Month 6
June was a month of waiting. Even if we were given a certain timeframe, we still waited. God was teaching a lot of the SKIM (Spectacle, Koinonia, Indelible, Manna) squad, patience. The phrase that people learned this month was… “T.I.A” which means, This Is Africa. I learned a lot about Africa time in 2005 when I was here before, not a new concept for me. A previous blog I wrote explains a lot of what I learned and am still settling in this month.
While in Machanga, Mozambique, we were able to teach at a woman’s conference, play with the kids, and do random evangelism. It was great. At the Woman’s conference, the head woman in charge was not speaking truth. She was speaking on a works based faith. In order to get to heaven , we are to do as many good works as possible. Scripture clearly says otherwise.
Rom 4:5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
2Ti 1:9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
Tit 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Gal 2:16, 21 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
There is NOTHING we can do that will help us enter the kingdom of God. So, we prayed about this and decided to preach on the opposite. That did not go over so well. The woman went to speak at the next meeting and twisted the words that were spoken. At that point, SKIM squad decided that we really needed to talk to the pastors of the church. A couple of the guys on the squad sat down with the pastors and told them about the false teachings and that the Pastor really needed to stand up and protect his sheep. The pastor will answer in heaven to the false teachings that were presented to His church if He did not stand up and say something. The pastors had no idea how to confront the situation, but were very grateful that something was said. The next service, we had a question and answer time. Some of the members asked very serious questions. Some being, “Can we really not serve anyone but God?” and “Is there only the one way to enter heaven?” and just so many more. The questions just really cut you down. We had no idea how far these women and men were from hearing the truth. God brought us to that time and place for that particular reason. At the end of the question time, we had an alter call and everyone came forward to receive Christ in their lives. Even the pastors. (That isn’t something new for Africa. Most of the pastors here just have the title because it helps their status in the community.)
Please be praying for Machanga, Mozambique. Be praying for Truth to be taught and for God to come down and show his Love to the community.
