The Sunday Mail
Soon we bid farewell to 2015 and its unfulfilled resolutions, and welcome a brand New Year – 2016.
In Biblical terms, 2015 was significant.
It was the Shemittah year or the year of Jubilee – full of blessings from the Lord Almighty. The high note was the fourth blood moon (total lunar eclipse), that coincided with the Feast of Tabernacles on September 27.
Before running the final portion of how churches saw 2015, let me also share my brief perspective.
Divine Appointments is for the body of Christ not only in Zimbabwe, but the world over.
We bless the publishers of The Sunday Mail who avail the space, which has made us all spiritually rich.
I interviewed many men and women of God, and also visited a number of churches to experience the joy of the Lord. It was exciting to feel Jesus Christ’s eternal love through the various church doctrines.
Watching the exponential growth of churches and the apparent disunity has also been quite intriguing, despite the fact that all this is not new to the Lord.
Resources permitting, we hope that 2016 will open new doors for us to go beyond the churches in Harare to interview pioneers of Zimbabwe’s indigenous churches, the fathers of the gospel in the country, such as Archbishop Paul Mwazha of the African Apostolic Church, Archbishop Ezekiel Guti of Zaoga FIFM, and others.
Special appreciation goes to our valued readers who have given the column relevance.
Ebenezer again!
Week-in, week-out, I saw the Lord’s grace at work compiling material for Divine Appointments and doing the write-ups.
Glory and honour is also unto the Lord and Him alone for supernaturally covering up all those bleeps and blunders. He is truly a faithful God!
As we look forward to more of that grace in 2016, I say what Apostle Paul said: “Praise be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” (Ephesians 1:3-4)
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Simbarekutenda Apostolic Church in 2015
Simbarekutenda was one of the few Apostolic churches we featured, and its 2015 themes was “Knowing the foundation of the true church through prayer and preaching”.
Jesus Christ made it clear that He Himself is that foundation, while Apostle Paul writing to Christians in Ephesus that: “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:19-21)
The roots of Simbarekutenda Apostolic Church are derived from this Scripture.
Simbarekutenda also thinks that true religion separates itself from world affairs.
James 1:27 shows that if our worship is to be clean and undefiled from the stand point of God, we must keep ourselves without spot from the world.
The 2015 theme was fulfilled through prayer and preaching. People repented and followed Christ’s way.
The church made it clear that each and every member had freedom to preach and teach the Word.
This inspired members to spread the Word across all age groups. The church also realised that it was vital to regularly include children in programme. When this is done, children learn to think of God in relation to all activities.
The church worked tirelessly and achieved much.
For example: construction of shelter; ensuring all branches join a funeral policy; and, a farming project.
However, economic downturns affected plans to buy chairs, renovate a toilet and extend their buidling.
Simbarekutenda says blessings are available to all mankind through Jesus Christ, but believers must exercise faith in Him in order to receive them. (John 3:36)
“We must become His disciples and submit ourselves to Him as our heavenly king. Thus, as Simbarekutenda we boldly declare that shoko raMwari ngariende kwose kwose.”
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Grace: God’s unmerited gift
We also spoke with Shekkainah Glory Ministries whose messages are anchored on the gospel of the Lord’s unlimited grace. Below is their 2015 experience:
The Lord in Psalms 22:27 says: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”
And, we say how can one remember unless someone reminds them? So, our mandate is to remind man of who he is by design (Ephesians 2:11 and Jeremiah 1:5), and to bring an awakening to the original righteousness that God had in mind for mankind from the beginning.
“That is why we call our ministry Shekkainah Glory as we carry the fullness of the presence of God in us,” says Bishop Shelton Mudyaro.
Their theme, “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:26-27), was fulfilled in “our meetings as we saw an increase in the number of pastors and leaders who came to attend our meetings as we sought to establish hearts in the message of grace so that people could equally impact the lives of others with the message of what God has done in the person of Christ”. (Hebrews 13:9)
The year saw them having Mirror Word schools in Maputo, Mozambique for ten days.
They also had a seven-day Mirror conference in Iringa Mafinga with pastors and leaders coming from all provinces of Tanzania and they saw a mighty response from leaders as many confirmed how the message of grace removed the veil of an identity crisis in their lives and ministry as they shared from Matthew 16:13.
One of the ministry’s major achievements was that in early 2015, they reached out to WhaWha Prison in Gweru to share the love of God with juvenile offenders. They responded in an awesome way.
It was a joy to give bibles and share the gospel of grace with them as the psalmist says in Psalms 2:8, “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.”
They visited the same prison in the last quarter of 2015 and had an early Christmas party with inmates.
Bishop Mudyaro says their goal in 2015 was to reach at least five provinces with these meetings of grace but what affected the objective was lack of resources as well as manpower firmly established in the word of grace.
“We need to understand that there was a price that was paid for this gospel and it’s not a cheap gospel! People have imported worldly systems into the church and have forgotten what manner of man we are. (“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21)
A very happy and prosperous 2016! God will remain faithful to His promises.
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