21/07/2016
There is a lot that happened worth mentioning in this ending year, but I have little space to share it all.
One of the characters I love from the New Testament is the life of Paul the Apostle. In his second letter to Corinthians Chapter 6:4-10, he says, “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distress ………….”
Reading through the passage, it reveals how situations can be part of ministry. The Apostle Paul has in some places in his letters boasted about having passing through some of these situations and getting on with the ministry.
One day I was reading and meditating Psalms 23. I was interested in the “sandwich” pattern in this Psalm. When we start with the first three verses which starts with “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” It is all good testimony. David pronounces full confidence, peace, and comfort he finds in God. In verses 5 and 6 God’s protection and provision is being pronounced. Interestingly in the middle of the two groups of the verses, there is verse number 4, which gives a different impression from the first and the last verses. In this, the writer says, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me ….” Here it gives sense that while we have the Lord as our good shepherd and leading us and providing to us, there will be those times in life and ministry when we will have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But the fascinating part which David did not leave out is where he mentions that we do not have to fear any evil for the presence of the Lord is with us even in those kinds of situations.
I have a friend Ray. He is an entomologist (has interest in insects). One day, I joined him walking in his garden. We came to a tree which he had covered one of its branches with netting material. He was breeding butterflies and months. There were some caterpillars which had been hatched from the eggs of these
By Pastor Sydney Kansengwa
