A New Creation

As 2010 moves along so does ministry on the University of Johannesburg with the men's soccer team. Monday after a tough training session I was trying to line up a meeting with a talented player on our team named Dennis. Another player Itumeleng overheard us and asked me 'Why are you meeting with people?'. I quickly responded by telling him that I was here to help the spiritual development with the team here at UJ and he asked if he could meet with me as well the following day.

So yesterday at the Student Center on campus Itumeleng opened up at our meeting about where he was spiritually. He told me that up until now he had not really thought to much of it and that he had never really explored it much other than reading his cousin's Bible from time to time. I asked if I could share with him how God has changed my life and so we went through the gospel. I use a booklet known as the Four Spiritual Laws sometimes to share with guys and when I used it yesterday there was one image shown here where self is in control(figure above) of a persons life and Christ is outside. His facial expression clicked like a lightbulb and he just said that 'the one with self on the throne...that is me man...im tired of living like that'. I went on to share with Itumeleng that Christ wants to be on the throne of our lives and now life is about Him guiding us and directing us to an abundant life with Christ in control (figure on the right). Itumeleng told me that he was ready to respond to Christ and so we prayed that God would come in and be on the throne of his life.

As a friend recently told me 'that is what its all about!' in giving glory to God through the way we share his truth and understanding that as Christ followers we have been commanded to share this gospel in every single corner of this earth.

Thank you for praying that people would come to know Jesus here. Your partnership in bringing the Truth to South Africa is priceless to me and Im sure Itumeleng would agree as well. Itumeleng is now a new creation in Jesus Christ and angels in heaven rejoice at his eternal life that begins now.

As we head in to the latter part of Holy Week I cant begin to express how thankful I am to Jesus Christ for the sacrifice He made on that cross that has now set you and I free from the bondage of sin and death. We owe Him EVERYTHING. Emptied out, surrendered, and exhausted I am in need for His grace daily. I pray that each of you see that need as well for Jesus in your lives. May you have the greatest Easter ever in celebrating that our King is ALIVE and well and is reigning forevermore.

I will check back in with you after I go camping in Mapumalunga this weekend to hike the 3rd largest Canyon in the world! What a way to celebrate the amazing resurrection of Jesus in the middle of his amazing creation. Pictures are sure to follow.

Pastor Mark Driscoll in South Africa

Before this past weekend I had heard many great things about Mark Driscoll. I had read a couple of his short books available on his Resurgence website. But to hear Mark Driscoll in person is another story. This man is serious about accurately and graphically depicting God’s Word and so from the weekend of hearing him speak or preach 4 times I left very much encouraged and refreshed to reach the lost.

Last Friday evening Driscoll had what was called a City Celebration. Up to this event in Johannesburg he had done this same sort of event once in Durban and once in Cape Town. This night is where Driscoll and his research of the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Suffering) and Crucifixion shined. This 2-hour event was riveting. From my point of view Pastor Mark gave the most vivid description of the Gospel I had ever heard due to his intense portrayal of the suffering of Jesus Christ. Here are a few points of His Friday night talk:

>-Crucifixion was not graphically spoken of in the Bible because of its intense and horrific nature.

-When we share the Gospel we need to unpack the death of Jesus and not just say ‘He died for my sins’

-Driscoll quoted Luther in calling the Crucifixion “the Great Exchange”

-‘This was not a victim but a victor…”- Driscoll

-A few responses to the death of Jesus should be 1.) Repentance 2.)Restitution 3.)Reconciliation and more but it was hard to take all the notes!

Over the weekend another trademark theme of Driscoll’s preaching is to do abolish Religion. I think up to this point I hadn’t really gone head first in to this topic because I thought I was safe. But the more I listened to Pastor Mark talk about how entangled we are in Religion the more the Spirit began to convict my heart. “Religion is like an abusive father …Religion ends in Pride or Despair” Driscoll said. Quotes like this really helped me analyze where am I just being religious in my life. We need to be people that are more interested in understanding and studying the character of God and not trying to get get get things from God.

On Sunday Pastor Mark was the guest preacher at GodFirst Church in Joburg. The topic for Sunday’s message was ‘Man to Man’. PM started his message with turning to scripture about the qualification of Elders in the church. He said that the church needs to have ‘elder-qualified men’ everywhere in the church and that the qualifications of an elder from scripture should be what we as men are striving to be. He said Jesus Christ is our ultimate example of a man who came to earth and took responsibility. People out in this world today are seeking to belong to some group that will give them purpose and worth and PM says that this is what the church should be, a place to equip men and women to reach out to others and take from the ultimate example of Jesus Christ.

PM listed 4 main attributes of a man who is a REAL man:
-A man who loves God (one who is above reproach and likes to lead)
-A man who loves his family (a man of one wife, submissive children underneath him)
-A man who manages himself (sober-minded 1 Pet 3 and self-controlled)
-A man who loves his city (a man of hospitality, a man well thought of by those outside 1 Thess 4)

Sundays message is available for download on the GodFirst website http://godfirst.co.za/node/325

This weekend was a great reminder that as men we have a large responsibility to lead in Godly ways and not be timid in the way we depict the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Even now as single guys we have that ability to practice leading and aiming to grow daily in our understanding of God through the theology that we are stretching ourselves with. And for those who are married it’s a reminder that God has not called us to be wimpy and passive in the way we are to lead our wives and families but to be men that take responsibility and exemplify loving our wives and children as Jesus Christ loves His church.

Spartans and Bobcats Unite

This week here in Johannesburg we have some Athletes in Action staff and student-athletes from Michigan State and from Ohio University. This group from the States will help us on campus daily to make connections and build in to what we already have going on with the University and Pro teams. I am excited to work alongside these men and women for the week so they can help us really get deeper in to the athletes lives here we are working with. Please pray for us this week here that we will make great connections, that people will come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and make decisions to follow Him, and that a momentum of revival would sweep through the movements on campus and in the pro teams from the work from this group does. See yall soon.