The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

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Moriel South Africa David Royle MORIEL MISSIONS SOUTH AFRICA Dear friends and family Greetings in Jesus. First of all a happy New year to everyone. May the Lord give you His peace and supply for the coming year. We opened the office on the 9 th of January and Chris began the work of filling in back orders of books and DVDs, etc. We had a really nice peaceful time over the Christmas holidays. However the children got a little bored so we filled in the time with project work. It’s hard to believe but we have been in the Western Cape for one year already. The time has gone very quickly and the kids have adapted well to their new environment, PTL. The health of the children has been fairly steady. S’phiwe though has had an ongoing low white blood cell count. On Friday the 20th we make a trip to Hermanus for another set of blood tests. Please pray that they turn out Okay as he has not put on any weight recently and has had opportune fungal infections. A new exercise regime started in the New Year. You will see the boys tramping around the hills at 5:45 every morning apart from weekends. It seems to be doing Carlos and Chris good as they have both lost weight. The rest of the children are in good health, thank the Lord. Although Lyn and I have a few issues we are still praising God. MORIEL MISSIONS SCHOOL Thanks to David Lister in the USA we have received some more Laodicea and Shadows of the Beast books. Give us a call or email if you want them. They are R140 each plus P&P. Our New website for South Africa students is almost complete. For those studying there will be an e-campus and lots of downloads. It will be found at: www.morielmissionsschool.co.za/ Meanwhile, for a teaching catalogue please contact us at the email above and we will send you one. The Persecuted Church Our intrepid leader has recently come back from the far east. Please read this carefully and commit it to prayer: Blessings from Jacob Prasch Thailand and Prayer Request for Persecuted Church in Vietnam After speaking at Mennonite, student, and Hmong churches we did an evangelism trip into Burma with our Moriel team from Northern Thailand. The government of Myanmar (Burma) is just liberalizing very slightly. We were also able to distribute food parcels to the poor and homeless in that very desperate country, in addition to gospel tracts in Burmese and preaching the good news of Jesus openly in the marketplace. We have an ex-Buddhist monk from Myanmar from a family of opium growers now following Jesus and helping us. We also visited Laos where two pastors were just released from communist prison. Thanks to the goodness of God working through the prayers and generosity of our readers and friends, we were able to set up a secret printing press in Vietnam and print thousands of illegal Bibles in the Hmong language last week. We met secretly with one of the Hmong leaders in Thailand outside of communist jurisdiction. Unfortunately today we received an “SOS” from the underground church we support and assist and whose pastor is an evangelist. We do training seminars among the Hmong mountain tribal people. The English in this transmission is very poor but you can understand the appeal for prayer. One evangelist we trained has been arrested and tortured by the communist authorities for preaching Jesus, and the situation appears desperate. They released him temporarily after 18 days so others can see what they did to him as an apparent deterrent to preaching Christ, but he has apparently been rearrested. We cannot include certain details for security reasons. Please pray for his release from prison and for his protection. The believers in the Hagiang region are also experiencing extreme difficulty and poverty. Please stand with us in prayer for them. Jacob Prasch Prayer Matters • Give us today our daily bread • For the continued health of the children, especially S’phiwe • Our ongoing Guidance from the Lord • Aprils visit from DR Calvin Smith • For the fellowship prayer breakfast • Lyn and Dave’s trip to the UK and for the safe delivery of babies • The sale of our properties in Gauteng • The persecuted church in the Far East • The children in the Philippines to whom we minister • Our planned trip to Uganda in July • Dave’s Trip to the Philippines in April • Dave’s Trip to Australia in May 18 Moriel Quarterly • March 2012
• All our administrators across the world TRUE FELLOWSHIP “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.” Acts 2: 42 – 47 I was speaking to someone a while ago, and they were reminiscing about a church many years back. They said that at this particular church the fellowship was sweet like nothing they have experienced before or since. Over the last few years, I’ve spoken to quite a few people who have told me the same thing. In fact I, myself, as a youth leader in the late 70s, early 80s, have memories which are so sweet of fellowship with the crowd I was involved with then. So is fellowship consigned to the past Does it exist only in the nostalgic memories of a few Or is there a possibility that fellowship can be lived and experienced among believers today Despite what we see so often in our churches, despite the apparent shallowness of some of our relationships, I believe fellowship is a distinct possibility for you and me if we endeavor to do two things: Firstly – We fellowship to the depth and breadth which the New and Old Testaments indicate; Secondly – We see fellowship as what it really is: something which needs to be constantly worked at. I don’t know about you, but I carry baggage that hinders my fellowship—stuff that I need to let go of if I desire to grow in this area. The text for today is probably the text that most people would come up with when thinking about New Testament fellowship, and that’s why I chose it. For here we see a group of believers who shared everything together in those early days straight after Pentecost. But today I am not going to exegete that text fully because when one looks at the original Greek and Hebrew texts concerning the whole area of fellowship, we begin to see a lot deeper into what God desires for us. For example, the word ‘fellow’ in the Hebrew has four uses: It can just mean man or ‘ish.’ ‘Isha’ is the feminine for woman. It’s a generic term. Another is ‘Reya,’ an associate, an acquaintance. Another is ‘Amiyth,’ which means a comrade, a closer association David Royle than ‘Reya.’ And finally there is ‘Kawbare,’ which literally means ‘to be knitted together’ or intermeshed. When we look at the Greek we get an even more in-depth look, because it suggests what we must do or be with our fellows. In Ephesians 2: 19 it says we must be ‘fellow citizens’ or ‘soompolytare.’ In other words, a native of the same town or faith. In John 11: 16 we are called ‘fellow disciples’ or ‘soomathetes.’ A co-learner under the same master. In Ephesians 3: 6 Paul says we are ‘soongklayronomos’—‘fellow heirs’ in Christ; we participate in a common inheritance. We are also fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise. In 1 Thessalonians 3: 2 we are called ‘fellow laborers,’ or ‘helpers.’ It’s the same Greek word ‘soonergos’, a companion in labor. In Romans 16: 7 we are called ‘fellow prisoners’—‘soonaheekmalotos,’— a co-capture in Christ or for Christ. In Colossians 1: 7 we are to be found as fellow servants, ‘soondoulos,’—co ministers with the same master. Then in Philemon verse 2 the word suggests ‘fellow soldier’—‘Soostiateotare’—a companion in battle. So when we look just at the depth in the way Scripture suggests how you and I are to interrelate in Christ, we see that even here, sometimes what we know as ‘church’ pales into insignificance. But there is one more ‘fellow’ which even makes these fall short of what I believe God really desires, and that ‘fellow’ is ‘fellow-ship.’ In the Hebrew we have several words; The first is, ‘tesoometh’ or to be pledged together. Secondly we have ‘yad’ which means an ‘open hand’ quite literally, and can be used to both grasp and also smack if necessary. Thirdly is ‘kawbar,’ similar to ‘kawbare,’ and it literally means to ‘be fascinated’ by one another. In the Greek it is just as fascinating. Firstly, ‘soongkoynoneho’—to share company with someone. Secondly, ‘Metoche’ which means ‘fellowship,’ but not at a particularly deep level. But thirdly we have that word for fellowship, mentioned not just in Acts 2, but in many places. It is a word that lies at the heart of all relationships—‘Koinonia.’ Literally to have everything in common. So let’s look at three points in this word study, which we will cover over three sermons. Firstly What is koinonia How could it affect us That is this session. Secondly Who and what we have koinonia with and who we don’t. We will look at this in the next session. Thirdly Obstacles to koinonia, which will be our final session. Koinonia, according to Vine’s is “Communion, fellowship, sharing in common, that Moriel South Africa which is the outcome of fellowship, a contribution.” When we look at our picture of the early Church in the book of Acts we do indeed see all these things occurring. Five in particular which to me stand out significantly in our text are: In verse 44 they were together! It is impossible to have fellowship unless we meet as an extended family and as Hebrews 10: 25 says, “all the more as you see the day approaching.” It upsets me terribly when I see the amount of Christians out there, keeping away from a local church because of heavy shepherding churches and the abuses of the word of faith movement and other heresies. I understand, I sympathize, even empathize. BUT someone once said, and I agree, ‘The answer to bad church is not no church, but good church.’ But these believers were together. Again in verse 44, they had all things in common. Now let me make a point here because this is where quite a few churches go wrong. When we look at other contemporary groups of the time, we see some living lifestyles in a similar way to communes. The Qumran documents show clearly that the Essenes and the Qumran sects lived in a similar fashion; being together and having all things in common. In Acts 4:32 – 5:11 though, it clearly shows that the selling of possessions was voluntary, and the fact that the Christians moved from house-to-house in verse 46 shows that the Christians were distinct from the communes from the time. In fact what it does mean is that to hold together and have things together does not mean you join a kibbutz or a commune; what it does mean is that even though we may own land, things, finances, a cricket bat, lawnmower—whatever—we can make them available to the community of believers if there is a need. In other words, if you have two coats, food, whatever, you should share with whoever has none. 600 years ago the welfare system of society was ‘the Church.’ Justine the Apostate, enemy of the Church, said “These followers of Christ, they not only look after their own poor, they look after ours as well.” When we look at some of the great welfare movements of all time with people such as Shaftsbury, Muller, Barnado, etc., we see that it was always the Christian at the forefront. We see that the Church played a prominent role. In the UK after the 1 st and 2 nd world wars, we see a paternal state taking the place of the Church. And now as these systems become so expensive to maintain and institutionalize, we see the failure of the state, and people untouched and adrift in poverty. In our society, times are economically difficult, and I believe once again the fellowship of believers must fill the gap as we see brothers and sisters in terrible need, children orphaned, as we see an HIV pandemic shattering lives and families. We must respond in Christ’s love. Verse 46 says they had one mind, one ac- March 2012 • Moriel Quarterly 19
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