Hope City Presbyterian Church

Stephen Murray who has preached with us a few times is looking for our continued prayer support at this time as they prepare to launch Hope City.

Stanley Hauerwas once said, “Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God.”

The time has come for our little church to attempt to provide, by God's grace, that community that teaches and imbibes the story of God. On the 19th of May, 2013, we will begin our public worship services at Hope City Presbyterian Church. There is a weird mix of extreme excitement and near-crippling fear boiling up in my stomach as I think about what we're about to do. The only truth that tempers my excitement and eases my fear is that God is the architect and builder of his church - we just have to follow the instructions. And so slowly a peace is rising out of that maelstrom as our launch date draws nearer. It's not lost on me that 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the very first Presbyterian service in Cape Town. I'm not arrogant enough to believe that our little work is the revival of historic Presbyterianism in our city but I do feel strangely comforted that God might be playing with the numbers here in a significant way.

This is a big deal for us, and we hope it's going to end up being a big deal in the lives of people who will come to find Jesus here, so won't you please join us in fervent prayer for our launch service.

If you are in the area you are more than welcome to come and celebrate with us on the evening and invite friends/contacts/colleagues. The service starts at 5:30pm and will be held at the Gereformeerde Kerk on the corner of Hof and Orange Streets in Gardens.

Prayer Requests

Please uphold the following things in prayer with us:

• Continued growth both numerically and in terms of the depth of gospel understanding in our church.
• Pray that God might grant us fruit through the many relationships that have been built over the last few months.
• Pray for many new relationships with non-Christians in the coming weeks.
• Pray that visitors will join us on the evening of the 19th.
• Pray that we will work hard at our follow up and community building so as to provide new people with a genuine connection to the church.
• Pray that I will preach the gospel clearly and appropriately at the service.
• Pray for all the technical logistics involved in our launch service (music, promotion, tech, etc.)

Thank you again for this partnership in the gospel. We'd love to hear from you so feel free to respond to this email and share your news with us. Please also feel free to refer this prayer list to friends or other folk who might want to pray for us. There are options to forward this email below. Make use the social media links below to keep in contact with us through other media.

God's richest blessings.

Stephen, Robin, Genevieve and the rest of the Hope City crew.

Never the same...

In 1962 Don and Carol Richardson came into contact with a remote tribe in West New Guinea known as the Sawi people. They were cannabilistic headhunters without a written language, nor any clue about Jesus.

The Richardsons, along with their three children, preached the gospel to the Sawi people and witnessed a remarkable movement of God. The story is told in the best-selling book Peace Child and has inspired many to take the gospel to the furthest ends of the earth.

Just recently — fifty years after they first met the Sawi — the Richardsons returned to the village they once called home. This short 15-minute film from Pioneers documents that experience. It is one of the most amazing things you will ever see.

What could God accomplish with us if we allowed ourselves to be unleashed for the gospel?




Orignally posted on Desiringgod.org

Book Review: The Gospel According To Jesus

The Gospel According To Jesus: What is authentic faith? 
By John F MacArthur (First published by Zondervan 1983)

Available at Kalahari.com or Amazon.com

In this book MacArthur stresses the strict submission to the Lordship of Christ, as the vital element of true saving faith and for anyone who is in the slightest doubt as to their salvation, this is a must read.

Jesus’ words about eternal life were invariably accompanied by warnings to those who might be tempted to take salvation lightly. He taught that the cost of following Him is high, that the way is narrow and that few find it. He said that many who call Him Lord will be forbidden from entering the Kingdom of Heaven and for those who have struggled with this damning scripture, this book adequately explains the difference between 'Lordship salvation' and 'easy-believism.'

When Jesus says “come follow me,” it is abundantly clear that He expects total obedience (Luke 6: 46-49) and more often than not He turns people away, rather than have lukewarm followers. The reader is left in no doubt that to be a true disciple is going to be costly and that it would require obedience and sacrifice.

When Jesus calls sinners to repentance, He expects a complete surrender of the will and an inevitable change of behaviour – a radical new lifestyle; not just a difference of opinion, but a turning from the old life, to the new life in Christ. Such a change of purpose is what Paul had in mind when he described the repentance of the Thessalonians (1 Thess 1:9); a turning to God, a turning from evil, and the intent to serve God; true repentance includes all three elements.

Jesus came to seek and save what was lost and so from the opening pages of human history, it was God who sought out the fallen couple in the Garden and it is in His nature to bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. This is good news only for those who acknowledge themselves as sinners. Those who fail to confess their sin – like the rich young ruler – He turns away, but He reaches out in grace to those who like Zacchaeus and the Samaritan woman, admit their sinfulness and seek deliverance.

Let me say as clearly as possible right now that salvation is by God’s sovereign grace and grace alone. Nothing a lost, degenerate, spiritually dead sinner can do will in any way contribute to salvation. Saving faith, repentance, commitment, and obedience are all divine works, wrought by the Holy Spirit in the heart of everyone who is saved - John Macarthur

The book is sprinkled with interesting explanations of some of the parables and teachings of Jesus and makes for easy reading, even for the theologically challenged, and is highly recommended for anyone interested in a firmer grasp of the issues about real faith and salvation. I also found the book helpful as a daily read, as each chapter is independent of the rest and deals with different subjects.

All in all it is a very instructive book by an author of sound doctrine and useful tool for evangelising, especially for those who need some assistance explaining the scriptures.

Leon Huisamen - Elder

Conversations for discipleship

I want to do a series of posts using some material that has been borrowed from Marshillchurch.org on discipleship. There will be seven posts in the series and whilst they are helpful for us all in leadership I would particularly like to commend them to the home group leaders.

What is discipleship?
There are many errors we can make in believing in Jesus. In my experience in a room of twenty Christians when asked who is a disciple, less than ten will answer in the affirmative. That seems strange when the instruction given to Jesus church is to make disciples. If we're not making disciples then what are we making? Whilst the answer is worth another post, I believe that we've made converts and not disciples. Converts believe in Jesus, but they dont' follow him or live like him. Jesus calls us and empowers us through the Spirit to follow him as he gives his life up for others and proclaims the coming kingdom of God.

Conversion to what?

A number of conversations with various folk and listening to a number of developing conversations in the blogosphere like that on Scot McKnights site have got me thinking about the gospel again, and particularly how we witness to people about it.

I would believe that all gospel centred, reformed thinkers (that would be you I hope!) believe that Jesus died to save us from our sin through a substitutionary atonement (1 John 2:2) and we agree that we want people to be saved by God and that Christ's sacrifice might be for them too. The Bible reminds us that God desires all people to be saved. And so our desire is to be part of that great call to salvation in Jesus.

Every leader of every ministry and every HomeGroup leader should be helping those under their guidance to bring the gospel to all in need of being saved. And just in case you're not certain: yes it is your job to be Jesus witness, and yes millions will die this year outside of saving faith in Jesus. The time is now friends!

But here is my thought: our gospel is often smaller than the biblical gospel and our call to respond to it is often not quite what the bible presents. How so? well let me make just two points and hopefully they will get you thinking a bit.

1. The gospel is not just a call to be saved it is a call to live saved. The gospel is applicable to all of life. In fact the gospel is a call to live as part of God's great redemptive story for the earth. Sure it is about being saved, but also about living saved. The gospel has implications in how I live my marriage out, how I parent my kids, spend my money, take holidays, do business and how I spend my time. The gospel of the bible is a rich, full gospel of which repentance and salvation by grace are the start. It is about living by gospel grace too. Which brings me to my second point.

2. The reason so many people live such half hearted Christian lives is that we've called them to believe in Jesus, but we've not called them to follow Jesus. Do you follow me? It's easy to say I believe, its hard to live that belief out daily. Because our gospel is so anaemic we have created Christians who think they are saved because they have believed something, rather than having followed someone. 

Forty four Times in the ESV Jesus tells people to "Come follow me". The modern idea of belief is not what the biblical authors intended. The biblical idea of belief is richer than merely intellectual agreement. Perhaps as we witness to people the call should be "come follow Jesus and you will be saved" of course lets not deny that we are saved by grace and that we have little hope of success in our following him, hence the need of God's mercy.

But the call is still and will always remain to pick up our cross and to follow Christ. Many will say they believe, few will actually carry there crosses and follow their saviour to a death of self. But then Jesus did remind us that the way is narrow to eternal life and few will find it.

May you be one of those few and may you do all you can to get others to journey with you. For God's glory alone!