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interested who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The longer I stay in Cape Town the more removed from the people I send
this newsletter to which in turn means that I forget how much you don't
know about what's going on here. It's been about three weeks since my last
newsletter and, when I think about it, quite a lot has happened.
One of the great things about being at GWC is that the college's
affiliation to CESA means that we are able to get a variety of speakers
(especially international speakers who are somehow linked to CESA). For
example, we had the privelege of listening to Dick Lucas (a preacher in
the UK) a couple of Fridays ago. He spoke exquisately about application
and a preacher's audience and spent a long time answering questions. One
of my favourite answers that he gave was a story about when he went to
speak at a school in the UK (which was, not surprisingly, pretty
secularised). He went up and spoke out of Genesis three explaining that he
didn't much care for the story since it was clearly not informed by
contemporary music or beliefs. He wanted to write to the publishers and
have it altered to, more accurately, say, "It was the cool of the day and
man was walking in the garden. Adam wondered where God was and called out
saying, 'where are you'. But God was naked and ashamed so He hid in a bush
and he answered, 'I'm hiding'. To which, Adam responded, 'why'. God
answered Him, 'I was naked and ashamed so I hid in this bush and you're
never going to find me'." Lucas continued, telling us how he would also
then alter some New Testament stories like the lost sheep, which was - of
course - about the good flock of sheep looking for the naughty shepherd
who had run away. Finally one of the staff listening to his talk laughed
which gave Lucas the chance to say, "Thank you very much, you're
absolutely right; what I have just said is entirely ridiculous. We are not
searching for God as culture would have us believe; He is searching for
us". I'm not sure what else he said but it sounds as though it was a
pretty good sermon to a relatively hostile audience.
We also had Steve Timmis (the author of the book "Total Church" which is
about not just meeting on Sundays but as Christians, sharing our lives
with one another). He had some interesting things to say and left me with
a lot of food for thought although I'm still struggling to think of
practical ways of implementing what he was talking about in our
indivualistic society.
Last week Thursday the Evangelism class got the oppurtunity to go out to
Capricorn (a nearby township) and witness. It was wonderful to see and
hear others explaining the gospel to people who were quite receptive.
Please keep our evangelism in your prayers (not just those who were spoken
to on Thursday; a group of us go out to the beach front on Wednesdays).
On an extra-curricular note, I mentioned in my last newsletter that we
would be playing against the St. James soccer team (which is an
established team and represents the flagship CESA church). The game
happened and despite my involvement, we won confortably with the result of
4-2.
Today Des Inglesby (the area bishop) spoke in Chapel. It was a sobering
reminder of the weightiness of our calling and the importance of not
slipping into the mindset that we were saved and therefore always will be.
There is a need for us to actively seek to grow in Christ. Please pray
that complacency would not set in with myself or my peers but that we
would spur one another on. I've been reading a book called "Worldliness"
subtitled "Resisting the seduction of a fallen world". It talks about 1
John 2:15 which tells us not to love the world or the things in the world,
the book exhorts Christians not to fall into the trap of being like the
world. Please pray for this not only for me but for Christendom. May the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit be with you all.
In Christ,
James Cuénod
--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ
