Mbonisi Malaba at Crossroads

Praise and worship team getting the church going!!!

We had an excellent service this morning - quite international too with 5 nations being represented - Zimbabwe (People from Bulawayo city, Mablauwuni village and Inkayi), USA, U.K, Canada and Australia. The atmosphere and freedom of worship was excellent. So were the testimonies. It was just brilliant.

Mbonisi then shared the story of "The unmerciful servant" from Matthew 18:21 - 35. He started where Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him? 7 times? Jesus replies  in v 22, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy - seven times."

Mbonisi then did so well by adapting the story to make it suitable for the folk in Mablauwuni by saying "the Kingdom of God is like a Chief who wanted to settle his things and a man owed him 5000 cattle. As he was unable to pay, the chief ordered that he, his wife, his children and all that he had be sold to repay the cattle. The man went on his knees and begged the Chief to be be patient as he will pay the debt. The Chief took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

But when that man went out and found one of his fellow villager who owed him 2 chickens, he grabbed him round the throat and began choking him saying "I want my two chickens. Pay me back what you owe." The fellow villager fell on his knees and begged him to be patient as he would pay back but this man refused. Instead, he had the villager thrown into prison.

When the other villagers saw what had happened, they were outraged and went to tell the Chief. The Chief called the man, told him he was wicked and said "I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow villager just as I had on you?" In anger the Chief handed the man over to the jailers to be tortured until he pay back the 5000 cows.

v 35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

Mbonisi Malaba sharing God's word at Crossroads

Two questions were then asked as a way of discussion
1. What do we learn about people from this story?

• It's hard to forgive
• People want to receive forgiveness but don't want to give forgiveness
• People forgive great things not small things

2. What do we learn about God?

• It doesn't matter how many times we sin, he forgives us

If someone has done something wrong to you - forgive. In life people hurt you and this can separate people. It can cause problems in a marriage and even tear it apart. It can cause problems in a Church and tear it apart. Sometimes it is hard to forgive.

If you know you have done wrong to someone, approach them and apologise. Go and be reconciled to your brother or sister and continue worshipping. sometimes we think that Christianity is about loving God yet hating your brother. If you say you love God yet hate your brother, then you are a liar. It's important how we treat one another. Forgive one another and be reconciled. Start with God. When we sin, we sin against God alone. Start with God. Only when we are reconciled to God can we be reconciled to one another. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, our relationship with God was broken. Jesus Christ came to bring us back and reconcile us to the Father.

Mbonisi with Mbusiso

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Who are the peacemakers in Kezi or Inkayi? It's too easy to spread disunity. It destroys relationships and our relationships are important to God. No relationship can survive without forgiveness. No strong marriage, Church or family can survive without forgiveness. We are in a nation where tribes and races need to forgive each other. As Christians, we need to be good at forgiving. When we do this all men will know that we are his disciples by our LOVE for one another.

We then held hands and prayed as a church.

May God help us to forgive........

Summarised by Molly Manhanga