ccm Cross 0111 Ebenezer Christian Churches Int’l, Sharpeville, South Africa

Ebenezer Christian Churches International
Sharpeville, South Africa
ccm Cross 0111

GPS/DMS 26° 41′ 15.97” S   27° 52′ 22.61” E

4335 cdd On My Knees
Cyber Daily Devotion
Volume 18 Number 105

Today’s Author: Pastor Bill

Scripture: Psalm 95:66
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” NKJV

Hello, my name is Phillip Molefe from Ebenezer Christian Centre International, in Sharpeville, South Africa. This is my Cross Testimony of how Jesus Christ taught me that He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I was born in 1928 and grew up in Pretoria the capital city of South Africa. If you do the math, you’ll see that this year I’ll be 89 years old. By the grace of God, I’m still driving my car and I expect to hit 100 years old with the steering wheel in my hands.

My dad was a common laborer and mom was a housewife. I was the fifth of eleven children. When we grew up our family seldom prayed, seldom attended church and seldom spoke about God. I grew up on the streets after leaving school after grade one. I quickly learned how to gamble, smoke and steal. I was a street kid with plenty of street smarts to survive but no formal book learning. Entering my teen years, I became a very bad boy. Gang life suited me just fine. Every day was an adventure in evil. At age sixteen I was arrested and spent time in jail. I never had a steady job. The streets were all I knew.

When I was twenty-one years old a traveling evangelist rented a hall in Pretoria to preach the word of the Lord. I had no idea he would be in Pretoria. I walked passed the hall and heard a choir. Normally I would tune such things out. But even out in the street I heard every word clearly. It was as though they were singing just for me. It was 1949. No loud speakers, no microphones just the pure innocence of the song they sang. They sang, “Jesus the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” I entered the hall and sat in the back, in the darkness, so no one would recognize me. I listened and went home to bed.

That was the longest night of my life. I couldn’t sleep. I was under conviction. All my sins, all the evil I committed. I would fall asleep and before I knew it was awake again. Then the Lord appeared to me. He spoke, “Why didn’t you respond.? All I could say was, “I will tomorrow, Lord.” He was gone.

The longest night of my life turned into the longest day of my life as I waited for the meeting. I needed to rid myself of all the guilt. I needed forgiveness for all the evil I had done. That night I was the first one in the hall. I sat up front in the light. I could hear the whispers all around me. They were talking about me, asking, “why is he here.?” “There is trouble” “He will hurt people.”

I took in everything that night and I was the first to the altar. Only I crawled there on my knees, crying and begging for forgiveness. When asked, “what do you want?” I said, “I am broken and I’m asking for forgiveness.” That night the heavy burden of sin fell off me.  Jesus set me free. As I left I had great joy.

I had a hunger to know this God who could forgive my sins and set me free. I started attending a church that taught me the Bible — straight up. No fluff, no excuses — just the pure word of God.

In 1950, I entered a Bible school for evangelists. None months later I was preaching the word of the Lord to youth everywhere I could. It was a good year of learning how to introduce people to Jesus. Then out of nowhere the Lord appeared to me again. This time His message was not a question but a command. He said, “Go to Vereeniging.” That was it.

Immediately I left for Vereeniging, South Africa. It is a heavy industrial area and Jesus was needed.

My first years were open air revivals. The revivals spread through the Vaal area and even continue today. Too many churches have been started to count. Too many healings have taken place to number.

The number of crutches thrown away, the number of cripples who walk and the blind that see or the deaf hear will only be known by Jesus as it was not me — He alone did it.

Gangsters from all over South Africa came to the Lord even returning what had been stolen. And when it comes down to what is the greatest miracle that has taken place through me by the Lord Jesus Christ it is those hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Each one is the greatest miracle and it will be a blessing to meet them in glory one day!

Over the years, we settled in Sharpeville and began Ebenezer Christian Centre International. Sharpeville is known internationally as the cite in 1960 where 69 demonstrators were killed which sparked international protests.

In 1990 I attended a prayer meeting in the USA. We learned to pray. The message I received from the Lord at that conference was, “Pray for South Africa.” I returned to South Africa committed to pray each day. Every day since at 6:00 AM, you find me on my knees interceding for South Africa.

The Lord’s timing is always perfect. It was just four years later, in 1994, that South Africa changed their laws and became a nation of one man — one vote, or as we call it one of majority rule. Our nation has had struggles since then and through them all you find me each morning on my knees at the church. Praying for South Africa.

The Cross to me is a symbol of Jesus Christ which reaches out to Christians everywhere reviving our faith. It brings others to Christ. And it is the most recognized symbol or logo in the world telling everyone about Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says it all: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” NKJV

Over the years, I have prayed asking the Lord to provide a large Cross for us. One that would tower over the corner where we are. Now today, Pastor Bill here you are providing the Cross and placing it exactly where I envisioned it. Thank you so much. I believe this Cross will speak to all who pass by. It will say without uttering a word, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” It will speak to them that Jesus is not an option. He alone is the only way to heaven.

Prayer: Father thank you that You hear my prayers on my knees. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!