Serving Through Suffering for God’s Glory W/ Pastor Malinga
Have you ever walked through a situation in life that left you wondering why God would allow you to experience the hurt, pain, or even discouragement that resulted? There is no doubt that some challenges in life are the result of poor choices, but for every believer, the reality is that we will walk through hardship and experience pain.
One of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world are the stories from the Bible of those who came before who were persecuted. The Bible is rich with accounts of people who suffered for their faith in different ways.
Now, this is one incredible life story that you must listen to too. Malinga is the pastor of Christ Life Church in Zambia. Pastor Malinga went from serving in ministry to being in prison for two years and three months for a mistake he did not commit. He was a "normal" everyday kid growing up in Zambia. After high school, he became actively involved in the local church, doing youth ministry, cleaning the church, going to the streets, feeding kids on the streets, and doing hospital visitation. The leaders in the church then saw the call of God in his life, and they decided to give him the First Church to lead at the age of 20. But things don't always go as we want. It is a guarantee that we will have trouble in this world, as Jesus himself did. But, with his power and presence in our lives, we are called to endure and thus shine the light of Christ in a dark world.
In this episode, Pastor Malinga talks about his entire journey and what ultimately led him to accept God’s will while being a "prisoner" and become a full-time pastor and preacher, massively impacting many people in prison.
"What is it?" I began to wonder.What's the meaning of life when you've been wrongfully imprisoned, when you're eating bad food, and when you're sleeping in a crowded place full of bed bugs?
"What is life? And it was in those moments that the Lord started teaching me that life is an opportunity that God gives to us. Life is an opportunity to love, to serve, and to honor God and mankind. that even though I was wrongfully imprisoned, the law had given me a great opportunity in prison to love my enemy, to save my enemy, and to honor God by doing that."
After two and a half years, finally, the day of defense and judgment came. On that day, the same man that I'd helped, who had now recovered, stood up in the courts of law before the judges and the police officers.
And he pointed at me and said, "This man, he's an innocent man." He doesn't know anything about all my criminal activities. I simply carried him in the vehicle like an ordinary passenger. And those words, which he spoke, opened the doors for me to be released from prison.
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