HIS PROVISION

Why I am a Salvation Army officer

Recently theRubicon sent out a general call to officers on our mailing list asking them to tell us why they are Salvation Army clergy. The responses were pithy, profound, provocative and, in some cases, troubling.  


Captain, male, USA: I am a Salvation Army officer because God has called me and placed within my heart a burning passion for the lost. My heart was enticed by what once was and what will be again. I long for the day when the blood and fire are proclaimed with power and conviction. When the sword of the Lord is loved and feared and strikes a devastating blow to the enemy. 


When the giant is awakened and the salvation of the world is at the heart of every decision. When the Holiness of God is revealed throughout the ranks of The Army. When all boasting is not in brick and mortar, but in the finished work of Jesus. When all confidence is in Christ and the power of His resurrection. When all chains are broken, captives are freed, hungry are fed, the favor of the Lord is declared, lost are found and that glorious day Christ returns.

Until that day, it is my prayer that I will be found faithful and that everything in this temple shouts His Glory. (Psalm 29:2)

Major, male, Australia: When I was a teenager in the then-small country corps of Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW, Captain Hughie Macintosh was the corps officer. Hughie was a larger than life, charismatic officer, who encouraged me personally in ‘my calling’ to one day be an officer, if it was God’s will for me!

When discussing this with him and asking him how he knew whether officership is what God wants of me, I never forgot his answer: “Keith, if you can be anything else in life, other than being an officer, do it!”

Phew, what a relief. I was studying at graphic arts college at the time, so I knew there were many things that I could do for God in the corps and in the community other than officership. I was Junior Soldier Sgt, a songster, bandsman and also did a four-hour Friday night hotel run each week with Hughie, and I enjoyed it all!

I eventually figured out that Hughie’s cryptic answer regarding officership centered on the very fact that unless we agree with God on where we spend our working life, we cannot be fully fulfilled in God’s walk for us, in any of the other things we can do. Not because those are bad choices in themselves, just because they’re not the right choices for us.

Later, I started going out with an old officers’-kid friend and discovered that officership for her too had also been something that she had seriously contemplated but had put it off for a time. When it was obvious that our friendship was leading to marriage, we talked about becoming officers together, and it wasn’t a hard decision to make. We both felt that God had led us together and that we would get married, and go to college the following year.

That’s what we did. Ruth and I have now been married over 35 years and that was the beginning of a very long story, too long to add here today! Only to say, I’ve never regretted becoming a Salvation Army officer and since I was around 20 years old, that has been what I have always wanted to do!

So, if anyone is reading this today and wants to know if they should be an officer too, let me say on Hughie’s behalf, as he has gone onto Glory before us, “If you can be anything else in life, other than being an officer, do it!”

Lieutenant, male, Norway: For me it is a calling. I don’t really know how to explain it. Some 15 years ago I made a wrong turn (thankfully, the Lord made it good in the end, as he very often does) and had to resign from officership. All these 15 years, it was like having an out-of-body experience. Don’t get me wrong, there was ministry and lots of good staff, but something was missing. And it is not a pay-check, since as a lay person I was making much more money then officers do.

I was searching for the meaning of this out-of-body experience, and the closest I’ve found so far is what Jeremiah says: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay”. (Jer.20:9)

What was missing was a sense of purpose, I guess. I was not who I was meant to be. Not that I believe in predetermination, but I do believe in destiny. Being an officer with all that it brings (the uniforms, hierarchy, moving from place to place, unlimited working hours in mentally and physically difficult environments, etc.) was and is for me, it is me.

Colonel, female, Canada: When I was 15, struggling with the fact that I was a foster child, a crisis happened. I hated being in this situation and was very angry, rebelling somewhat at school and certainly giving my parents a difficult time (skipping school, mixing with the wrong crowd, etc). I guess I was living two lives: one at the corps, involved in a lot of things, and the other at school and home.

That year, my mother fell very ill that year and the doctor said we would just have to wait and see what would happen. It is difficult to explain, but when I returned home from school one afternoon, no one but my mother was there and she was sleeping. I walked into our living room and an overwhelming sense came over me. I knew it was God showing me my two sides and helping me to question everything. One was the fact that there were three of us who had been brought up together as brothers and sister since we were babies in the same home. What would happen if she died or couldn’t keep us? We could be separated.

The second thing that was before me was the Army. I loved all that I was involved in and had a wonderful Sunday School teacher who visited our home. If we went to another home, I would not likely have the same opportunity.

It was then, in the privacy of the room, that I knelt before the Lord, thanking Him for the home I had and giving my life over to Him and praying that she would get better.

She did, but about a month after that I attended a Youth Councils and there was a call for officership. Being a shy person, this had never entered my mind, nor did it at that moment. About 10 minutes into the prayer meeting, again this overwhelming sense of a power spoke to me in silence and the tears began to stream down my face. I knew I had to go forward and offer myself. I did and once again felt a wonderful peace, along with “How can this be?”

After 48 years, I am awed at God’s presence, at the opportunities to serve, sometimes in ways that I thought impossible or found difficult - but He is the equipper and it is his spirit I represent. I am very proud to be a Salvation Army Officer and thank God to this day for placing me in a foster home of a mother who faithfully served Him and who led my father to the Lord when he was 84.

Major, male, USA: I am an officer because God has called me. It was a clear call that both my wife and I received. We were both involved in the corps life, God had placed us in the Army before the call and it was to the Army mission that we are called. We love our Lord, people and we love the mission. All three of these are the perfect opportunity for ministry to those who so desperately need to experience the love of Christ. The longer I am an officer the more I am convinced that others who God has called should also join the ranks. The war against sin, evil, injustice and oppression is ominous and the opportunity is ours to attack in mercy and love. To win the world for Christ under the shadow of the red, yellow and blue is my command, and I will not retreat until either He returns or the last breath of air has left my body.

Major, female, USA: I became a Salvation Army officer because, particularly through young eyes, officership appeared to blend a commitment to social work with a commitment to Jesus. I remain a Salvation Army officer because I lack the courage to leave - well, that may not be quite accurate, because it has taken perhaps even more courage for me to remain. Had single spouse
 officership been an option in our territory, I probably would not be an active officer today, although the road of “what if” is a treacherous one to walk. Do I have a viable ministry? Absolutely. Do I render effective service to my community and to the Army? Yes. I’ve made my peace with my own heart and serve Jesus the best I can, and so, for now, I remain a disciple of Jesus, serving within the Salvation Army.

You are not allowed to curse them (with word or finger)

While The Salvation Army’s Soldier’s Covenant contains some extremely demanding promises, perhaps the most challenging one is this:

I will uphold Christian integrity in every area of my life, allowing nothing in thought, word or deed that is unworthy, unclean, untrue, profane, dishonest or immoral.

In other words, I not only promise to not speak or act in an immoral or impure way, I promise not to even think bad thoughts!

The Soldier’s Covenant is a statement of sacred promises; it is a covenant with God. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that covenant is of the utmost importance to God. So, how can any human being possibly sign a document promising the all-knowing God that they will allow nothing in thought that is unclean, immoral or unworthy? This statement isn’t prefaced by “I will try my very best” or “As far as I am able.” There are no out clauses. Salvation Army soldiers around the world and throughout the years have covenanted to God that all their actions, alltheir words and all their thoughts would be pure and righteous.

Is it possible to keep such a promise? Suppose that someone cuts you off in traffic and nearly causes an accident. Not only are you not allowed to curse them (with word or finger), you can’t even think a disparaging thought about them. How about when a beautiful guy or girl walks by and your eyes linger a bit too long? Once again you’ve broken a sacred covenant with God.

On the other hand, maybe this all sounds familiar:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment … ” (Matthew 5:21-22). Or, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

This is just a small excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ most famous collection of teachings. As with the above, the Sermon on the Mount is overflowing with instructions that seem impossible to fulfil, culminating at the end of Matthew 5 with the challenge, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v 48).

Rob Perry is the ministry co-ordinator at Toronto’s Corps 614.

SHARE MY YOKE...

        Here then is what appears to be real conflict within the classic religious heritage, steeped as it is in biblical faith. On the one hand there is the call for comfort, while, on the other, there is the call for disturbance. How can the two be combined, without contradiction, in a valid system of life and faith? On the surface this looks impossible, since the two moods appear to we wholly incompatible. It is in the solution of this problem that much of the true glory of the gospel appears, for Christ is able to take us to a deeper level in which both of the valid, yet radically opposed, demands are met simultaneously. The method which Christ uses to accomplish this end involves the marvelous figure of the yoke.

        

         The great yoke passage, which is found at the end of the eleventh chapter of Matthew, begins with the recognition of the validity of the demand for comfort. We see how tender Christ was with all the broken and needy when He began the pronouncement by saying, “Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” This appears to be the theme of comfort, pure and simple, so that we naturally expect Christ to go on and say that the heavy-laden must lay down their burdens, but this is precisely what He does not say. In a really shocking paradox Christ offers rest to the burdened by asking them to share His burden. His solution of the problem of those who are tired with toil is to offer them the world’s greatest symbol of toil; namely, the yoke. The yoke means, in some places, that by which a man can, through a device on his shoulders, carry more than he could otherwise carry. In other places it means the harness which animals, either oxen or asses, wore, by which they are able to pull a plow. In any case, the striking facet is that Christ’s offer of peace was through the acceptance of new responsibilities and that His offer of rest was through the voluntary sharing of new toil. He did not say that He Himself would remove burdens. What He did say was that, because His yoke was perfectly fitted, His own burden seemed light…

        

         Because we are accustomed to the phrase “Take my yoke upon you,” having heard it in Handel’s Messiah if nowhere else. The great words are no longer shocking to us, but they must have been terribly shocking to those who first heard them. Even our acceptance of the words does not mean accepting the idea. Perhaps this is why the symbol of the yoke has been so much less common in Christian history than have the other symbols suggested by Christ’s own words…

        

         The neglect of the yoke is understandable when we realize the degree to which it is an affront to our ordinary wishes, Christ does not give us the answer which we naturally desire to have. We want to escape responsibility, but Christ will not let us do so. In both the yoke and the cross He took ideas which must have been revolting to many of His hearers, and transformed them by adding new meaning. In using the word, Christ undoubtedly had something of the rabbinical tradition in mind, according to which a student symbolically accepted the teacher’s yoke; however, the major Old Testament connotation of yoke was evil, referring to bondage. In any case, Christ picked up the figure and gave it a new and liberating significance.

        

         The heart of the transvaluation comes in the note of joy. Real freedom, Christ says, is not the absence of limitations on our actions, but the joyous acceptance of limitations inherent in the new loyalty. As a result there comes a liberation greater than any merely empty or irresponsible freedom can ever bring. The yoke, instead of being a galling instrument, is consequently a harness which is easy to wear. We do not seek peace directly, but it comes ultimately as a by-product of the act of giving ourselves unreservedly to Christ’s cause.

        

                  We are made to be spent. This is inherent in the very nature of the human situation. The revolting symbol of the yoke, feared and rejected by many Christians even to this day, comes to stand for the chief meaning of the Christian life. What is a Christian? A Christian is one who seeks, in spite of his failures, to wear Christ’s yoke with Him.

Jesus, show us the futility of trying to live apart from Your yoke.

When we seek freedom apart from Your yoke, we only find bondage.

When we seek to labor apart from Your yoke, we only find heaviness.

When we seek rest apart from Your yoke, we only find distress.

When we seek peace apart from Your yoke, we only find agitation.

When we seek joy apart from Your yoke, we only find misery.

Jesus, help us come to You and take Your yoke upon us and learn from You,

for it is only then we will find real freedom.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

–Matthew 11:28-30

Elton Trueblood 

Maybe I'll do better the next timeZ!

As the morning service progresses we will all see just how much truth there may be in that statement for me today…

We begin today with words from the Psalmist - Psalm 92:

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name O Most High,

Proclaiming your love in the morning and your love at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.

For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;

I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!

 ‘My Jesus, My Saviour, Lord there is none like you.’

Now, I’m talking mainly to the children and young people, but the grown-ups can listen in too.

I’m not very good at drawing, but we’ve got a new easel upstairs in the Nursery and I’ve been desperate to have a go! So, on Monday, when the Nursery was closed and there was no-one around, I sneaked in and had a go (Don’t anyone tell Angelique though!) I cleared everything up after myself so no one would know I’d been there.

I decided I would paint a picture of my house. I had so much fun and I’m really pleased with my picture. I tried to get everything right. So.... This is my house, with its front door, the grass outside, the tree next to my house...

Even though it wasn’t very sunny on Monday, I thought it would look better in sunshine, so I’ve put the sun in...

What do you think?

Are you sure it’s in the wrong place? But I thought I’d got it right. Maybe I’ll do better next time etc.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try you don’t get everything right. Sometimes we get a bit mixed up. But that’s okay. God gives us as many chances as we need to get things right, so long as we are trying to do the right thing and trying to live as he wants us to live. When we get things wrong, we always have the chance to do it better next time because God is patient

Father God, we often make mistakes and we ask for your forgiveness. Please help us to do better next time and to be the person you want us to be. Please bless these precious children. Amen.

I shall take my masterpiece home for my lounge wall – it will be the centrepiece replacing the old Rembrandt!

Now for those a bit older

This morning I would like you to consider yourself as a paint pot…

Upstairs in the Ark we do a lot of art and craft activities. One of the wonderful things about coming to nursery is that you get to do all the messy exploration that you’d get into awful trouble for at home.

As a staff team we are usually pretty considerate of each other; we are fair in the division of yucky jobs, and we clear up after ourselves when we use ‘The Messy Room’ but in the run-up to last Christmas, it became ‘every man for himself.’ It was survival of the fittest and if you snooze you lose!

With 45 children each making 10 different items to take home for Christmas, paint, glue and glitter were the order of the day... clearing up was not a priority!

We have a vast array of paint pots that have built up over the years (the good old ones that were made to last are still around from the early days,) we have tall pots, small pots, pots with lids and brush holders, broad based pots, narrow based pots... you name it, we have it, around 40 or so altogether.

As Christmas approached, one by one the paint pots were used up; some for paint (in every rainbow colour,) some for paint and glitter mixes, others for paint and glue glazes, others that you really couldn’t be entirely sure what they contained.

There came the inevitable point where EVERY paint pot had been used, many of them more than once, with layers of paint or glue that had dried out and the pot then refilled with something else.

I needed a paint pot. I needed it for white paint. (Even with the artistic licence of a 3 year old a snowman has to be white.) I hunted high and low – there must be a pot somewhere that hadn’t been used, or something I could use to put paint in?  (No-one had wanted to be the one to wash them so everything that could be used had been used!)

No. There was nothing else for it. I was going to have to tackle the paint pot mountain and it was a daunting prospect.

So, should I start with the pots that looked the easiest to get clean? The ones that had been used in the past couple of days, that just had one layer of paint to remove and that hadn’t had sticky glue mixed in. They didn’t look like they would take too much scrubbing to come clean.

Or should I get the really bad ones out of the way first? The ones with several layers of hardened paint dried on, with added glue and glitter, and even some with stray pom-poms that were destined for Christmas cards but hadn’t stuck.

I filled the sink with hot soapy water, threw in a random first assortment of pots, and started cleaning.

It was interesting. It wasn’t how I’d anticipated it. (It was a lot messier and a lot more fun for a start!)

Some of the pots that I’d thought would be easy to clean just refused to cooperate. The stain from the colour they’d previously contained just wouldn’t wash off. Even with frantic scrubbing they wouldn’t come clean. The stain clung on tightly, as if it had sunk into the plastic of the pot itself.

At the other end of the scale, some of the pots that I thought would take ages to clean up, if they ever would, gave up their stains willingly? In fact, the sticky glue that I’d envisaged would make the job so difficult, actually made it easier to clean; the paint and glue just cleanly peeled away! Leaving a stain-free pot! Just what I needed to put my white paint in – I didn’t want any left-over stains contaminating my white paint.

Some of the paint pots had ridged sides, with nooks and crannies that made the job a little more tedious, (thankfully they were all round rather than square, and therefore had no corners to get into...)

Whilst I was washing them, my mind was wandering and wondering - If we were all paint pots what would we look like?

Have we gathered layers that have hardened over the years? Are we stained from some of the things we’ve done or said? Hurts that haven’t healed? Situations that have never been dealt with? Have we masked a colour or an episode we didn’t like with another painted on top? Do we have some hidden nooks and crannies that harbour old resentments?

Sometimes we look at ourselves, or at others, and wonder how or if we can ever truly be made clean?

The stains of our sins can’t be removed by washing: As we can read in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 22, there is no ambiguity, ‘Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me," declares the Sovereign LORD.’

The wonderful thing is that, as Christians, we can be washed clean. We are washed clean. Jesus made it so. By dying on the cross in atonement of our sins, we are clean. All we have to do is claim His cleansing.

In the words of a Herbert Booth song : (Song 415)

    

“From every stain made clean,

From every sin set free;

O blessed Lord, this is the gift

That thou hast promised me.”

and in the words we sang before:

“Lay aside the garments, that are stained with sin,

And be washed in the blood of the lamb;

There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,

O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!”

We heard that this is confirmed in 1 John Chapter 1 verses 5 to 7, when John bears witness to his actual encounters with Jesus, both in human and divine form: As John read to us earlier, he writes,

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Even knowing that Jesus has washed us clean, as humans we don’t always accept his cleansing and let go of old stains, so I urge you today; give up your old stains, and be a clean vessel, ready to be used as God chooses.

Candidate Hilary Borthwick

The Salvation Army 

(Armee Yn Taualtys)
Douglas Corps
Isle of Man UKT

The Importance of Prayer

The prayer of Moses was so mighty that everything depended upon it. The petitions of Moses disconcerted the enemy more than the fighting of Joshua. Yet both were needed. In the soul's conflict, force and fervor, decision and devotion, valor and vehemence must join their forces, and all will be well.

You must wrestle with your sin, but the major part of the wrestling must be done alone in private with God. Prayer like Moses' holds up the token of the covenant before the Lord. The rod was the emblem of God's working with Moses, the symbol of God's government in Israel. Learn, praying saint, to hold up the promise and the oath of God before Him. The Lord cannot deny His own declarations. Hold up the rod of promise, and have what you seek.

Moses grew tired, and then his friends assisted him. Whenever your prayer loses vigor, let faith support one hand, and let holy hope lift up the other, and prayer seating itself upon the stone of Israel, the rock of our salvation, will persevere and prevail. Beware of growing faint in your devotion.

If Moses felt it, who can escape? It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private. It has been observed that while Joshua never grew weary in the fighting, Moses did grow weary in the praying; the more spiritual an exercise, the more difficult it is for flesh and blood to maintain it.

Let us cry, then, for special strength, and may the Spirit of God, who helps our weaknesses as He helped Moses, enable us like him to continue with our steady hands "until the going down of the sun," until the evening of life is over, until we shall come to the rising of a better sun in the land where prayer is swallowed up in praise.

Alastair Begg

Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright (c) 2003, Good News Publishers and used by Truth For Life with written permission. Today’s Bible Reading material is taken from McCheyne Bible reading plan and used by Truth For Life with permission. Scripture quotations are taken from Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright (c) 2001, Good News Publishers.