Dear Southcity and friends
Wow! Time really can fly. It has been a good few weeks
since my last letter, so apologies for those of you who thought I may have
dropped off the planet. These past couple of months truly have been a privilege
for me as I have endeavoured to be faithful to the call of God to me to preach
the gospel in all the world, so thank you to all of you for releasing, sending
and praying for me and my family over this period.
While preparing to preach to you a few weeks ago, looking
at the call of God to his people through the prophet Hosea, the words
"like people, like priest" were like a hot iron being pressed into
me. Most of you will know the saying, 'like father, like son', which explained
means the son takes on the likeness of his father, and in Hosea we see 'like
people, like priest', which when explained means the priest takes on the
likeness of the people. God gripped me with this and the question I believe
being asked was this: "Why are the priests taking on the likeness of the
people, rather than the people taking on the likeness of the priests?"
And I felt God go on to explain that the church, as the
priests of God, are increasingly taking on the likeness of the people of the
world, rather than the people of the world taking on the likeness of the
church. Ouch!
As I have ministered this in various contexts around S.A.
over the past few weeks, one thing is painfully obvious, this is true of the
church across the nation. So friends, my request of us is that we would get
before our heavenly Father, and ask Him in what ways we have allowed the ways
of this world to become the perspective with which we view our faith or live
out our faith. Today, we often find it easier to interpret Scripture through
modern thinking (because it is more palatable and easier for us socially) than
to interpret Scripture through the voice of the Spirit of God.
My deepest desire is that we would become a people who
carry the witness of God in our day to day lives, in order that the people of
this world desire to become like us, as we desire to become like our Lord and
Saviour.
I am really looking forward to being with you all this
Sunday, and in the morning meeting, we will have 50 men from Linc Church in
Ballito joining us as they desire to end their men's weekend away participating
in a local church's worship gathering. So come along and lets celebrate Christ
on Sunday as we show the world a different way.
Much love to you all
Rich
