Newsletter #43

Dear friends

While one of the men I am travelling with was being interviewed on servant hood and serving others, one of his comments triggered a God thought for me which has been spinning through my mind since.

This man has an incredible ability to serve others (I know, because it is not the first time I am experiencing his humility in service) and while questions were being asked of him, his answer to a question, 'How do you find the energy to keep going out your way to serve others?', he quickly responded, 'I am not going out of my way!'

In that moment, God highlighted the inevitable follow on to that comment, 'I am not going out of my way... It is my way.'

And as I have been surveying people's service, including my own, truth be told, most of the time we serve others, we feel like we can put a feather in our cap because we have gone out of our way to help. And here was a humble man, just saying it’s not about finding the energy to keep going out of his way to serve, but rather he has so allowed the Spirit of God to transform him and to position him as the least among men so that serving God and men has become his way. The very thing Jesus commands us to be and do!

So I ask you friends, your service to God and men, does it feel like you do it from a position of ‘I will do it even though it is out of my way’, or have you got to the place where you have substituted your way with God's will and way?

God, would you help us to be renewed and transformed in order that we might one day be able to say, 'in serving others, I don't go out of my way; it is my way.'

I love you Southcity and pray for God's protection over you while I am many thousand kilometres away.

Love

Rich

Newsletter #42

Dear Southcity and friends

What an incredible privilege it was for me to be able to be sent by you to go and encourage and support Clif and Sarah (and little Chelsey) and to see the work going on there in Doha, Qatar. I can truly say that God has gone before them and has opened a door for effective ministry. Clif, Sarah and Chelsey are flourishing and we have new partners in the gospel in Doha Fellowship. What a great joy!

While in Doha, I reflected on and prayed for much all of us as Southcity, and in a very sweet moment with God, he took me to see something for us. In Revelation 4:1, a voice from heaven says, "Come up here and I will show you must take place after this." And as I was with God he took me to Exodus 20:24 which says "wherever I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you." In this moment I was reminded of our responsibility to disciple all people's everywhere and to call out of them the Imago Dei, the image of God, by helping them to remember the goodness of God in their lives in order that as they remember, they may dwell with him, know him as Father, and know his blessing.

Friends, we have an incredible responsibility to bring glory to our Father through being obedient to his desire for us to disciple all peoples. My encouragement to you today is to put aside your favorite preacher, author, evangelist etc and to heed the words of God, "come up here and I will show you what must take place." Let us increasingly be a people who respond to the Spirit of God and his promptings as we remain faithful in obedience to the will of our Father who is in heaven.

And as we do this church, I ask you to pray for Jacs and me in the coming weeks, as firstly I have the privilege to encourage and minister into the broader leadership team of Immanuel Church in Umhlanga on Thursday evening, followed by a trip to Los Angeles where I will be supporting and ministering with a team of men into that city. And next Friday, the 28th, Jacs will be ministering to the parents of the Olive Tree church in Durban, where she has the opportunity to unfold Gods purpose into the lives of many. Please pray that, with the power and work of the Spirit, there will be fruitfulness from our labour.

Thank you for your faithfulness in your giving which allows Jacs and I to minister in this way so that all of us together can impact all of creation for the Kingdom of God as partners in the gospel.

Much love to you all and I look forward upon my return to hearing many testimonies of God's goodness and power as you trust in him to lead your way.

Richard