Five Plain, One Purl - Knitted to Jesus

It was so good to be back in South Africa in October. Wow, to see friends who have grown in grace. My friendship with Wynand has endured through 12 choppy churchy years, as we have both swum through deep waters in different cities. But to stand and minister into the flock he has raised up through sweat and tears, through an outrageous passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ - scandalous really, except in knowing that we have shared each other's burdens over many a long telephone call! God is busy to this day in Rustenburg. And what a profound unit of fellow soldiers He has assembled there!

Our time in Durban was full of pathos as we ministered to Glenda's dad, who has lost his wife very recently, and also suffered a horrible criminal attack a few weeks later. All my theoretical theology crumbled in the sight of this weeping, frail man, who brought my wife into this world. Now I know for sure that a cup of cold water "for the least of these" is worth more than all my studies in scriptures, if those studies don't make me a more compassionate man.

To preach in Red.Point Church in Pinetown was more emotional than I thought it would be - not only because it was our church for over 7 years, but also because they were so hungry for the word of God, and so warm in receiving us.

3Ci is so uniquely special to Glenda and I. The week there was full of highlights, special people and profound ministry moments. One thing I know is that true friendship is the glue of the Kingdom. "Love must be sincere" was part of my Romans reading this morning, and 3Ci has that sincere love. "Anupokritos" means "without dissimulation, genuine, not fake". To love like that takes time, sacrifice, openness and a fleeing from all things superficial.

On the back of my SA trip, I invited a small group of friends (not all could make it) to come with me to have a week in Kenya with Michael Eaton - the man who has singularly shaped my theology more than any other, since first sitting under his ministry in 1985 (and first hearing him say, "walk in the Spirit deliberately and you will fulfill the law accidently"!). What a glorious time in Nairobi, somehow so Biblical. The hours spent asking questions and listening to a continual stream of revelation, coming from decades of labour in the Word, was a life highlight for us who went. And then there was the time together - 8 pastors and preachers from UK and RSA, together on the "unknown path". Cool, man!

So, now to my title - "Five Plain, One Purl"... I have had a growing awareness since getting to the UK that the future will be DEEPER and PLAINER, more expensive in many ways, but willingly paid from the growing revelation of the "Purl of Great Price" (apologies to English language purists):

1. Expensive in the plainness of preaching the true gospel. The naked gospel. Take the Atonement for example - should we not be horrified as to how many theologians are trying to de-stigmatize the Cross by doing away with the "curse motif"; emphasizing the Love of God at the expense of the Wrath of God; trying to abolish penal substitution as out-of-date? These things stand at the very centre of our gospel! May there be many preachers who rise up in this time, in the fear of God before the favor of man, to preach God's virtues plainly and purely.
2. Expensive to make things plainer in the local church, so crowds are not gathered to whoop-making things, but to the Word, around the Cross, to come and die so they might live. This is the trigger for the priesthood of all saints to emerge from the theatre productions that typify so much of church meetings today.
3. Expensive in the plainness of apostolic ministry. The future of apostolic ministry is going to look more and more like Paul and his friends in Acts. Organic, one-way tickets, suffering, bleeding for churches, longing for people "in the bowels of Jesus", "poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing everything". I cannot see how apostolic organizations and denominations that have reduced preaching ministry to conferences and speaking circuits will in any way prepare the churches for revival, or be the "tomorrow's wave". God has judged this cute and neat surrogate, even in me, and found it wanting.
4. Expensive in the plainness of repenting of sin, as men and women covet more of God's voice and presence in the private place. The Age of Tolerance for compromise is nearly over. The room for grace to be preached in ways that foster low level ambition for God and even the "anaesthetic of antinomianism", is narrowing by the day.
5. Expensive in the plainness of being aliens and strangers in this world. Not wierd ostracized communities, no - saints in the world yet so not of the world that they shine in any place, at all times.

May you and I "be found in that number".

love

Nick