A brief testimony of my visit to Europe: (1st Sept till 7th Oct 2010)

Thinking of all the people and remembering our time together makes it feel like
just a short while ago that I was there with you, seeing your beautiful faces an
d enjoying your warm friendship!
I have very fond memories of my time with you in every city! Karlsrue, Zurich, B
irmingham, Hayward’s Heath, London, Rostov, Taganrog, Gdansk, Elblag, Krakov, Buda
pest, Gyor, Amsterdam and Munich...Thank you so much for receiving me with such
great love and hospitality!
My experience in Europe was most significant! It was so wonderful to daily be aw
are of God’s leading and strategy. I visited 14 cities in 7 different countries an
d preached everyday (often for many hours per day) except for 3 days where I spe
nt most of the day travelling.
I am convinced that we are standing on the brink of a very large scale reformati
on in Europe that will usher in a fresh understanding of the simplicity of the G
ospel and the success of the cross. This will inevitably result in a great mobil
ising of the church. Ordinary people are discovering their true redeemed identit
y in Christ. Their immediate response is a desire to include others! Our evangel
ism activities can never be motivated again by guilt and duty-driven methods!
I will never forget the meeting I had with a lovely Moslem man in Central London
! While we spoke his face shone! He said to me, “Francois I’m Moslem, but something
is happening in me while you talk! Everything in me says YES to what you say! Ho
w can we bring this message to my people!”
That day on my way to meet him, as I sat in the Double-Decker London bus I sudde
nly felt soooo homesick and lonely! Then God reminded me of Phillip on this lone
ly road, about to meet a most significant African leader! The chief treasurer!
Never underestimate your audience! God sees a continent in one man!
This is something I wrote the other day on ministry motivation:
If it is the love of God that constrains New Testament ministry, then no other m
otivation can match that. “Speaking the truth in love” is not only the preferred att
itude in our every conversation, but the only option; where truth gives integrit
y to love, and love gives attraction to truth. Eph.4:15. This makes value, rathe
r than emotional sentiment the reference of love. When Paul declares the love of
God as the drive of his ministry he immediately gives the reason: “because I am c
onvinced that if one has died for all, then all have died!” 2 Cor.5:14. Thus every
definition of life has its common point of departure in the conclusion of Jesus’
death as representing the universal death of Adam and his resurrection the new b
irth of humanity. 1 Pet.1:3. If Jesus was indeed the last Adam, then, in God’s eco
nomy the Adamic race already died. As much as the Adamic race represented mankin
d, the same mass of humanity now stands equally represented in Christ. “Can a peop
le be born in one day, a nation be brought forth in a moment?” Is 66:8. “After 2 day
s He will revive us on the 3rd day He will raise us up. Hos 6:2
Oh what freedom to conclude that I am not here to justify my existence but I am
here because I am justified. I do not live my life to defend a doctrine but rath
er to declare the truth about every man; “to commend my life to every man’s conscien
ce with the open statement of the truth”, because every man’s life shares the same i
ntegrity in both design and redemption. Therefore “I do not preach myself but Chri
st”. 2 Cor.4:2,5. “As the truth is embodied in Christ” Eph.4:21
Personal experience is not what defines life, if that was true then experience m
ust be doctrine. Then recipes for life must be taught and sold as truth which im
mediately opens the case for manipulation and control, which is exactly what any
law-driven religious system is all about. Jesus is so much more than an example
for us he is an example of us.
Repentance, baptism, prayer, fasting, forsaking all, etc are never a means to an
end; so many of our interpretations of religious practices have become just tha
t: recipes to follow in order to, when any action or sacrifice become irrelevant
in itself when truth becomes its reference; because of, and no longer, in order
to now define the virtue of my action or sacrifice.
Amazing how the Chile rescue captured the imagination of the world!
To ignore the value of human life is to insult the integrity of our design. This
becomes such a complex thing; we are prepared to spend millions to save life an
d at the same time we spend billions on senseless wars to destroy life. Sin is i
nsane! Col.1:13-15
Behold the Lamb of God!
Thru one act of righteousness, God took away the sin of the world!
They will never know it until we tell them!
We need to wake up to a Gospel that is bigger beyond proportion to the effect of
Adam s transgression! Bigger than drugs, promiscuity, vanity etc etc, bigger th
an any distortion that sin s disguise could ever represent! Rom 1:16,17 It is no
t in the revelation of the extent of sin and what man does and did wrong but onl
y in the revelation of righteousness: what God did right in Christ on behalf of
the whole human race! Rom 5:12-21
Everywhere I travelled the response was the same: many people said they have wai
ted to hear this message; this is the gospel that must be shared with everyone,
glad tidings of great joy! In many of the venues, from Russia to Poland and Hung
ary, people had to stand or sit on the floor because so many wanted to hear! My
last engagement was with the Andre Womack CBC ministry in Holland. This was very
significant to me since I grew up in the Dutch Reformed Church and it was my fi
rst visit to Holland. The Lord reminded me of a meeting I had with one of my pro
fessors from the University of Pretoria many years ago; he was Prof Johan Heyns
who was then the Moderator of the DRC in South Africa. We discussed the fact tha
t Paul s legacy was not a polished structure for a church organisation, but it w
as his message! Prof Heyns was very touched by this thought; he said that the DR
C can continue for many predictable decades possibly centuries because they have
such a good organisation, but he said, "We have lost our message!" And asked m
e, "How can we bring the message back to the church!?"
I woke up the other night in Budapest with this startling sentence in my mind!..
.."There is nothing wrong with the human race, because there is nothing wrong wi
th redemption! There is only something horribly wrong with man s thinking! Isa 5
5 “Your thoughts not my thoughts.... BUT!!!! as the rain & the snow cancelled the
distance between heaven and earth and prospered in my purpose so did my word (JE
SUS) who proceeded from my mouth! He did not return empty handed but with the fu
ll harvest! Lift up your eyes and see the ripe harvest (the seed in the ear matc
hes the seed that was sown!!! John 4 and Jhn 2:19 the temple was rebuilt in only
3 days! Hos 6:2 eph 2:5 Titus 3:2-5 and Acts 10:28. 2 Cor 5:14,16
These are certainly exciting days!
I will be leaving in 2 days time for Lahore, Pakistan, then back on the 26th and
the 29th Oct Im flying to Antanarivo Madagascar for a conference, then return o
n the 2nd of Oct
From the 5th to the 15th of Oct we are having a School of Grace camp with about
100 pastors mainly from African nations here in Hermanus.
the 17th -19th Lydia and I will be with Alan and Leana Platt with a few other le
aders fellowshipping God s goodness and strategy for our lives and ministry (On
a private Game Farm, Tangala Lodge!)
then back to Hermanus where Im invited for the first time to address a men’s gathe
ring in the local DRC on Sunday the 21st!
Then 3 weeks in The Kruger Park on wonderful holiday!
Full time ministry van only be defined as full time enjoyment of his intimate em
brace!
In Him
Francois and Lydia