and wrong. This was to be their ultimate key to freedom and self emancipation.

Today South Africa is where it is because of other people’s choices and in other instances we are reaping the fruits of our own choices. Let me share with you what you already know about your church. The Assemblies of God statement of fundamental truths is a description of the sixteen core doctrines adhered to by the Assemblies of God. These doctrines are heavily based on the evangelical confessions of faith, but differ by being clearly Pentecostal.

Of the sixteen, four are considered cardinal doctrines “essential to the church’s core mission of reaching the world for Christ”. These are doctrines concerning salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and the second coming of Christ. As much as I agree that these mentioned four are core to the church, I want us to look at the believe number ten, that reads “The church has a mission to seek and save all who are lost in sin. We believe the church is the body of Christ and consists of the people who, throughout time, have accepted God’s offer of redemption (regardless of religious denomination) through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ.

The church referred to here is not the building, for example; brick and mortar, but people, warm bodies. Until those warm bodies make a conscious decision propelled by their conscience of the need to bring lost souls to the fold, until then no mission is accomplished. (Luke 15:7).

The choices that were made by individuals before you in this church all over the world is the reason why today the Assemblies of God, have approximately 283 413 churches spread in over 110 countries and approximately 57 to 60 million followers worldwide which makes it is the fourth largest international body of Christians.

It was all because of individuals and not everyone, it is only those who were determined to choice to do what is right to their conscience and commit themselves to the course in anticipation of the highest reward, salvation and eternal joy. Stephen R. Covey the motivator had this to say about choice. “While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions”.

As all South Africans , black and white, brown and yellow, green and blue awaiting eagerly for the coming elections in exactly 17 days from now, some people are spending sleepless nights and unpleasant days worrying about the outcomes of the elections because they made wrong choices from the beginning. Some bought tickets to wrong destinations and unfortunately they are not aware because the train looks like is moving to were they thought is their destination.

Ladies and gentleman, brothers and sisters, after 22 April, there will be those who will shout out to Noah and say: “Noah but we helped to bring timber, others saying we helped with the collection of animals, and some will even say Noah I personally helped you to draft the plan for the ark as dictated by God, brethrens the truth is, it will be too late, the political grace would have been closed at least for that period only.

The good thing is that the ANC principles are enshrined and embedded in the Christian doctrines, we forgive and forget, We acknowledge that people do get tempted and go astray sometimes, we acknowledge that people do get bewitched by circumstances and behave strangely, We acknowledged that the love of money is the root of all evil, we acknowledge that people love power and domination , We acknowledge that there’s political blindness in our society, We also acknowledge that there are people who still worship other people and put their hopes in them instead of God.

To the church of the Assemblies of God the bible says in Psalms 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise”. Brethrens , as a society and a church in particular we are duty bound to ensure that we make a difference to the vulnerable in society and condemn violence against women and children.

South Africans need to join hands and declare that it is not acceptable for women to be abused as they are the cornerstone of a successful South Africa and we need to jealously guard their interests so that our country could be known as a country that is biased towards women emancipation and it’s a known fact that once you educate a woman, you educate the nation.

As the church we should be prepared to work towards nation building without expecting monetary gains as they are driven by the spirit of developing our country, ensuring that better lives are experienced by all in the country and moreover it is our moral obligation. We need to inculcate the spirit of volunteerism among society so that people can always look at ways and means of extending a hand of friendship to the poor and work towards uplifting the living conditions of our people through various ways such as education, sport development, capacity building, home based care etc.

We need to pursue the ideals of peace and compassion and continue to work towards making our communities safer so that we could protect all citizens in the country from all social malice that continue to plaque our country including crime, substance abuse, diseases, especially HIV and AIDS.

In conclusion, it is my prayer and my wish that as we descent to the polls on the 22 April 2009 with sober minds, you should know that your choice you would have made on that day through your cross, will determine the future of your children and children’s children. There are always two choices, two paths to take, one is easy, and its only reward is that it’s easy. Therefore chose correctly, defended our democracy, our quest for unity, transformation and a better South Africa for all.

I would like to leave you with these words of wisdom from John Wooden, a retired American Basketball Coach and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame when he says: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are”.

May the good Lord bless the church and it’s entering leadership. Remember “together we can make it happen”

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
5 April 2009
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government (http://www.mpumalanga.gov.za/)