London Bombings

The following is an open letter response from Francois Du Toit to Tanswell's letter. Tans wrote this just after the events and his letter can be found here

Halo Tans and Portia!
It is such a joy and encouragement to hear your voice of faith!
What a statement you made in your letter; I mean, if an act of terrorism can shake a city and a nation with fear, what will it take to shake a city and a nation with faith?!! It happened in the days of the Acts of the believers: 'They spoke in such a way that many believed," Acts 14:1. " The place in which they prayed was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31 "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and
heard" Acts 4:20. "And the Word of God increased and the number of disciples were greatly multiplied!" Acts 6:7. A newly appointed deacon, Philip, went down to a city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ; and the multitudes with one accord (The revelation of Christ as the truth is in Jesus, reveals oneness and the inclusion of the multitudes!) gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralysed or lame, were healed. So there was much joy in that city! Acts 8:5-8. (The act of terrorism left many injured and dead, and there was great fear and sorrow in the city)

Imagine you empowered by God! Doing the works Jesus had done! When will we have enough money to hire a great evangelist to do it for us in our community??
“The righteousness that is of faith says, “Do not say in your heart “Who will ascend into heaven to convince God to send Jesus down one more time (maybe if only for a 10 day crusade in my city??) Things might even get so bad that we lose our revelation of the resurrection, because righteousness by faith also does not say, “Who will descent into the abyss that is to bring Christ back from the dead!” But what does righteousness by faith say?? Righteousness by faith says!! “The WORD is near unto you!!! IT is in your mouth and in your heart!!! The nearness of the word in your mouth and in your heart equals the very presence of Christ on earth; it equals the revelation of His resurrection from the dead!! Righteousness by faith reveals that we were co-crucified; we co-died and were also co-raised, and are now co-seated at the right hand of God to co-conquer the nations with Him!! Col 3:4 says every time Jesus is revealed, we are also co-revealed with Him!! In Acts 3 Peter doesn’t apologise to the lame man about the absence of Jesus! He doesn’t say, “Sorry sir, but you’ve missed Jesus by two months, He’s in heaven now and you’ll have to wait for His second coming which will only happen thousands of years from now!! Instead he says, “We give you what we have in our union with His name!” (His Name reveals our true identity) What we have includes you!! Peter declares with bold confidence that in His resurrection from the dead, God restored all things to man, the things of which all the prophets spoke when they proclaimed these days, “God having raised up His Son, sent Him to you first!” Here Jesus is revealed again in the lives of common uneducated men! Acts 3.
Imagine you touching another individual with faith! Imagine you turning a city’s sorrow into joy!! Arise and shine for your light has come! Stand up in faith and make your voice heard!! “Get thee up on a high mountain and lift up your voice with strength!!
"These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also!" Acts 17:6
Paul never saw a weak gospel, he never considered a gospel of insignificant impact which would only appeal to a few individuals here and there! He didn’t see its appeal reduced to a few desperate and lonely people who finally had no one else to turn to so they think they would ‘maar’ turn to Jesus and do Him a favour as it were! Instead, Paul’s mission was to make all men see, and to present all men in the full stature of Christ. Paul saw and proclaimed without hesitation or apology the gospel as the power of God, revealing God’s righteousness from faith to faith. (He is the author and finisher of our faith, His faith ignites our faith) He declared the truth of our co-inclusion in Christ in such a way, that its appeal was like a mirror reflection. “With the open (unveiled) statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience” (Eph 3:9, Col 1:28, Rom 1:16,17, 2 Cor 3:18, 2Cor 4:2)

I was reminded this morning of Rom 4, "Abraham did not misjudge (diakrino) the promise of God through unbelief! (there was no confusion in his judgement, even after years of contradiction, he was not influenced to make decisions based on circumstances, but what he knew to be true, continued to persuade him) That is why his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. But the words, "It was reckoned to him" were written not for his sake alone!!! but for ours also!!! This sounds like 2Cor 4:13 "since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believe and so I speak" we too believe and so we speak, knowing.....!!!!" Paul is here quoting David from Ps 116; verse 7 finds David speaking to himself (You are faith’s first audience!) “Return, O my soul to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you! V10, I believe and so I have spoken (Some translations then say, “I am greatly afflicted” as if this was David’s confession, the Hebrew actually says: I will sing loudly!)
Faith as God knows it to be true, finds a voice in your mouth and a place in your heart that fully represents God’s eternal love dream and plan with mankind as He realised it in Christ in the fullness of time!
My brother Hanri shared a lovely scripture with me last night from Heb 12:3, “consider Him who endured such hostile contradiction…” The Greek word consider is the word analogitzomai which means to constantly, again and again come to the same logical conclusion!
Righteousness by faith sees the substance and the evidence of all we could ever anticipate concerning God’s declaration of us, revealed, realised and fulfilled in Christ as in a mirror! Lets not wait for another day, another wave or another revelation or great idea, lets rather consider how to fan the flame within us and how to stir up one another and arouse one another by way of reminder!!!
“The zeal of the Lord will do it” Isa 9:7. Lets not confuse the zeal of God with zeal for God. Paul says of the Jews, “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened, for being ignorant of the righteousness that comes by faith, they continue to reason that their own effort to do something for God will be reckoned to them as righteousness” Rom 10:1-
The gospel reveals the faith of God, the love of God, the peace of God, the joy of the Lord, the righteousness of God etc….and all of this is revealed in us as in a morror!!!!! It cannot get better than this!! All of our conversation, our worship, our fellowship becomes a reflection of His final word, made flesh in Him so that what is true in Him is true in us! He has given us understanding to know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true! If we have received the testimony of man the testimony of God is greater! 1John 2:7,8, 1Jhn 5:9, 20

“So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host!” Ezekiel 37:10. “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life giving spirit!” 1Cor 15:45.



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