Tag Archives: Richard Peskett

Crippling Debt versus Godly Contentment

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— Richard Peskett

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Ayana (her name has been changed to protect her anonymity) was so grateful to her boss for her Christmas bonus that she knelt on the ground to thank her. Yet before the end of the month, all this extra money had been spent on “things” that she delighted to boast about on social media. One month later, and she was in debt again.

The debt that Ayana experiences is like a dark hole from which it is impossible to escape. Such personal debt enslaves a person; it brings sorrow, anxiety, and even despair. And it is all too common in Africa. 

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Cross Purposes About the Cross

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–– Richard Peskett

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Do you ever, like me, struggle to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with black Africans? I speak often to men and women about Christ—on the streets and in the stores—and even though we are speaking the same language, and they smile, and they agree with me, and they take a tract when offered to them, yet  I usually come away convinced that we were speaking at cross-purposes. I failed again to effectively share the gospel. 

“Speaking at cross purposes” means talking with someone about different things without realising it.

Most Africans are “incurably religious people.” They mention “God” more often than the Europeans with whom I grew up. Africans praise “God” for the rain, and for good health. “God is good,” I might say, and people reply, “All of the time.” But how many of these same people actually know God — the One who reveals Himself in His creation, in the Scriptures, and most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ?

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A Word of Wisdom on the Worth of Women

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–– Richard Peskett

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Last week South Africa celebrated “National Women’s Day.” It is a public holiday which commemorates a group of women who took a stand against oppression—on the 9th of August 1956, the women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the government’s unjust pass laws. National Women’s Day is thus “a reminder of the important contributions women make to society, as well as a time to ponder the advances in women’s rights.” 

Women’s Day also highlights the mistreatment of women in South Africa at the hands of men. God has made men to protect women, not to abuse them. Furthermore, God has given marriage as the hallowed place for physical intimacy between a husband and wife—it is therefore wickedness when men sleep around with women, sometimes forcibly, selfishly fulfilling the passions of their sinful flesh and leaving women to live with the consequences of their immorality. It is right to act against such abuse of women.

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