{"id":935,"date":"2021-09-06T20:16:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=935"},"modified":"2021-09-06T20:16:27","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T18:16:27","slug":"and-you-shall-know-the-truth-and-the-truth-shall-make-you-free-john-832","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=935","title":{"rendered":"\u201cand you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\u201d (John 8:32)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abdul’s major objection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \nAbdul recently came to me filled with\nsorrow: \u201cHendrik, you have made a big mistake. How could you and Cg\u2019ase go to\nGantsi now that his wife is dead? According to our tradition, he has to stay at\nhome all the time until the funeral. He may not move around under any\ncircumstances. When you returned from Gantsi, I went to wash your bakkie’s\nseats with hot water so that you do not have to die, and now you want to go to\nGantsi with him again. It is very dangerous because evils may hit you because\nof your actions.\u201d I stood quietly listening to him and waited for him to calm\ndown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdul,\nas I mentioned in my previous reports, made a confession of faith about a year\nago. He has accompanied me on quite a few outreaches, also with Frits and me,\nwho passed away last month because of Covid 19. I still see him as a child in\nthe faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nhave already considered him a deacon, but then one thinks of Paul’s words not\nto confirm new ones too soon in a ministry (1 Timothy 3: 6). While he goes on\noutreach with me, it is for him good exposure, not only to the Gospel itself,\nbut also to its ministry and good preparation for the office of a deacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nhe calmed down a bit, I said to him: \u201cAbdul, can you remember what you and I\ntalked about a while ago. We were standing there, and I gestured to the place.\nI drew two circles on the ground and told you there are two sheepfolds in this\nworld. The one sheepfold is the sheepfold of the Lord Jesus and the sheep that\nbelong to Him listen to His voice (John 10), because they belong to Him, and no\none can snatch them out of His hand. Then there is another fold, the devil’s fold,\nfull of superstition and magic. There they enchant each other and they hate\neach other and in that fold the rules you are now talking about are applied. If\nyou’re in that fold, I totally agree with you, you must then be very afraid of\nall these evils that may befall you. I do not know what concerns you but I am\nnot in that fold and I know who my Shepherd is and that nothing can happen to\nme without His will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdul\nthen said: \u201cYes, but it is our tradition, you can ask anyone. Call Aron now and\nhe will tell you that it is true.\u201d Aron is one of our elders. On the way to\nGantsi, Abdul called Ben (also an elder in our church) and he tried to explain\nto Abdul that it is an old Kgalagadi superstition. In Gantsi we ran into Aron\nand Abdul could not wait to involve Aron in the conversation, hoping that Aron\nwould take his side and defend it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nshort Aron’s answer to him was: \u201cAbdul, the things that you are talking about\nwe believed when we were not yet Christians. These are old things that have no\nvalue to us anymore. Now we are Christians and no longer value those things at\nall. If you are a Christian, those evils can no longer strike you.\u201d Half\nembarrassed, Abdul accepted our answers. Aron, a fellow Bushman, was clearly a\nkind of cannon or a last word to Abdul that calmed him down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nmade me realize once again how important the individual conversation is in the\nmission field. In many cases these conversations come unplanned and you have\nthe opportunity to confront someone with the Gospel, which reminds me of the\nWords of our Lord Jesus: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall\nmake you free.” (John 8:32) Where the light of the truth of the Gospel\ndoes not shine, fear of all kinds of evil takes over. In fact, this is how a\ncult works. A cult uses fear as glue to hold its members together. In contrast,\nwe are bound to Christ by love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your\nintercession is asked for Abdul and his household and also for our\nconversations around the Bible and during our outreaches around the campfire.\nAbdul lost his mother when he was a child. His mother was a Qg\u00f5o-Bushman from\nKhagcae near Bere and his father a Naro. One night a mamba sailed into their\nhut and bit his mother. Unfortunately, they could not do anything for her, and\nhe grew up with his father. Abdul is a regular churchgoer before and since he\nmade a confession of faith and it is his ardent desire that his family will\nfollow him in this matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your\nbrother in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrik\ndu Plessis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abdul’s major objection Abdul recently came to me filled with sorrow: \u201cHendrik, you have made a big mistake. How could you and Cg\u2019ase go to Gantsi now that his wife<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":933,"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\/935"}],"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=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}