Dependency

I was just having a conversation over break with some of the Divisional Staff about how the world service money from America supports the majority of the Salvation Army ministries in the world.

We talked about how we could change that trend so that the army would be stronger. We wanted to know if there could be ways found so that the Army could support its work in each country through resources found in their countries? The thought came up that we in America don't believe in self support. Our largest corps in Atlanta is given heavy support funds, our teenagers don't pay their own way to youth councils, it just isn't a principle we teach.

As I walked away from the conversation my mind began to drift to the terrorist attacks of 911. If the Salvation Army world and the youth of America are so heavily dependent upon the financial resources extracted from America's economy, what happens if the economy tanks? Will we lose the mission and testimony of the Army world wide?

Roots

I am still trying to process this last weekend. As an event I felt it went well! It was encouraging to hear the conversations that were happening around the corps building as a result of the meetings. The attendance was high. The Territorial cabinet was there. Salvationist from other Territories were there. It was cool.

But I think the coolest part for me was when God showed up for me personally. It was the last song of the event. Graham Kendrick was the guest worship leader for the weekend. He wrote "Shine Jesus Shine." Well I used to really get into that song but that was about ten years ago. That's how I knew I was having a God moment. The Spirit was breaking through to me. The words were new once again!

All weekend we had begun every meeting by lighting candles in the outline of a cross. We were told that the early Christians had just such a tradition and that it represented Christ's living presence with us in the room. It was in this context in a dimly lit room that I heard these words...

Lord, the light of your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness, shining
Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us
Set us free by the truth you now bring us
Shine on me, shine on me

Shine, Jesus, shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze
Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth your word
Lord, and let there be light

Lord, I come to your awesome presence
From the shadows into your radiance
By the blood I may enter your brightness
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness
Shine on me, shine on me

As we gaze on your kingly brightness
So our faces display your likeness
Ever changing from glory to glory
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me, shine on me

Graham Kendrick
Copyright © 1987 Make Way Music,

operation II

Just to let you know that my friend's wife has been permitted to come home from hospital. It was felt that her further recovery would be best suited to being at home. The miraculous news is that the tumours were not malignant this time. It really is a miracle. We praise the Lord.
Thank you for your prayers and faith.

End of the Spear

I went to a preview of the above movie. They have sent me the following letter that they want me to send out to my friends. I am posting the letter instead. I thought the movie was good and the story is definitely powerful but I am still trying to get my head around the way they used the same actor with just a baseball cap and a long haired wig as an age enhancement for a character who had aged 30 supposed years...here's there letter...


Subject Line: End of the Spear- a must see film !
Hello Friends,
Recently, I had the opportunity to see a "sneak preview" of a motion
picture film called End of the Spear. It was incredible! It is the
story of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and their three young missionary friends
who were speared to death in the jungles of Ecuador exactly 50 years ago.
The amazing story of conversion and forgiveness that resulted from the
wife and sister of these young missionaries, continuing to reach out to
the tribe is a wonderful witness to the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The film has been endorsed by hundreds of ministry heads such as James
Robison, Joyce Meyer, John Maxwell, John Bevere, Ted Haggard, and Peter
Bradley- The President of the International Bible Society.
End of the Spear is releasing in 1200 theatres nationwide on January 20th.
The way the film is produced makes it very "non-threatening" to an
unbeliever, so it would be great to bring your non Christian friends to as
well. (Lots of action and danger) .
You can visit www.endofthespear.com to view a trailer, and to locate the
theatre nearest you under "Group Sales" on the home page, and if you want
to, it would be great to forward this information to your buddy list and
ask them to email their buddy list, etc. !! As we spread the word, and
box office sales rise, it is one more significant step in using the power
of film to shape the culture of our nation and the world in a positive,
God-centered direction.
Have an awesome New Year !!!

Operation

The following is an email from my friend whose wife underwent surgery last week. Please pray for them...


She had her operation on Thursday. As on previous occasions, she was wheeled into the theatre singing aloud 'In thee O Lord do I put my trust'. Amazing - and quite an experience for the theatre technicians ! She was 'away' for five and a half hours. As expected, it proved to be a very serious operation indeed. and the surgeons told me that had serious anxieties for her. Three surgeons worked on her throughout the operation with other doctors in support.
Major complications arose as a result of her previous operations. This is not the time and place for too much detail, suffice to say that her remaining internal organs had to be surgically separated before the new stoma for her ileostomy could be fashioned.
It is mainly as a result of this that she is in so much pain. It was not medically possible to give her an epidural, so her main form of pain control is morphine. This is causing her to be very confused and distressed, all of which is compounded by her blindness which she is still adjusting to, of course. It is very hard for her not to have any idea where she is and what is going on around her. The hospital asked me to stay with her as much as possible, especially through the nights, so I have been doing that. I've done a 20 hour stint, had a six hour break, and now I have just come home from a 15 hour period with her. I am now going to grab some sleep before going back this afternoon.
The doctors say the next few days are critical to her recovery, but the encouraging news is that all the 'numbers' (temperature, blood pressure etc) are settling down. She has now been allowed to drink, but it will be some time before she can take any food, She remains very poorly, in a lot of pain and confusion, and in the high dependency unit, but we believe she will continue to improve.

The Poor Will Always Be With You

I have been thinking about poverty the last couple of days. Jesus said the poor will always be with you. I remember reading somewhere that poverty, physical poverty (I know there is a spiritual poverty as well, but this isn't what I am talking about) is really alienation from a society on the basis of wealth. The term poor is a relative term. So in a society like in the US our poor may have hot water, electricity, TV ect. But they are still poor because they are alienated (haves vs. have nots). But there has to be a difference between poor and struggle for survival. There are areas in the world where poverty has placed people in a daily fight for survival.

I have heard this statement, that the poor will always be with us, said many times as a reason why Christian churches don't need to focus on the poor in society. They need to focus on worshipping Jesus because the point of the passage is that the poor will always be with you. So when it comes to poverty that breeds inhumane conditions, the church still doesn't engage. Why? Because the poor will always be with you so they see this as a losing battle. No matter how much they engage it won't change the situation.

But I wonder if perhaps the situation can change. Perhaps the whole level of the world's living can be raised so that those who are considered poor, or alienated from the general society because of their wealth, will still have everything they need to live. I think of it in terms of illness and doctors. What if the doctors were to say you know the sick have always been with us and always will be. Everytime we come up with a cure a new disease comes along. Instead lets just focus on studying medicine and never applying it. The world would be a much worse place. The truth is that because of the doctors intentional efforts to solve medical issues the expected living age and quality of life has risen.

Wonder what would happen if the whole church engaged itself with the poor?

Fat with Material Goods

I was reading the Easter to Easter devotional today. Major Hinson uses the passage when Jesus went into the Temple and cleared out the money changers to prepare a place for prayer. This area was supposed to be a place of prayer "for all nations." Instead it had become the market place of only one nation.

I had a vision of our own country. In this vision we were all in that area of the Temple. There we were carrying on our religious functions in the wealthiest of manners. We bought the nicest buildings, furnished them with altars we couldn't afford, went into debt to attract people for the kingdom.

But across the world and across the street in some cases, children made altars out of trash piles and prayed for God to save them.

Christmas!

Well, just a little over an hour left in a day that I have been thinking about since June. My favorite season of the year. So forgive me if I am feeling just a little bit down. I am so glad that New Years falls just after Christmas. It gives me something to look forward to after the big day. I just want to take a moment to thank God for all that He is and does in this world and my life.

The world is a mighty messed up place. I got news from a friend today that his wife will be going through a major surgery within the next week. She has cancer and the situation does not look good. So today, while the rest of the world is merry, I doubt that they are "feeling" so merry. And honestly, it is difficult for me to feel merry with the weight of this news on my shoulders. It just seems like Christmas should be different. It seems like the world should be different.

Several friends have blogged about how Christ's virgin birth into this world was so fairytailish and yet we have heard the story so many times that it has become mundane. Well pain doesn't allow it to be mundane. Christ, this anomaly, is the reality of hope in a sinful world.

Merry Christmas!

Predestination

What's the difference between an Arminian who doesn't believe and act on behalf of world evangelism and a person who believes in predestination?

Not much.

For predestination believes that some people are predestined to hell.

And all over the world there are people who have never heard the gospel. And how can they believe if they haven't heard? And how can they be saved if they don't believe?

So if you believe that God wants all men to be saved then YOU must help provide them the opportunity. You can sit around in North America all day and debate the predestination and sovreignty character of God, but faith without works is dead.

So do you truly believe if you aren't actively engaged in bringing hope to the nations?

Would you rather?

Would you rather win a million dollars or solve global poverty?

My Grandfather

My Grandfather was a veteran of world war II. He was wounded twice. He had metal from the shrapnel that hit him that worked its way out of his eyes his entire life. He was a farmer. He owned over a couple hundred acres of farm land in Tennessee. He was up every morning before 5 am to study the Bible before starting his day. When he passed away they found thousands of dollars stored in some of his overalls in his closet because he didn't trust banks. He never talked on the phone. Most of his life was spent without indoor plumbing. He was a simple man. He had a twinkle in his eye whenever one of his grandchildren were mentioned. When did he pass away? 1997. Why am I writing about him now? Because I am sitting in my wife's grandmother's house. My wife's grandfather passed away this year and we are down here with their family for the first Christmas without him. Since its Christmas and all perhaps there is someone we can all thank God for whether they are still with us or with Him.

Ice Storm

In honor of the ice storm that swept through last evening:

Tree of white, leaves from sight,
Ice covered, frost bitten, dark of night,
Do you dare trust the Sun to melt the pain,
Or do thoughts of refreezing, your war paths tame?

Oh Beautiful, but frost covered tree,
listen to hear the warm melody,
open your branches where the birds may sing,
Open your branches its spring, Its Spring!

I've been tagged

Five things about something...

1. I know how to say "the frog is ribbotting in the marsh" in Kartuli which is the official language of The Republic of Georgia.
2. I hate tag games.
3. Will Bill Gates give me some money now?
4. I hate forwarded emails.
5. I love Christmas and start thinking about it in June.

PS I am not going to tag anyone so no one else has to go through this.

Doing the Most Good

Ok. So I am late to the party but it took me a while to form an opinion I wanted to share on this one...

I was in class tonight and we were using the analogy of a lake as the way organizations and churches work. On the outside of an organization all you see is the surface. As on the outside of the lake all you may see is the water and some ducks. But underneath the surface there all kinds of dynamics going on.

For instance, people see bell ringers, thrift stores and disaster canteens. That is the surface of the organization. But underneath the surface are the myths that we all buy into...listen to one:

While women weep as they do now, I'll fight.
While children go hungry as they do now, I'll fight.
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, I'll fight.
While there remains one drunkard, one poor girl on the streets,
While there remains one dark soul without the light of God I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end!

W. Booth (supposedly)

And another:

"Wherever on earth there is a soul, there, in measure, must beat the heart of The Salvation Army." -Mrs. Commissioner Booth Tucker


These are the statements buried way down, deep in the mud of the so called organizational lake. Though they are not readily seen by the public they are foundational to the whole chemistry of the lake.

What I feel is that I wish, personally, that our brand came from somewhere deeper in our organizational fabric. To me it is a bobber when it should be an anchor. There was a Christian song that was popular a few years ago that went:

I'm diving in, I'm going deep in over my head,
I want to be Caught in the rush, lost in the flow,
in over my head, I want to go
The river's deep, the river's wide, the river's water is alive
So sink or swim, I'm diving in

Stephen Curtis Chapman

Joy asked how to do we engage the public with our faith? Well in my mind our organization has to do it with its statements as well as our soldiers with their personal ones.

Atlanta Race Riots of 1906

A race riot occurred in Atlanta during the night and early morning of September 22-23, 1906, during which a mob of ten thousand white people assaulted every African American they could find. The Atlanta Constitution reported that "in some portions of the streets, the sidewalks ran red with the blood of dead and dying negroes." Du Bois went to Atlanta as soon as he heard about the riot and wrote "A Litany of Atlanta" on his way to the city. It was published on Oct. 11, 1906, in both The Voice of the Negro and The Independent. [JZ]

A Litany of Atlanta
By W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
Done at Atlanta, in the Day of Death, 1906(1)

O Silent God, Thou whose voice afar in mist and mystery hath left our ears an-hungered in these fearful days --
Hear us, good Lord!
Listen to us, Thy children: our faces dark with doubt are made a mockery in Thy sanctuary. With uplifted hands we front Thy heaven, O God, crying:
We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord!
We are not better than our fellows, Lord, we are but weak and human men. When our devils do deviltry, curse Thou the doer and the deed: curse them as we curse them, do to them all and more than ever they have done to innocence and weakness, to womanhood and home.
Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!
And yet whose is the deeper guilt? Who made these devils? Who nursed them in crime and fed them on injustice? Who ravished and debauched their mothers and their grandmothers? Who bought and sold their crime, and waxed fat and rich on public iniquity?
Thou knowest, good God!
Is this Thy justice, O Father, that guile be easier than innocence, and the innocent crucified for the guilt of the untouched guilty?
Justice, O judge of men!
Wherefore do we pray? Is not the God of the fathers dead? Have not seers seen in Heaven's halls Thine hearsed and lifeless form stark amidst the black and rolling smoke of sin; where all along bow bitter forms of endless dead?
Awake, Thou that sleepest!
Thou art not dead, but flown afar, up hills of endless light, thru blazing corridors of suns, where worlds do swing of good and gentle men, of women strong and free-far from the cozenage, black hypocrisy and chaste prostitution of this shameful speck of dust!
Turn again, O Lord, leave us not to perish in our sin!
From lust of body and lust of blood
Great God, deliver us!
From lust of power and lust of gold,
Great God, deliver us!
From the leagued lying of despot and of brute,
Great God, deliver us!
A city lay in travail, God our Lord, and from her loins sprang twin Murder and Black Hate. Red was the midnight; clang, crack and cry of death and fury filled
the air and trembled underneath the stars when church spires pointed silently to Thee. And all this was to sate the greed of greedy men who hide behind the veil of vengeance!
Bend us Thine ear, O Lord!
In the pale, still morning we looked upon the deed. We stopped our ears and held our leaping hands, but they -did they not wag their heads and leer and cry with bloody jaws: Cease from Crime! The word was mockery, for thus they train a hundred crimes while we do cure one.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord!
Behold this maimed and broken thing; dear God, it was an humble black man who toiled and sweat to save a bit from the pittance paid him. They told him: Work and Rise. He worked. Did this man sin? Nay, but some one told how some one said another did -- one whom he had never seen nor known. Yet for that man's crime this man lieth maimed and murdered, his wife naked to shame, his children, to poverty and evil.
Hear us, O Heavenly Father!
Doth not this justice of hell stink in Thy nostrils, O God? How long shall the mounting flood of innocent blood roar in Thine ears and pound in our hearts for vengeance? Pile the pale frenzy of blood-crazed brutes who do such deeds high on Thine altar, Jehovah Jireh, and burn it in hell forever and forever!
Forgive us, good Lord; we know not what we say!
Bewildered we are, and passion-tost, mad with the madness of a mobbed and mocked and murdered people; straining at the armposts of Thy Throne, we raise our shackled hands and charge Thee, God, by the bones of our stolen fathers, by the tears of our dead mothers, by the very blood of Thy crucified Christ: What meaneth this? Tell us the Plan; give us the Sign!
Keep not thou silence, O God!
Sit no longer blind, Lord God, deaf to our prayer and dumb to our dumb suffering. Surely Thou too art not white, O Lord, a pale, bloodless, heartless thing?
Ah! Christ of all the Pities!
Forgive the thought! Forgive these wild, blasphemous words. Thou art still the God of our black fathers, and in Thy soul's soul sit some soft darkenings of the evening, some shadowings of the velvet night.
But whisper -- speak -- call, great God, for Thy silence is white terror to our hearts! The way, O God, show us the way and point us the path.
Whither? North is greed and South is blood; within, the coward, and without, the liar. Whither? To death?
Amen! Welcome dark sleep!
Whither? To life? But not this life, dear God, not this. Let the cup pass from us, tempt us not beyond our strength, for there is that clamoring and clawing within, to whose voice we would not listen, yet shudder lest we must, and it is red, Ah! God! It is a red and awful shape.
Selah!
In yonder East trembles a star.
Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord!
Thy will, O Lord, be done!
Kyrie Eleison!
Lord, we have done these pleading, wavering words.
We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord!
We bow our heads and hearken soft to the sobbing of women and little children.
We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord!
Our voices sink in silence and in night.
Hear us, good Lord!
In night, O God of a godless land!
Amen!
In silence, O Silent God.
Selah!

A Response to Marty's Blog on U2

hey Marty:
I went to see Donald Miller, Sara Groves and some other band that used to be cool...ummm...forgot their name...ummm...uhhh...Jars something Clay or whatever...that same night that you went to see U2. When we got there Donnie as I call him was reading from one of his books (and that was all he did that night, no speaking) and it was actually pretty good, then came Sara and she rocked actually, and then came the Jars and they surprised me some and I actually enjoyed it, although I tried my best to talk Kell and Lesley into going to look for this local fudge shop during their set...to no avail...But I have to say that at this "Christian" concert, I never seemed to get to this same moment of worship that you spoke about in the context of the drifting weed (I know the weed had nothing to do with the worship experience). Point being...I am left wondering if you can program worship or not? And perhaps if I had been less focused on the fudge as you were less focused on the weed (hopefully) thenI would have been more focused on God...of course, then I could do the same thing in Church on Sundays no matter how traditional the meeting...and of course that's not what your blog is saying at all...its saying U2 is AWESOME and something about that brought you to the throne of God...so maybe we need AWESOME worship leaders like you and Phil just to REALLY ROCK OUT so the rest of us postmodern freaks can really get into the presence of GOD in our very unique personal way.

Baptism

I have been thinking about a couple of reasons I have heard we don't do baptism. I have some questions:

I heard:

Our uniform is our baptism. Baptism is just a sign of our conversion. This is what our uniform does for us.

My question:

If we are to pick a sign should we not pick the one that best represents the action that has taken place? In that case I would pick water baptism over wearing the uniform because it represents dying with Christ (going down into the water) and rising again in the power of the Holy Spirit (coming up out of the water). When it is done, it is done. You can't deny that you have been baptised.

Wearing the uniform on the other hand can be put on and taken off (unfortunately this is the model of salvation that we struggle with...how many times do we say, "how do we keep our youth saved between youth councils?")

I hear:

Baptism is not essential to salvation therefore we shouldn't do it.

My question:

Should we only do the bare essentials? Should we not live in the abundant life? Tithing is not essential to salvation. Should we not do that? Wearing a wedding ring is only a sign of my marriage. Does it downgrade the quality of my marriage to wear that sign? Should I take off the ring?

Guard Against Greed

This is a devotional written by Captain Roni Robbins for the Southern Territory's Easter to Easter Campaign. Sometimes I see new program ideas motivated only by being able to secure more funding. When I hear someone presenting an idea in the back of my mind I am thinking and what will be the price tag? How many ideas do you hear where it cost no money? These are the thoughts that have come to me after reading the devotional below...

Acts 16:19-24a

Money and greed caused an outcry of opposition against the gospel. The owners of the enslaved girl had lost their top moneymaker.She had been delivered by the power of Christ. As a result,her owners were frustrated, angry, and full of vengeance. Theyapprehended Paul and Silas and violently dragged them before thecity magistrates.Money and greed also caused corruption of the publicofficials. They gave in to the influential owners and to the public. Truejustice was by-passed. Paul and Silas were not allowed to answerfor themselves; in fact, they were not even allowed to speak. If thecourt had been interested in true justice, the magistrates would havediscovered that the two men were Roman citizens much sooner thanthey did. They would have also found out that the two men had onlyhelped a poor enslaved girl.However, the officials and rulers allowed themselves to beinfluenced and guided by their own selfishness and self-seekingpurposes. Tempted by money and greed and the promptings ofinfluential people, they gave in.As we ‘serve helpfully,’ we need to clearly understand thatboth personally and organizationally, we are not exempt from thesesame temptations of money and greed. As Frederick Booth-Tuckersaid, “Money is the rock on which many a good religiousorganization has made spiritual shipwreck.” He went on toadmonish, “Let us fling the devil’s golden bribes back in his face!”This is sound advice. salvationists, we must guard againstany form of greed or covetousness. Let us covenant that we will notforfeit our soul for the sake of money and greed (Mark 8:36). Wecannot afford to allow salvationism to be spiritually shipwrecked bycrags of covetousness.

Convicted Gang Member's Journal

For any of you who are praying for our situation I wanted to give you a glimpse of a journal from a convicted gang member...

In the streets its eye for an eye. your homie is your eyes and ears. People locked down scream free me. Gangster die a violent death wit closed caskets to horrible to view to the public eye. No man can be trusted. But you remain loyal to your thugs, hoping to rise higher than those who hate and are jealous and despise you.

apathy

I always journal when I write a sermon. Tonight I will be speaking at the training school for their teen praise meeting. I am using Jeremiah 29:11 as the scripture. But the topic is apathy. Do our teens have a vision for their lives? I wonder if the reason that many of them are apathetic towards things of the spirit is because they don't have a vision for their life that matches the calling of Jesus Christ.

I know so many of us don't figure out what we are going to do until we are finished with college. But perhaps that is a problem. Our relationship with Jesus is not just a fifteen minute time period that we spend each day reading a devotional. Our relationship with Jesus integrates every aspect of our lives. What is it that we dream about during the day while we are at school or work? What do we wish we were doing? Who is it that we wish we could be?

John Calvin (I know I immediately turned some folks off by mentioning his name, but this quote has nothing to do with eternal security or predestination) believed that it was important to have a set time and place to go to church. He thought that institutionalizing the services helped remind humans to worship God. He thought that humans were likely to be lazy with out a set structure to encourage them to worship. Isn't it the cry of our day to move away from institution towards a more casual worship? I know I am a voice for this type of movement. And I think we will have to make this move if we are going to be relevant!

But...

... if it is causing apathy then perhaps we need to adjust our strategies slightly to call for accountability among our members. Otherwise, our move to embrace the culture will not produce disciples.