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SIDELINE
From t he
July 2017
DS KOOS KIRSTEN
WOORD
Uit die
n
ie so lank terug nie het iemand ‘n opmerking gemaak
wat my eers regop laat sit het en toe diep laat na-
dink het. Die opmerking hou verband met die feit dat die
Here Jesus gekruisig is en gesterf het. Waarom is God
dan so wreed en bloeddorstig? Was daar dan nie enige
ander manier waarop vir ons sondes betaal kon word
nie? Kon dit regtig alleen deur dood betaal word?
Wanneer ons hierdie vrae wil beantwoord, is daar twee sake waar-
op ons moet let. Die heiligheid en genade van God aan die een kant
en aan die ander kant die aakligheid en omvang van ons sondes.
Ons lees op verskeie plekke in die Bybel dat God heilig is
(Levitikus 11:44; Openbaring 19:1). Heilig beteken dat die Here
geen sonde in Hom het nie en daarom ook nie sonde kan doen nie.
Verder beteken dit ook dat God die sonde nie kan verdra nie. Geen
sondige wese kan dit dus waag om voor Hom te verskyn nie.
God is egter ook genadig en is bereid om die sonde te vergewe.
Wat God egter eis voordat Hy vergewe, is dat die skuld van die sonde
betaal moet word. Om sonde te doen, is soos om skuld te maak.
Elke keer as jy sonde doen, maak jy jou skuld meer. As jou skuld
afbetaal is, vergewe God jou. God se genade kom daarin na vore
dat jy nie nodig het om self jou skuld te betaal nie. Trouens, jy kan
nie – daarom het Jesus Christus in jou plek vir jou sonde betaal.
Die aakligheid van die sonde lê daarin dat ons teen God sondig.
Met elke sonde wat ons doen, tas ons die heiligheid van God aan.
God het ons na sy beeld gemaak en dit beteken dat ons ook heilig
moet wees. Wanneer ons sonde doen, word ons onheilig en onrein.
Ons is veronderstel om soos God te lyk, maar nou is ons onheilig
as gevolg van die sonde en só kom God se heiligheid in gedrang.
Verder lees ons ook in Romeine 6:23 dat die loon van die sonde die
dood is. Elkeen wat sonde doen verdien dus om die ewige dood te
sterf. Dit is die gewig wat die sonde dra. Dit kan dus nie anders nie.
Die skuld van ons sondes kan alleen deur die dood gedelg word.
Ons verdien almal om te sterf, maar God het in sy groot genade
bepaal dat Jesus Christus vir ons kan betaal. God is dus nie wreed
en bloeddorstig nie. Ons is die oorsaak van Jesus se kruisdood en
niemand anders nie. As iemand dan van wreedheid en aakligheid
beskuldig moet word, is dit ons en nie God nie. Ons moet baie
dankbaar wees dat God bereid was om sy Seun in ons plek te laat
doodmaak sodat Hy ons kan laat lewe. Laat ons dan nou eerder
die sonde haat en daarvan wegvlug en met die krag wat die
Heilige Gees ons gee, meer en meer heilig word.
Baie geluk aan
Ashley Valaphi van
Bothaville wat vir die
Junie-uitgawe van
SA Graan/Grain
die
gratis Bybel gewen het.
What the Boers can teach us
about South Africa
Growing up in Umlazi in the 1980s and 1990s, I understood the word 'Boer'
to mean something very different from the Afrikaans word for ‘farmer’. While I
had to study Afrikaans through most of my school life, it never quite registered
in my mind that those we knew as ‘Boers’ started out as mere farmers.
My visit to this year’s NAMPO Harvest Day, hosted by Grain SA, was a harsh
reminder as much as it was a refreshing eye-opener. It reminded me that
the core identity of the agricultural sector of South Africa was still the Boers
of my youth.
But it also turned out to be a revelation about some of the progress that had
been made by the industry and the government, especially the Land Bank,
in supporting black emerging farmers. Former newspaper chief and now
emerging farmer Herbert Mabuza, told a story of how he visited a farm in 2007
and told the owner he liked it and wanted to make an offer:
‘He took one look at me and said, “Kan jy boer?” (Can you farm?). I told him
I couldn’t farm and right there he told me he would not sell to anyone with
no farming skills.
‘I then challenged him that since I was a keen
buyer and he was a keen seller, we clearly needed
to work something out. He offered that I come
around the farm and he would show me the ropes.
I started visiting the farm and learning how to
farm. Ten years later here I am.’
There are a number of stories across South Africa
similar to Mabuza’s, but they don’t often make it
into the mainstream. Work done by agricultural
journalist Peter Mashala a few years ago reveals a
collaborative energy we hardly hear about.
Isak Khuto was a 2009 Grain SA Developing Grain Producer of the Year final-
ist. He produces grain, raises cattle and sheep and also has several hectares
of land on the farm he bought outside Ficksburg. Khuto told Mashala that the
two key factors in his success were hard work and the relationship he had with
the commercial farmers around him. When he moved onto the farm he had
nothing but his livestock and his neighbour helped him kick-start his grain-
farming operation. ‘He provided advice and implements and even let me use
some of his land at no cost,’ said Khuto.
William Matasane was the 2010 Grain SA/Absa Developing Grain Producer of
the Year. In 2004, after years of working as a waiter and then as a restaurant
manager, Matasane bought a 400 ha farm, Verblyden, outside Senekal in
the Free State. He had long finished paying off the farm, which he bought
with a Land Bank loan. In fact, he now leased additional land from oth-
er farmers, where he planted grain, as well as municipal land for grazing.
When Matasane first bought the farm, he didn’t know where to start as he
only knew a bit about cattle.
‘I knew nothing about grain farming and had no equipment,’ he said. Had it
not been for his neighbour’s help, he told Mashala, he wouldn’t be where he
was today. The neighbour he was referring to was Philip Basson.
Andile Khumalo