I have experienced this with Sunday’s worship service. The elders have\nbeen on home visits for the past month and from time to time problem cases are\ndiscussed with me and then also requests: \u201cReverend, do you not want to preach\nto us about this or that. This issue is still very unclear to some, or there is\nstill uncertainty about that.” One of the elders went to visit a member\nand saw that strings were tied around her wrists and ankles. When he asked her\nabout it, she admitted that she had visited a faith healer in D\u2019kar and that it\nwas he who had tied the strings around her wrists. She did not feel too well\nand decided to visit him. We all know of the specific faith healer and his\n\u201cchurch\u201d here in D\u2019kar. He belongs to the Saint Hebrew Apostelic Church. Many\nof the Bushmen who have some mental or health problem will go to see him. I\nhave seen people standing in a line to drink vinegar water and firmly believe\nthat it will free them from their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it happened that I preached from Jeremiah 13 on Sunday. Jeremiah 13\nis precisely the excuse amongt these faith healers as to why they bind people\nwith strings around their wrists and ankles. With the recent burial at Tchabo,\nin my previous report, Jeremiah 13 was the excuse. Whether they ever read\nJeremiah 13 I do not know, but they stand by Jeremiah 13. Jeremiah did it, and\ntherefore they do it too, is their defense. Before the service, one of the\nelders asked me to speak straight. Jeremiah 13 was on the menu and with\nJeremiah 13 you have to talk straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeremiah 13:1-11:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup><\/strong>Thus saith the LORD unto\nme, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not\nin water. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2<\/sup><\/strong>So I got a girdle according\nto the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3<\/sup><\/strong>And the word of the LORD\ncame unto me the second time, saying, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 4<\/sup><\/strong>Take the girdle that thou\nhast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it\nthere in a hole of the rock. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 5<\/sup><\/strong>So I went, and hid it by\nEuphrates, as the LORD commanded me. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 6<\/sup><\/strong>And it came to pass after\nmany days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the\ngirdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 7<\/sup><\/strong>Then I went to Euphrates,\nand digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold,\nthe girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 8<\/sup><\/strong>Then the word of the LORD\ncame unto me, saying, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 9<\/sup><\/strong>Thus saith the LORD, After\nthis manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of\nJerusalem. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 10<\/sup><\/strong>This evil people, which\nrefuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk\nafter other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this\ngirdle, which is good for nothing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 11<\/sup><\/strong>For as the girdle cleaveth\nto the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of\nIsrael and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me\nfor a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would\nnot hear.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In my explanation, it was clear that this linen\nbelt around Jeremiah’s hips depicted anything but prosperity or blessing. It is\na picture of the Lord’s wrath against Israel and Judah. The first command to\nJeremiah was that the linen garment should not come into water. The people in\nD\u2019kar take baths with their strings on. They do not take it off when they bath.\nAt this point they have already deviated from the command in Jeremiah 13. After\nthat, Jeremiah had to take off the linen belt around his hips and hide it in a\nravine near the Euphrates, according to the command of the Lord. After many\ndays the command came again to Jeremiah: “<\/strong>Arise, go to Euphrates, and\ntake the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.<\/strong>“<\/strong> Then Jeremiah went to fetch the linen girdle and\nnoticed that the girdle was corrupt and worthless. You can do nothing about it\nnow. If you touch \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \nit, it crumbles. Then the word of the Lord came to\nJeremiah with the disturbing words: 9<\/sup><\/strong>Thus\nsaith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great\npride of Jerusalem. 10<\/sup>This evil people, which refuse to hear my\nwords, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods,\nto serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good\nfor nothing. 11<\/sup>For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a\nman, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole\nhouse of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and\nfor a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.\u201d<\/strong> What makes the faith healers sound like a blessing\nis actually a curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \nThe church fell silent after these words.\nSpecifically it is said of Israel and Judah: \u201c<\/strong>10<\/sup><\/strong>This evil people, which\nrefuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk\nafter other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this\ngirdle, which is good for nothing.\u201d<\/strong> Today we are bound to God by the merits of the atonement of our Lord\nJesus Christ, but if I want to add anything to it with faith healing or with\nthe superstitions of my culture, I make the bond between me and God in Christ\nJesus worthless. If there are certain rituals in my culture that I have to\nfollow in order to earn the favor of God or the ancestors or whoever, it\namounts to a breaking of the covenant or bond that exists between me and God,\nbecause there is only one who can bind us to God and that is our Lord Jesus\nChrist. Without Him we are destined for eternal damnation. A simple image I\nused is: If you make coffee and you deviate from the recipe, you are no longer \n \n \nmaking coffee. Should you add salt, pepper, tea,\nsoil or what-ever, you will no longer make coffee, this is your own brew. Nor\nshould we try to change God’s recipe for our salvation. If we do, it is at best\na curse and not a blessing. Next week we will experience and confess our unity\nwith God through the sacrament of communion. Do not come with your strings,\nbecause then you will drink judgment on yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the service, I heared someone very\nimpatiently calling me: \u201cYou must come and see me, you must come and see me. I\nwant to see you at my home.\u201d It was the woman the elder told me about, whom he\nvisited at home \u2014 the woman with the faith healer’s strings. The elder and I went\nto visit her after the service. We saw that she was clearly upset. It felt to\nher like I was just preaching to her, she said. Who told me about her? We made\nher understand that she is not the only person with strings who were at church\nand secondly it is a problem in D’kar but also in Tchabo, yes, wherever these\nfaith healers are, this is a problem .<\/p>\n\n\n\n We told her about the experience we had with the\nburial at Tchabo when the faith healers used Jeremiah 13 to justify their\nstrings. The faith healer there mentioned Jeremiah 13 without explaining the\nchapter. It was then that I decided to preach about it at some point so that\nScripture itself could speak. On the way back from Tchabo we had enough time in\nthe vehicle to talk about and discuss the chapter. She is not the reason I\npreached about it this morning, but part of the reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She then wanted to know if she could keep the\nstrings on and see it as mere decoration. I replied that she should immediately\ncut the strings if they were put on by a faith healer. If it is just decoration,\ntake it off because it is bad taste. Who bathes and walks around year in and\nyear out with the same decoration, and besides who except a fool will see it as\ndecoration. Everyone here in D’kar knows the origin of such strings, and when\nwe want to celebrate and confess the unity in and through our Lord Jesus Christ\non Sunday, it is very definitely not the place where we want to see those\nstrings, and if she does not want to take it off, we have no choice but to\nbelieve that she still believes in it. The elder and I left and he was very\ngrateful for our visit to her. This is one of his problem members in his ward.\nWe were convinced that she now has a lot to think about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To conclude, it was definitely a large rock that stirred\nthe water in our congregation. We ask the intercession of each and every one\nfor our congregation, but also that the Lord will break the work of evil here\nand open a way for us for the Gospel. There are still so many people who\nbelieve in a \u201cChrist plus gospel\u201d. Christ yes, but you still have to do this or\nthat. It was Paul’s struggle in the New Testament, Christ plus circumcision. If\nyou study his letter to the Galatians it is Christ plus all kinds of rituals.\nIt is not that they reject Christ, but that they add something. Galatians 4:10:\n“Ye observe days, and months, and\ntimes, and years.”<\/strong> In verse 11 he says, \u201cYe observe days, and months, and times, and years.\u201d<\/strong> In verse 9 he\ncalls it \u201cthe weak and beggarly\nelements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage\u201d.<\/strong> In our case here,\nbut also all around Botswana, many people have no problem with Christ, but you\nshould not give up your cultural ceremonies such as sacrifices and strings. We\ncan rightly call it a vain Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your brother in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hendrik du Plessis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rev Hendrik du Plessis An old Bushman once said to me: \u201cMoruti (pastor), if you want to bring us to our senses, you must throw a large stone into the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Sondag-21-Feb-2012-1.jpg\")
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