An open letter to friends and Family

Dear friends and family I pray you are all doing well and you daily know God’s love and grace in your lives. I must admit from the one set that for some of you it has been a while and we have probably forgotten about each other, as they say out of sight out of mind, sad but true! This is an attempt to make amends but also a chance for me to share my heart with you, because the last thing I want to do in this life is die regretting.

I want to begin by apologizing for not been the best of friends or relatives. I also want to acknowledge my many shortcomings in our relationships. I know myself too well to know that over the years i let many of you down, spoken out of turn, slandered you, showed ingratitude and even gossiped about you or maybe i have been bitter towards you or any other evil i may have done. So from the depth of my heart i humbly ask for your forgiveness. And i do hope if i ever never asked for forgiveness in person to do it at as soon as i get a chance.

 As you know I have the best job in the whole world! I get to share the good news with different kinds of people that I come across and also pray for different needs that people share with me. I basically have to daily share the most important truth in my life with others! What more can a man ask for? Yet it just dawned on me that I rarely share this truth with those of you who are so dear in my life nor do I often pray for you. Why is that you ask? At times I am ashamed, at times I don’t care that much and other times I am fearful. All this is to my shame, so please forgive me and I hope to care more.

So let me begin by sharing a truth that you probably know or at least have heard of several times. GOD LOVES YOU! I know that is basic and common but most times that is a truth that is easily doubted and some even reject it. God’s demonstration of His love for us is seen through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). The bible says while we were still sinners lost in darkness and having no form of goodness and worth loving, God loved us. In fact the bible further tells us that we have no desire to follow him nor do what is right, we have gone astray from his ways, we are dead in sins and wickedness (Romans 3:9-13, Ephesians 2:1-8). Yet God loved us and sent his one and only son to pay the penalty for our sin by dying in our place (Rom 3:23).  And that whoever believes (trust) in Jesus as the only way to the father and the only one who can take away our sins will be saved. That, dear ones is love at its highest level.

My plea to you is do not ignore the love that God has demonstrated towards each one of us by rejecting his son, by refusing to believe and surrender your life to Jesus Christ. As Isaac Watts once wrote about the love of God “love so amazing so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all”.

Yours with Love

Chopo Mwanza

His name will be great among the nation

We recently had a mission’s conference at Faith Baptist Church and we had an opportunity to hear from the missionaries what God is doing in the two mission points that we are currently establishing. This conference helped me to do some soul searching concerning missions. I was asking myself if at all proclaiming the name of the Lord is the primary mission in my life. If people were to sum up my life and what I am passionate about would they say it is making the name of the Lord great among the nations?

The Lord has purposed that his name will be great among all the nations, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same his name will be praised and He tasks those who are his children to proclaim his name among all the nations (Malachi 1:11). You and I are ambassadors of God not only to proclaim the name of the Lord but to plead with everyone to turn to him and be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:18-20).

God as a missionary God with a world-wide agenda: He calls us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20). He has a people chosen by grace, whom His Son has purchased with his own blood, in every nation, language, people and tribe (Revelation 5:9). When He saves people from sin, He makes them “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16), thus giving them a unique role that encompasses the entire globe. Until the gospel reaches all the peoples of the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ will not return (Matthew 24:14). Therefore, it is not enough to simply be evangelising the neighbourhood or the city; we must go beyond the townships of Kitwe, beyond the cities and town into the villages and beyond the comforts of our peaceful accommodating country into countries desperately indeed of the gospel.

This is can only happen when we are deliberate about missions. When we set it a priority in our lives, our homes and churches. Our participation in global missions comes in three ways. Going into the field and plant churches, Pray for the work and labourers in the field and support the work by giving generously and sacrificially. On the issue of going, Spurgeon’s plea to his students is worth hearing when he said:
I plead this day for those who cannot plead for themselves, namely:- the great outlying masses of the heathen world. Our existing pulpits are tolerably well supplied, but we need men who will build on new foundations. Who will do this? Are we, as a company of faithful men, clear in our consciences about the heathen? Millions have never heard the name of Jesus… We ought to put it on this footing — not “Can I prove that I ought to go?” but “Can I prove that I ought not to go?” When a man can prove honestly that he ought not to go then he is clear, but not else. What answer do you give, my brethren? I put it to you man by man

And while not all can go, we all must pray and pray earnestly to the God of the harvest to send labourers and to draw a people for Himself from all nations. We all must give and do so generously and sacrificially. Missions must be a priority in our personal, family and church budgets. The God we serve is a missionary God, so should we!