Celebrates Twenty Years of equipping and supporting faith communities!

A message for the week starting on Sunday, 16 June 2024

Lectionary Week:  Fourth week after Pentecost 

Prescribed Texts: 1 Samuel 15: 15-34-16:13, Ezekiel 17:22-24, Psalm 92, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17, Mark 4:26-34

Focus Text:  2 Corinthians 5:6-17

“We have so many people who love Jesus, but what we really need is people who loves like Jesus does.” Jaco Strydom

This quote has stuck in my mind since Sunday’s sermon. Love like Jesus does. When I say that I love God what does it really mean? How does it become tangible to others? Is it even necessary that others should know that I love God? 

How do we embody our love for God in our engagement with God’s people? And I am deliberate when I refer to people as God’s people, because maybe I need to be reminded that every “other” person or “other” group of people that I choose to distance myself from,  are also God’s people. And is also created in the image of God.

A true relationship with God cannot serve only myself or myself interest. A true relationship with God is grounded in the understanding that although God’s love is personally and uniquely directed at me as an individual, this same love extends personally and uniquely to every other person created by God. Therefore, reconciliation with God only begins to reach full circle, when we seek to live and reconcile with God’s people, regardless of our past, regardless of our present. 

We call 16 June Youth Day in South Africa and use this day to celebrate and affirm young people in our country. It has however a painful history. We are reminded about the Youth uprising that started in Soweto on 16 June 1976. This peaceful march resulted in the death of about 176 children and young people who used their bodies to stand-up to the injustice of apartheid in black schools.

On this Youth Day, may we commit ourselves to not only be moved towards God in the privacy of our homes. May we also be moved closer to each other. May God’s love continue to move us towards justice, peace and reconciliation with one another. 

“If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. God’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.” 

2 Corinthians 5: 13 in The Messenger

To think about: If I should love others in the same manner as Jesus loves people, how will my life look different? How will my ministry look?
Written by: Aneleh Fourie Le Roux, CABSA Director and Trainer.