Engagement of Gert Delport & Jennifer McNeil
The Deputy National Chairperson, Mr Sibisi, spoke before the service on the importance of the church’s role in the country, in fighting HIV and crime. He stressed that the only way to be free from STDs and HIV / AIDS is for young people to live upright lives according to the Bible. Those who flirt with the opposite sex and sleep around – with or without condoms – are washouts and destined for certain destruction and death.
2 Corinthians 11
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
There is the way of the world and God’s way of holiness. The world gets engaged with a party, drinking and boozing, but we as Christians do it in God’s house with prayer and in holiness. Some say that there are many ways to celebrate an engagement. Yes, there certainly are many ways to hell but only one way to heaven. The ring the young man gives to his future bride is a token and promise that he will keep himself pure for her until the day of marriage; in receiving the ring, the girl makes the same promise.
Young people should live like Mary the mother of Jesus. When the angel told her that she would bare a son, she replied, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34) She lived a holy and pure life as we read in 1Cor 7:34, “The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.”
Today we live in a time where everyone has their rights but that’s very often a “freedom” from hell. Young people claim to be free and live promiscuous lives. No, God’s Word is the final authority and that’s the way we ought to live. You can drive the most expensive car, but if you don’t stick to the rules of the road you won’t get far before you have a major accident.
We must be pure and faultless before God. Some do not sin openly, but they sin in their thoughts. But before God a thought is like a deed. It might not matter to you but it matters to God what you think. It is a matter of life and death.
Today Jesus invites you to come to Him and make right your life with God. Satan deceives some that their sins are too many. No, the wonderful news is that if you repent from your sins God forgives you and remembers those sins no more.