Matthew 1:21
"you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
John 1:29
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Acts 19:18
"Many also of those who were now believers came making full confession and
thoroughly exposing their [former deceptive and evil] practices." (Amplified version)
(Many teams have gone out in these days to preach the Gospel; in
Mthaleni, Doornkop, Mahlaba, Weenen, Swayimane, Tugela Ferry, Groutville, Standerton and
various other areas. Rev Friedel Stegen has just arrived back from Potchefstroom, where he
held meetings. Dr Peet Botha and others have gone to Cape Town. Dr Botha will speak at a
Dutch Reformed conference and in various churches there. John Powys has gone to address
meetings in England and Wales. Dr Albu is in America and is addressing a Mission
conference in New York. Teams have returned from Angola and Mozambique where the work is
growing. Rev Erlo Stegen, Friedel Stegen and other co-workers have returned from meetings
in Romania, Poland, Germany and other European countries)
Various people reported back on the meetings held in these various
places. The following is a summary:
"If a person doesn't bring spiritual children into this
world, he or she must be spiritually dead;
there must be something wrong at the core which needs to be sorted out."
Michael's Muller's mother, one of the co-workers from Germany,
reported how her family met with the Lord. She had been in Christian service, but found
that she lacked the power of God in the work. One day she was invited to attend a meeting
where Rev Erlo Stegen spoke. As he spoke, she knew that the message she heard was the key
she was looking for. While everybody bowed their heads at the end of the meeting, she ran
forward for prayer. She thoroughly confessed her sins and her life was changed forever.
The following day, as she made right with those around her (her husband and children),
Michael, then eight years old, tried to comfort his mother. She replied, "a person
who cannot weep properly cannot rejoice properly".
After that the Lord began to work and many young people found the Lord through her
ministry and the work is continuing today.
Rev Heino Stegen reported back on the overseas meetings. In many
ex-communist countries, like Romania, the old people still serve the Lord, but the youth
turn to the pleasures of the world in the West. However, the meetings were well attended,
especially by the youth. At some meetings up to 800 young people attended.
God has entrusted us with His precious Gospel - woe to us if we do
not proclaim God's Gospel of liberation and freedom from sin to those being destroyed in
the world.
In communist countries the conditions are awful, but still the
Gospel is the cure. Because of the communist mentality the people have no industrious
ambition, but are lazy and lethargic.
However the services were well attended and the people are hungry
for the Gospel. In some churches, as we preached the Gospel basics of Jesus coming to save
us from our sins, the people exclaimed that they've never heard such a message. After one
such message a very old man stood up, and said he had never heard such a message in his
life, although he had been in that church since he was small. (The question is, what
message is preached, if it's not that Jesus came to save us from our sins.) A popular
gospel these days is to accept Christ, but continue to wallow in sin. People continue to
gossip, be selfish and loveless, lust, lie, etc. Such a Gospel is worthless.
Sin in a Christian's life blinds him or her not to see the obvious and they head straight
for hell with their ' Christianity ' - God's truth is plain and simple - sin needs to be
confessed and parted from. Those who gossip should do so no more; likewise those with
grudges should confess it and part from it, etc.
In the beginning of the revival I prayed a general
confession-prayer with those who came to confess their sins. They stopped me and said that
they wanted to name their sins one by one as it was committed.
When you confess Christ, you do not go into your room and confess
Him there behind a closed door.
Jesus gave his disciples divine authority concerning sin, saying
"if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven." - John 20:23
