Dear
friends
What an
incredible privilege to be a part of a worshipping, witnessing community. As we
survey Scripture and know our Father, we see two primary importances for the
church. Firstly, we are to be a community who glorify God and give Him praise,
and secondly, we are to be a witnessing community, attesting to the goodness
and love of our creator God in order that those living in our region may come
to have the same faith as us.
This past
week has seen 'Southcity' involved in multiple expressions of both worship and
witness. We had the privilege of hosting elders and pastors from the coast in a
time together where we could partner with and encourage one another. We hosted
a men's evening where just under 100 men came together from all walks of life
and both the righteous and unrighteous heard of Jesus' fame and work. We hosted
multiple churches praying together for our nation, and we were able to worship
together in Ramsgate, Mzamba, and SCRC. What a rich inheritance we have
together!
In all of
these things, my prayer is that we would know the life and love of God, and not
just be meeting attenders. That we would worship and witness because the love
of Christ compels us to as it did Paul when he wrote:
For Christ's love compels us,
because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he
died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for
him who died for them and was raised again. ...We are therefore Christ's
ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on
Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." - 2 Corinthians 5:14-20
Church,
friends, it is a great privilege and responsibility to teach and proclaim the
word of God to you every week, and today I need to humbly apologise and correct
an aspect of what a taught, and how I said it, on Sunday. I said that the
'Daniel fast' was attributed to Daniel chapter 1 where Daniel does not defile
himself with the kings food, whereas it is attributed to Daniel chapter 10,
where he cries out to God for his people and does not allow any delicacies,
meat or wine to cross his lips. I spoke quite strongly, even critically, about
our motives around this, and on this point, I was the one in error.
Please
accept my apology and I thank God for placing a team around me that hold me to
account for what I teach. The reason for writing this now is that I would
choose to publicly apologise face to face with you on Sunday, as that is the
context I spoke it in, but I will not be with you this Sunday, so will not be
able to do it with the urgency I would like to without writing it here.
Be strong
and courageous church. I end with Paul's encouragement to Timothy, which I
encourage you to pick up and run with:
"... Set an example for
the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. ... be
diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may
see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them,
because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." - 1
Timothy 4:12-16
Much love
Rich
