Welcome to our Month of Mission!
Greetings in the lovely name of our Lord Jesus!
Since 2014 the M&D committee has been sending out daily devotions for the month of October which has been set aside as Missions Month. These have been written by various ministers and members in the denomination and have been well-received. We also supply a preaching plan with sermon outlines for October which you could use. Go to http://www.upcsa-mad.org.za/news/month-of-mission-2021 to learn more.
The proposed theme fits in with the decade long theme proposed by the Mission and Discipleship Committee to General Assembly i.e.
"Going for Growth: Sowing, Growing, Reaping."
The first devotion, written by our Moderator is below:
Abraham - Blessed to be a Blessing
It is God who calls people out of their comfort space into a Covenant with God. It is concomitantly the same God who blesses those people in Covenant with Him to be a blessing to others.
Abram had to leave familiar surroundings, familiar territory, familiar faces and places, to be in Covenant with God -- in a land that God had designated. It was in this Covenant that God blessed Abram and made a promise of making Abram into a great nation. It was also in this Covenant, that God would also make Abram's name great and bless Abram to be a blessing. Once all these divine milestones had been achieved, Abram's name would change into Abraham -- the Father of Many Nations - and he would a blessing to others, to nations, to those in the end of the earth.
A blessing for its own sake is not a blessing at all. It could qualify for personal achievement, personal success, personal growth, personal advancement. But for the blessing to be a blessing, it needs to extend to others. It needs to change the quality of my life/your life, but also the quality of life of the others. Put differently, if you have been blessed (it is really immaterial what you have been blessed with), be a blessing to others -- family, colleagues, comrades, friends, neighbours, peers, elders, those above, those below, those ahead, those behind.
Once God has Covenanted with me and changed my life with a blessing, let me impact the lives of those around me with a blessing and impact them with positive energy, positive attitude, positive relationships. With blessings flowing from your Covenant with God, share your resources, your experience, your knowledge, your information, your strategies, your best practices with those less fortunate than yourself. Every time where you have been blessed, go ahead and be a blessing to others.
| The Lord had said to Abram: (Genesis12:1-3)"Leave your country, your people and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse" |
The Right Rev Dr Sipho Mtetwa is the Moderator of the UPCSA. He is married to Xoli and with three kids and numerous grandkids. He resides in Pietermaritzburg and is part of the Drakensberg Presbytery. He is a poet and jazz lover.
