TC Today

During this past week I have endevoured to discipline myself to focus on God alone, and have left aside my devotional books and others that I might be inclined to read. I have wanted to hear from God and to practice the discipline of dependance upon God only.

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.

Every now and then for whatever reason I have the bizarre thought, what if I lived on a deserted island, or lived where there was no-one and nothing, what would my experience of God be like?

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

Getting people saved, keeping people saved, teaching them what it means to be holy and helping them know how to get others saved, is back on the agenda. This is the chief business of The Salvation Army.

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.

Over the next few years we will be giving attention to the restoration of a soul saving culture throughout the Army. For example, one of the territory’s strategic initiatives will be to see an increase of spiritual expectations in social programmes.

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 get rather sentimental over the simple Christmas story about a Mum and Dad who struggled to make life work for themselves, people who faced the ordeal of accusations about her pregnancy before they were married.

The story began with the long tedious journey that ended the night before the child’s birth, where they are content with accommodation in a barn where Jesus was born.

You know, the question has been asked of me, “how does a baby born over 2000 years ago impact my life today?”

Well, the answer for me is just as simple as the Christmas story itself, the Bible says, “the child grew and became strong….” (Luke 2:40)

You know, as much as I love the uncomplicated story of Christmas, it’s not the child who impacts my life; it’s the man He grew to become. The Child grew and became a man. The man who taught me how to live, loving God and others as much as we love ourselves.

He is the man who changed my life and made sense of my living.

Aylene and I wish you a very happy Christmas.

It is a peculiar thing that, in just one week from now we will celebrate the birth of Christ with laughter and joy, but in fourteen weeks beyond that, the Christian Church will darken its countenance to mourn His adult death.

It seems difficult to reconcile, but life is filled with paradox. In my office throughout Advent I display a beautifully hand carved nativity, but set in the midst of the figures and next to the manger, is a small bronze cross. This is a juxtaposition that in my mind, cannot be separated.

Christ came into our world specifically for one purpose. His coming is welcomed at birth, but we cannot lose sight of the reality that, standing behind the manger is the cross. The cross is also the shadow that followed Jesus throughout His thirty years of living and more particularly, his three years of ministry.

From the carol Christians Awake, John Byron wrote in verse 3.

O may we keep and ponder in our mind
God’s wondrous love in saving lost mankind!
Trace we the babe, who hath retrieved our loss,
From His poor manger to His bitter cross;
Tread we His steps, assisted by His grace,
Till man’s first heavenly state again takes place.