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TuisbladDienste-CommunitasForumsMultikulturaliteit	Jesus wys die onreg uit
Written by webmeester on June 20, 2011. Posted in Multikulturaliteit	Dit was normaal dat handelaars offerdiere aan tempel gangers verkoop. Daar was ook geldwisselaars. Hulle het die buitelandse munte vir Joodse munte geruil. Net dié Joodse geld mag in die offerkiste gegooi word. Daarmee is ook duiwe en soms ander en groter diere soos lammers gekoop. Die handelaars het net Joodse geld aanvaar. ‘n Deel van die winste uit die verkope het vir die instandhouding van die tempeldiens gegaan. Dinge het tog soos gewoonlik sy gang gegaan. Waarom het Jesus so reageer?
Waarskynlik was Jesus verder die josie in vir die geldwisselaars wat die wisselkoers tot hul eie voordeel gemanipuleer het. Die buitelanders was uitgebuit. Hulle moes baie van hul geld vir min Joodse geld wissel. Vandag vind mens ook dat buitelandse toeriste duurder vir produkte moet betaal. Vreemdelinge word daagliks uitgebuit. Jesus neem soortgelyke onreg, maar in die tempel waar. G’n wonder Jesus noem die huis van gebed ‘n rowersnes nie. Hy verwys na Jeremia 7:11. Jeremia het by die ingang van die tempel die mense van Juda en Jerusalem gewaarsku dat God nie daar is waar die tempel staan nie. God is daar waar daar reg geskied. Hulle geloof word deur hul lewe en dade getoon. Hulle moet die onreg teenoor vreemdelinge, weeskinders, weduwees en onskuldiges stop. Dit en ander gruwelike dinge soos moord, steel, egbreuk het die huis wat die Here se Naam dra ‘n rowerspelonk gemaak. Die Here spreek hom nie teen die besigheid by die tempel uit nie, maar hy is uiters ontsteld oor die gesindheid, onsensitiwiteit, selfsug en selfs die onreg wat met die besigheid gepaard gaan.
Dit help nogal wanneer ek skaam oor ons kerkgebou en geriewe is, in vergelyking met die ander kerkgeboue waar ek al besoek het, want dit is nie waaroor kerkwees gaan nie. Hierdie gemeente bestaan ter wille van die Here se koninkryk. En Hy stuur ons nie na mekaar nie, maar na mense en plekke waarheen die Here van plan is om self te gaan of waar Hy reeds aan die werk is. Jesus wat die tempel reinig, het nie ‘n af dag gehad nie. Hy was op en wakker. Hy het ‘n fyn aanvoeling vir geregtigheid en is ontstel wanneer Hy onreg waarneem. Dit gaan oor sy alles insluitende genade wat alles oortref. Dis deur Hom wat almal, swart en wit, man en vrou, vrye toegang tot God kry. Die muur van skeiding wat mense van mekaar skei is finaal afgebreek. Dit het Sy lewe gekos, die skeiding in die tempel is afgebreek. Sy bloed reinig ons van die sonde van verdeeldheid onder gelowiges. Dít skep ‘n nuwe mensheid waar gelowiges saam mekaar se laste ken en dra, mekaar nodig het en mekaar opbou, saam diensbaar is aan al God se mense, ook of veral diegene wat Hom nie ken nie. En dit is baie belangrik dat ons gelowiges nie ander mense verhinder om saam te kom bid nie.
No Comments	Multi-kulturele ervarings uit Lusaka
Written by Frederick on June 16, 2011. Posted in Multikulturaliteit	Die Here se multikulturele gemeente hier in Lusaka is ontstellend broos. Net God hou ons bymekaar vas. Om dit te sien en te glo is partykeer meer ontwrigtend as wat mens sou wou hê.
No Comments	Hoe breek ons uit die monokulturele gemeentes
Written by Frederick on May 30, 2011. Posted in Multikulturaliteit	In die Koninkryk is meer-kulturele geloofsgemeeskappe normaal en monokulturele geloofsgemeenskappe abnormaal.
No Comments	The Holy Spirit made the church grow by crossing boundaries
Written by webmeester on May 19, 2009. Posted in Multikulturaliteit	The Gospel of Luke and Acts
This includes a list of “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.” (2:5) Each one hears the apostles in his or her own language: “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs. (:9-11) The news also spreads to the Jewish Council who vehemently opposes the spreading of the gospel by the apostles in two different sessions, but in the end decides to suffice only with threats and flogging.
The first internal Jewish boundary to the Jewish Council is thus breached by the church with at least some of the priests that enters into the faith. The first external albeit still Jewish boundary is also breached alongside with the breaching of the language boundary with the proclamation on Pentecost by the apostles to all the God-fearing Jews from other nations. And although God leads this movement also through the work of angels, the focus is on the Acts of the Holy Spirit who filled the believers on Pentecost and enabled them to proclaim the gospel (2:4).
We see it in Peter’s interpretation of the experience to link it to God’s promise to pour out His Spirit (2:17) and to the gift of Jesus: “﻿Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” (2:33) We see it in the response of Peter, accompanied by his quiet companion John, to the Jewish Council that is also linked to being “filled with the Holy Spirit” (4:8) We also find this in the gathering of the believers after the hearing: “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (4:31) And when the apostles are questioned at the second session with the Jewish Council about their audacity to disregard the command not to speak about Jesus, they respond by saying that they cannot but witness, as indeed the Holy Spirit does: “﻿We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (5:32).
Luke tells us specifically that in the growing opposition, that arose from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, who were Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia, that these men could not “stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.” (6:9) Stephen also castigates the resultant hearing of the Jewish Council for resisting the Holy Spirit, as their fathers did also. (7:51) And when he ends his speech by looking up to Jesus standing at the right hand of God, Luke describes him as full of the Holy Spirit (7:55). The crossing of boundaries to Samaria also includes the specific prayer ministry of the apostles so that the believers there could receive the Holy Spirit (8:15). And in the crossing of boundaries to the Ethiopian, it is the Spirit that tells Philip to go to the chariot and stay near it (8:29) and takes him away afterwards (8:39). The movement closes with the observation that the church was encouraged by the Holy Spirit, as indeed Saul was in receiving the Holy Spirit by the ministry of Ananias (9:17-19).
When the three men arrive at Joppa, just after Peter’s vision, it is the Spirit that says to him to go with them. And it is the outpouring of the Spirit that clinches the paradigm shift for Peter that gentiles are included into the body of Christ: “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” (10:47) And in his explanation to the church in Jerusalem he links the gentile outpouring of the Spirit to the promise of Jesus: “﻿‘As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. ﻿Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with﻿﻿ water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ﻿So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?'” (11:17-19) The Spirit is also seen at work in the life of Barnabas (11:24) and Agabus, the prophet (11:28).
In Acts 13 it is He that tells the congregation in Antioch during prayer and fasting to set Barnabas and Saul apart for the work He has called them (13:2). And when they obey this calling and set out for Cyprus, Luke again tells us that they were sent on their way by the Spirit (13:4). Saul ministers in the witness to Sergius Paulus “filled with the Holy Spirit” (13:9). Even when they encounter radical opposition, Luke tells us, that they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (13:52). At the church’s meeting in Jerusalem to decide on the religious-ethical issues, one of the arguments raised for a lenient approach towards gentiles, is the fact of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on gentiles(15:8). And when a decision is reached, and sent by letter to the church in Antioch, it is attributed firstly to the Holy Spirit (15:28) in combination with the church.
In Philippi (chap. 16) the church starts with people from different ethnic groups (Jewish, roman and a slave girl from an unknown group) and also from different socio-economic groups (Lydia, a business woman, a middle-class jailer and a slave girl from the bottom of the social ladder). This causes the authorities and magistrates to take notice of the spreading of the gospel to their city, resulting in a time in jail for Paul and his companions. In Thessalonica a number of Jews, even Jason that came from Tarsus (Rom 16:21), as well as a number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women (chap. 17). In Berea a number of Greeks, men as well as prominent women came to faith with even more eagerness than in Thessalonica. In Athens Paul engages the philosophers, Epicureans and Stoics, at the Areopagus (chap. 17) that leads to one of their members, Dionysius, coming to faith, as well as a women Damaris and a few others. And then in Corinth another Jew, Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his house comes to faith.
It starts off with the report that the Holy Spirit made very sure that they crossed the boundary to Europe. Luke writes that Paul and his companions had to travel through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. ﻿When they thus came to the border of Mysia, and they tried to enter Bithynia, the “Spirit of Jesus” would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas where Paul had the vision of a man of Macedonia asking him to come over. Luke reports this in the first person: ” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” The movement into Ephesus was also accompanied by a few disciples of John receiving the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands.
In Tyre they stayed with a few disciples who “through the Spirit” urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem (21:4), presumably because of the hardships that Paul himself explained previously and Agabus also voiced: “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'” (21:11) Interestingly enough the Lord Himself also appears to Paul at different times (9:5; 18:9; 23:11) as also to Peter (10:14).
No Comments	Western Culture Observed by a Cross-Cultural Missionary
Written by Frederick on September 10, 2008. Posted in Multikulturaliteit	One day Issac Newton was sleeping under an apple tree and was awaken when an apple fall on his forehead. Of course, Newton was not the first person who had ever seen an apple falling from the tree. And there were thousands of people who would mention, “The apple had grown big enough so that it was time to fall down” or “It was a matter of natural law that things above fall dawn below.” But the greatness of Newton lies in that he refused to be satisfied with that kind of explanation and continued to ask the question why the apple fall down until he discovered the law of gravity. No less great is the insight of Newbigin the missiologist. People usually attributed the stagnation of the English Church in the twentieth century to secularization, and if asked why the English society was going through secularization, they would vaguely attribute it to the trends of modern times. But Newbigin did not stop there and investigated until he attributed the root of the secularization of western culture to the wrong assumptions of the Enlightenment. Like the Queen Mother of the British monarchy, Rev. Lesslie Newbigin was born at the beginning of the twentieth century, and lived almost a century. If the Queen Mother is the history of the British monarchy in the twentieth century, and Newbigin the history of English Church mission movement in the century. Just as Moses in the Old Testament had become a leader of the Exodus after forty years of his life in Egypt and forty years of cross-cultural experience, Lesslie Newbigin had become a leader of the “gospel and culture” movement after forty years of his life in Britain and forty years of cross-cultural experience. With his unusual gift of communicating all the difficult philosophical, sociological, and theological concepts, he tells us what he experienced in his life and ministry. Returning from his forty years of missionary service oversees (with most of his service in the East) Newbigin saw that Britain was no longer the same Britain he saw before his departure to his mission field in India. The Great Britain in the past was the center of modern civilization to where people from every side of the world came to learn advanced civilization including government and medicine. But about the time he was returning home, he saw English young men in India wandering the city in unwashed clothes to learn the oriental wisdom. Issac Newton’s vision of modernism was to export the light of enlightenment and civilization to the whole world. But here were the British young people who were disappointed by the civilization that modernism had brought. The hope for the promise of modernism had faded away! His pastoral experience as a retired missionary was another illustration of the cultural context of modernity Newbigin observed. When a small church in the district of the Asian immigrants was about to be closed by the presbytery, Newbigin appealed for the preservation of the congregation and was allowed to assume the pastoral position of the church on the condition of no pay for his pastoral ministry. When he was visiting the neighborhood to win a chance for evangelism, the English family often met him with cold refusal on the door. It was rather the pagan Asian families who invited him to the living room for tea. And when rarely an English neighbor opened the door, it was no longer the Bible but the television which occupied the center of the English family living. In this context Newbigin experienced that far more difficult than to evangelize a Hindu was to evangelize a British. To bear witness to Christ to a Hindu is a hard work enough. But even though they opposed to Christian faith, the Hinds were, at least, not uninterested in a spiritual topic. And far more difficult was to evangelize who were not interested in spiritual affair than who oppose to Christian faith. It was the kind of society where faith was considered as a matter of personal choice, and therefore evangelism was taken as intruding one’s privacy. And that in the homeland of the Puritan movement, in the land with the heritage of the Wesleyan spiritual revival, and the hometown of the great preachers such as Spurgeon! This illustrates that the same Britain can be a spiritually productive land in one age, and barren in other age. As Newbigin’s life and ministry demonstrate it, a cross-cultural missionary sees his or her own culture with the Christian eyes of a foreigner, and the foreigner can see what the native cannot see (Newbigin 1994:68). This is why cross-cultural mission has implications for theology. Even a brief survey of the history of western theology illustrates this. Because of the total dominance of European culture in the ecumenical movement, there has seldom been any awareness among Western theologians of the extent to which their own theologies have been the result of a failure to challenge the assumptions of their own culture. This failure reduced Western Christianity to what Karl Barth calls “Culture Christianity” whose theology was a mere reflection of the modernist assumptions. Now it was Lesslie Newbigin who challenged the false assumptions of the western culture shaped by modernism.