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The Moment of Truth
Church in the Bay - Media Release in the Herald: 25 May 2020
Source: TCN / Pastor Lingelihle Jadezweni
Date Added: 2020-05-25
Category: General News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration,
Date Added: 2020-05-25
Category: General News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration,
What strange and bewildering times we’re living in. This is a moment none could have anticipated let alone planned for, and yet the beauty of God’s omniscience assures us that He has adequately prepared and equipped us for this exact season.
The year had barely begun, and we’d scarcely put our New Year’s resolutions into effect, when life as we knew it came to a startling standstill and we found ourselves in the middle of a global disaster. We find ourselves in a time where it would seem as though God deliberately put a halt to the rhythm of life that we had settled into, be it at an individual level or the global institutions and world order we had come to accept as the norm.
Whichever way one chooses to look at it, and despite all the uncertainties that come with the unknown, one thing that remains certain is that things must change. We must change.
This pandemic has thrust us into a moment that will alter the shape of nation states, our communities and how we as a people relate to each other. The question then becomes: “what happens after Covid-19?”
Just as the flood in Noah’s day or the exodus in the time of Moses or, in more recent times, the Spanish Flu or World War II, there are moments that split time into the age before and the age after.
Covid-19 is our defining moment. Ours is to interrogate the moment.
Why are we going through all of this?
What lessons should we learn from this?
What is the purpose for this trial?
What are we to attain from this?
I don’t believe that we would be allowed to go through such turbulence simply as a mere fluke of nature. As though we just happened to stumble and trip on a virus that is killing thousands of people – just for the experience.
How we experience this moment and what we glean from it is wholly dependent on our perspective. It is in times like these that the genuineness of our faith is revealed, and sincerity of our call exposed.
A moment of truth reveals what is at the core of our beliefs. As the church we need to do our best to be adaptable in crisis and create best solutions, to the glory of God. We need to guard that our mode of action not be one of survival only but one driven by generosity, service and adding value.
Our relevance and effectiveness in carrying out the great commission, post-Corona, will be determined by how we act now.
The world has heard us preach the heart of Jesus. Now it needs to see us display His hands. Not to speak Christ like but to be like Christ in deeds and in conduct.
This time of lockdown and seclusion can be seen as charging us to think about our spirituality, to be decisive in our stance and unwavering in our beliefs.
Elijah asked his people how long they would waiver between two opinions, God is asking the same of us this day. How long will you be content with being lukewarm?
You used to act one way on Sunday and another during the week. Now that there is no one to perform for what side will you choose?
Godliness cannot exist with compromise. The image of the church and of what godliness is has been tarnished because too many Christians have lived a blended, choice-assorted Christianity.
This is the moment of truth, we have been stripped of our masks, our crutches and hiding places.
What is it that you stand for?
This is a question for each of us; the Preacher, the CEO, those in governance, men, women and children. When the chickens come home to roost what will you be found steadfastly holding on to?
Silence, solitude and isolation have afforded us the opportunity for divine perspective. A level headedness that will allow us to retrace our steps, find the places where God’s altars once stood, pick up the rubble and rebuild.
There are precepts and ways of being that we have sacrificed for modernity’s sake.
There are legacies that lie in ruin because we allowed them to be stolen and erased. Rebuild, to the glory of the Lord and he shall forge it in fire.
Charles Dickens described it as “the best of times and the worst of times” and he may well have been writing about the year 2020.
It is undeniable that the effect this pandemic has had is both horrifying and full of hope all at once. We will rebuild and He will restore.
Divine perspective assures me that we shall see the best of God in the worst of times.
Pastor Lingelihle Jadezweni
Senior Pastor RUCC P.E.
The year had barely begun, and we’d scarcely put our New Year’s resolutions into effect, when life as we knew it came to a startling standstill and we found ourselves in the middle of a global disaster. We find ourselves in a time where it would seem as though God deliberately put a halt to the rhythm of life that we had settled into, be it at an individual level or the global institutions and world order we had come to accept as the norm.
Whichever way one chooses to look at it, and despite all the uncertainties that come with the unknown, one thing that remains certain is that things must change. We must change.
This pandemic has thrust us into a moment that will alter the shape of nation states, our communities and how we as a people relate to each other. The question then becomes: “what happens after Covid-19?”
Just as the flood in Noah’s day or the exodus in the time of Moses or, in more recent times, the Spanish Flu or World War II, there are moments that split time into the age before and the age after.
Covid-19 is our defining moment. Ours is to interrogate the moment.
Why are we going through all of this?
What lessons should we learn from this?
What is the purpose for this trial?
What are we to attain from this?
I don’t believe that we would be allowed to go through such turbulence simply as a mere fluke of nature. As though we just happened to stumble and trip on a virus that is killing thousands of people – just for the experience.
How we experience this moment and what we glean from it is wholly dependent on our perspective. It is in times like these that the genuineness of our faith is revealed, and sincerity of our call exposed.
A moment of truth reveals what is at the core of our beliefs. As the church we need to do our best to be adaptable in crisis and create best solutions, to the glory of God. We need to guard that our mode of action not be one of survival only but one driven by generosity, service and adding value.
Our relevance and effectiveness in carrying out the great commission, post-Corona, will be determined by how we act now.
The world has heard us preach the heart of Jesus. Now it needs to see us display His hands. Not to speak Christ like but to be like Christ in deeds and in conduct.
This time of lockdown and seclusion can be seen as charging us to think about our spirituality, to be decisive in our stance and unwavering in our beliefs.
Elijah asked his people how long they would waiver between two opinions, God is asking the same of us this day. How long will you be content with being lukewarm?
You used to act one way on Sunday and another during the week. Now that there is no one to perform for what side will you choose?
Godliness cannot exist with compromise. The image of the church and of what godliness is has been tarnished because too many Christians have lived a blended, choice-assorted Christianity.
This is the moment of truth, we have been stripped of our masks, our crutches and hiding places.
What is it that you stand for?
This is a question for each of us; the Preacher, the CEO, those in governance, men, women and children. When the chickens come home to roost what will you be found steadfastly holding on to?
Silence, solitude and isolation have afforded us the opportunity for divine perspective. A level headedness that will allow us to retrace our steps, find the places where God’s altars once stood, pick up the rubble and rebuild.
There are precepts and ways of being that we have sacrificed for modernity’s sake.
There are legacies that lie in ruin because we allowed them to be stolen and erased. Rebuild, to the glory of the Lord and he shall forge it in fire.
Charles Dickens described it as “the best of times and the worst of times” and he may well have been writing about the year 2020.
It is undeniable that the effect this pandemic has had is both horrifying and full of hope all at once. We will rebuild and He will restore.
Divine perspective assures me that we shall see the best of God in the worst of times.
Pastor Lingelihle Jadezweni
Senior Pastor RUCC P.E.
Source: TCN / Pastor Lingelihle Jadezweni
Date Added: 2020-05-25
Category: General News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration,
Back to News IndexDate Added: 2020-05-25
Category: General News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration,
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