Reluctant to change.

My Mum gave me some disturbing news not long ago. Her Salvation Army (my home corps) is having a new Mercy Seat and platform! Why did this news disturb me? I don't know. After all, I've been left the Corps two years. I guess it all has to do with the fact that this was the Mercy Seat where I knelt and gave my heart to God when I was ten years old. The platform was where I was dedicated, enrolled a Junior Soldier, enrolled a senior soldier, and got married. The funny thing is that my Mum seemed quite happy to get these new items. I guess in my future ministry, when people get upset because I want to change something, I need to remember my own reluctance to change the Mercy Seat and platform.

Holiday Thoughts.

We came back from our holiday yesterday. We more or less spent a week doing nothing, but thinking about what was going on at home. The holiday was at St Ives Cornwall. All week as we travelled around Cornwall visiting different places, I kept singing the song All Things Bright And Beautiful. It's easy to think of God's creation when you are in a place that is so vastly natural, and hardly any modern buildings around, but in London, it takes a bit more looking to discover natural beauty.

Are we Celts?

I have been going to a local Lent series the past two weeks. (I missed the first one because I forgot it was happening!) I learned a lot last night both from the speaker and from our small group discussion. One of the things that came out from the discussion was that the Celts knew that God was already in everything that happened. Now we tend to put God into things. An example I can think of is when we are in our meetings and invite God into the preceedings. God is already there, so it is insulting to say to God "We're here God, come and join us" Or what we usually say is "we ask that you will be here among us at this time of worship". Something we Salvationists have in common with the Celts is our total reliance on God for everything. We hand over everything to Him. Our time, our talents, our money and He takes care of it all for us.

Salvation Army Song Book Number 527

1.
The Saviour of men came to seek and to save
The souls who were lost to the good;
His Spirit was moved for the world which he loved
With the boundless compassion of God.
And still there are fields where the laborers are few,
And still there are souls without bread,
And still eyes that weep where the darkness is deep,
And still straying sheep to be led.

Chorus
Except I am moved with compassion,
How dwelleth thy Spirit in me?
In word and in deed
Burning love is my need;
I know I can find this in thee.

2.
O is not the Christ 'midst the crowd of today
Whose questioning cries do not cease?
And will he not show to the hearts that would know
The things that belong to their peace?
But how shall they hear if the preacher forbear
Or lack in compassionate zeal?
Or how shall hearts move with the Master's own love,
Without his anointing and seal?

3.
It is not with might to establish the right,
Nor yet with the wise to give rest;
The mind cannot show what the heart longs to know
Nor comfort a people distressed.
O Saviour of men,
touch my spirit again,
And grant that thy servant may be
Intense every day,
as I labor and pray,
Both instant and constant for thee.

Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)

Evangelism The Patrick Way.

"I had a good time at church yesterday Madam. Do you go to church?"
"No Patrick I'm not religious, I don't go to church"
"Don't you? Well you should!"

This was a conversation that I overheard at work in the community lounge this week between Patrick (The same Patrick mentioned in Captdoc1 blog and URBANarmy blog) and a lady who comes in for breakfast sometimes. I like Patricks approach, although it wouldn't work for all of us. Another of his conversation's that has stuck in my mind happened last year when I took him in a cafe for a cup of tea on our annual church outing. It goes something along the lines of Patrick saying "Madam, where are you from? We're from The Salvation Army inPoplar." She told him where she was from and he replied "Oh. There's a sale on in Woolworths, have you been there?" Patrick was proud that he goes to The Salvation Army inPoplar, and we're glad that he is part of our community.

The telephone rang today and it was a man wanting accomodation. You can tell when someone has worked themselves up to make a phone call. They launch right into what they are going to say. The problem here was that I work for a Corps and not a hostel so I was totally unable to help. I gave him the number of our local hostel that has recently been refurbished. He put the phone down and I decided that I should check that this was the right number. I discovered that it wasn't! Now though I have the correct number so I can direct people to the right place.

A little later, one of our regular homeless men came in for assistance. He was completely worse for wear. Slurring his words, and looking like he was fighting to get words out. I strongly suspect it wasn't just alcohol he had consumed today. This was another instance where I felt so helpless. I gave him a few tins of food, and just wondered what I could do for him. I ended up offering him a cup of tea which he drank. I didn't know what else to do.

Quiet Women?

I have been reading about The Angel Adjutant tonight. I have read her story before, but it's sometimes good to re-read things. One of the things that I have noticed about her in the first few chapters is that she was a quiet, shy person who was at her best in one to one conversations. Another person who is mentioned in this book is Catherine Booth. Apparently, she was also a shy person at the commencement of her ministry. When you think of Catherine, you think of this confident, outgoing person who is not afraid to speak her mind. After reading this about Catherine, I wonder whether she comes across completely different in her writings, and because I have never met her or sat in on her meetings I just assume that she was this great public preacher and Evangelist. I guess this is one of those questions that I will never know the true answer to until I meet with her in heaven. Although, no offense to her, but I think that she will be the last thing on my mind in heaven!

Hidden Agenda?

I had a really hectic day yesterday. Patrick was on top form showing off to everyone who was watching or listening to him in the Coffee Shop. I also tried to put up a trampoline for the Parent And Toddlers whilst it was quiet in the coffee shop. In the evening I did cooking with two six year olds where I burned the chocolate when I was trying to melt it. All in all it was a busy day! I thought about a blog I had read recently that spoke about two ladies who were the face of The Salvation Army to the people in their town. They didn't have any hidden agenda's, they just did what they could for the people because they loved them. I would like to think that this is the way that I "do mission" in my life. Yesterday, whilst Patrick was showing off, I wasn't thinking about how this could work to get people saved. Or when I burnt the Chocolate I wasn't thinking of any slick ways to turn that into a sermon illustration. It gets me cross when people analyse things too much. I like the simple gospel for the whosever. I like to do things because it's what comes naturally, and pray that it will still be that way even after my training for Salvation Army officership.

Presents.

I was challenged on Sunday about whether I take God's gift of nature for granted. I have to say honestly that I do. This is because I grew up on a housing estate where you could see the hills in the distance and sometimes sheep were grazing on these hills. It just seemed like the normal thing to walk home from school and see these sheep. But now, in the heart of London's East End I have no fields to look upon. No sheep graze in my neighbourhood. Nevertheless, I still see God's beauty here. I see works of grace everyday as I go about my life. I look up to the sky and think how beautiful it is sometimes. I also can see a cross of airoplane vapours occasionally. I always remember at this time that God loves me.

I don't think I wake up every morning thankful that I have woken up, but this is the most simple, but most important gifts that God gives us. I have a photo frame that says on it "every day is a gift, that's why it's called the present"

Groundbreaking News

It's official, I can now fry eggs!!!! This is my newly aquired skill. Whenever I fry eggs in the future I can remember that I learned this skill while I was Community Support Worker at Poplar Salvation Army. Ok, this doesn't sound very exciting to everyone else, but I am really impressed with myself. So impressed that Bramwell had to have a fried egg sandwich for supper last night and another for breakfast this morning!

Holiness

This week I've had my thoughts on holiness challenged. I always thought that holiness was all about your relationship with God, but I now know that is not the whole story on being holy. William Booth said

"What do I mean by a Holy life? It is .... A life fashioned after the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is not such a life desirable?"

I think that William Booth here was talking about the whole of ones life. It sounds strange, but I have never really associated holiness with the way you live your life! I have grown up in The Salvation Army, but don't feel that I have a great deal of knowledge about holiness. How can I have missed such an important part of being a Christian? I'm not saying that I haven't tried to be holy, because I have, but I obviously have not grasped the bigger picture of it all.

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!