Publications

There are a few publications we are working on to equip Christians to reach out and explain the gospel and disciple others taking into account the dynamics of honour and shame.  Most are still 'in progress'.

The main publication so far has been the book Sandra co-wrote with our local co-worker Kenosi Molato, titled, 'Highest Honour'.

The book calls the Christian, particularly African Christians for whom it is primarily written, to give God the place of highest honour in their lives. In the form of a 60 day 'devotional', it gives the reader a foundational understanding of who God is and then explains what giving God honour looks like in the practicalities of everyday life, whether it be in the family, at work, at church, in the area of finances, of how we should treat the environment, how we speak, how we set life goals and priorities, in our motives and attitudes, the difficult situations we face, times of temptations and more. It also addresses in a practical way, the many issues that emerge in a cultural context where seeking and maintaining honour and harmony in relationships and avoiding shame are prominent.

Find it both in e-book or print versions at AMAZON

Click on this link to read some of how the book is being used to impact lives, and recommendations from various readers, mission leaders and African Theologians.

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We have also produced a gospel brochure in English and Setswana (with other African language translations in the wings).  It is particularly honour/shame focused and also Africa focused. It is also a bit more expansive than some tracts (although the photos/graphics are omitted from the below), but we wanted something that if it was all the person ever received and had no-one to discuss it with, they did not just have a 'portion' of the gospel but the 'whole' story in brief.

Below is the text from the English brochure/tract.  We hold the copyright and just ask that if you are interested in using the text to produce brochures in your area or translating it into a language in your ministry location, to please contact us so we can keep track of where and how it is being used.

Good news

4 YoU

GOD Made Us and Deserves to be Honoured

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

There is one God, the Creator who made the world, the universe and us. God always existed.  He is Spirit (He doesn’t have a body).  He is not just a force or an object (like a tree or statue on a shelf). He is not the highest ancestor. He tells us who He is, in His message to us - His Word, the Bible. God is a Person, who is loving, who speaks, who gets angry (at our sin), who shows mercy; and most of all He wants to enjoy relationship with the people He made. 

God is also Holy - perfect with no wrong in Him. The first people God made were Adam and Eve. He made them to be part of His family, to love Him and be loved by Him.  He breathed into them His Life. They were perfect and holy like God was, but He did not force them to love Him, He let them choose to love and honour Him.  He made a beautiful garden for them and they had everything they needed.  The weather was perfect, there was no sickness, no diseases for the crops, no fighting, no death.  The people and God walked and talked together in friendship as His children.  They were naked and not ashamed and enjoyed all that God had provided for them.

We Dishonoured and Disobeyed God, and Are Guilty and Shamed Before Him

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Like the chief of a village or tribe, God set the standard for the world and the people He made.  There was something God required of them - to stay loyal to Him by honouring Him and obeying His command not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  But they ignored and disobeyed God’s law.  They chose to dishonour God their Creator by listening to Satan (God’s enemy who came tothem disguised as a snake). Instead of obeying God, and choosing to live His way, they followed their own desires.  Suddenly they felt great shame because they had not lived up to God’s standard.  They had sinned.  They realised they were naked and now under God’s judgement.  They found some leaves to try to cover and hide themselves. They did not want God to see them and find them. They did not want to be exposed before their Creator. Like Adam and Eve, we also have not lived up to God’s standard. We have sinned against Him. We have dishonoured Him. We have lived our own way, ignoring God and His way.

The Result is Separation From God

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

However, God came looking for Adam and Eve.  They were scared of God finding them.  When God questioned them they did not want to admit they were guilty, so they blamed others.  Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake (Satan).  But God had said there would be consequences if they disobeyed - the consequence was death.  God was angry with His people. He said they would now begin to experience death and they would be expelled from the garden and separated from God.  Their wonderful relationship with Him was broken. They could not walk and talk with God as before. They had lost the joy and honour of being in God’s presence.  As part of Adam’s family, we are all sinners and spiritually dead. We are guilty, shamed and rejected by God and separated from His life.  Because we are sinners, we sin. We all make choices to disregard and disobey God’s commands and dishonour His authority as God. Sin is more than doing things that damage or hurt our relationships with other people. Sin is what separates us from a relationship with God. (Psalm 51) When we sin, we sin against Him.  We are shamed and guilty before Him.  When we leave this earth through physical death, we will not go to be with God in Heaven, but we will all be forever separated from Him and go to eternal death (called Hell) with Satan.

God’s Plan to Reconcile the Relationship

Romans 5:8 “God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God knows everything.  Just like He knew Adam and Eve had sinned before they were ‘caught’ when they were still hiding themselves (He knows our sin even if no-one else knows), He knew before He created them that they would disobey Him. Yet, even then He still loved the people He made, so He provided a way to come back to Him, to be forgiven, to receive His life again, and to have no shame before Him.  Our Creator is the One we have so badly dishonoured and disobeyed by our sin. Therefore, we need to listen to Him to hear what He says is the way to restore harmony, to bring peace in the relationship with Him, and give Him honour and glory once again. His way is not just about going to church or being baptized or doing good works.

God the Creator loves us so much that He sent His own Son - Jesus Christ, to this earth to live as the second Adam, but this time to never sin.  In His plan, God made Jesus the ‘substitute’ for us.  Jesus willingly endured the full shame, the humiliation, and the punishment that is ours as sinners before God. He allowed Himself to receive God’s anger for our sin, by shedding His blood and dying in our place, even though He was perfect, and had never sinned.  He never dishonoured or disobeyed His Father, and yet because He carried our sin in His death on the cross, God had to forsake and reject Him during that time.

 Jesus who had only known His Father’s love and had never been separated from Him, was willing to do this for us!  Then He showed that He was not just another man dying, but really God in the flesh, when on the third day he rose again, alive from the dead. He also proved He is more powerful than death and the powers of evil. He is now not in a position of shame, but in rising from the dead and later going back to His Father in Heaven, He is in a position of glory and honour. He won the victory over death - that separation from God forever - that we deserved. He died ‘our’ death, to be able to give us His life.

God Requires Our Total Loyalty

Luke 14:33 “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has he cannot be my disciple.” (see also Luke 9:57-62)

God our Creator, has said that if we are willing to turn from our sin (repent), changing our mind and our ways to be willing to forever honour and obey Him as Lord above everyone else (including friends, mother, father, uncles, aunts, elders, and community leaders), and trust in Jesus as our only Saviour, we can be reconciled to God again asFather.  This is the only way back to having a relationship with God. Only then can we know Him, talk with Him and know His eternal life. God forgives us and we are given a new nature. This is because God counts Jesus’ death in place of ours and sees Jesus’ sinlessness instead of our sin. Death will then no longer separate us.  The Bible calls this being saved or ‘born again’, because Jesus rescues us and comes to live His new Life in us.

God Has Given a Great Gift

1 Timothy 2:5,6 “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.”

God has said, that because Jesus died for our sin and carried our guilt and shame, He is the one and only way we can come to God.  The Bible says that Jesus is the one who goes to God as our High Priest and Mediator (go-between).  God’s own Son is the one who stands on our behalf before our Creator God.  When Jesus went back to Heaven with His Father, He didn’t leave us alone, as orphans, but He sent us His Holy Spirit to live in each one who has been born again/saved. This is so that He would be always with us.

 The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Bible how to continue to honour and obey God.  We don’t need ancestors or ‘saints’ to be a link to God, in fact that is a lie of Satan. Because Christ, by His Holy Spirit, lives in us we can speak (pray) directly with God. God our Creator, has said the only way we can be reconciled with Him is through Jesus Christ.

God has done an even more wonderful thing when He offers us rescue and saving from the punishment and shame of our sin.  Because it was Jesus, His own Son, who died in our place, God counts His death instead of ours and we are accepted back, not just as before, but now as God’s children, as equal eldest sons (joint heirs/inheritors) with Jesus!  He gives us a privileged position and we should live in a way that honours that position and brings no shame on the name of Jesus Christ who paid for that position with His life, and then gave us that position to share with Him even though we did not deserve it at all.

Romans 8:16,17 “....we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ...”

This is what God offers us, but we must come to Him His way.  In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through Me.”

We must Choose to Respond

Are you truly willing to forsake all and humbly come to God? You can talk to Him (pray) in your own words or you can say something like the prayer below.

 There is nothing special or magical in these words, they are just to help you.  God sees your heart and what you really mean (you can’t fool God if your heart does not equal your words, but God hears you even if your words are jumbled but your heart is true).

God, I know now that I am a sinner. I am shamed and guilty before you.  I have sinned against you and not lived to please You above all.  I have not honoured you or obeyed you as You require.  I understand my sin separates me from You and Your Life, and that I deserve death and separation from You forever.  I want to turn away from living life my way. I choose to submit to Your authority over my life and to follow You from now on.  I believe that You sent the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in my place and receive the death that I deserved, and that He rose again in victory over death, and He has the right to be Lord of my life.  Thank you for sending Jesus and making a way to come back to You, so I can be forgiven and born again to New Life.

In Jesus name

name .....................................................

If you truly repented from your sin the Bible calls you a Christian. As a Christian, Christ (by His Holy Spirit) lives in you, never to leave you.  Your desire should be to know Christ better by reading the Bible daily, talking to God in prayer, and meeting together with Christians in a church that teaches the Bible as the final authority for life and godly living.  In the same way you became a Christian, continue to live as a Christian - trusting and obeying what God says in the Bible, and honouring Him above everything and everyone else. 1 Corinthians 6:19; Colossians 1:10, Colossians 2:6

Now, as Christians - “Ones belonging to Christ”, we are part of a new family.  God is The Father over all His children and He wants to continue to teach us what it means to be part of His family.  Because our new Father willingly sacrificed His only Son for us, we should want to always    

~Please Him~  ~Honour Him~  ~Obey Him~             

so that we will not bring shame on His name or to His family.