Anniversary Present.

Today is my second wedding anniversary, and I would like to give Bramwell an online birthday present, so here you are Bramwell, I am going to link your blog from mine. Happy Anniversary.

Mountains

In House Group recently we listened to the song that Boyzone sing called You Raise Me Up. As this song was playing I had a picture going through my mind of two people running which I thought was God and myself although I couldn't see any faces. We were holding hands and God was leading me along. It's good to see that it's God leading me through my life and not my own doing.

Another picture I had during the song was of a mountain, and I was thinking that a mountain is shaped like a triangle. Well, the mountain I was thinking of was anyway. This mountain was so steep that the only way that I could get to the top was by God leading the way. However, once I got to the top and was enjoying the mountain top experience, the only way back was by coming down. I read the story of Elijah and his challenge to the Prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel recently. This is found in 1 Kings 18. After God had proved His power through Elijah, Elijah ran away in fear of his life. I find this quite strange, because God had just proved His power to Elijah, and so he should have realised that God could have protected him, but instead, his human reactions took over and he fled.

Pentecost

I was flicking through my Bible whilst listening to a CD when the song Send The Fire came on. At the same time I got to Acts 2. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

It got me thinking about Pentecost, and what my church here in East London would do if people were so filled with the Holy Spirit that they started speaking in tongues, and the other gifts of the Spirit that we hear about were given to others in the congregation. Would it dramatically change the framework of our church in any way? When God comes to you so powerfully, you can’t help but be filled with praise and adoration, but would it change who we are and what we do as a church? And would God want it to? I believe that God would want it to, because if He didn't, He wouldn't have given the gifts in the first place.

Being Taken For a Ride

Recently I have had to deal with people at work who I think are taking The salvation Army for a ride. People who come in regularly for food parcels when blind drunk are the ones that I think we are not helping by giving them food. We try to tell them that life is all about choices and part of that choice is what to spend your money on, but I don’t think they really listen. Today I had to deal with two men who said that they are from an Eastern European country and are sleeping in the local park. To me this seemed suspicious because I have dealt with lots of people who are homeless and these two men looked and smelled too clean to be homeless. However, I gave them a bag of food and off they went. I suspect that we will be seeing a lot of them in the future. I find it difficult sometimes to discern whether people are telling the truth or not about their circumstances, but I would hate to send someone away with nothing if they really needed it.

Who is it for?

I was stuck in traffic today and a song came on in my car about revival. I wondered whether the people crossing the road in front of me would have a clue about what the song was about. Sometimes as Christians we use language that none Christians (and some Christians) can not understand. We may as well be talking in a different language! Some examples I can think of are Predestination, Justification, “Priesthood of all believers”. In The Salvation Army we can be just as bad. We tend to abbreviate things and I’ve even had people who have been in the SA all their life ask me what some mean and if I’m honest I don’t always know the answer. I was talking to someone today who has been attending our church for around 2 years now and they didn’t know that Gordon, Kate, and Bram are ministers even though they lead the meetings (services) most Sundays. I think he was really surprised and was asking questions like “so can they conduct weddings and things?”

I think that we should make the Christian message more understandable to none Christians. This isn’t a new idea; after all, that is why the King James Version of the Bible was translated into English. Jesus even spoke in the language of the people of His time, although He did speak in parables and things sometimes.

Single Spouse Officers

There’s been a lot of comments going around in various blogs about an article that appears in the latest issue of JAC which you can read at www.armybarmy.com. This article is written by Danielle Strickland and is concerning married women’s roles as Officers. I would like to raise a few thoughts concerning my position. From a married women who is not an officer but married to an officer, I wonder whether because my husband is married to a “none officer” he would be overlooked for certain senior roles within The Salvation Army. I know that single spouse officership is not allowed in certain territories, so if my husband had the necessary skills to lead these territories would he be appointed as Territorial Commander to them, or would he be overlooked because of me? And on the other hand, if it was me who was the officer and he wasn’t would I be restricted in my ministry because of my marital status? I don’t believe that it is just married women who have a tough time. How many unmarried men are on the High Council? I don’t think we’ve ever had an unmarried man as General. (I wish that my husband wasn’t away on an officers seminar thing because he would have been able to tell me the answers!) It will be interesting to see how Single Spouse Officership works out in the future.

Sales pitch

We went shopping on Saturday and we got stopped by someone wanting to sell me something for my nails and hands. I've been stopped by the same company before, so I knew what was coming my way. At least I thought I did anyway. This woman was really persistant. She kept putting the product in my hand, and I kept putting it back on the shelf. She offered it me for £30, which was the price I knew it was. When I refused she dropped the price to £25. When I still refused, she told me she had a secret that I shouldn't tell anyone but I should take the offer up quickly before her manager came back. I could have this product for £20 if I took her up on it right away! Well, I told her that I really didn't want it at any price and walked away. This incident made me laugh all the way round the shops.

People are full of surprises. Just when we think we know them, they surprise us with something they say or do. I'm one of the kind of people that looks for the funny things in the day, and am never disappointed even when things get hectic. I hope I can always be like this.

I was thinking about yesterdays post a lot last night. I realised that I’d got the title a bit mixed up, but on thinking about it, I got it right. There are some who work for God without knowing God at all.

The word “Works” appears 67 times in the New International version according to www.biblegateway.com. This is significant, because it indicates to me that works aren’t the whole story of Salvation to God. John 6: 28 – 29 says, “Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Jesus didn’t want us to work ourselves into the ground for Him, but He did want us to make some kind of effort. The Great Commission doesn’t say “Sit down, have a rest, you deserve it” but says something like “go into all the world to make disciples of all nations”. It says somewhere in the Bible that there is a time for work, and a time for rest. (I think it does anyway) the difficulty is to decide whether it’s the working time or resting time.

Works Without Faith

I’ve been thinking this week about how much I do in church. I had to list everything that I do, but found it difficult. I know that I have missed things out, because I just automatically do things without thinking. It’s good that we don’t have to rely on what we do for God to get us into heaven. All God wants is for us to be obedient to His leading.

Hallelujah!

People watching and blogging

One of my favourite ways to pass the day is to people watch. If my living room window was on the front of my house I'd probably have my chair by it and looking out of the window a lot! I have to say that I'm nosy. This is why I read other people's blogs. It gives me an insight into peoples lives that I might not necessarily get otherwise. The other reason I like it is because it's a bit like looking at their diaries. I know I could have said things like it makes me think about issues concerning others and things, but that's not the whole truth about why I read blogs, I'm just nosy!

I blog because it helps me to put events of the day into perspective. It's one of the only ways that I will use to think things through. I have to say that I blog for myself, but accept that there may be people who read my stuff, although I doubt it.

All alone

I was watching the only soap opera that I follow tonight and was reminded of when I had my last operation on my ear. The reason I was reminded of this was because one of the new characters had to have an operation on his ear and the bandage brought all my memories flooding back. I could even remember how I felt after coming round from the op. I think my operation was on a Friday afternoon, and I was still living at home at the time, so Bram was around 300 miles away. I came round from the op and asked if my Mum was coming to visit, and the nurse told me she was. I kept myself awake for over an hour waiting for my Mum and Dad to arrive, but they didn't come. This was the only time that I've ever been in hospital and not had any visitors. My Mum came to collect me the following day, but I just remember the feeling of being abandoned and alone because I hadn't had any visitors. But really, there are plenty of people who sit at home all day never seeing anyone, or not having any friends or family to care for them. This is why I try to talk to people who come into our centre. I don't find it particularly easy to talk to people I don't know, but I try to anyway, because I may be the only friendly face that that person sees that week or day.

How Big Is God?

The past couple of days, I've been thinking about my idea of who God is. In house group this week, someone said that our idea of God is usually influenced by our earthly parents. I've had a good childhood, and a good relationship with my parents, but I didn't really start to form a 'real' relationship with God until my relationship with my Dad was difficult, and I suddenly realised that my Dad wasn't superhuman after all! In some ways, God became this superhuman Father who I could totally depend on when I needed Him. I also started to seriously study the Bible at this time, and discover things that I had never known before.

To change the subject slightly, I had a discussion with a couple of children last night about what God looks like. The children told me that God is an old man with a long white beard. Now I've heard this before from different people, and if I'm honest, I sometimes think He looks like that. But why do we think God looks like a gentle old man? The Bible doesn't indicate anywhere that this is true? And if I'm honest, I don't really like the idea of praying to a gentle old man. I like the picture of a lion. I think Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia film comes quite close, although I'm struggling with the fact that I'd like to think that God would put up more of a fight for me than Aslan did for Edmund, but God see's the bigger picture and knows the consequences of His actions, and so something that looks weak in the short term, looks much stronger in the long term.

Looking around

Recently I've had a couple of people tell me that they didn't know that The Salvation Army was where it is. When they asked me how long it had been on the site that it is on, I wasn't sure whether to tell them that actually has been where it is since the 1920's!!!! This makes me wonder what sort of places I have missed as I've travelled around.

Moving forward

I got my Candidate final application forms today in the post. When I was given my initial application forms I was really nervous about filling them in. This was because I was really nervous and scared of what God was going to ask of me. I was so nervous I was late in getting the forms back to DHQ, which wasn't a good thing, and suffered the consequences of this. Now it's a different story. I can't wait to get them filled in and sent back to DHQ. I've now got the problem of biding my time before filling them in because I don't want to appear too enthusiastic! However, I think I will get them filled in and sent back so that I can concentrate on more important things in my life right now, like writing an essay on Jeremiah which I've had for absolutely ages and really really need to get it done.

Am I soft?

Recently I've been accused of being tough with people, and saying no to loans of money and things. This kind of made me think. When I arrived at Poplar Corps in 2004 I had what could probably be seen as a very idealistic view of The Salvation Army and it's mission. I also think it's fair to say I had a very limited view. Now, after nearly 2 years here, I would like to think that I have grown as a person, grown spiritually, and maybe more importantly, am less naive.

As I've said before, it winds me up when I think that people are taking advantage of my good nature, and also the charitableness of The Salvation Army. If people are grateful for something that you do for them it makes it more worthwhile, but it also makes me willing to go the extra mile for them.

Take today for example. I handle the room bookings at my Corps, and had a telephone call from an organisation that I personally am not too pleased with at the minute. However, I was willing to bury my feelings for the duration of the call and listen to what this woman wanted from me. She basically wanted to hire a room on Wednesday morning for an hour, to which I agreed. Then I had a phone call from the people that she had rang on behalf of. Now because the second woman was so grateful for allowing the use of the room, I was willing to do a little more for them. This got me wondering whether I am still basically the trusting, naive person I was 2 years ago, or has this quality been developed to allow me to deal with people God's way? Answers on a postcard please.

I love Sundays

I love Sundays. I always have done, even when my Mum used to drag me out of the church service to smack me when I'd been naughty! I think it's got a lot to do with being part of a community that has a common aim.

I used to go to see Leicester City FC before I got married, and even though it was being part of a community with a common aim, it wasn't the same as being in church.

Today has been a good day at church, even though I've got a cold, can't stop coughing, sneezing, or blowing my nose, I've enjoyed being in church.

What Have You Done For Him Today?

I've had various conversations recently concerning the question "What have you done for God today?" The thing is, that I think that we don't always realise that we are doing God's work. I also think that it should come so naturally that you shouldn't always realise that it's the Master's work. In some way's we should be like the woman in the Bible who washed Jesus' feet with her tears. Washing feet was the custom in Bible times, although I'm not sure that Jesus had His feet washed with tears very often.

If I'm totally honest, I can't really think of any specific thing that I have done for Jesus today. I've given my time to a few people today, a listening ear, picked up jumble, cooked Bram's tea, but these all seem to be mundane every day things. I'm so glad that accepts these as offerings of worship to Him. So what have you done for Him today?

Busyness

Busyness is such an understatement describing the day I've had today! I love being busy, but there have been times today that it has just been ridiculous! I've had room bookings to deal with, things to go out and buy for our charity shop, And all sorts of other things going on around me!

I think one of my highlights of today has to be the time I gave to our lunch club people just talking to them. There are a few people who come early just so that they can break up their day. The least I can do is give them a few minutes of my time. They usually teach me a thing or two!

It's Kids Club tonight. I wonder what's going to happen there tonight.

Despite today being so hectic, God was right there in the middle, even when I wasn;t listening.