9 December 2010

My dear brothers and sisters,

The visit of the Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber and six District Apostles to Kitwe and Lusaka, respectively has indeed left indelible memories on our souls. In this address, I would like to share with you  the festive divine service by our Chief Apostle in Kitwe Central Church on Saturday, 30 October 2010 since it was not transmitted.

We look forward to the Chief Apostle’s next visit in March 2012. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you much peace, much joy and bountiful blessings from our heavenly Father during this festival period and always.

Festive Divine  Service by Chief Apostle Leber:

My very dear brothers and sisters, here in the church and outside, for us it is a special day. We are together here in the house of God and we can receive special blessing from our God. The choir has clearly expressed the longing of our souls. We want to be worthy for the day of the Lord so that we can be accepted in grace. Brothers and sisters, we wait everyday. And this longing shall never decrease, to the contrary it should increase. We have the longing to come home, our heavenly home. I have come to you together with many District Apostles, to show you, that you are not forgotten. God loves you all.

Also here on the Copperbelt, as I said, you are not forgotten. And when I see this wonderful congregation here, let us imagine  for one moment how it will be, when we have reached this wonderful eternal goal, then we are all together in eternity. Nothing can separate us from reaching the goal and then we have time to talk and to just say thank you to our heavenly Father. I have been looking forward to be with the Brothers and Sisters on the Copperbelt. Once we have reached the goal and then we can say God has given so much grace that we have now reached that which we have been longing for.

Again I say God has not forgotten you, please be thankful. We forget to look up to him sometimes. We forget to give our offerings to him sometimes. Please do not do that. When you have this strong faith, God never forgets you. Then this shall result also in that, we never forget God also. We want to remain thankful, always looking up to Him; we want to do everything to please Him. This service shall also serve as preparation for the service of the departed next Sunday. We look into the yonder world full of mercy.

Today there is a big congregation here. But I can tell you the congregation on the other side is even bigger. And there are many souls that are not free yet. They are in their prisons. They have not found the way to peace and to redemption. We want to show them the way. The Lord Jesus once had said that there are two ways, a broad way and a narrow way, and then he added “they are only a few who find this narrow way”. So not everybody finds the way that is valid here on earth. That is also valid in eternity. Many, many souls have entered eternity. They have not found the way to salvation yet, so we want to show them the way by our prayers, by our merciful hearts. Let us use this time until next Sunday and pray every day, for those who are helpless in the yonder world.

Now my dear brothers and Sisters, I have read the text word for you and it says here that whatever you sow, you will reap. We do understand this in different ways. First of all, we look at the quality. When you sow weeds, you cannot reap. When you plant a tree of apples, you cannot reap bananas. So my dear Brothers and Sisters, we know what you sow, that is what you reap. That is also true about quality and quantity. But that is also another aspect. If you plant a little, you cannot expect much. What you plant, that is what you reap.

And now we look at it in the spiritual way. When you speak to your neighbour, when you speak to your family, when you speak to somebody in your congregation, what do you sow in the hearts of others? Do you sow love and understanding? If you do that then it is good and the result is wonderful. But when you sow hate and misunderstanding, what do you expect? Look at the Lord Jesus, he was a wonderful example. Every time he used to speak about love and understanding. Let us be like Jesus Christ. Whatever we do let us do it with love and understanding, and then we shall reap love. When we speak let us sow love and understanding. If you sow love to someone, then you will get love back. Love is just a beautiful thing, and we want to experience that.

Another example, do you sow peace or do you like to quarrel?  There are people who like to quarrel but that is not good, that cannot give a nice harvest but when you are sowing peace, God wants peace. Then you will reap wonderfully.

My dear Brothers and Sisters, please let us sow peace and when we sow out of joy to the Kingdom of God then there will be a wonderful harvest I can promise you, my dear Brothers and Sisters. When we sow joy in the Kingdom of God, we will have a wonderful result. There are other things which we can sow.  When we serve God, when we bring our offering to him, is it not a wonderful thing, my dear Brothers and Sisters? That is a wonderful harvest; we serve God when we bring him offering and will receive the full measure of blessings.

When you plant just a little, you won’t have a wonderful harvest but when you are trying your best and you sow out plenty, then you will receive plenty that is a wonderful seed.

When we confess our faith to our neighbours and to other people, is it not a wonderful seed? Whatever you sow you shall reap.  We should sow love in our congregations, we should sow love where we work. Every conversation is a seed. Every prayer is a seed. When you are praying for someone, you are planting a good seed.

So now I remind you of the next Sunday, the Service for the departed. Let us remember the souls in the yonder world. We sow out something to the big congregation in the yonder world that will be a wonderful harvest. So how can we do that? It is by our prayer, when we are full of forgiveness, full of mercy; let us not look at the mistakes and faults in them. Let us pray for them to remove them in that bondage.

When you sow a little bit then you won’t receive the bigger harvest. When we are full of forgiveness, we can pray for them. It depends on our love and on our prayer, and it depends on our will to help others. When our hearts are filled with this will and pray every day, that will bring wonderful results.

Whatever you sow you will reap. My dear Brothers and Sisters, that is the main point.

We need to sow love and understanding, which is what they need in the yonder world. When we sow out love and understanding it is a wonderful thing, let us sow out peace and joy to the Children of God, what you sow you reap.

So my dear Brothers and Sisters that is the message to the Copperbelt, let us always think about that. When we speak to others, let us show love and understanding. When we sow out love and understanding, we will receive a full blessing because the main thing is still to come, as you have sung, the day of the lord and I can tell you that this will be the day of the harvest. What we sow we shall reap. Do I sow the right seed? The harvest will be that we are accepted by the Lord, that we are able to enter eternity that is the harvest.

Dear Brothers and Sisters let us remain faithful till the day of Lord, Amen.