Love God, Love your Neigbor and Love the Alien! (Love your Enemy)
The foundation of all God's laws can be summed up into three principles: Love God, Love your neighbor, Love strangers. Jesus reiterates this in the New Testament to the lawyer and the rich young ruler. Dysfunctional communities & societies seem to be on the rise. Does God care? We often strip the Gospel of its power when we refuse to forgive and be reconciled.
How do you interpret a law like Deut. 21:8 ("When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring blood guilt on your house if someone falls from the roof.") Is it still applicable today? Talk to professional roofers/ builders and hear what the government law requires today. Many believers have had accidents, some of them fatal, because of not knowing Gods heart in such a case.
In June, Moses spent a week with the SBSCC (School of Biblical Studies Core Course) lecturing on the book of Deuteronomy in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. This book is very relevant at a time when that nation is going through needless pains trying to amend one wrong with another.
After colonialism the white minority consisting a quarter of the total population owned three-quarters of the land in Zimbabwe. The current government- sponsored violent occupation of private land is wrong, just as the colonial descendants have been wrong in perpetuating former injustices by refusing to surrender some of the land. You don’t right one wrong with another. True repentance requires restitution BUT not to the extent of kicking fourth/fifth generation of descendants out. Lawlessness and greed are taking a heavy toll on a country that still refuses to recognize its HIV/AIDs catastrophe that kills thousands each week. Immorality is rampant and the current economic hardships don’t help - many women resort to prostitution, desperate for their next meal. We read the book of Deuteronomy aloud in proclamation over the land and spent the week studying it in depth, with an emphasis on finding out what Gods heart was with each given law. Deuteronomy is very applicable in Zimbabwe as it calls for mercy, justice and restitution.
Moses' time in Kenya was fruitful as he visited with family, church and supporters who partner with us from there. Many people are stressed by the current economic and political hardships and need Gods perspective. Please pray for Kenya, that there will be peace at the coming elections (Dec. 2002) and that the paternalistic dependence on IMF/ WB would be removed as the nation turns to God - the true provider. The leadership is blind to the God given resources as they race to have western kind of economic development, but the process takes them into deeper debt & bondage?
Moses's journey ended with a conference in Spain for missionaries working in North Africa. It was a time of reporting back both the exciting happenings and the challenges of serving on the frontiers. Tchad was well represented by Jonathan, (a Tchadian YWAM Alumni); Natalie (a French YWAMer focusing further north) and Moses. As a conference we had good times of refreshment and prayers for the region and the 'kingdom extension' by the power of the Spirit. Amazing miracles are taking place and bringing North Africans to Jesus. People that would otherwise resist any kind of witness are getting visions & dreams of Jesus that are so vivid that they just want more. The church has been officially recognized in a nation that was totally Islamic. The people meet in homes like the early church did and though they have authorization to meet in larger buildings they prefer not to. Due to security reasons we cannot go into details in print but let it suffice to say that Christ is building His church that consists of people rather than buildings of wood and stone.
Thank you so much for your partnership, which enabled Moses to make this trip. Know that all of you at Living Truth are part of what God is doing in Africa!
Moses & Jo Kariuki
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