Brief summaries:
Monday evening: Rev Stegen started with the verse from Luke 24:29,
“And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in to abide with them.”
Many Christian leaders ask the Lord to send revival and to be among them but He refuses because of sin.In Deut 32 the Lord says to Moses that He will not go with His people but that an angel shall go before them. There was sin in the camp that had to be repented of first.
The stars of heaven have fallen, God’s leaders are not shining. Sin must be dealt with.
Tuesday morning 9am: Ds Danie Steyn (90 years old) read from the theme verse and referred to other verses which challenge God’s ministers’. He warned that some ministers are not called of God into the ministry. The doubts about the truth of the Bible and the lack of life in the churches are often are result of the minister’s own lacklustre life.
Tuesday morning 11:15am: Michael Ngubane read various verses from the book of Jonah. This prophet of God had a hard heart. He hated the very people to which God had sent him. The Ninevites had done God’s people harm and Jonah was only too happy to see them destroyed. We see this in the 4th chapter where Jonah is upset that God shows them mercy. Are we just like Jonah, disagreeing with God’s call and going in the opposite direction, and not feeling the same compassion that God feels?
Photos from Monday night and Tuesday morning – Ministers’ Conference 2015:
Tuesday afternoon 3:30pm: Dr Albu van Eeden, CEO of Doctors for Life International, gave a multi-media presentation on addictions. Reading from the book of Joshua about the “accursed thing” he showed how porn addiction is an epidemic and endemic in the church. Porn is more powerful an addiction than others and leads to terrible consequences. Ministers must see to it that their own lives are free so that they can assist those bound by the “accused thing”.
Tuesday evening 7pm: Prof Thiessen: He gave a profound message on forgiveness, from God and for each other. He stressed that forgiving others is egocentric if it is simply to feel better. Instead, our attitude should be Biblical – remembering that our sins were far more and the person who needs forgiveness is loved by God just as much as we are. We read in 1 John 1:8-9: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The word ‘confess’ (homologeo) in Greek means ‘to say the same thing’ and then ‘to come to an agreement’.
Wednesday morning 9am: Dr Peter Hammond gave an outstanding talk with multimedia regarding the main theme. He went through many verses that Christ might have used speaking to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Are we ministers busy with God and His Word or are we being absorbed by the world and it’s ideas?
Wednesday morning 11:15am: Pastor Ntokozo Nhlabathi of the Concerned Community gave a powerful message challenging the ministers to obey James 5:10 to “humble ourselves before God”. He also quoted from 2Chron 7:14 where God says He will be with us if we humble ourselves and part from our wicked ways. Unless we humble ourselves in truth we cannot expect the Lord to “abide with us”.