THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS

A CONCISE AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS

Creation – 2091 BC

There were no Jews and the land was called Canaan.  It was simply a region known by that name.  The people living there were nomadic herders or members of small independent city states.  There was no Canaanite state or nation.

2091 BC – 1446 BC

The call of Abraham.  For his descendants it was the time of the patriarchs and the Egyptian captivity.  Descendants of Abraham lived in the region of Canaan, but it was still not a Jewish nation nor any other nation.

1446 BC – 586 BC

The descendants of Abraham leave Egypt and are forged into the Jewish nation.  They conquer the independent city states in Canaan and establish the nation of Israel.  This is the first time the region of Canaan becomes a nation.  For most of these years the nation of Israel is autonomous.

586 BC – 72 AD

The Jews are taken into the Babylonian captivity, but return to the land 70 years later and remain in the land until Rome finally destroys the nation in 72 AD.  During this time the area is recognized as the nation of Israel, but the nation is weak, less autonomous and a vassal state for the ruling empires.

72 AD – 1948 AD

The Jews are dispersed throughout the world and the nation of Israel does not exist.  Rome renames the region Palestina.  During this time the region is ruled by seven different empires, but it is always a dependant territory.  No empire or people ever annex the region and make it part of their country, nor is the land ever made a separate, autonomous country.  There are always Jewish communities living in the land.

1948 AD – Present

The Jews reclaim the land and re-found the autonomous nation of Israel.  Since creation the region has been known as Canaan, Israel and Palestina (Palestine).  But, it has only ever been one country – Israel – and one homeland – for the Jews.

The Most Popular Post

The most popular post on this blog is the one on “A Preperation Process For Expository Sermons”

That post has been viewed thousands of times.

I have  updated it just a bit by further clarifying explaining some things.

Click here to check it out.

NEW YEAR UPDATE

Hello Everyone -

Happy New Year to all from Steve and all the Plodinecs – Karen, Stephen, Timothy, Kimberly Catherine, Michael and Luke – in South Africa.

We hope and pray all is well with you and that the Lord is gently conforming you to His image. We pray that the Lord will give you more and more grace. We hope you pray the same for us.

CULTURAL UPDATE – They dance in the black churches here. In fact, there is always loud music and enthusiastic and exciting dancing at every church event, including Sunday morning. It is their culture. But there is no dancing at funerals. I don’t dance, at any function. Recently Karen & I went to the wedding of one of our students. The wedding party of 12 people arrived by dancing their way down the middle of the dirt street for the last two blocks to where the ceremony was held. Dancing spontaneously broke out at various times during the day, sometimes it was just one person bopping along, other times it was a group and sometimes there wasn’t even any music playing.

We also went to a graduation party thrown by five of this years graduates, and you know there was dancing. It seems that no event has really begun until the key people have danced their way in. As the graduates were grooving up the aisle of the church Karen asked, with a big smile on her face, if I felt like stepping out and joining them. I said no, not at all. She asked what would happen if I did join them? I said it would have been pandemonium. The place would have erupted. They would have said I finally got the Spirit.

I have talked with the students about this in class. They love to dance at happy events, but they also know that my American church culture does not dance, which is fine with me. They understand that and accept it, though they think that is being wound a little too tight. A student even stood up in class once and had the whole class pray for me so that when I visited his church I would get out in the aisle and dance with the rest of them. I said they could pray all they wanted to, but don’t count on it unless God personally appears to me and tells me to get out there. And don’t count on that either. This will always be just a minor cultural difference for me in the churches here.

Culture is important, but people are people all over the world and we all struggle with the same faults, fears and sins, and have the same hopes and dreams, no matter what our culture. This is why the word of God is relevant and applicable to everyone in the world. I am here teaching the students biblical truths and principles that directly apply to them and their cultures, but I am not trying to change their culture. That is not my job. God will do that, if He needs to. This is another reason I am not personally planting a church in a village, but instead training the men who are already pastors in their villages and are already in the culture. But, there are cultural differences in the way we do things and all of us are learning about these differences more and more the longer we are here. You can read up on different cultures, but you never really know what they are like until you live among the people and interact with them. Cultural knowledge just takes time. We all are getting better at fitting into the way things are done here and we have made our share of cultural blunders, but God’s people are patient and He is graciously working in and through us here.

There are many things here in Africa that are very different from America. The other day I noticed there were a lot of cars parked in front of my neighbor’s home. My neighbor is a black gentleman who is married with three kids. He has a master’s degree and is the principal of the main highschool in the large black township at the edge of town. He is a good man and I have invited him to church and he has visited a few times. I noticed the cars and so I went over and talked with him and asked if he was having a party and said that if he was, could I come over! He laughed and said ‘yes’ to both questions and then told me it was an engagement party for his daughter. Now, there is a cultural practice here in Africa called “lebola”. It is the bride price, the practice of paying for the bride. Most of our students, which mainly come from rural areas, still have to pay lebola when they get engaged and I wondered if this was the case with my neighbor and his daughter. I tried to be tactful because I didn’t want it to sound like I was asking how much he was selling his daughter for, so I came at the subject in a roud-about way. I brought up my students and explained about their having to pay lebola when they get engaged and my neighbor got a big smile on his face and enthusiastically explained that they too practiced lebloa and that most Africans still do. No doubt every father with daughters wants to keep the tradition of lebola alive.

You know what I was thinking at this point – How much? I didn’t want to come right out and ask what price he was getting for his daughter, I didn’t think that would be real neighborly, so I mentioned that some of my students even paid lebola with cows and so I asked if I was going to be hearing some mooing coming from his yard this evening? He laughed and said oh no, that was what the Zulus did down in KwaZulu-Natal. He said the Zulu culture loves cows and they still pay lebola with cows, but in his Pedi culture they just pay with money. I really, in the worst way, wanted to ask ‘How much?’ but I just couldn’t do it. But, he went ahead and said it on his own – he was getting 50,000 rand for his daughter! I thought, Wow! 50,000 rand! Then, of course, I wondered how much I could get for my daughter Kimberly. This is one cultural practice I think can go for. I draw the line at dancing, but 50,000 rand for your daughter is hard to argue with. And besides, this is one way I can immerse myself in the culture and better relate to the students. But, I think I can get more for Kimberly. She is tall, very beautiful, is involved with serving at church, she knows how to cook, clean, and take care of babies. So, if any one out there is interested we can begin negotiations.

FAMILY UPDATE – My ministry at Christ Seminary and Christ Baptist Church is going well. I teach the following classes: 1st year students – Research & Computing. 2nd year students – Hermeneutics II and Theology II. 3rd year students – Theology III, Theology IV, Biblical Counseling. 4th year students – Expository Preaching IV, Exposition of Romans, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles
Check out the seminary on the web at www.tmainternational.org/site/default.asp?sec_id=13

Karen is once again (still, always) the busiest of all, and even more so now that we have a toddler tearing around the house who never – never – sits still. She homeschools the kids and organizes and runs our home. A number of the young moms at church have asked her if she would disciple them, but since Luke arrived 16 months ago she does not have the time for a structured discipleship time. She does answer their questions all the time though, so she is discipling in an informal way. Karen also is on Facebook. I (Steve) am not on Facebook and I don’t have the slightest idea of how to find her on there, but look her up and become her friend.

Stephen (18) plays the guitar and is finishing up high school this year and, Lord willing, will be going to college in the U.S. next year. We miss him already. Timothy (17) has finished two years of Greek and two years of Hebrew at the seminary. He likes Hebrew better. He also started a weekly teenage bible study with 5-8 guys attending. Kimberly (16) helps out at church in the nursery and with the audio/visual on Sunday mornings. This is not much information on Stephen, Timothy and Kimberly, but they also are on Facebook so you can find out more about them there.

Catherine (9) is an artsy girl and loves drawing and painting. She is also fairly organized and likes working in the kitchen. She is enthusiastically learning how to cook and often cleans up the kitchen without being asked. Michael (7) is a genuinely good guy and has a great personality, though he has said that his only talent is being a fun guy. I said that is good, keep that, just add other talents to it as well. Luke (16 months) is busy, big, strong and has no fear of anything. I see many hospital visits in his future. He is also very cute.

COMING TO THE U.S. ON FURLOUGH – Lord willing, we are planning on being in the US from June 2009 until January 2010. We would love to see you. We will definitely be in the following areas, but we can also add more stops into our itinerary. We will be in New England, New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota, the Northwest, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Texas and Florida.

Please pray for our furlough time in the U.S. It is not easy living out of a suitcase for 7 months. It is certainly no vacation, but part of ministering as a missionary. And yes, we do need to raise more support, so please be praying about that as well and if God would be leading you to join us in ministry in this way.

2008 has gone the the way of all past years. Some of the challenges of 2008 still hang on and will be with us into 2009 and, no doubt, new challenges will come. But, we hope to always remember the joys of 2008 and build on them in 2009.

And, we hope to see you in the coming year, even for just a friendly visit.

WHAT DOES NOT SAVE

Just to make it clear . . .

Christianity does not save.
Grace does not save.
Election/Predestination does not save.
Being called by God does not save.
Being regenerated by God does not save.
Being illuminated by God does not save.
Being convicted of sin does not save.
Your faith does not save.
Your repentance does not save.

Christ saves.

All of these are necessary parts of the means of salvation – required parts of the way God makes salvation a reality in a persons life. This is the only way God gets salvation to a person.

Grace is part of God’s motivation and means of saving a person.
Election/predestination is a prerequisite to faith, it counteracts total depravity and ensures salvation is God’s work from beginning to end.
Being called by God begins the application of salvation.
Being regenerated by God enables a person to understand the gospel.
God illuminating a person’s mind to the truth of the gospel is the beginning of salvation being worked in a person. It is realization and understanding of the gospel.
Conviction of sin is the result of illumination. It is realization and agreement with the gospel.
Faith is the conduit through which all the blessings of God come to a person. It is the first mental decision of a person who has received grace and has been elected, called, illuminated, and convicted by God. It is also a gift and it is acceptance of the gospel and trust in God.
Repentance is the first outward action taken by a person with true faith and will accompany faith.

But, none of these pay for a person’s sin. Only the atonement – the death of Jesus Christ – pays for a person’s sin. The atonement includes our sinfulness imputed to Christ, the Father’s wrath outpoured and suffered by Christ, expiation, propitiation and redemption. If your debt of sin is not paid for you will not be allowed into heaven.

All these are required for righteousness to be imputed to us, for forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, deliverance, receiving the Holy Spirit, union with Christ, adoption, peace with God, sanctification, perseverance, preservation and for glorification. These are the effects of salvation for us.

But, none of these means of salvation, nor effects of salvation, died for you. None of these paid your debt of sin. None of these rose from the grave. None of these intercede for you at the throne of God. The death of Jesus Christ pays the debt for sinners. Jesus saves. Nothing else.

NO NICE GOSPEL

He will become a stone of offense (Isa. 8:14)
And they took offense at him (Mat. 13:57)
Blessed is the one who is not offended by me (Jesus in Matt. 11:6)
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him (1Cor. 1:23)

The truth of God is not only folly to unbelievers, but offensive as well. All of God’s truth must be so. The world believes and desires all that is not from God and wants to remain in that fallen and sinful condition. Thus, God’s truth and His people and His Son are offensive to the world and always will be.

In the four gospels people are repeatedly challenged by an offensive Jesus. But, these people are themselves an offence to God because they have rejected Him and have followed Satan. The only way for them to escape from their offensiveness to God is for them to accept Jesus’ offensiveness.

Those who remain offended at Jesus remain in their sin and will be lost. This is why Jesus said Blessed is the one who is not offended by me (Jesus in Matt. 11:6). The one who is not offended by Jesus has come to accept what is offensive to the world. But, in the end, the world remained offended at Christ and so they crucified Him. He is still offensive because the cross is itself an offense that must not be removed (Gal. 5:11).

For someone to be forgiven for their offense against God they must agree with what is naturally offensive to them. And, to grow in Christ a Christian must continue to agree with what their flesh and unredeemed minds find offensive.

The gospel, and all of god’s truth, is a direct contradiction and challenge to a person’s most fundamental and cherished beliefs and feelings. God’s truth violates all of the accepted norms and niceties of human culture, even church culture.

Proclaim the truth of God, even in a kind and gentle way, and you will be offensive, even to the church. Live like Jesus and you will be offensive to everyone. Act just once in such a manner that your actions show you fear God alone and not man nor culture and you will immediately cause a scandal and be offensive. But, dear saints, We must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

Christ mocked the Pharisees. Imagine mocking false religious leaders today. It would be the Christians who would have a fit, not the followers of the false teachers. They’d say, “That’s not very Christ-like…to mock them.” Rubbish! Let me tell you something, Christ-likeness is not what some apostate professor says Christ was like. Nor is Christ-likeness what some hyper-sensitive, easily offended, self-centered, immature Christian says it is. Christ-likeness is not what polite church culture says it is. Christ-likeness is not what some maneuvering, posing, schmoozing elder or pastor who never offends says it is. Christ-likeness is what the Bible says He was like (from Ian Paisley).

Read the gospels sometime and notice how discourteous and offensive Christ was. A nice gospel is a weak gospel. A gospel that never offends is not the true gospel. But, keep in mind that it is our message, not ourselves, that must be offensive to the world, Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God (1Cor. 10:32). Though, even if you speak the truth in love and your speech is seasoned with salt, you will be accused of being offensive because of the message you proclaim.

WAS JESUS A GUY?

Many Christians tend to emphasize the deity of Jesus to the determent of his humanity and of the truth. Jesus was, is, and forever will be 100% man and 100% God. Both aspects of the person of Jesus Christ are absolute requirements in order for a person to be saved, to remain saved, to have access to God and to have fellowship with God for eternity. To diminish Jesus’ humanness and his human actions is error and heresy. The gospel requires that we present a real human who died and rose again and who is alive right now.

Jesus was gentle and kind to children and the broken-hearted. He always spoke the truth of God in love. He became sad and cried because of the lostness of mankind. He always perfectly obeyed the will of the Father. He taught with authority like no man had ever done before. He was the perfect man, seemingly too perfect for a mere man. He was God in human flesh. Everyone likes to view Jesus in this light.

He also needed to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. He sweat, his feet got dirty and like us he sometimes smelled and needed a bath. He became hungry and ate. His body functioned in every way like ours do. He became angry at people and yelled and used a whip on them. He was rude and harsh. He was a normal man in every way except he never sinned.

Many don’t like to think of Jesus in this way and don’t see the value of viewing him in all his humanity. Some would say to speak of Jesus in this way is error or even blasphemous. But, to deny or diminish these human actions and characteristics is to deny the plain teaching of scripture and of the early church.

This is important because if the humanness of Jesus is diminished or masked in any way so that he is presented as somehow a little beyond humanity or superhuman or only divine then the true Jesus is not being presented. This is dangerous because without the true divine and human Jesus you do not have salvation.

Concerning salvation, Jesus had to be 100% human, nothing more and nothing less, in order to be our legitimate representative and to be our legitimate substitute.

As for being our legitimate representative, Jesus had to be fully human in order to be a legitimate human representative (Rom. 5:19). God’s salvation plan requires that a man save humanity – not someone who is more than a man. In order for humans to be saved a human must represent humanity and perfectly obey God unto death, human death.

When Adam sinned we also sinned because he was our legitimate human representative in sin (Rom. 5:12-21). Adam, the first man, failed and we failed with him. Jesus, the “last Adam” and a man just like Adam, also represented humanity to God, but he was a holy and perfectly obedient human representative.

Without someone to represent us before God we would have to represent ourselves. And, because we are like Adam our father, we would also fail and fall and be eternally condemned if we tried to stand before God on our own. But, thankfully, we have a man who stands before God in perfect obedience and represents us because he is one of us, he is a man.

As for being our legitimate substitute, Jesus needed to be a true human to legitimately substitute His death for ours (Heb. 2:17). In order for a substitute to be legitimate and legal the substitute must be exactly equal to what it is replacing. If Jesus were less than human then his death would not be enough to pay for human sins and thus his substitution would not pay our penalty in full. And conversely – this is where many Christians make an error – if Jesus were more than human he could not be a legitimate substitute either. If Jesus were more than human then his death would be of more value than a human death. This may not seem like a problem at first, but it is. If the man Jesus was really more than a man then his death would be of more value than a man’s. And, if God accepted more of a payment for man’s sin than is required then God would be unjust. God would be unjust in going beyond the payment and punishment required. For Jesus to be a legitimate substitute for man and for God to be just and righteous in accepting him as a substitute, Jesus had to be exactly 100% man, nothing more and nothing less.

Jesus is a man, and he must be exactly so. And some reply, ‘But, Jesus is also God!’

Many Christians feel uncomfortable talking exclusively about the humanity of Jesus. The tendency is to emphasize Jesus’ deity to the determent of his humanity. In fact, this happens so often and is the norm for so many churches that when Jesus’ humanity is emphasized and he is spoken of in terms that portray him as a mere man it is not unusual for unlearned believers to respond with statements like ‘Error!’ and ‘Blasphemy!’ I think they are motivated by honestly trying to defend the deity of Christ and by trying to honor and glorify him. They don’t see how speaking of Jesus in normal, everyday, terms that show his complete humanity is honoring and glorifying him.

The biblical and theologically correct response to statements about the true, common humanity of Jesus is not ‘But, Jesus is also God!’ That is not the correct way to state this truth. Rather, it is ‘And, Jesus is also God!’ There is a world of difference in theology between those two little conjunctions ‘But’ and ‘And’.

It took the early church about 420 years – 420 years! – from the death of Christ to 451 AD, to finally clarify the difference between those two conjunctions with the Chalcedon creed. For those 420 years different errors and heresies denied or lessened or overemphasized either the humanity or deity of Jesus Christ. The beginning of the creed runs thus, “We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man” (italics added).

Also, to say that a reference to the humanity of Jesus in common terms is blasphemous shows a misunderstanding of what blasphemy is. By definition, a reference to Jesus’ humanity cannot be blasphemous. Blasphemy, definition: Greek; blaptein “to injure” with pheme “reputation”, signifies gross irreverence towards God. In the sense of speaking evil of God this word is found in Ps. 74:18; Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24; Rev. 13:1, 6; 16:9, 11, 21. It refers to words that are spoken against God. It denotes any kind of evil-speaking or abuse or any remark deliberately mocking or disrespecting the person of God.

When referencing the humanity of Jesus Christ – the 100% real, genuine, human man Jesus – it is not blasphemous to refer to him the way you would refer to any man, so long as the terms you use to reference him are normal, non-disrespectful and non-derogatory terms you would use in relation to other men. If you can call another man a “guy” without being disrespectful or derogatory then you can call Jesus a “guy” without being disrespectful or derogatory to him.

Indeed, it cannot be blasphemous to refer to the man Jesus in normal human terms because you are not referencing God, but rather the 100% real, genuine, human man Jesus. Blasphemy has to do with being disrespectful and speaking in a derogatory way about God. It would be blasphemous to call the Second Person of the Trinity a guy. God is not a guy. Jesus was a 100% real, genuine guy, and 100% real, genuine God, “the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man.”

To speak of Jesus as a man in common terms as the Bible does is biblical, theologically correct and even required if we are to rightly understand His work on the cross and to rightly present him and his gospel to the world. It is perfectly fine and acceptable to use modern words that plainly communicate the humanness of Jesus to the world. To speak in this way is not blasphemous nor error.

PROVIDENCE & SOVEREIGNTY

If, in the providence of God, we are wise and industrious, and if, in His sovereignty, God gives us fair play, we will win.

If we are foolish and lazy we will lose in providence and should expect no better.

The providence of God is open wide to us.  In it we can, and should, make the most of what God has given us.

But, in God’s sovereignty the victory and recognition do not always go to those who have worked hard, or to the swift, the strong, the wise, the prepared, those we deem deserving or even to the righteous.  To us, this is not right.

We want, and expect and think that God is, and should be, a rewarder of persons.  We believe that if we do our part then God will do what we think His part ought to be.  We expect to get something from God because of our effort, faithfulness and obedience and that others will be justly rewarded for theirs.  To us this would be righteous.  We think all things should be equal and even.

A sovereign God is hard to take and what Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21) is far from our hearts and minds.  Proof that we don’t concur with God in this is the focus on, and human assessment of, what is called success.  Job proved himself immensely righteous and comforted in the sovereignty of God when he blessed God even though, from a human perspective, his loss was completely unjust.

If, either for my sins or by the blessing of God, I suffer misery and affliction I will be happy if I bear them, but only if I do not question God’s providence nor fight against His sovereignty.

To ask “Why, God?” is to question His providence.  It is impossible to fight against the sovereignty of God and win.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part four.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part four, from Steve Plodinec.

This is the final installment of my four part report on the events of a visit I took to Martin Seliane’s church with two of my children, Kimberly (15) and Michael (6). Martin is one of our students here at Christ Seminary in Polokwane, South Africa.

After lunch on Sunday Martin and I went on visitation. Martin loves visiting people in their homes and he is very good at it. He said it is his favorite part of the ministry. We visited mainly old ladies who could not come to church that morning for one reason or another. One grey haired grandma offered us a Coke and took the opportunity to have one herself until her granddaughter come in and spoke sternly and loudly to her in Sotho. Martin told me the girl was scolding her grandmother because she is diabetic and not supposed to have sugar. The girl took the Coke and the then the old lady scolded her, but the girl just walked away.

As we were driving around Martin saw two boys about ten years old and he told me to stop. He shouted something out the window and the boys came sheepishly and slowly to the car. When they got there Martin spoke firmly to them in Sotho and then sent them on their way. He told me they go to his church but that they were absent that morning and so he warned them not to take God and His church lightly or they will live to regret it. Martin is a firm, and good, spiritual leader. He just needs to know and understand more of what God says, which is why he is at the seminary.

Apparently my discussion of submission in the home on the radio on Saturday was well received because Martin and I were asked to be on the radio again on Sunday evening and to speak on Christian submission. The host was a local pastor who had his own radio show and he had been at the pastor’s meeting I spoke at the day before. His show is three hours long and he gave us free reign for all three hours. The time flew by. I talked on Christian submission in the world, in the home and in the church. I took the listeners to Acts 5 and Romans 13 for submission in the world, to Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3 for submission in the home and to the pastoral epistles, Hebrews 13 and a little in Corinthians for submission in the church, passages which every elder should know by heart. We also took calls and one person said he was tired of the topic and of Christians in general, so, the host told him to be quiet, that he did not know what he was talking about and that he better repent or would end up in hell, then he hung up on the caller. I kind of enjoyed that part of the evening. The show ended at 8pm and Martin and I went back to his house and went to bed soon after. It had been a busy two days of ministry.

Before closing I want to tell you about a visit Martin and I had on Sunday afternoon. One of the visits was to the home of a young couple and their five month old baby daughter. They have been going to Martin’s church for a few months and they wanted to talk to him about becoming members. They were not at church that morning. We drove up to their home, which is an extremely small tin shack, about 8 x 20 feet, and is just one room. Martin knocked and without waiting for an answer we walked in. It was dark inside, and close. The only light was coming in through holes in the scavenged tin walls and from the gaps around the closed crooked door. There were a few dozen holes in the walls about a quarter inch in diameter and I thought, “Why don’t they plug the holes with something? The wind just blows right through this place and it has to be cold for the baby.” It took a moment for my eyes to adjust and when they did I looked around at some shelves made from scavenged wood, an old cabinet, a small table with two rickety chairs, a small wood stove and a few cooking pots and utensils. A moth-eaten blanket served as a barrier between the rest of the room and the bed. We stepped around the blanket. The young wife and mother stood next to the bed, her five month old baby daughter wrapped to her back with a towel. They looked at us when we came in and then back down at the bed where the young father was lying. His breathing was fast and shallow, more like panting and gasping for air, and it was the only sound in the place. I heard it when we first walked in. He was covered with probably every blanket they had, but you could tell he was shaking and trembling. He was dying of aids. We greeted them and Martin spoke to him and his wife for a few moments and then asked me to pray for them.

I felt weak and worthless at that point because I was not even sure if they understood English and because there was nothing else I could do for them. I was just a visitor looking in on a culture and its problems that are foreign to me, and always will be. But – but – at that moment I came to know through experience what I have understood for a long time. Martin is their pastor, and he loves them. He does minister to them and help meet their needs and does much more than I or any other outsider ever could. This is why my work here is important and has eternal consequences. The church in Africa has the Holy Spirit, it has the word of God and it has some good men like Martin leading it. But, they don’t have resources or training or access to them, so the church is weak and immature and struggling. God’s people suffer and are fearful and even sin in ignorance. They don’t have good examples of godly homes, godly leaders or godly churches and most of them don’t even know where to go in the Bible to find out about those things. At the seminary we just give Martin what he does not have, a deeper knowledge and understanding of God and His word, hopefully a closer relationship with God too, so that Martin can then go out and minister to his own people and strengthen the church and glorify God. Why should the church in Africa stumble along in ignorance and weakness for decades or hundreds of years when they can improve now by training the men who already lead their churches?

I am not minimizing the power of prayer, but at that moment I realized there was nothing else I could do, but Martin is their shepherd and he loves them and I can, if God is gracious, help Martin. So, I prayed and asked God to show more grace and mercy to this little family and to heal the young father. I also asked for God to give us all the grace to accept whatever He does here. The man lifted his head and extended a trembling hand out from under the blankets, I grasped it, he held on and said, “Thank you, pastor, for coming and for praying” then he sunk back on the bed. We left. The father died less than a week later. He had just gotten a steady, good paying job and things were looking up for the little family, but now there is another child in Africa who has lost a parent to aids. Such is the human wreckage of sin. Some estimate that over half the people living in villages like this one are infected with aids. It is particularly affecting to see first hand the great needs here in Africa. This is one of the reasons the work here is urgent and why we need trained men preaching the true gospel.

It was a good time of ministry with Martin at the funeral, at church, on the radio and in visiting the people. Time will tell if God makes it fruitful. The same is true of the seminary. It is a good time teaching Martin and the other students. Though we still deal with some cultural issues at the seminary, and always will, God has already proven that it is a fruitful ministry and we pray that He will continue to bless the seminary and the church in Africa through it. Please pray for Martin and his church, for all the students, for all the lecturers and for the seminary.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part three.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part three.

Here is the third part of my report on the events of a visit to Martin Seliane’s church. Martin is one of our students here at Christ Seminary in Polokwane, South Africa.

[CULTURAL NOTE: It is not at all derogatory in South Africa to refer to the different races as "whites" or "blacks" or "colored" (mixed races). All people of all races use these terms all the time with no insinuation of racism. I use these terms in this update.]

Time and a schedule are more like general guidelines to the black African culture and that is true for when church is scheduled to start. On Sunday morning we arrived with Martin and his family about fifteen minutes before church was due to begin. The time to start came and went and, besides Martin’s family and myself with two of my kids, there were only two other people at church. People started to make their way in and the church was finally full about half an hour after the service was supposed to start.

I feel it would be appropriate to mention that there was a middle-aged white woman at church on that morning. This is highly unusual in that Martin’s church is on the edge of town in an all black settlement where the poorest of the poor live. She is a lawyer (which to me it is more surprising that a lawyer came to church than a white person came to a black church). She lives in town and Martin had been ministering to her and inviting her to church and she decided to come. Martin witnesses to everyone and invites them all to church. He does not care what their color is and he is trying to break down racial barriers and wants a multi-racial church. A few months ago Martin heard that the man who used to be the head of the South African secret police during the time of white rule had become a Christian. This was the man who’s organization kept track of and “dealt with” any dissent in the country. He is an old white man in his seventies. Martin heard he became a Christian and so he found the old man’s phone number, called him and invited him to come to church and share the gospel and what God had done in his life. The old man accepted. Needless to say there was more than just some raised eyebrows among both the whites and the blacks. Martin advertised, rented the meeting hall and the place was packed with hundreds of people that Sunday. It was quite a day and maybe I’ll have Martin write down what happened and I’ll send it along.

Back to the Sunday I was at Martin’s church – In the black African churches the pastors sit up front on a platform and face the congregation. Since there is no platform in Martin’s church he and I sat against the wall at the front of the shack. This meant my six year old son Michael could not sit with me but instead sat with the other kids his age near the front. Whenever we go anywhere Michael is my constant companion and holds on to me tighter than my shadow so he was not comfortable sitting away from me in new place.

We all sat there for a moment and then, it seemed to me, the congregation just spontaneously began to sing. There was no song leader, but different people would start a song whenever they felt like it. All the singing was in the Sotho language but many of the tunes were familiar. It was mainly responsive singing with one person singing a line and then the congregation echoing the line back. There are some strong voices in Martin’s church and the singing was quite loud. The volume increased with each song until everyone up and down the dirt street could hear us clearly.

The rhythm also increased and, as the singing got louder and the service wore on, each group of people took their turn jumping, swaying and marching up and down the short aisle of the church. The old grey haired women (the “mothers of the church”) came first shuffling and bouncing to the rhythm of the songs. Then the middle aged and young women came forward, kneeled in a circle, threw back their heads, sang, shouted loudly and shook themselves as they swayed in and out of the circle. After one song they withdrew to their seats and the little kids jumped around for a minute. Then the young men came forward and jumped and shouted and shook and clapped and sang.

My daughter Kimberly and I had experienced this before so it was no big deal, but for my six year old son Michael this was brand new, and foreign. I glanced at him every few moments and for the whole song service he stood perfectly ridged and upright, arms straight down at his sides and knees locked. His eyes were as big as silver dollars and he did not turn his head. He watched in fear and amazement. He glance at me a few times and I gave him a reassuring look, but when the circle of ladies began to shake and shout he fell back on the bench trembling and sobbing. I walked over to him, sat down and put him on my lap and reassured him. I said, “It’s OK buddy, I got you. It’s OK, they are just singing and praising God in their own way. Listen, do you hear that song? Do you recognize the tune? We sing that same song in our church. They just do it a little differently here.” He buried his face in my shoulder and sobbed for the next five minutes. I began to sing along quietly in English and he began to recover and by the end of the singing he was doing better. I am glad he went through that. One of the big benefits my children have is being in different churches in different cultures and experiencing how they worship and relate to God. It was quite a lesson and growing experience for Michael.

When I got up to preach I had a big wet spot on my shoulder from where Michael had been crying. My text was Romans 1:16. I preached through an interpreter, which I don’t like at all and have never done well. You can never really get going when you have to wait for an interpreter. But, even if I was fluent in their language I will never be as effective a preacher as one of their own. This is why I teach Martin at the seminary instead of trying to plant a church in some village. The students will always be far more effective in reaching their culture and preaching to their own people than I or any other outsider ever could be. We have around sixty-five full time students at the seminary form numerous African countries. We have an immediate impact on dozens of churches from many different African cultures when we teach these men in the classroom. Though I don’t think I preached that well, everyone was kind after the sermon and said I did a good job and someone asked if he could have my notes. I knew they were all being kind and I thought of the proverb, “to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.”

The next update will come in a day or two and will be the final one for this trip. In part four I will relate what was, to me, the most poignant and memorable experience of the whole weekend.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part two.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part two.

Here is the second installment of my report on the events of a visit to Martin Seliane’s church.  Martin is one of our students here at Christ Seminary in Polokwane, South Africa.

On Saturday afternoon after the funeral Martin had arranged for me to be on a Christian talk radio program for about an hour.  I did not know that we were going to be on the radio, I had not prepared anything.  Martin then said that “we” were not going to be on the radio, but that I was going to be on the radio while Martin went and finalized arrangements for me to speak to a group of eleven local pastors after the radio show.  I did not know that was going to happen either.

I said it was no problem, just let me know what the topic was for the radio program and for the pastor’s meeting so I can go over a few Bible passages and arrange some thoughts.  Martin said he had no idea what the topic was for the radio program because the hostess, who is the wife of a local pastor, just picks the topic at the start of the show and then talks about it and takes calls.  And, for the pastor’s meeting I could talk on anything I wanted.  I thought, OK, this will be cool, I hope we get to talk theology, but it will probably be some sort of practical church ministry or Christian relationship issues.  Those are always popular topics.

We arrived at the radio station just as the program was starting.  I was rushed into the studio, the hostess plugged in an advertisement, Martin introduced us and then left the building.  The advertisement ended, the hostess introduced me to the radio audience and said “Our topic for today is submission in the home.”  I thought, “Bingo! Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3 – plenty of material there for an hour.  This will be easy.”

The hostess then said, “Since our topic is submission in the home, let’s turn to Matthew chapter 6.”  I thought, “What!?  Matthew 6!?  Submission!?”  As I turned to the passage my mind was racing, scouring every corner of my brain for anything in Matthew 6 that had anything remotely to do with submission in the home.  “Think.  Matthew 6; sermon on the mount, the Lord’s prayer, don’t be anxious for anything . . . think, think . . . ???”  I got nothing.

She said, “Look at verse 9.”  I did.  She read, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”  Then she looked at me and asked, “So, pastor Steve, how can we apply this in our families in the home?”  I went *blink*, then thought, “Well, you don’t because it has nothing to do with submission in the home,” but I didn’t say that.  I said something about how the idea behind this verse is giving honor and glory to God and one way we can do that is by submitting to His ordained leadership structure in the home, which is specifically talked about in Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3, let’s turn there.  I thought, “Whew – thank you Lord, talk about dodging a bullet.”  It was like a word from the Lord.

This time it was her turn to look at me and blink.  For a moment she tried to tie Matthew 6:9 to submission in the home, but that was going down in flames, so she asked about Ephesians 5.  I turned there and basically just talked through the passage.  She was very interested and we had a few calls then the hour was up.  I am not trying to be cruel nor am I poking fun at her when I say that she probably had no idea that those two chapters specifically address submission in the home.  In general, the church here in Africa uses the Bible as a grab-bag of verses into which they reach and clutch onto some passage with some words in it that they think has something to do with their topic.  She had probably heard that verse used in a sermon on submission in the home and liked it so she went for it.  The concept of a verse gaining meaning from its context is pretty much unknown to a lot of Christians here.

After the radio show Martin took me to the meeting with the local pastors.  Many of them listened to the radio show and they had a number of questions about it.  They also asked about church leadership, specifically about women as pastors.  There were also questions on all kinds of topics.  It was a two hour meeting and I was basically the Bible answer man.  Fortunately I had heard all the questions before from the students at the seminary so I was prepared.

I should mention that none of the pastors there, except for Martin, have had any training or schooling at all.  In general they don’t know what the Bible has to say on most subjects and some of them even get the gospel wrong.  This is why I am here.  Martin was just like the rest of these guys when he came to seminary three years ago.  He sees the huge difference now between himself and his peers, and he is not prideful, but humble and talks about how they need training too.  He said the pastors very much appreciated my mini seminar and my exposition, explanation and application of the passages we looked at.  At the seminary we get to have a big impact on the students who want to learn, like Martin.  We also get to minister to and strengthen the local churches when we visit or students at their homes.

It was a long Saturday.  We got back to Martin’s house at about 6 p.m.  I wanted to treat Martin and his family (he is married with two kids, a boy and a girl) so we went to the only burger place in town.  Everyone enjoyed it and we returned to Martin’s at about 8:30 p.m.  Since the next day was Sunday, and I was going to preach at Martin’s church, I wanted to be well rested so I went to bed soon after.  I slept with my six year old son Michael who kicked and elbowed me most of the night.

Part three will be coming after the weekend.

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part one

IN A VILLAGE CHURCH, part one.

A few weeks ago I went to visit one of our students, Martin Seliane, at his church.  Here is part one of what happened over the weekend.  I’ll report on the whole weekend in four updates.

Martin is in his third year here at the seminary and is a good student.  He is in his mid-forties, has been a Christian for less than ten years and pastors a church in a small town surrounded by corn and wheat fields about three hours South of Johannesburg.  He planted the church, called God’s Power Ministries, two and a half years ago.  The church is in an “informal settlement” on the edge of town and, like the dwellings around it, is made of tin and scavenged metal and wood.  The church is one room, about fifteen feet by twenty feet, and is packed with 35-40 people on Sundays.  The little kids sit on the dirt floor next to the pulpit, then the bigger kids behind them, then sitting on the benches are the mom’s with babies, then the young adults and finally the men sit in the back of the church.  There are 6-8 men in Martin’s church, which is very good for a black church of that size.

Martin is a good pastor.  He loves the people and he is with them constantly.  I have visited him twice and when he and I drive around town he seems to know everyone.  We always stop and he chats to the people about whatever is going on in their life and if they were at church or not and that they should come to church and that God wants them to believe the gospel and do what is right.  He is doing what any pastor around the world needs to do to grow a church – love God, preach His word, love the people and be with them and minister to them where they are at.  Though, I know that being a good pastor does not mean your church will grow big.  There are many other good pastors like Martin around the world that God is using and who also have small churches.

My daughter Kimberly and my son Michael went with me on this trip.  I always take some of the kids along when I visit the students.  It is good for them to meet Christians from other cultures and different circumstances in life and to minister to them.  I have them help out as much as they can when we visit churches in the villages.

We drove to Martin’s church on Friday and on the way we took two students to a major bus station in a not so good part of Johannesburg.  It was on that same Friday in that same area just a few hours later that a lot of xenophobic violence took place that many of you heard about.  God was gracious and we were fine though, and so far there is none of that going on where we live.

On Saturday morning Martin and I went to a funeral.  It was my first African funeral so Martin told me to stay close and do what he did.  We first went to the home of the mother of the deceased.  The coffin was in the front room.  Martin said they keep the body at home for one or two days before the funeral.  Needless to say, I was the only white guy for miles and I was not sure how my following Martin and being in the middle of everything would be received.  But, Martin reassured me and said, “I told them you are a visiting pastor, so it is OK and they expect that you would be involved.”

Martin then grabbed one of the handles of the coffin, but I was a little slow on the draw and five other men in the room beat me to one of the other handles.  As they walked out of the room with the coffin I became acutely aware of my standing there doing nothing and appearing dim-witted, so I looked around and saw the folding trolley on which the coffin used to be resting.  I immediately grabbed it and followed the coffin thinking, “Whew – recovered from that one.”  The coffin was loaded onto a small trailer and we drove to the town meeting hall where the funeral service would be held.

The meeting hall is about the size of a basketball court and Martin said almost all funerals are held there because everyone in the town knows they are invited.  Weddings and funerals are community events and anyone can come and at a funeral anyone can speak, a custom that was taken advantage of at this funeral.  The whole funeral, in fact everything that took place all weekend, was spoken in the Sotho (pronounced ‘soo-too’) language.  Martin told me what people were saying.

Martin, another local pastor and myself followed the coffin into the hall.  It was placed on the floor in front of a platform at one end of the room and the three of us pastors walked up on the platform and sat down behind a table.  We looked out on about 200 people who looked right back at us, and, it seemed to me, looked especially at me.

The departed was a member of the ANC (the African National Congress) which is the ruling party of South Africa.  The ANC was well represented at the funeral.  In fact, they had decorated the place with ANC flags and I sat right behind the biggest one which was draped over the table in front of me.  One by one a number of people stood up, came to the front next to the coffin and spoke about the deceased.  Then, an ANC member, one of the leaders of the 30 or so Party members who were there, got up and started in on his speech.  For about two minutes he talked about how the deceased was a member of the ANC Party and had worked for the people against tyranny.  Then he wound himself up and launched in on how the Party was taking care of everyone and bringing equality and making the world a better place.  He was a regular V.I. Lennin and the other Party members there enjoyed it immensely.  He went on for quite a while.

Then, another Party member, more a Karl Marx type, got up and said something to the talkative V.I. Lennin at which Lennin promptly wound up his little political speech.  I guess Karl Marx had decided Lennin had said enough.  I agreed.  But, Lennin immediately struck up a chorus to which the whole ANC crowd joined in.  I am not exaggerating when I say that about every five minutes Lennin stood up and got every one of the Party faithful going again on that same chorus.  The tune is still in my head.  The title is “That’s Why I’m A Communist” and the words are; “My mother was a communist, my father was a communist, that’s why I’m a communist – I’m a communist, I’m a communist, I’m a communist.”  Apparently it is no. 1 on the ANC playlist.  They sang that song about thirty times.  Sort of like singing “Just As I Am” at some churches after a sermon.

After everyone had their say Martin stood up to preach and the whole ANC gang started to walk out.  Martin is no pushover and he pointed his finger at them, spoke loudly and forcefully and said, “Stop.  Come back here.  We listened to you and now it is time for you to listen to the word of God.”  A few seconds later Marx came back in followed by Lennin and the rest of the Party members.  Martin preached a very good sermon.  He started by saying, “At funerals it is too late to preach to the deceased, so I will preach to the living.”  He was sensitive to the family and memory of the deceased, and he gave the gospel and called all to repentance.

When Martin was done the coffin was loaded back on the trailer and we all went to the graveyard.  As soon as everyone had arrived V.I. Lennin got the crowd going again on the chorus.  I thought this was really too much and was a major breach of decorum at a funeral and insensitive to the grieving family.  I told Martin this and said I was going to go tell Lennin to put a sock in it.  Martin said everyone else was already annoyed with them and they were just hurting themselves, so I let it alone.

Martin spoke for another few minutes by the grave and then the coffin was lowered down.  The family began to wail.  The mother of the deceased carried a hand-full of dirt to the grave, threw it down onto the coffin and then fainted right in front of Martin and myself.  We caught her on the way down and the family rushed over and carried her back to her chair.  Martin and I also took our turn in line and each of us shoveled some dirt into the grave.  Martin told me it would be good for me to pray after the grave was filled in because it would show I respected the family, just like my shoveling dirt in the grave showed my respect for the deceased.  After the grave was filled Marx and Lennin were over with the Party members and they were still talking loudly.  I stepped in front of the grave, looked Lennin in the eye and said loudly, “Let’s pray.”  Everyone got quiet.  I asked God to comfort the grieving and to show His mercy and grace and draw all these people to Himself.

We went back to the mother’s home where it seemed half the town had gathered for a meal.  When they brought the goat stew and vegetables I looked at it and remembered what I heard a missionary say years ago, “Where He leads me I will follow, what He feeds me I will swallow.”  The food smelled like water from a dirty gutter.  I ate all of it.  Later that evening Martin said that the family very much appreciated that I, a visiting white pastor, was fully involved in everything.  He said they especially appreciated it when I stood in line and took my turn shoveling dirt into the grave and when I ate their food.  Martin said that the next time I visit the community they will accept me because I identified with them in their grief and did everything they did.  I hope they will also remember Martin’s ministry to them and the gospel he preaches to them.

part two in a day or two

Feb update on the Plodinec Fam

This update was written by my wife, Karen Plodinec in South Africa

As I write this I am sitting outside in a hospital courtyard waiting for Timothy to come out of emergency surgery.  It is Friday, February 5^th, about 2:00 in the afternoon.  This is the end of a very trying week, but knowing, and believing, that God is faithful and sovereign and that even this week is His plan for us, that has made all the difference.
On Monday morning it began – we were finally getting a borehole (a well).  City water is very expensive, its quality and purity is getting worse and it isn’t always dependable.  We watch how much we use and last year the water ran out, for the whole town, for two weeks.  Fortunately a friend of ours has a well and Steve was able to fill up some water cans every day for us to use.  So, we need a well, and we live in a part of town where everyone within 10 blocks of us hits water between 25-30 meters.  Our neighbor has a well just 5 meters from ours and he hit water at 30 meters.  At 7 meters, we hit rock.  The gray dust from the rock started to cover the yard and seep through the cracks in windows and doors.  We hit rock at about 8:00am and all day Monday it continued, nothing but rock.  Tuesday around noon we had to stop drilling at 100 meters due to finances (we had planned and saved for a 45 meter well).  Tuesday at 12:00 noon and still no water – only rock.  Now we have one DEEP hole in our yard, no water in the well, and a HUGE mess to clean up both inside and out.  We will probably lose what little grass we do have and some of the plants as well.
Tuesday at lunch the kids and I were talking about the dry well.  Stephen said we should celebrate – I agreed.  God is sovereign and He knew all about this.  Kimberly said we were biblical – our house is built on the rock.  My desire was to “blow off” the rest of the day and spend money we don’t have and get fast food for lunch, even for dinner.  Instead, we did what we should – stick to the budget, make sandwiches, and get on with the major job of cleaning up.  We talked about God’s goodness – food to eat, a roof over our head, clothes to wear, enough water for today, etc.
On Wednesday morning some of the kids and I were heading out on errands and my car window broke – it slid down in the door.  We have a 15 year old mini van and it is starting to show its age.  The passenger side window had done the same thing a few weeks ago and Steve had got it up and taken the handle off so we wouldn’t roll it down, as it will also fall into the door, an interesting feature of 15 year old mini vans.  We headed back home because you never leave a car parked in Africa with the window down, everything would be stolen, and on the way home the passenger side window fell down AGAIN as we pulled into the driveway!
Then, Wednesday afternoon we received the confirmation for our plane tickets to Israel.  God is SO gracious and He provided for all of us to go to the GMI missionaries conference in Israel in June.  The problem was – they had Luke going on the correct flight, and the seven of us going on a different one!  The bottom line is – Swiss Air would charge us about $200 a ticket to change to the correct flight.  Steve decided to switch me to Luke’s flight.  So, we all fly from Johannesburg to Zurich together; three hours later Luke and I continue on to Tel Aviv.  The rest of the family will have a 16 hour layover and arrive in Tel Aviv at 3:30 a.m. the day the conference begins.
Wednesday afternoon we had a major blessing – we found out that God was providing some funds to take care of the oral surgery Stephen needs.  We didn’t know then that we would need some of the funds for other things.
Wednesday night Steve and I were talking about how thankful we were for good health, a roof over our heads and food to eat.
Thursday morning my mom called from the States to tell us that our credit card company called and we needed to call them because of potential fraudulent charges – it turned out to be nothing.
Thursday evening we had some students over for dinner and to watch a soccer match – even though we didn’t feel like it with the week we were having.  With God’s help, we just kept plugging along, and a good time was had by all.
This brings me up to today (Friday).  Everything started out as normal – up with Luke at 6:00, breakfast with Michael at 7:00, etc., when at about 7:45 we heard a big crash and Timothy started calling for help.  I didn’t think too much about it; I thought he dropped something on the floor and it shattered.  He started calling calmly for me, so I handed Luke to Kimberly and walked toward his bedroom.  As I reached the hall, I saw a lot of blood on the floor trailing from his room to the bathroom.  Timothy was fairly calmly asking for help and a towel.
Timothy had been trying to scare a cat outside his bedroom window – he “tapped” the window, and it shattered.  The result was two very bloody hands and forearms.  Blood was flowing everywhere.  He wrapped a towel around his wrist and applied pressure while I drove to the hospital.  When we got there they wrapped both hands and arms up, and we waited for the doctor.  After a LONG time the doctor still had not come and Timothy said he could not feel his right pinky.  The nurse said the doctor was hung up and sent us to a doctor’s office.  The doctor realized Timothy’s tendon was cut on his pinky and he needed surgery – so back to the hospital we went.  The doctor called a surgeon and he met us at the hospital.
At the hospital God graciously put a good friend in our path.  She is a nutritionist and sees patients at the hospital.  She stuck with me for a good portion of this morning – helping expedite things, getting me something to eat, praying with me – God is so good!
Timothy should be out of surgery soon – the doctor said he should make a full recovery – praise God!
We have had a lot of teaching times with the kids this week – what a great God we have!  I am so thankful that I have kids that trust in Him as well.  Timothy’s emotional state is fine, Kimberly is “holding down the fort” at home.  When I called her a few minutes ago Luke was asleep and she was having Bible time outside with Catherine and Michael.
I’m so thankful for His provision, protection, and perfect timing.
Many Christians (especially in Africa) would say we are not in God’s will because of these trials.  They would say He isn’t blessing us this week.  In fact, many Africans would say that when these kinds of things happen a person is being cursed by God.  But, we KNOW, however, that blessings come in all shapes and sizes.  We are thankful to be serving, and to be blessed, right here.
Please continue to pray for His protection and provision for us!
Because of His GREAT love,
Karen
P.S. added by Steve

Timothy was released from the hospital about 9:00 p.m.  He should have a FULL recovery in about six weeks, and he didn’t have to spend the night in the hospital – thank you Lord.  When Karen and Timothy were on the way home from the hospital on Friday night, the mini van had electrical problems and now the fan and headlights don’t work.

It is now a few days later and nothing else has happened, except Catherine now has tonsillitis and Karen has the stomach flu.

Karen & Steve Plodinec

Acts 20:32

Excellent New Book on Preaching

A good friend of mine, Mike Abendroth (yes, THE Mike Abendroth) just wrote a book on preaching.  Due out in the US in February, the title is; “Jesus Christ: The Preacher of Preachers. Learning from the Principles and Methods of Jesus.”

Undoubtedly it will be an excellent book.  It will change your life, whiten your teeth, clear up your skin, make you a more popular and better person, but, it will not help you to preach like Joel Osteen.  Hopefully you don’t want to preach like Joel Osteen.

But, if you trust men like Dr. John MacArthur (he wrote the forward), and Dr. Steven J. Lawson, Dr. Donald Whitney, Dr. Ben Awbrey, James White (they all endorse it) then I am sure you will appreciate Mike’s book and find it useful.

More endorsements for the book are coming from Dr. Al Mohler, Martin Holt, Eric Alexander, Stuart Olyott and Mark Dever.

Yes, I know someone who knows those people, or at least he has met those people, or at least he has heard of those people, which does make me a better person.

The Book is being published by Day One in the US and UK.  The ISBN number is 978-1-84625-108-5.  Certainly it will shoot up to #1 at Amazon within the first week it is available.

Just so you know that this is for real, that I do actually have at least one friend and that he really has written a book, you can visit Mike’s church at http://www.bbcchurch.org.

Through some strange set of circumstances the book is not yet available on Amazon.  An oversight for which someone will lose their job, I am sure.  But, no matter, come February you can visit your local religious trinket store – uh, that is, I mean, Christian book store – and pick up one of the hundreds of copies they will have.  Or at least you can order it.

I am looking forward to receiving from Mike himself a limited, leather bound, first printing, first edition personally inscribed to me, for free.

After you all have read the book a few times we can start an internet discussion group, perhaps even Mike himself will comment once in a while.  No doubt, like me, you are already looking forward to the sequel.

Christmas Family Update – 2007

As you all know, we are missionaries to Africa, which would be the classic missionary locality. When many people think of missionaries they think of some person from North America or Europe sitting in an African hot tub (big black pot with vegetables in it – they exist, I’ve seen them) surrounded by dancing natives in the middle of the jungle. It’s not quite like that. The locals have cell phones, many have cars and some are college educated. But, there are also many who still live much as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. And even here in this continent of vast contrasts and where every religion known to man is practiced, the birth of Jesus is celebrated. The commercialism of the season has made it here as well, though not as bad as in the States. But, I wander. Back to the purpose of this letter, an end of the year update and greetings.

The Lord blessed us this year with – Surprise! – another child – Surprise! Kids are great. His name is Luke Augustine Plodinec. I wanted to name him Luke Danger Plodinec so he could say “Danger is my middle name!” Karen would have none of it. At least I’ll always be able to quote the movie line to him, “Luke, I am your father!” Look, he’s our sixth kid. After that many you don’t worry about bruising their psyche with a little bit of a strange name. Even the name he ended up with, Luke Augustine Plodinec, is more than any kid should have to bear. One of our friends said “That name is like a punch in the mouth.” Thank you Lord that little Luke is healthy.

The rest of the kids are doing well and getting big. Stephen (17) and Timothy (16) are both taller than dad who is 6’4”. Kimberly (14) is 5’9” and Catherine (8) and Michael (6) are growing like weeds. They do grow so fast. Lord willing, Stephen and Timothy will be going off to college in 2009 in the US. Karen and I miss them already. Stephen, Timothy and Kimberly are on the web, they all have blogs and “Facebook” pages. You can see what the latest events in their lives are by visiting them online. Links to their blogs are on our web site, www.plodinec.com.

We are pretty much used to living in Africa. In some ways it is just like living in the US, in other ways it is too different to even try and explain. Safety is always a concern, you just learn to be careful; please continue to pray about it. This is Africa, so political stability is an issue. Also, last summer our whole town ran out of water for two weeks and the power goes off 4-6 times a month, but usually only for a few hours at a time.

Everyone is very involved in our local church. I help share the preaching on Sunday evenings and teach Sunday school once in a while. Stephen and Timothy teach Sunday school to the grade school kids, Kimberly helps with the little kids and babies Sunday morning and evening. This year Karen was pregnant and then has been taking care of baby Luke, along with home schooling the kids, running the home and putting up with Steve, which are four fulltime jobs.

The ministry at seminary is going well. Last year we accepted 25 new students, 21 showed up for the first day of class. This year we accepted 22 new students, over half from countries other than South Africa. We will have around 70-80 full time students, depending on how many of the foreign students are able to get study visas. After being here two years I am more convinced than ever that this is the way to reach other cultures with the gospel. The men we teach are already in ministry and they are their culture. They take what we teach them in class and go right back to their churches and immediately apply it. They are reaching their own people. They are planting churches. They are evangelizing and discipling the next generation of African church leaders, and then they are sending them to us for further training. The school has been in existence for ten years and we are now getting new students that come from churches being pastored by our graduates. This is 2 Timothy 2:2 in action! – “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” A traditional church planting missionary is decades away from that kind of effectiveness, if they ever attain to that level of acceptance.

By the way, you must come and visit us. Yes, it is a long way. Yes, a plane ticket does cost money. But, we can use your help, even if it is just for a week or two. If you can’t make it then send your mature ministry minded high school or college age kids to come and minister for the summer, or for all year. They can stay with us. There are always a few American young people here ministering in the church and with our local church based missions organization. They are leading in the youth group, ministering to the younger kids, working at church, working at the mission, going out on missions trips, doing evangelism and doing all kinds of other ministry. They will be busy and they will love it. It will change their lives.

We hope and pray that you know the One whose birth we celebrate this time of year – Jesus Christ, Lord of all – and that He has changed your life, and continues to do so. Let us know how you are doing. Missionaries love to hear from people back home.

Steve, and Karen, Stephen, Timothy, Kimberly, Catherine, Michael & baby Luke,

Acts 20:32, “I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Can You Handle Ministry?

In ministry, chances are that you . . .

will labor in obscurity for decades,
will be falsely accused,
will be unappreciated,
will be underpaid,
won’t have a big ministry,
won’t produce any profound or lasting works,
will die on the verge of poverty,
be mourned only by your immediate family and a few close friends,
be forgotten within two generations of your death,
and your only reward will be like that of Mr. Valiant-For-Truth in Pilgrim’s Progress, you will carry your marks and scars on into eternity to be a witness that you have fought His battle, and He will be your Rewarder.

Will this be failure for you?

If you can’t handle this then quit seminary, or the pastorate, now – and support a man who is called.