Monthly Archives: November 2023

The Dangers of Gaming

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–– David de Bruyn

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Amidst much economic downturn, one industry that is thriving in South Africa is gaming and e-sports. The Price-Waterhouse-Cooper Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook reported that South Africa’s gaming and e-sports increased its revenue by 30% in 2022, and leads both Kenyan and Nigerian markets. Although power cuts, slow rollout of 5G, and poor quality networks have hampered growth, Africa’s mobile-first landscape has allowed for quicker adoption of digital currencies. E-sports and gaming often use digital currencies for betting and in-game purchases. 

Worldwide, the gaming industry makes more money than the film and music industries combined. In 2021, the gaming world brought in over $180 billion. Companies such as Facebook and Google have invested billions of dollars into Virtual Reality, which is certain to become a major part of gaming in the next 5-10 years. 

Although using games for harmless diversion and amusement may be a lawful use of leisure for Christians, there are some real spiritual dangers associated with gaming. 

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Responding to Cancel Culture

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–– Paul Schlehlein

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The Egyptian pyramids have yet to be cancelled. If Cancel Culture has its way, the Great Sphinx may be next. 

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians believed Pharaoh was a living god. The people spent centuries making elaborate tombs to comfort their king in the afterlife. Architects used millions of limestone blocks to construct the massive pyramids. Khufu’s Great Pyramid alone contains 2.3 million blocks of stone, each piece weighing more than a ton. The Great Pyramid stands as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and remained the tallest structure in the world for 38 centuries. 

Ramses II, father of more than fifty sons and Pharaoh of Egypt for sixty-seven years, inscribed these words on his throne: “I am [Ramses II], King of Kings. If anyone would seek to know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.”

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Should we celebrate Christian holidays?

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–– Andrew Zekveld

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Introduction

Christmas is a month away, and already the range of emotions, sentiments, and opinions about celebrating Christmas are filling the conversations and plans of some Christians across Africa. A few months later, the Easter celebrations will re-ignite these discussions all over again. Then, forty days later, an Ascension Day Church service will be kept in some scattered Churches across our continent.

Our differences are not only personal, they are also national. In South Africa, the celebration of Ascension Day was removed as a national holiday with the fall of Apartheid in 1994. In Egypt, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, Christmas falls on the 7th of January and in Ghana on the 1st of December. In countries with a strong European heritage, you will find Christmas trees and fruit cake on Christmas Day, while the decorations and meals of other countries might vary from region to region within the same country. Though Easter is celebrated in many African countries with more zeal than Christmas Day, it receives no official attention in about a third of African countries.

How should Christians in Africa think about celebrating Christian holidays?

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Review: A Guide to Prayer

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Isaac Watts, Banner of Truth, 186 pages, 4 of 5 stars

Isaac Watts, the Father of English Hymnody, has written my favorite book on prayer. The previous first choice had been Carson’s A Call to Spiritual Reformation. Watts is even better. For a full summary of the book, go HERE.

Four reasons this is my favorite book on prayer

First, it’s practical, surprisingly so. Watts argues that prayer has rules just like other skills. If medicine has rules for healing, then Christians must learn the rules for praying. Watts talks about everything relating to prayer, from the Spirit’s work, to the kinds prayer, the voice, the gestures, the motivations, the grace and the gifts of prayer.

Second, it’s short, under 200 pages. It’s also clear. Watts once wrote a famous book on logic, still in print. Short and clear is a great combo.

Third, it’s old. Watts was born in England in 1674. The book was first published in 1715. If the choice is between the latest best-selling book on prayer over at Amazon, or a prayer manual three centuries old, choose the latter.

Fourth, it’s written by a pastor. No other occupation on earth lists praying as it’s central job description. If you want to learn how to pray, find a godly pastor. They have experience and Bible verses for support. At age 28 Watts became the pastor of Mark Lane Chapel in London. He was an able pastor, his church growing from 74 to five hundred during his lengthy ministry.

A few tips for parents

Fathers and mothers could uses Watt’s book to teach their kids how to pray. Consider the following ways: Continue reading →

The Greatest Defense Against Poverty

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–– Paul Schlehlein

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Is there a correlation between broken homes and poverty? Do the two go hand in hand? Can the strengthening of the home decrease poverty in a society? The answer to all of these questions is yes.

In 2014, the Institute for Family Studies ranked countries by how likely children are to live with two parents, from 94 percent of children in Jordan to just 36 percent in South Africa. None of the top 20 countries with the highest percentages of two parent homes are found in the top 50 of nations with the highest percentage of their population below the poverty line. In other words, it is nealry impossible to find poor countries with a high percentage of two-parent homes.

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Three Words for Husbands Whose Wives Won’t Escort Them to the Mission Field

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– Paul Schlehlein

Listen to podcast edition and subscribe here: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Imagine this. Simon hears a Sunday sermon from a missionary who works in northern Africa. The preaching cuts him deeply. His eyes water. He gets to dreaming. He senses God is calling him into missions. He tells his wife. She smiles politely. He goes to seminary. He reads missionary bios. He tacks maps on his bedroom wall. He takes survey trips. He’s all in.

Years later he’s ready to go. As he pulls up the tent spikes at home, he discovers his wife’s roots have only run deeper. She can’t leave her parents. She can’t homeschool in a foreign land. She can’t take the heat. She’s not going. Simon is crushed. What should he do?

This is a difficult matter that is not all that unusual in missions. It’s happened more than one might expect. Here are three words that Simon should embrace.

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What Should a Couple Do If Their Parents Disapprove Their Marriage?

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– Paul Schlehlein

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When we consider a question like this, our first question should be: “Is this union honoring to God?” This is not the same question as: “Is this union honoring to my parents?” The two are often the same, but not always. 

Here are five marks of forming a marriage that God approves. 

(1) Conversion. Only a Christian may marry a Christian (2Cor. 6:14). God forbids inter-faith marriage (1Cor. 7:39), which only leads to heartache (Ex. 34:16). 

(2) Consent. Forced marriage is not marriage. Adam left his parents to cleave to his wife, showing volition. He came to her, showing it was not by force (Gn. 2:24). 

(3) Character. The bride and groom should share the same spiritual vibrancy. One may be more spiritually mature than the other but too great a divide will hamper the marriage. “Can two walk together except they be agreed” (Amos 3:3)? 

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Dating Apps and the Christian

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–– Tim Cantrell

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Should Christians use dating apps?  One study claims that 1 in 3 South Africans uses online dating and that only 11% do it to find a marriage partner, while 48% do it for fun, 41% to find friends, and 13% for sex.  Our Police Minister Bheke Cele has recently warned of the increasing use of dating apps for kidnapping.  Yet global revenue from dating apps for 2023 will add up to US$8.7 billion, from 441 million users – a colossal industry indeed!  What does God’s Word say about this massive trend in our society?

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Why Caster is Faster: A Christian Response to Transgenderism

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–– Paul Schlehlein

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If you think the transgender debate hasn’t reached Africa, think again. Trans ideology has been gaining ground in Africa for decades. 

Take, for example, Caster Semenya, a South African middle-distance runner and two-time women’s Olympic gold medal winner in the 800 meters. Semenya doesn’t just win races. Semenya dominates, the media describing the races as “coasting to victory” and “winning easily”. 

The problem is that Semenya is not a woman. Semenya is a man who identifies as a woman. He has all the biological marks that only males possess: XY chromosomes, male genitalia, and high testosterone levels. He’s married to a woman with whom he has a child. Even his rare genetic condition can by definition only affect males. How then can Semenya call himself a woman?

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Six Marks of a Good Missionary Newsletter

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Missionary newsletters (sometimes called Updates or Prayer Letters) help missionaries communicate with their sending churches and individual supporters back home. The purpose of these letters is to inform Christians about the details of the ministry so that they can pray for and support the missionary responsibly. Many of St. Paul’s epistles were first-century examples of missionary updates.

We as missionaries must improve our writing skills. I’ve read many bad prayer letters from missionaries. A handful are average and a select few are excellent. A quarter of them I wish would end after the first two sentences.

I understand this is somewhat subjective. What is good for one may be bad for another. I know there are different tastes. There is no Mosaic Prayer Letter Manual that Sinai insists we follow, though the writings of Missionary Paul are a good start.

I have no axe to grind. I’m pro missions. I’ve been a missionary for almost two decades. When it comes to missions, I’m like the mother who attends her son’s sporting events–pompoms, face paint, team jersey. I’m all in.

While some newsletters are like Rachel, beautiful to behold, others are like Leah, plain and lacking vitality. I’ve read newsletters with over 3,000 words–equal to nine pages in a typical book. I’ve read other letters with scores of photos, including vacation pics, birthday parties and lots of cutsie photos of the kiddos–more man-centered than Christ exalting.

Below you’ll find six marks of a good prayer, followed by a couple helpful examples. Continue reading →

Six Excuses Parents Use for Not Disciplining Their Children

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– Paul Schlehlein

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Parenting is difficult. Disciplining proves even harder. Many of the best of men and women have failed at parenting. Abraham alienated his son Ishmael. Jacob rebelled against Isaac. The sons of King David tried to kill their father. Church History verifies parenting is difficult as well. Take William Carey for example.

As the Father of Modern Missions, he excelled. But as the father of several children, he struggled, at least in the beginning. While he labored at translation work in India and battled with his wife’s mental illness, his sons spiralled out of control. Deprived of their mother’s love, his sons Felix and William seemed uncontrollably self-willed. Carey tried. He improved later in life and earned the highest love and respect from his children. But it wasn’t Carey that turned his sons around. 

William Ward, Carey’s teammate in India, took much of the spiritual care for Carey’s kids in their youth. Ward feared the Carey boys would break away from their Christian moorings. So he discipled them. He walked with them. They sang together. They spoke of spiritual matters. Carey poured gratitude upon his friend Ward, but it was Carey’s job to do. 

This illustrates the difficulty parents find in disciplining their children. Here are six common excuses they use.

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Our Dire Debt Dilemma

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–– Mark Christopher

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Proverbs 22:7 declares the following truism: “The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” This truism extends to individuals and governments alike. Last week’s mid-term budget speech on November 1st by the minister of finance was a good reminder of the peril of falling prey to the pernicious consequences of the debt cycle whereby more is spent than one has money for. 

Over the last several years, the South African government has continued to spend far more than it collects in annual tax revenue. This has snowballed with government having to borrow money it doesn’t have to make up for the annual shortfalls. This money is borrowed from various global financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. 

The South African government is now nearly 5 trillion rands in debt and growing annually. Since the budget speech in February of this year, the debt has grown by another 250 billion rands. This means that every man, woman, and child in South Africa owes 83,333.00 rands per person (calculated by 60 million people). 

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Is Israel Guilty of Apartheid?

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–– Paul Schlehlein

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Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning separation. It refers to a system of segregation based on race, popularized by the white South African government from 1948 to 1994. Though South Africa officially abolished apartheid nearly 30 years ago, many outside the country may be surprised to know that the word “apartheid” is still plastered on countless billboards throughout the largest cities in the land. 

But these billboards are not opposing old national grievances. How could they? Today’s blacks dominate South Africa’s population, Parliament, and police. 

These signs refer to the supposed Israeli apartheid against Palestinians. Sample signs in South Africa read: “Do the Right Thing. Boycott Apartheid Israel.” Or, “Churches Against Israeli Annexation of Palestinian Land.” Or, “End Israeli Apartheid Now.” Organizations and political party logos emboss these billboards, including the anti-Israel group Africa4Palestine, as well as the ruling party of the ANC, and the SACP—the South African Communist Party. 

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Death Penalty Disappearing in Africa

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–– David de Bruyn

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In July of 2023, Ghana’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty. Africa still has 30 countries that have the death sentence in their legal system, though it is rarely used in over half of these. Fourteen countries in Africa regularly use the death penalty: Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt, and Libya. In 26 African countries, capital punishment has been removed from the law books. 

Amnesty International reported that in sub-Saharan countries, there has been a 67% drop in capital punishment in the last three years. Egypt remains the leading practitioner of capital punishment in Africa.

Modern secular political wisdom asserts that the death penalty is a barbaric relic from the past. This wisdom believes in something known as rehabilitationism. In this scheme, justice primarily seeks to reform, not punish. Since the death penalty does not reform anyone, proponents of this theory assert that it should be abolished. 

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Why Does God Take So Many Missionaries in Their Prime?

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 Podcast Edition HERE

Many Christian men and women have died early. Too soon, some would say. They were great. They were young. The examples in Scripture and Church History are endless.

Abel obeyed God but was murdered by his brother. Stephen was stoned mid-sermon. Our Lord was crucified at 33. Most of the apostles died soon after the death of their Savior.

Clement, early defender of the faith, had an anchor tied around his throat and was thrown overboard. Cyprian was beheaded. Chrysostom, in the heyday of his preaching ministry, was force-marched to death. William Tyndale, amidst translating the Bible, was burnt at the stake.

Matthew Henry died before he could finish his commentary. David Brainerd died of tuberculosis at 29 while doing missionary work among the Indians. Jerusha Edwards, daughter of Jonathan and caretaker of Brainerd, died soon after at 17.

The Lord took Robert Murray M’Cheyne to Heaven at age 29. Henry Martyn, having spent years learning Middle Eastern languages, expired at age 32. John Paton’s wife was only nineteen when she left all to reach the cannibals. She died just months later. James Gilmore was just hitting his stride in Mongolia when he died at 47. The Auca Indians speared to death Jim Elliot was he was only 28. Continue reading →