What He brought to my mind and I have not been able to escape its constant playing over and over like a tape recording, is the verse of a song by Albert Orsborn.

“Wash from my hands the dust of early striving;
Take from my mind the stress of secret fear;
Cleanse thou the wounds from all but thee far hidden,
And when the waters flow let my healing appear.”

These words have been my meditation these past seven days and have brought extraordinary blessing as I have come to God like a child before his Father. It has been so uncomplicated, so freeing to know that in the moment, I have seen myself as God sees me.

To live in the moment with God is all He asks. We cannot change the past, only seek forgiveness for what might have been. We cannot manipulate the future, because that is beyond us to do. But to live in the moment and to know it, is a gift that gives life to our living.

Can any of us conceive of a world where there were no churches, Christian music, CD’s or DVD’s, iPod uploads, podcast downloads, printed Bibles, audio Bibles, Christian books, resources, Christian television, radio or anything else that informs our experience of God?

So, what if it were all gone, no preachers or teachers to help us along the journey, what would shape our spiritual life? I wonder if we have become so dependant upon others and ‘things’ that there is a danger of spiritual shallowness. In other words, we depend upon external ‘inflow’ rather than a deep engagement of the Spirit. Take away all the props and what’s left.

While attending the International College for Officers some years ago, I sat on the edge of a discussion where one of our colleagues was boasting that he had a personal library of more than 3000 books. In turning to an African Officer he said, “Edith, how many books you got?” Her reply ended the conversation. “I have three books, my Bible, songbook and doctrine book, what more do I need!”

I want to suggest we think about abandoning many of the props for a time and live totally dependant upon the Spirit of God within us. Just for a time, stop reading the thoughts of others, and read only the word of God. Become totally immersed in the presence of God to the exclusion of those things upon which we become dependant. For example, take a verse of Scripture and think it through, pray it through and live it out.

How on earth did the Apostles ever manage to take the gospel to all the world without the Christian scaffolding available to us today?

“He has shown you, O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”    Micah 6:8

Whilst some would take offense at my comment and say that these have never been off the agenda, our statistical data would tell us otherwise. I absolutely applaud those who make the salvation of others their hearts concern, and what I am saying is that I long to see this replicated more widely.

There has never been a time in our history when we have invested more money into mission. Today, we have digital technology that is the envy of other churches and this includes a sophisticated data collection system that can provide every piece of conceivable information needed for tracking attendance trends.

We have more money than we had in the past. We invest in the development of our people like never before, facilitate conferences and dialogues, all of which are intended to make mission happen. Our facilities, generally speaking are of an excellent standard, so why are we not seeing an increase in the number of people coming to faith throughout the territory?

Aylene and I have been to the Congo in Africa and worshipped in places that would be shut down and condemned by Australian standards. People there have no money, have no songbooks or “pew” Bibles, but in their poverty, Salvationists live the joy of life and the life of Christ. More growth takes place in the Army in Africa than any other part of the world.

So it’s not about money, buildings, technology, conferences education or development. It’s about people who have a faith that is alive in Christ and who want to share its value and meaning with others.

We need only be God-loving, Bible believing people who share our lives with ours naturally and genuinely and this includes the life of God in us.

That is what I mean when I speak about bringing salvation, holiness and discipleship back onto the agenda. Others might simply call it revival.

We have taken the first steps in remodeling the Corps Programme Department at THQ that will be centred around ‘growing healthy corps’ as its primary business and providing resources to that end.

The Literary arm of our Editorial Department is working on books that will seek to reawaken our soul saving mission and holiness tradition. These will be intended for use as personal reading or for groups to use in study with reflection.

Soul saving has been a distinguishing characteristic of salvationism whereby, our soldiers would unashamedly profess their faith, share their testimony and intentionally seek to influence others to accept Christ as Saviour. Sadly, this is not as evident today in the life of our community, but God helping us, we will seek to be the Army He raised us to be.

If God has changed His mind in respect to who He wants The Salvation Army to be today, then I missed the message and no one else has passed brought it to my attention. So I can only presume that we are still called to be evangelicals, missioners and soul winners. That is our business and that is what should define us as part of the Christian Church.

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than the known way,

So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking day in the lone east.

Aylene and I wish you a very happy new year.