Comfort One Another

I want to ask you an honest question.

How is it going?

You say, “It is going a bit tough Angus.”

Yes, I understand.

My dear wife, Jill and I, are sitting at 60 days plus positive and we are still waiting for the tests to come back.

But you know something?

This morning, The Lord Jesus has reminded me that we need to comfort one another - not bring harsh words of judgment - but comfort one another.

I remember as a young farmer, on a Sunday night, I would get all the children in our pick-up.

We only had a bakkie in those days and all five of them, and Jill and I, would go into town, into the little church in the main street in town, and we would hear the Word of God preached and it would comfort us.

And when we had finished the service we would all say together, in fact, we used to sing it, the benediction, coming from the Book of Jude, only one chapter and verse 24 and 25, and this is what it says and I am reading it out of the Old King James Version:

“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever, Amen”.

Isn’t that a wonderful comfort?

The Lord is able to keep you and me from falling, from falling away from the faith.

Jesus will do it for you.

He will keep us.

He will bring great joy to us, Jesus alone.

And He is our mediator.

He goes between us and The Father and He encourages us.

Now, is present and forever is for the future.

We really need to lift up our eyes this morning and look unto our salvation, The Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, folks, this is not a time to tell people to pull themselves together, to give them a couple of scriptures on the phone and then pray for them.

That is not what they want.

We have a young Zulu lady on our farm.

She is in charge of growing the cabbages with her team and she does a wonderful job.

And she came up to the fence the other way and she asked Jill, “

“How are you today?”

She said, “Don’t cry. The Lord will help you. This virus will finish just now.”

Just a few comforting words.

I remember, very distinctly my foreman, Simeon Bhengu.

You know him from the movie, Faith like Potatoes, when I lost my little nephew - he fell off the tractor I was driving and he died in my arms - he came into my workshop one day and he put his arms around me and he said,

“Baba, don’t be afraid, The Lord will help you.”

Those comforting words I have never forgotten, as long as I live.

Love one another.

Put your arm around that person.

Hold them and love them.

That’s all they need.

Comfort one another because that is what Jesus said.