“Imagine sitting in a worship service. Your pastor walks across the stage, expounding on God’s Word, his Bible in one hand and the other in his pocket. Recently, we heard about a Western pastor at the Baptist College of Malawi. After he’d preached to a roomful of pastors and church members, there was a discussion about one unconscious gesture he’d done throughout his sermon. Someone acknowledged that when the preacher put his hand in his pocket during his sermon, he wasn’t pressing a charm to help him preach. Everyone laughed and moved on. Later, we asked some Malawian partners about this. They explained that when a Malawian sees someone with their hand in their pocket, their first thought is about a charm or amulet that person might be holding. Having come from African traditional religion, a fear-based system, they described the deep fear that lives in Malawians’ hearts even after they’ve been saved. Pray for God to continue setting people free from the grasp of fear over their hearts.” “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Romans 8:15 ESV).”

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http://www.imb.org/sub-saharan-africa/