Letter Writing

Hey guys hope you are all well. I am doing pretty good myself but have recently got a bee in my bonnet about the work I do and the Church I am a part of. This has led me to begin writing a mammoth letter which I will be sending to the leaders of my Church both nationally and internationally. Unfortunately this probably means that the time I would use to write on this I am likely to use in working on this letter. I may post the letter on here once I am done but I am not sure. So if I don't post for a little while don't worry I have not disappeared again I am just working on something else. Hope to be back on here soon, until then guys.

Walking the walk, even if it is in the mud

Well I did intend to post before this but as usual life got in the way. Well I say life but what mean is I was busy at Leeds Festival.

For those who don't know I am a member of the Salvation Army and for the last two years we have run a ministry at a local music festival serving cheap alternatives to the wildly over priced food and providing for physical and spiritual welfare of the festival goers.

As I normally would attend the festival anyway this is a fantastic opportunity for me to be in my natural habitat yet still display to the world unashamedly that I am a Christian and that even though My Chemical Romance blew my mind serving Jesus will always come first for me. The chance to talk to other young people who normally would have nothing to do with Jesus, the Church or the Salvation Army is one that for me can not be missed. I also have to say hearing an appreciable fraction of Leeds Festival chanting about how amazing the Salvation Army is was a moment of pride I will never forget.

For me this is the sort of Christian behaviour we should always be aiming for, being in the world but not part of it. Showing the world we love them, yet also showing them how by being just a little different life can be so much better with Jesus. Walking the road that Jesus would want us to take, getting down and dirty with the unwashed (which with it being wet and muddy at Leeds Festival was oh so true this year). We may not have converted anyone at Leeds festival this year, but for us that was never the point, what we did do was sow thousands of seeds, plant tens of thousands of thoughts about why 65 people took on the challenge of taking care of 75,000 people living in a field for the weekend. Some of these seeds and thoughts will lead to people looking into the Salvation Army, finding out about the Church and Jesus for possibly the first time and maybe next year they will be ready for the conversation about how to have Jesus in their lives too.

Check out the coverage we got from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14631755

The fruits of the spirit

Galatians 5:22-23
     But the fruit of the Spirit is 

                 love,

                 joy, 

                 peace, 

                 patience, 

                 kindness, 

                 goodness, 

                 faithfulness, 

                 gentleness 

                            and self-control. 

Against such things there is no law.

I have had a song running round my head for simply week, weeks and weeks and weeks. It has been bugging me so much for so long because I knew the tune and some of the words, but it has been that long since I sang them and I was that young at the time that I don't think I was singing the right words.

I finally bit the bullet the other day and decided to ask my friends who I thought may know the song and be able to tell me the words. After a few false starts of friends who knew the song but also could not remember the words one friend finally said they knew both the song and where to find the words. I was pleased to have found someone who could help me with this problem and would hopefully be able to give me the words. But she decided that she would make me suffer saying that as she had given me the first line I would be able to find it myself and learn something about the song.

Now this really annoyed me, I had spent ages searching for this song and I had known the firsat line all along. Did she not think I had searched and searched for this song, here was I so close to finally putting this annoying situation to bed and she wasn't going to help me. However before I complained I decided that I would indeed do one last search and see what came up. What I hadn't at first realised was that my friend had given me one valuable gem of information.

My friend had told me the name of the writers of the song, the infamous Salvation Army duo Gowans and Larson. With this small extra piece of information I was able to find the song and as my friend had obviously wanted me to do I had learned something about the song too. The song is from the musical Spirit which was written by Gowans and Larson and if you visit the link you can find out about the musical too.

Anyway the song goes as follows;

Now the fruit of the Spirit is patience,
And the fruit of the Spirit is peace,
The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness,
And joy that will never cease.
The gift of the Spirit is healing,
And hope for the darkest hour,
The gift of the Spirit is love,
yes, love and power, and power.

     From the musical Spirit (Gowans and Larson)

I intend to write more on the fruits of the spirit in the future, hopefully if I have the time to do the research and time to write it today it will follow this post.

The General-elect

For those who follow my blog you will know that in The Salvation Army we have been going through the election process of the election of a new General. Many people in The Salvation Army have been expecting this process to be a little bit drawn out as it was, and with the nomination of 9 candidates for the job this suspicion seemed to be justified. However today I was surprised to receive an email alert on my phone that they were preparing to make an announcement about the General-elect.

This afternoon I was out for work and could not find out myself who had been elected to replace the current General when he retires. I tried to get hold of a few people and was called a geek for phoning a friend to try and find out who had been elected to the position. After a few attempts I was finally able to track someone down who could tell me who the next General would be.

The official announcement can be found here and The Salvation Army's new General will be Linda Bond. She is the third female General we have had as an organisation and in a time where some Churches are experiencing huge fallout over female ministers I think this sends a message to other denominations and fellow Christians.

For me personally I am really pleased with the decision of the High Council, not because I am particularly overjoyed at the decision, I am pleased as she seems to be the most experienced candidate, but I see the quick and unanimous decision to be a positive sign that God was in the election. For a candidate to be selected so quickly out of so many shows that many people on the High council all agreed on the decision. A quick decision hopefully shows that the High Council was receptive to the leading hand of God and that the correct candidate was chosen.

I look forward to April when General-elect Linda Bond becomes General Linda Bond and takes control of our organisation. I look forward to seeing how The Salvation Army develops and hopefully grows under her leadership. There are many things I would love to see over the next 5 years under the leadership of Linda Bond, obviously growth and expansion but I would also love to see a revival and a return to the passion and drive of the early days. I would love to see The Salvation Army return to being the radical organisation it was, not scared to go to the dark and dangerous places, not scared to take God to the places where He is most needed and least wanted an organisation that dares to be different.

My prayer is that as Linda Bond begins her work with the retiring and takes up her new role that she remains close to God and has her eyes and ears open to what He is calling both her and The Salvation Army to do. I pray that she has the passion to make a difference and the drive to make The Salvation Army in to a spiritual fighting force once again. As I prayed at the beginning of the High Council I pray that Linda Bond may be humble enough to serve, strong enough to be weak and most of all to be a General who is a Godly and Holy person

.

General-elect Linda Bond

(Photo from http://www.salvationarmy.org)

Read the Salvationist

This week the challenge in the Soldier's Challenge was a fairly easy one and one that is not particularly easy to write that much about. The task was to read The Salvation Army's weekly publication for members of the Church called the Salvationist.

Most of this weeks issue is taken up with bits and pieces about the High Council, the election of the next General of The Salvation Army. Most of this is probably not of much interest to anyone outside The Salvation Army, and to be honest I struggled to stay interested in some of the articles myself. I don't normally read the Salvationist, normally relying on my friends and family to let me know if there is an interesting article and finding most of the news about The Salvation Army on the grapevine at work (a Salvation Army Hostel) or at Church through the officers (the ministers).

Well that is pretty much all that I can say for this task. So the task which I am going to complete this week is to sing a Christian song in the shower. So that is all for now, hope you all have a God filled week and check back next week to find out how the task goes this week.

High Council

As I write this I am watching the live footage of the opening ceremony for the 2011 High Council of The Salvation Army. This is an important gathering for my Church as our leaders from all over the world meet to elect the person who is to lead our Church as General for the next 5 years. This is the 17th High Council following it will be the election of our 19th General who will follow the current General who leaves office in April.

Even though this is not the first High Council while I have been a part of the Salvation Army, it is the first one since I became a Christian and the first since I have decided to dedicate myself to God through His work in the Salvation Army. I know I am one of a large number of people who are supporting this election in prayer and asking God to guide the High Council to the person He would chose as the leader of His Army.

Who ever it is has a huge task ahead of them, a huge responsibility. The task of taking this army of God's soldiers forward, working throughout the world, leading the charge against the enemy is not an easy one and they will need to rely on God fully. I feel that there are many people in The Salvation Army who are praying for a powerful General to take charge, a passionate General to inspire and a General who is burning with the Holy Spirit. But I also think we should be praying for a General who is humble enough to serve, strong enough to be weak and most of all a General who is a Godly and Holy person.

I will be praying this week for a General who will be the right leader for my Church, praying that God will show the commissioners who to elect and that the decision will be the beginning of a new period of growth and service throughout the world and that many more people will come to know Christ under their leadership.

Jesus name above all names

Music is a very important part of my life, there are almost no aspects of my life which do not have some connection to music or where music does not eventually creep in. Be it my private time when I almost always have some music on in the background, driving to work, or cooking. Also I work with a number of fellow musicians and we inevitably end up spending a lot of time discussing music and instruments and I attend The Salvation Army, a Church which is closely associated to music. So pretty much my life has its own constant sound track.

Because music is so much a part of my life and because I have been exposed to a huge range of music from a very early age my tastes in music vary wildly. If you played a list of all my favourite songs on shuffle you could easily end up with a hardcore rock track followed by a worship song with a third track possibly being jazz or classical, there are also many other genres that end up being included in my favourites list.

But from time to time certain songs get stuck in my head, and normally they end up being ones either from Church or ones for which ever reason cause me to think about God or Jesus for whatever reason. There is one short chorus that quite often gets stuck in my head whenever I hear it. It is a simple beautiful melody and has fantastic words;

Jesus, name above all names,

Beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord,

Emanuel, God is with us,

Blessed redeemer, living Word.

                               (Naida Hearn)

I often wish that I was able to weave such beautiful lyrics out of the language we use daily, but God chose to give me other gifts. However I am glad that He has blessed some people with the ability to write such fantastic lyrics, the ability to take a though or a feeling and turn it in to a beautiful song with which to worship Him.

All that I am

People may know that I am currently in a running battle with my Dad about me choosing to take a wild change in career to follow what I believe God is calling me to do. Because of this we are both looking for opportunities to push our points home and win small victories. This weekend I score a victory in the mission to win my Dad over to my point of view.

It was when the choir in our Church sang a song called All that I am;

(Chorus)
All that I am,
All I can be,
All that I have,
All that is me,
Accept and use Lord,
As You would choose Lord,
Right now today.


Take every Passion,
Take every skill,
Take all my dreams,
And bend them to your will,
My all I give Lord,
For You I live Lord,
Come what may.


(Verse)
Often I come with my problems and cares,
Running to you when distressed,
But I must give You the whole of my life,
Lord I must give You my best.


(Chorus)

(Verse)

Life has no purpose unless it is yours,

Life without you has no goal,

All that fulfils me is doing your will,

Knowing that Your in control.

(Chorus)

                             (William Himes)

I don't know how many people outside of the Salvation Army will have heard this song, but it is one of my favourites and is possibly one of the most beautiful songs I have ever had the privilege of singing or listening to. There is a beautiful but tragic story behind the song which has caused there to be a haunting melody to this song which in my opinion makes it even more powerful as for me I feel that you can sense the presence of God within it. The composer wrote this song as his wife was dying of cancer as a way to help himself cope and try to make sense of what was happening in his life and the loss he was preparing for. I think it speaks volumes for the faith of William Himes that he was able to write such a powerful song about serving God in such a dark time.

There are two lines in particular which resonate deeply within me every time I sing or hear these words and I have highlighted them above. "But I must give You the whole of my life, Lord I must give you my best". The reason these words resonate with me and why they have helped in the disagreement with my Dad about the direction my life is taking is that I have a couple of options with what to do with my life. 

On the one hand I could go out in to the world and continue in the career I have begun and become a wealthy and potentially a well known scientist. With this route comes security and a clear direction and progression into the future, I would be in control of my life and would be able to support my family so that they would have no worries in life any more. 

The other is to follow a calling which is only getting stronger the more I think about and consider it. In following the direction I believe God is calling me would require turning away from 8 years of education, a significant financial investment and any control over where my life would lead. In this option I would go where I was sent, when I was sent and would earn only a tiny fraction of what I could following the other option.

However God keeps teaching me that money is not important and that when I need it the financial aspect of things will be taken care of. He keeps showing me time and again that if only I trust in Him he will make sure that I want for and need nothing. Also if I am to give God the whole of my life and my best then surely I must give Him them now.

My Dad's argument is not that I should not follow God's calling, but that I should go and work in science for a few years, earn and save a decent chunk of money and then follow God's calling. And while on the surface of it this sounds sensible, it is not following what God is saying, it is not giving my all and my best and it surely is not relying on God to provide all things as He has promised. It may be hard, it will surely be a challenge but I know that if I trust in Him I will make it through, if I trust on His goodness and Grace there will be nothing too big to get through. Hopefully through my actions and faith my Dad can learn that he does not need to do everything on His own and that trusting in God is a more viable option than relying on oneself. 

Good morning 2011

Well, its a new year. I have to say that last year could have gone a little better and I am hoping for a much better one this year. Looking out over a fresh new year I have to say that this year does have the potential to be one of the best in my life. It is going to be very busy and it is going to be a lot of hard work but I am confident that the benefits will be huge.

So what does 2011 have in store for me? Well for one thing I plan to continue this blog and have some interesting plans for things to do, watch this space for what I hope to be some very interesting posts this year. I am also planning to start studying towards my first theological qualification this year and am hoping to be accepted on to a training scheme in Canada in September, again keep a look out and I will post updates. There is a new Bible study class in my Church I will be helping to run and the quest for a new job to start in March too. So far a busy year planned and hopefully it will be a lot of fun and a very exciting journey.

In addition to this I have my ongoing Soldier's Challenge, an upcoming Lent fast and likely a few more ideas like that to boot. I will also be embarking on my first structured personal Bible study and will likely be using thoughts and ideas from that on here from time to time. There are some ideas I left hanging last year that will be picked up and some interesting thoughts that I will be following too. There is all this and much more planned too.

So that leaves me with one final thing to talk about in this post, New Years Resolutions. I wonder how many people make these and actually stick to them for the whole year. Well last night, actually just a little before mid night I was reading a blog written by a blogger called Suz at Saved to Serve. It is worth checking this blog out, it is one of the many great blogs out there that I follow. In this post however she is challenging herself to stick to these resolutions of William Booth's this year instead of making up her own. I have been inspired by this post to forget my ideas for New Years resolutions and also attempt to stick to these 6 resolutions for an entire year;

I do promise - my God helping -

1. That I will rise every morning sufficiently early to wash, dress, and have a few minutes, not less than 5, in private prayer.

2. That I will, as much as possible, avoid all that babbling and idle talk in which I have lately so sinfully indulged.

3. That I will endeavor in my conduct and deportment before the world and my fellow servants especially to conduct myself as a humble, meek and zealous follower of Christ, and by serious conversation and warning endeavor to lead them to think of their immortal souls.

4. That I will read no less than four chapters in God’s Word every day.

5. That I will strive to live closer to God, and to seek after holiness of heart and leave providential events with God.

6. That I will read over this every day or at least twice a week.

“God help me, enable me to cultivate a spirit of self-denial and to yield myself a prisoner of love to the redeemer of the world.”
“I feel my own weakness, and without God’s help I shall not keep these resolutions. The Lord have mercy upon my guilty soul.”
                                        (William Booth at age 20)

These are 6 powerful and difficult resolutions to stick too and I will surely need Gods help to achieve them. But in attempting them, even if I fail, there is sure to be much progress made and a huge amount of benefit to be made from doing it. So I will try to keep you all up to date with my progress in this new challenge for this New Year.

So Happy New Year to all of my readers, I hope that you all had a great time last night whatever you chose to do, but most of all I wish you a God filled and God blessed New Year, may all His plans prosper in you this year.

Advent Challenge Day 20

This challenge is now complete, please feel free to browse all of the 

completed tasks via the Advent Challenge tab.

Support a Christmas appeal. There is one appeal that I support every year without fail, The Salvation Army Christmas Appeal.As someone who was raised in The Salvation Army it is something that I have always felt strongly about, and even when I was not a part of the Church I still actively supported the Christmas Appeal.

Both through personal donations and playing with the band every winter I do my part in supporting the local Salvation Army in raising money towards the charity work this organisation does. I always fills me with a sense of pride and privilege when ever I see people collecting for the same appeal or when I see the TV ad campaigns.

Also with working in the area where this sort of fund raising goes I have come to a much greater appreciation of what these efforts are for, who is helped by this money and the reactions that it creates. Seeing first hand the sorts of changes it can make has given me an even greater appreciation of what these efforts actually mean in real terms.

I know some people may call cheat on this task as they may claim it is something I would have done and supported anyway with or without the task. However to complete this task was somewhat of a challenge for me. Being slightly incapacitated this week with an agonising neck and shoulder injury causing me to take the week off work sick to complete this task caused me a fair bit of suffering. Standing playing carols in the freezing weather with snow on the ground with constant pain from my shoulder was not easy, and I could have easily skipped it or gone home early. But I did not, and I played with good cheer for the two hours we were out, after all some things are just worth the effort.

The task which is next in the Advent challenge is task number 10. Pray for those who find Christmas difficult. Check back tomorrow to see how this task goes, until then, Merry Christmas.

Read the doctrines

This week the challenge that I have been doing is to read the doctrines of The Salvation Army. This is quite an important one for me as I am currently following plans which will with God's blessings lead me into full time ministry with The Salvation Army. I am proud to be a member of The Salvation Army, actually I am writing this post sat in McDonald's wearing my uniform, and feel that each and every member should know what it is that we stand for and why we believe what we believe.

Salvation Army doctrines

We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead-the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.

We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.

We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, are necessary to salvation.

We believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.

We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

So there they are, the doctrines of The Salvation Army. These doctrines are the core of our faith as a Church and vital to our life as Christians practising our faith in this branch of the body of Christ. As a member of The Salvation Army I do believe these doctrines although I do not claim to always be 100% happy with what they mean. However when I have issue with them it is normally problems such as the fact that we believe in the endless punishment of the wicked. As someone who has a considerable number of friends who are scientists and part of what I call Dawkin's Disciples I sometimes worry that these people may fall into the category of wicked due to their active stance against God and Jesus.

There is not a lot I can really say about the doctrines without turning this post in to one of epic length. I think that after doing this challenge I have been inspired to do a series looking at the beliefs I have from the Church I belong to. So look out for that coming up, probably in the new year. However I have a little bit of a back log of things I want to write about stacking up and not much time in which to do the relevant research, but hopefully the holidays will provide me with time to catch up.

So reading the doctrines is done. Well not quite, there is a little more I want to do with them as I said but essentially the task as set out by the challenge is done. But I am intending to memorise these doctrines for myself as well as write on them for you guys to hopefully read in the future.

Now all that is left is for me to let you know what task has come out of the hat for me to complete this week. The task that I pulled out of the hat was to write out my salvation testimony. Now this is something that The Salvation Army seems to do a lot, from the very early days of William Booth testimonies have been integral to our fellowship. In my view a testimony is a very organic thing, it grows and evolves with you as you grow in your Christian faith, if it doesn't then maybe you should be a little worried. So This week I will write out my salvation testimony, which will be different to any I have written before and unlike any I am likely to write in the future but it will be an interesting snapshot into my Christian life as it stands right now. Please check back next week to read the post and testimony I produce and also I hope you will keep checking in the future for when I post further on the doctrines.