Hi Friends
Hope you are all doing great! I had a very interesting time these last few weeks and would like to share some of what happened. We as a young church have been hearing from both Romans and Ephesians that God has changed our condition from lost sinners to saved saints and this is all due to Christ’s work in our stead, but now we have also learned that God is wanting to even go ahead and help us change so that we are holy vessels that He could use. This is something he does through the working of His Spirit daily in and through our lives as we submit to Him and look to Him through faith.
With this in mind, I had some friends visiting me and sharing that they are realizing that there is still sin in their lives that they have not dealt with. They shared that they feel in their hearts that they are hiding sins in their lives and that they feel that God cannot use them as long as they hide these things. This all came about after certain lessons from Ephesians as well as lessons from the old Testament about Jonah. So as we visited together they shared about how they have been lying to me at times, and stealing from my office. Some of them have been gossiping about us missionaries and have been allowing some negative thoughts to control their thinking. Not only did they share some of this with me but also some other secrets such as that they have recently killed pigs without telling their owners and that they stole food from other people’s gardens. They said that for long time now they have felt that these sins have been hidden and they can feel God’s hand pressuring them to confess these! Wow that was an amazing evening, of fellowship and prayer and rejoicing.
Then a couple of days later I visited Brus and spoke with him about some debts that he had allowed in his life. He told me then that he was pressured by non-believers to allow these debts. But later that same day he came to visit me and confessed that he had lied to me and that he actually made those debts in order to buy some food for his family. He then shared that he just can’t go on sinning and hiding his sin like this.
As you know, we also had some others falling into sin and even turning against the church, yet they also came and apologized and prayed together.
It seems that there is a more sincere attitude among many believers to start walking with the Lord. Please pray that God will continue to touch people’s hearts so that they truly give themselves as holy living sacrifices!
Thanks for standing behind us!
Lourens