IS THERE ROOM FOR ME IN YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE?

Genesis 24:23, 31
v.23 Is there room for me in your father's house?

v.31 Why are you standing out there? I have prepared the house and place for the camels

This was our first sermon at church where we looked at the name of the church as well as the vision and mission. We looked at the difference between a house and home. A home, it does not matter how the structure looks, is supposed to be where one finds peace, hope and restoration. Basically, the house of hope and restoration is a HOME.

The servant in 23, sent by Abraham who is now well advanced in years, have found Rebekah, whom they were sent to find. The servant with kneeling camels (v.11) before the well, have found her and they now ask, "do we have a room in your father's house?". The father has a house, that they suppose, but is there a room for them as servants and also is there a room for the camels? Rebekah assures them, there is. In our church we need to make sure there is a room for everyone. The house will be there, but will there be a room for the servants? All who serves God should feel welcome and at home.

We looked at five areas pertaining to this house of Hope and Restoration (Home)
1. HOPE
Acts 2: 25-26 and  Psalm 39:7
In the book of Acts we hear of David who resolved to rest in Hope in the Lord, the same thing David echoes in Psalm 39:7. Our Hope has to always be in the Lord.

2. RESTORATION (Restore and Heal)
Jeremiah 30:17; Joel 2:25-26 and Psalm 51:12
Jeremiah speaks about healing wounds and restoring health. We need places where not only woulds will be healed but total health will be restored and people can feel whole again
Joel talks about the destruction brought about by the locust, then the caterpillar and the palmerworm. The Lord promises to restore all those. During restoration God redeems everything that was destroyed thorouhly
In Psalm 39:7, David says "Lord, my Hope is in thee", our Hope remains in the Lord as He restores us, the nation and the world in this House of Hope and Restoration


3. LET EVERYONE COME AS THEY ARE
2 Kings 4:9-10
Elisha was going around doing the work of the Lord Faithfully, but it took a person who could see and hear well from the Lord, that he needed a room. May we never be preoccupied with ourselves and fail to recognize it when the Lord leads us to see when others need a room.

4. TRUST AND SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER
James 5:16
In our fellowships we need to create an environment where each person can feel free and if need be, be vulnerable so that they can confess their weaknesses so that the Lord can strengthen them

5. LOVE ONE ANOTHER
John 13:34-35
In these two verses, the Lord Jesus three times that "love one another" and through that the world will know, we are from Him.

Tomorrow

Reminder: Tomorrow we are having Malemela and Grace as part of missions month, please see one of the posts below. Looking froward to seeing you tomorrow. Stay Blessed,

Countdown...

A life signed away

A life signed away

Reflecting on the evening of 4 November as we kick started the Mission month for THoHR one is actually left more with questions than answers. You also realise how blessed we are as a new church to be afforded the opportunity in our infancy to be exposed to what Missions is from the Horses’ mouths.

Pastor Nkish opened the service/ session with scripture reading from Isaiah 18:1-7. What a powerful verse referring to our beautiful continent and the plans the Lord has for it.

As the young beautiful Flo took the stand, one couldn’t stop but agree “It can only be God who can turn the plans of this young beautiful woman around”. Her family could have benefitted so much from her education financially yet she chose to serve the family of the Most High God!

As she started her greatest concern was with her two sisters who are in her country of work and are both sick. Her request for prayers for them just indicated how close and how much it pains her when they are in pain. She may not be the one physically sick, but can feel their pain.

As we all listened like little children hearing about a strange story or an animal we have never seen or heard of before, it became very clear how little we all know about this sphere. With much interest and a lot of questions from the audience, she gracefully answered all our questions. Both serious and very light ones like how does dog meat taste like!!

What was striking is the humility of this beautiful woman. All the dangers she has endured and the successes is all for the Glory of God. Leaving a stable job for the unpaid one. How much faith is that? When most of us who are in paid jobs still fail to give or honor God with our substance because “it isn’t enough”. Missions is about faith and trusting God for your livelihood.

Flo tried to keep the balance between the hardships and the joy of being a missionary. We are talking about a woman who lost everything in the fire and could still look back and thank God that no life was lost. Over and above that, see God provide through a total stranger three dresses that fitted perfectly.

What has been in my mind since this session is the fact that by being a missionary, she actually signed her life away. Her family may never know her grave yet she is still pursuing her call. In response to the family not knowing where one may be buried, a colleague emphasised that “it isn’t important where the body is buried, but where the soul will rest”.

Judging from the questions, and the curiosity, one thing is for sure, the church has forgotten what its role is. The church has forgotten what sending is and are comfortable fishing from the same bowl. Her surprise that actually there were people who were so keen to hear about missions in South Africa echoed one thing, we indeed are sleeping and have no interest. May the Lord forgive us and our ignorance….

A very critical statement she said was “as we pursue the unreached, let us also pursue those unreached areas within us”. Those areas, hatred, unforgiveness, etc have the ability to disqualify us from the race.

 We are really grateful to God for the opportunity and look forward to the next four weeks to hear more!!!!

11 November - Focus on OM (Malemela and Grace)

Just a reminder that on Sunday we are starting with our Sunday services at Elardus Park. We are continuing with our Missions month. On Tuesday we are having Malemela and Grace Phago from Operation Mobilisation. Please follow this link to learn more about OM Operation Mobilisation South Africa 

Communication

We are working on improving our communication with you. Please follow us on Twitter: @hopeandresto
We will give you our URL soon
Our last newsletter for the year will also be out before we all get overwhelmed with the festive season. If you are not in our e-mailing list, kindly provide us with your email, through the communication block on the right hand side

See you tonight as we kick start our missions month. Address: 628 Hofet Street, Elardus Park. Enquiries (0813009364 - Pastor Mmamajoro)

Much Blessings,

Focus on Capro Missions - 04 November 2014

November is here and that means our Missions month at THoHR is kicking in. On the 04th of November we will be having the following servants of God as they share with us their journey with the Lord as missionaries. Please pop in to learn more about them and missions. Time: 18:00 - 19:15

Venue: 628 Hofet street, Elardus Park (Pretoria)

Bush & Lebo have been missionaries for the last 5 years serving through CAPRO MISSIONS SA. They served in the mission fields of Nigeria & Kenya respectively. They are currently based in Pretoria serving in administration & Student Ministries. They are called & are working towards doing church planting missions among the Maore people of the island of Mayotte who are 98% Islamic.

Selemela Thabang Selemela

From Pentecostal Holiness Church in Mogwase

Saved in 2007, learned about Missions in 2008/9

Helped start a youth organization called ARMY CAMP OF CHRIST, through which he grew in Evangelism. He would passionately gather youth from various Churches to train EE3 for Evangelism.

Joined CAPRO in 2011

Has burden for Muslims.

For more information about CAPRO, please click HERE