Dear friend,
greetings to you in the name above all.
Three weeks ago I visited Bujumbura in Burundi, Central Africa, where I had the privilege of preaching at the Odeon Palace, which is used as a church meeting hall by my friends Pastors Isabelle and Olivier Derain.
The Odeon seats 700 people. However, during the five days of the crusade we had about 900 every night, which made for truly crowded quarters.
Excitement ran high, though, as the Lord glorified himself.
Dozens of people got saved and healed every night. One of them was a young lady, a relative (or acquaintance) of Burundi's First Lady, Mrs. Ndeisi, who, upon hearing about the miracle, extended a personal invitation to me to come to the presidential palace in order to pray for her mother. I went, and let me tell you, I've never been in a house like that. My my. I prayed for Mama, and Isabelle and Placide led five or six servants and attendants to Jesus. Gloire à Dieu.
I also had the privilege of speaking before a group of politicians and generals, some of whom--all are Christians now--had blood on their hands, in one case the blood of thousands.
Here's an abbreviated account of my speech to that group.
There's no political solution for a spiritual curse.
Even though the angel announced to Mary that her son would be king, Jesus did not ascend a worldly throne during his first coming. He knew--as compared to his disciples and the people of Israel in general--that the world needed a savior from sin more than it needed a brilliant politician at the helm of the state.
In John 6, Jesus fulfilled every social legislator's wildest dreams. First he healed the sick, then he fed more than five thousand men and their families with bread and fishes. Nobody went home hungry that day. No wonder the people tried to force the kingship upon Jesus that night.
Look at it through their eyes: With a king like this the miracle will be made permanent. Any national health insurance will be superfluous. All a sick person will have to do is to pay a visit to the king, and all would be well.
And the feeding of the 5,000? Unions have always fought for higher wages and less working hours, and here comes a man who demonstrates his ability to create zero-hour workdays with no harm to the fridge! He puts a chicken into every pot, so to speak. All receive equally much, and all have enough to still their hunger. Communists usually promise a chicken for every pot, but their promise remains forever what it is: a promise. In the end the people own neither a chicken nor a pot.
Strangely, when they try to make him king by force, Jesus refuses and flees up into the mountain.
Jesus realized that the greatest problem of mankind was sin, not bad politics. A nation's greatness is not generated by its politicians, but by the goodness of its people, their righteousness, and their faith in God. A righteous nation will flourish even with mediocre political personnel. (I really said that.)
On the other hand, even brilliant leaders will fail if God will not back them up. There will forever be no political remedy for a spiritual curse. And God has promised to bless those who covenant with him by believing in Jesus and by backing up their faith with actions.
A great leader is one who will serve--Jesus washed the disciples' feet to make that point--, and who will stare down great odds in his quest to do the right thing for the people. He will face lack of popularity, the proverbial loneliness at the top, enemies with visceral rather than factual arguments against him. But if he perseveres, history will call him great.
Just ask Ronald Reagan.
God will forever withhold his blessing from self-serving, blood-spilling, faithless egomaniacs...
As I said that, a murmur arose--then shouts. Stones began to fly, and a Kalashnikov assault rifle began to rattle. I quickly went prone and rolled under the table. My heart jumped into my throat.
Just kidding.
The truth is, I was safe, and those leaders received me well, allowing me to share many more thoughts than just the above. After my talk we had a question-and-answer session that went well, too, in my esteem.
Let's pray for our governments.
Sincerely yours,
G.H. Hoinle, Pastor
Copyright © 2004 by Delta Christliche Dienste e.V.
