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CAPTAINS' BLOG
Comments? Fire away to sixonefour@lightspeed.ca
July 31, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Since I’m on about SALVATIONIST, how about the article by
Colonel Brindley Boon on Commissioner George Scott Railton (one
of my heroes- see the recent best books blogs)! He was promoted
to Glory 90 years ago this month.
Boon brings to light some interesting information about
Railton’s family. Here it is:
On 17 January 1884 George Scott Railton left the Booth
household - the only real home he had ever known - to marry
Timbrel Sergeant Deborah Parkyn of Torquay Corps. The ceremony
was conducted by General Booth at Exeter Hall in the Strand. It
was a public occasion with 'tickets, a packed house, hundreds of
tambourines, many concertinas, a full brass band and a large
noisy drum'.
The bride was the daughter of a free church minister who was a
man of property. When the girl became a Salvationist her father
was greatly displeased. She was certainly socially a cut above
the average Army lass of the time and her continuing activity
could bring disgrace upon the respectable family. Eventually he
relented to the extent of agreeing to his daughter marrying
Railton so long as he severed all connection with the
Salvationists. This was out of the question and the couple, so
much in love, became 'continual comrades in the war'.
The travelling commissioner's many journeys took him frequently
away from Mrs Railton and their three children, David, Nathaniel
and Esther. The father had high hopes of the boys following him
into Army officership and, like many a leader since, was
disappointed when events did not work out that way. It has been
suggested that the boys never really forgave the Army hierarchy
for taking him away so often and not allowing them to get to
know him. Most probably Railton, the Army's St Francis, would
not have wished a life other than the one he so much relished.
Both sons went to Oxford University - with money from a trust
set up by Deborah's father and from which Railton and the Army
were excluded – and became Church of England padres in the First
World War.
Light bulb! Here was GSR marrying a soldier daughter of a
free-church minister. What’s the problem? Father-in-law did not
approve. What’s wrong with that? We lost GSR’s family heritage
for the Army.
Is that too extreme? Father-in-law established a trust fund to
educate his grandchildren. GSR and the Army were excluded from
it.
They went and got educated out of the Army.
“Tell it not in Gath!” you say? Their grandparents seemed to
have poisoned them to the Flag. And we lost them.
Can you imagine what GSR’s children might have done as zealous,
passionate, covenanted, apostolic, prophetic end-time warriors
in the Ranks? Can you imagine THREE Railtons roaming the earth,
starting wars, imitating Christ, winning souls, instigating
revolutions, dreaming dreams, dying with their boots on? It was
not to be.
And all because GSR got unequally yoked.
posted by Stephen Court, July 31, 2003.
July 30, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Major Charles King, the editor of the indispensable SALVATIONIST
(http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/en/Publications/salvationist/Home.htm),
on July 19, editorialized on a UK survey about religion. He
quotes the response of one person, who declared: 'I just feel
that people who are religious are very self-centred, they just
want to talk about themselves. They're on about religion all the
time and are rarely interested in other people.'
Now, I recognize that in one way an independent (someone who
doesn’t depend on Jesus) doesn’t have the first clue about a
relationship with Jesus and will misread good intentions.
That said, there is a lot to learn from the comments. First,
self-centredness is sort of the opposite of what we’re aiming at
here, folks. Second, it is refreshing to hear how persistent,
consistent haranguing comes across to an independent. And third,
it is pleasantly surprising that religionists are perceived to
be always on about our beliefs. I’d have thought many of us were
either to chicken to talk or too worldly to think of it.
Posted by Stephen Court, July 30, 2003.
July 29, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
CBC News Online (July 10) gives some intriguing statistics about
Canadian lifestyle.
They are suggestive of priorities of Canadians. Watch this:
175.6 litres
The quantity of alcohol bought by the average person aged 15 and
over in
Yukon in 2001-2002…Yukon also has the highest rate of people
charged with impaired driving. In 1998, 1,148 people were
charged for every 100,000 population aged 16 and over.
So, on average, every day, a Yukon citizen chugs back half a
litre of alcohol. Now, I KNOW there are some sturdy Salvos up
there and they don’t drink at all. So the people who do drink
actually drink more than that, on average, every day. How much
does it take to be labeled an alcoholic?
More than one in a hundred of them gets arrested for drunk
driving. Some of the others don’t get caught.
How does the government handle a situation like this?
$3.2 billion
The amount of money provincial and territorial governments made
from the control and sale of alcoholic beverages in 2001-2002.
They cash in. What should we teetotalers do, beside drive
carefully?
posted by Stephen Court, July 29, 2003.
July 28, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
To continue this farewell commentary, here’s one my pal sent me
this week:
"God is faithful." "Be thou faithful unto death."
I’ve had some correspondence recently with some comrades in
Africa. One was recounting to me some episodes of his Christian
brothers and sisters being killed because of their faith.
This farewell is not just some benediction (good word). It is a
humbling challenge, one to holiness (to be like Jesus- He is
faithful- so you be like Him) until we go to glory.
Wow. Some of these greetings are jam-packed with power.
posted by Stephen Court, July 28, 2003.
July 27, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
I have a running commentary on farewells that make you think, or
make you act. A friend of mine just signed off, “Yours and His”.
Amen. Yours and His,
Stephen Court
posted by Stephen Court, July 27, 2003.
July 26, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Bill Bright was promoted to Glory a couple of days ago. I am
glad that I recently blogged him as one of the five top people
in history. Praise God.
May He raise up many more Bright lights to replace this one. And
may He equip and stir the rest of us on to fulfill the
world-winning mission that Dr. Bright has furthered so much.
posted by Stephen Court, July 26, 2003.
July 25, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
This is the last of my ‘five books that helped shape my life’
exercise. You can tune in to JAC (www.armybarmy.com/JAC)
in August for some excellent lists from some excellent people.
Raliton outlived William Booth by a year. Booth has yet to get
his due as an author. He wrote some unknown classics such as
SERGEANT-MAJOR DO-YOUR-BEST, SEVEN SPIRITS: Or, What I Tell My
Officers, HOW TO PREACH, PURITY OF HEART, all less famous than
IN DARKEST ENGLAND AND THE WAY OUT. But my last choice is
VISIONS. It is a collection of visions Booth had, the most
renowned being ‘Who Cares?’ Not only is VISIONS eloquent, it
persuasively depicts the divine. Booth doesn’t settle with
capturing your imagination- he grips it with a stranglehold. The
undercurrent is that Booth is all about the prophetic. He hears
from God and conveys the message to us. Most of us have
neglected this reality in our salvationism (Catherine prophesied
that this movement shall inaugurate the great final conquest of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ). We can more easily
marginalize modern classics by Rick Joyner like FINAL QUEST and
THE CALL. But Joyner lines up right behind Booth’s VISIONS for
prophetic impact. And while I love the visions and the writing,
I embrace the Army’s experience and calling with the prophetic.
This may be the time to highlight a new feature on armybarmy.com
called BOOK OF THE FORTNIGHT. We have started regularly posting
ebooks for netizens to digest and critique. The neat thing about
online books is that there are many such that are out of print.
So we get access to some neglected classics by some godly
people. Why not check it out and give one a read?
posted by Stephen Court, July 25, 2003.
July 24, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
This ‘five book’ exercise is nearly over.
Catherine Booth was promoted to Glory in 1890. Not coincidently,
Commissioner George Scott Railton was excommunicated from the
halls of primitive salvationist power in the same year (was it
coincidental that this was the year of the death of primitive
salvationism?). While not famous as an author, GSR battled as
effectively with the pen as he did with the Bible. Backing up
every page of HEATHEN ENGLAND was a life of unleashed resolve
that GSR modeled for the world. My buddy called me this winter
from training college to get suggestions for resources. I
recommended HEATHEN ENGLAND and TWENTY-ONE YEARS’ SALVATION
ARMY. He emailed a week later noting that my name was the last
one written in the CFOT borrowing cards (And I’ve been an
officer for ten years!). And that is tragic, because the book is
literally revolutionary, recounting, as it does, contemporary
history of the primitive salvationist war. The stuff he was
writing was happening outside his window. The heroics that lace
these pages are enough to gouge a hole in your casual,
comfortable Christianity and leave in its place a wrenching
hunger for the guts to live and fight for death and glory as our
19th century comrades did and for the God of Railton to show up
again today.
posted by Stephen Court, July 24, 2003.
July 23, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Carrying on from the last post…
It wasn’t two years after Finney was promoted to Glory that
Catherine and William Booth made a name change that has changed
the world. While John Wesley was the grandfather of The
Salvation Army and Finney was dubbed ‘the Presbyterian
Salvationist’ by the Booths themselves, my next choice, PAPERS
ON AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY, was by the Army Mother herself (I’m
hesitant to use that term, as she was the General and the
Founder, too, but she is the only one who was the Mother). I
could have chosen any of a few books by Booth. They are merely
collections of her preaching. They are merely fire on paper!
Flames flick from her words off the page to practically lick
your clothes. Each sermon oozes spiritual authority. Almost
every paragraph shouts out to you with the urgency of the war.
This hero makes no concessions, no compromises, and no political
‘correctitudes’. She put (and continues to put) a holy fear in
me of the kind that doesn’t cause cowering and retreat but
impels total exertion to spread the dread. This helped shaped my
life- I named a cyber journal after it (JAC) and an annual
conference (ACC- Aggressive Christianity Councils).
posted by Stephen Court, July 23, 2003
July 22, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Picking up where I left off, yesterday…
The year after Wesley was promoted to Glory was born a man who
would walk in his huge shoes. Across the ocean, Charles Finney
stoked the fires of revival through the eastern United States.
His preaching was so hardcore and so manifestly accompanied by
the power of God that multitudes were transformed and cities
were turned upside down. His LECTURES ON REVIVALS OF RELIGION
(1835) is an account of the preaching that changed a nation. The
sister volume is the stubbornly named, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY THE
REVEREND CHARLES G. FINNEY, 1792-1875 (1876). Together they tell
a divine story that rips the placid satisfaction right out of
you.
posted by Stephen Court, July 22, 2003.
July 21, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
As a teaser for the upcoming issue of Journal of Aggressive
Christianity (JAC is at armybarmy.com/JAC) of August, I want to
feed you one favourite book a day.
There is a great feature called, FIVE BOOKS THAT HELPED SHAPE MY
LIFE with some very interesting people pitching in their top
five. So, for the next five days, I will throw in my two cents’
worth.
In 1777, John Wesley wrote an apologetic of his doctrine of
holiness called A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. He took
the high road in the extremely charged debate of the day,
allowing John Fletcher to scale the polemical heights in his
CHECKS TO ANTINOMIANISM. His simple ‘question and answer’ format
was imitated by General William Booth in Booth’s potent little
1903 book, THE DOCTRINES OF THE SALVATION ARMY (subtitled,
“Prepared for the use of Cadets in Training For Officership”).
Wesley patiently answered every critic’s question, every
skeptic’s doubt, and every cynic’s disparagement with
historically documented explanation of this Biblical doctrine.
Now, A PLAIN ACCOUNT stands in for Fletcher’s CHECKS, and for
Samuel Logan Brengle’s practical guides, especially HELPS TO
HOLINESS (a book I carried along with my Bible on a bicycle to
our neighbourhood park, where I sat, determined not to leave
until I experienced the holiness described therein). A PLAIN
ACCOUNT is precious not only as a defence but as a promise of
what is possible.
posted by Stephen Court, July 21, 2003.
July 20, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
I recently read about the now prominent Special Operations
forces of the American military. These elites are called ‘snake
eaters’.
Now, on our front we actually undertake what we call ‘USOs’-
undercover spiritual ops. I think we might start calling them
snake eaters. Snake Eaters are highly trained and motivated,
prepared to survive in hostile terrain, and ruthless toward the
enemy. That sounds like us (well- how we want to be!). After
all, Mark 16:18 predicts that we will handle snakes safely. And
Jesus, the bronze snake of John 3:14, and challenged us to eat
His flesh in John 6:54.
So, if we nickname ourselves Snake Eaters, not only do we
possess the aggressive characteristics of the special ops, but
we are willing to eat the Snake. That is ‘Jesus in me’ to the
extreme, His character (humility, purity, compassion), His power
(over sickness, over demons, over sin), in me.
That combination is invincible. Eat the Snake!
posted by Stephen Court, July 20, 2003.
July 19, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
I read two powerful words in Scripture today- “Daniel answered.”
These are supernatural, miraculous words, coming, as they do, in
response to King Darius’s anguished call, “Daniel, servant of
the living God! Was your God, whom you worship continually, able
to rescue from the lions?”
I love that! Daniel answered!
posted by Stephen Court, July 19, 2003.
July 18, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
The best evangelist I’ve fought with a Mike Woodard. He is a
leader with Campus Crusade for Christ. No matter who we run into
doing initiative evangelism, Mike established common ground,
makes friends quickly, and, through his own vulnerability,
allows the other person to open up spiritually.
Anyway, I just got his support letter. In it he quotes:
The Lord works from the inside out.
The world works from the outside in.
The world would take people out of the slums.
Christ takes the slums out of people,
And then they take themselves out of the slums.
The world would mold men by changing their environment.
Christ changes men, who will then change their environment.
The world would shape human behaviour, but
Christ can change human nature.
Hallelujah. It is good stuff, not great, but it gives me an
opportunity to pump up my friends Mike and Campus Crusade for
Christ (probably the most effective great commission ministry in
history). Campus Crusade for Christ is responsible for me
getting discipled (Brad Thompson discipled me- he now leads the
Ukraine Bible Institute in Kiev). May God prosper their hands.
posted by Stephen Court, July 18, 2003.
July 17, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
In the same vein as yesterday’s blog, I got an email from
another friend with the following signature:
Taking Heaven Violently
When I read stuff like that, I emit audible agreement! I love
the bridge-burning, sold-out, heroic stance. You can’t stick
that on the bottom of your email without sounding kooky if you
aren’t really living it.
So, you’re out there in left field as far as the world and much
of the Church is concerned. You’re an extremist.
But the cool thing is, you are living it. And that attracts all
kinds of people who are sick of monotonous, ineffectual
Christianity and who hunger after a little death and glory.
Hallellujah!
posted by Stephen Court, July 17, 2003.
July 16, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Rick Joyner, leader of Morningstar Fellowship Church (not to be
confused with my blog about Morningstar International a couple
of blogs ago) has just released a prophetic word for Vancouver.
VANCOUVER: I saw the city of Vancouver become a major port
for hospital ships. These were sailing all over the world, but
primarily to Asia, and South and Central America. This region of
Southwestern Canada will soon become one of the great missionary
bases in North America, particularly for reaching China and the
strategic nations of Asia. Many great healing ministries will
rise up there, and some will move there to make it their base.
Another bridge for missionaries to cross over into these Pacific
rim nations will be Western Canadian businesses, which will rise
up and establish strong business links to these nations. The
future of Southwestern Canada is strongly linked to Asia.
So, for those of you from around here, there’s something into
which to pray. For the rest of us, let’s keep listening.
posted by Stephen Court, July 16, 2003.
July 15, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
You may have heard of the United Nations Human Rights Commission
. Watch Jay Nordlnger’s take:
In the chairman's seat is Qaddafi — his government. Other
members of the commission are Cuba, China, Sudan, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, and Zimbabwe. That is a murderer's row (literally,
unfortunately). National Review Online, July 8, 2003.
Has Monty Python taken over the UN? How can any integrity be
pretended in such a group?
Ah, but aren’t Christians equally guilty? We stand up and invite
people to turn from their sins and follow a Jesus whom we serve.
Hypocrisy? Not for the ex-proud, the ex-philanderer, the
ex-pilferer. But those of us who’ve not ‘ex-ed’ all of our sins,
who hide habitual harmful hankerings, who coddle cuddly
crudities, who protect persistent prejudices- we’re a bit like
the UNHRC.
They need and we need to change.
posted by Stephen Court, July 15, 2003.
July 14, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Three years ago, Sweden became the first country to legally
redefine prostitution as a form of violence against women (http://nationalreview.com/comment/comment-hughes070803.asp).
Wow. Some sobriety in 2003 western civilization! In an era of
accelerating moral declension, as the abortionists race the gay
marriage advocates to see who can make the most mockery of
righteousness and justice, Sweden steps up to draw a line in the
sand.
In my neighbourhood there are all kinds of people who, by the
Swedish definition, regularly suffer violence against women.
Three score and one of these victims disappeared from this
neighbourhood over the last two decades, and only recently have
their body parts emerged in an evil pig farm in the lower
mainland (http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/bc_missingwomen.html).
This assertion by the Swedes holds out hope for those of us in
other western countries that our governments and courts might
actually stand up for justice. But more importantly, it holds
out hope for the victims of this violence, that they will stop
being objectified and abused, and find rescue. Let’s pray and
fight towards that end.
posted by Stephen Court, July 14, 2003.
July 13, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
One of the relatively new movements I love is Morningstar
International. Founded in 1994 (http://www.morningstar2010.com/),
this group of churches and campus ministries is committed to
winning, “Every Nation In This Generation.”
What a classic goal! And my brief experience with this group is
that these guys mean it. They are going for it. They are sold
out. There is a spiritual momentum that feels contagious. May
God prosper them.
And may we each be challenged, inspired, goaded, motivated, and
mobilized by the example of brothers and sisters everywhere who
are getting it done!
posted by Stephen Court, July 13, 2003.
July 12, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
One of the key drives inside each of us is the need to belong.
Whether it is the look on the last kid chosen in recess games,
forlorn for not fitting in, or the humorous clannish dressing of
teens, determined to do whatever it takes to fit in, our society
shouts out the importance of belonging.
It certainly doesn't end with graduation. It often graduates
from clothing to cars, from favourite TV show to favourite bar.
We are not islands. We are created for fellowship. It is in our
DNA. Like Jerry McGuire finally concluding to his wise,
estranged wife: "You complete me," we are all in search of the
missing piece to the puzzle that is our life.
A great philosopher from France was no exception. His search
ended with this conclusion: Every person has a God-shaped vacuum
that only God can fill.
We will still struggle to belong. We will join clubs and teams
and associations. We will continue to interact with each other
in attempts of intermeshing with each other. We will find some
solace in these human relationships, especially those that last
until the grave.
But if that is the extent of our search, we will have passed
over the missing piece, the part that completes us. We have been
invited to belong in the family of God, to become a part of a
network of love-relationships that last throughout eternity. It
is the realisation of our purpose, the 'more than'
accomplishment of our dreams.
We can belong.
How? Sign the adoption papers. They are certified by the blood
of Jesus, shed on the Cross so that our sins, those things that
are inconsistent with membership in the family, can be forgiven.
Then trust Jesus forever. Follow Him. He's headed to a Home He's
fixing up just for you.
Posted by Stephen Court, July 12, 2003.
July 11, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Songs often draw out reminiscences, and vice versa. One season
in college, the favourite song of whoever it was controlling the
locker room CD player was JOY AND PAIN (it has a different
title, IT TAKES 2, by Rob Base, but that was the familiar
chorus- sheepishly, I admit I didn’t know the words until I
found the link, which follows- and the verses are to be ignored-
http://80stop.tripod.com/joypain.html).
New Christians can sing this song. You see, I think that when we
start out on this new adventure, everything is rose-coloured,
everything is bright and happy, and we assume that we will slide
effortlessly into our wonderful dreams.
And often there IS a honeymoon. Everything seems to be JOY. For
the new Christian there is freedom, there is a release, there is
an unburdening of a heavy existential weight from spiritual
shoulders. Everything is JOY. Joy, joy, joy.
And then the honeymoon ends. It could be the first encounter
with old friends and lifestyles. It could be old habits or new
temptations. It could be persecution. It could be the combined
with of sinful nature, world, and devil. But everything seems to
be PAIN. Pain, pain, pain.
Of course, both perspectives are right.
And both perspectives are wrong.
You see, the Christian life isn’t all Joy, and it isn’t all
Pain. But, like the chorus of that 1980s hit, it is a
combination of JOY and PAIN. It is the reality. And it doesn’t
go away.
As you keep fighting, you have more joy seeing people’s lives
transformed and experiencing more intimacy with Jesus. But, as
you grow closer to Jesus and more mature, you might expect less
pain. However, as the internal struggle with evil shrinks and
disappears it is replaced with an increased compassion and
burden. So, while pain from internal tension decreases, the pain
from the hurts of others increases. And so our warfare will
always also include pain (until Jesus wraps this whole thing
up).
And so, JOY AND PAIN. Embrace the latter type of pain, as it
will give birth to more joy in the morning.
posted by Stephen Court, July 11, 2003.
July 10, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
I we’re blessed to hear General Larsson preaching at our
Congress a couple of weeks ago.
In the past he was written about the importance of the prophetic
in The Salvation Army warfare. It was heartening to hear him on
this subject again, when he exclaimed, “We thank God for the
prophets who make us think!”
I thank God for the prophets in the Army whose path God has let
me cross, for they have been a blessing to me, and my warfare.
Tragically, not all of them are blessed by the Army itself, as
the General’s sentiments and convictions have evidently not
filtered down through the ranks, yet.
I trust this blog will help. God likes our prophets. General
Larsson likes them. I’m sold on them. So let’s not kill them.
Let’s not harass them. Let’s not marginalize them. Let’s not
curse them. Let’s bless them and pray for them.
posted by Stephen Court, July 10, 2003.
July 9, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Every once in a while I come across a sensational line that I
write into my little book (that keeps a record of my schedule).
I’ve got heaps of them. Here is a classic I just landed. It is a
line from a personal letter by an evangelist about to hit the
front again:
I feel like an old warhorse sniffing the smoke of battle and
pray that we may be able to take some captives for Jesus.
It’s a beauty. It is one of those lines you expect from Finney
or Wesley or Railton or Booth-Tucker. But this line is not some
dusty old quote from a book. I got it in an email this week from
a friend who was going out on an evangelistic campaign. I love
it!
Of course, it is even better when you mean it. And this warrior
means it. And so his words are not kooky or contrived. They rise
up romantically from a heroic core deep in his heart. If that
kind of conviction and passion doesn’t stir your insides then
you should check your spiritual pulse.
Thank God for the warriors. Raise up hundreds of millions more,
please.
posted by Stephen Court, July 9, 2003.
July 8, 2003.
I just read in the National Post about a man who had
recovered from a stroke (http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=2383849A-4488-41E0-9D59-EEE8AFEFA833),
and whose reading, speech, memory, and motor functions had all
returned to normal. On the occasion of their anniversary, his
wife arranged for a violinist to play ‘their’ song.
She loved it. But he thought it sounded horrible. Writes Brad
Evenson, “The stroke had wiped out his capacity to comprehend
the patterns of tone and tempo, pitch and rhythm we call music.”
While he could hear sounds and perceive meaning from them
clearly, he had lost his song. He was ‘amusical’.
He’s not the first. The people of Israel lost their song. They
found themselves exiled to a foreign land, slaves.
Watch this (Psalm 137):
1 Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of
Jerusalem.
2 We put away our lyres, hanging them on the branches of the
willow trees.
3 For there our captors demanded a song of us. Our tormentors
requested a joyful hymn: "Sing us one of those songs of
Jerusalem!"
4 But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign
land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its
skill upon the harp.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to
remember you, if I don't make Jerusalem my highest joy.
They literally hung up their harps. They couldn’t sing. Their
tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths. Their fingers lost
the skill required to play. And their hearts weren’t in it.
Has that ever happened to you? You’ve found yourself exiled from
the presence of God by sin of some kind, and you lack the joy to
sing? Herbert Booth was an early Salvation Army composer,
writing more than 187 songs, including such classics as ‘Grace
there is my every debt to pay’, ‘Victory for me!’, ‘Let me love
Thee’, and ‘Promoted to Glory’. He had a prolific songsmith pen
and a singing heart. He was one of a list of significant SA
composers, about whom Ian Bradley notes: 'late Victorian Britain
did produce a number of gospel songwriters, virtually all of
whom were Salvation Army officers' (http://archive.salvationarmy.org.uk/music/VictHymn.html).
Booth was in the forefront. So popular was he that a collection
of songs written by him and his wife was published as Songs of
Peace and War at the time of their marriage.
(http://www1.salvationarmy.org/heritage.nsf/0/F7F48B7582AE365E8025694C004A7B17?openDocument).
Now, I’ve read that Booth was, “given to periods of intense
activity, followed by exhaustion and depression.” It was during
one of these bouts of depressions that Booth decided to leave
the Army.
Now, often when we’re worn out from battles, when we’re just off
some hard-fought victories, the devil is fiercest in his
attacks. Is it possible that Booth succumbed to such an assault?
I’ve found no record (see, for example, this non-SA site:
(http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/b/o/booth_hh.htm)
that after he left the Army he wrote or published any songs. He
left at age forty and died 24 years later. In the first 40 years
he pumped out 187 songs, and in the last 24, the height of his
mental and spiritual capacity, he wrote none. Hmm.
The intriguing thing to me is an arrangement he made with his
brother Bramwell upon his departure to keep the copyright to his
multimedia epic, Soldiers Of The Cross.
He decided to go, but wanted to take ‘Soldiers of the Cross’
with him. Negotiations with Bramwell were drawn out, but in the
end, it was agreed that payment would be the transfer to the
Salvation Army of the copyright to all the songs he had written
during his early years with the Salvation Army. (http://www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/bios/3_1_1.htm)
Today, of course, the copyright to all of an officer’s songs
(and any other creations) automatically belongs to The Salvation
Army. I cannot confirm whether that exchange is the precedent
for this situation. However, it is shocking that Herbert Booth,
in his best Esau imitation, sold his songs! During a vulnerable
time of depression, he willingly gave his birthright away. No
wonder he could sing no more.
The solution is, as always, restoration. We may not be Herbert
Booths, but we may have sold our birthright, wasted our song,
and now find ourselves spiritually exiled. But Gospel
restoration is still possible:
(Psalm 126):
1 When the LORD restored his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a
dream!
2 We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the
other nations said, "What amazing things the LORD has done for
them."
3 Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy!
You can get your song back. You can get your joy back. The Lord
remains the only creative source, the only font of real joy. Run
back to Him and hide there. The Lord can do amazing things for
you!
posted by Stephen Court, July 8, 2003.
July 7, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
General John Gowans of The Salvation Army challenged me (and
thousands of others) before his retirement to live a provocative
lifestyle. This kind of life is certainly contrary to how we are
inculcated and acculturated to live. Provocation is antithetical
to tolerance, the sum and substance of the postmodern ethic.
His thing is that if we are sold out to a purpose in life, one
that shines in stark contrast to the prevailing worldview, then
we should, by our living, provoke a reaction from the majority.
Most of us have the same ends. Most of us desire peace, love,
and joy.
The cause in question about which Gowans stirred me is the cause
of Jesus Christ. Jesus' whole purpose was to awaken a somnolent
people to an overflowing life full of the peace, love, and joy
for which most people are searching. However, when the pervasive
mindset is that a coalescence of materialism and consumerism is
the highway to love and peace, it is difficult to coax drivers
to change direction. When the emerging trend is down the path of
pantheistic obsolescence *it is problematical to convince
travelers to switch their course.
And so my General directed me to live a provocative lifestyle.
He insisted that my words and actions kindle questions from
those who do not share my views. Too often, I've been willing to
settle in on cruise control as I follow Jesus. I've figured that
people know from the uniform I wear that I belong to Jesus and
experience the peace, joy, and love for which they are hunting.
In the past, I've assumed that opening the doors at the local
hall on a Sunday morning at 10:30 to worship Jesus Christ lets
people know there is provision for the needs they struggle with.
I have inferred that my beliefs, divergent as they are from the
norm our culture, would generate a response. I've even thought
that the transformation of people's lives by Jesus, through
forgiveness, physical healing, and spiritual deliverance and
freedom would arouse some questions in people in my city.
I guess we need to turn up the volume in our love, joy, peace,
holiness, compassion, justice, and grace that you experience
when we meet you. I am determined to live a more provocative
lifestyle, in hopes of raising questions in your minds and on
your tongues about how you, too, can experience the wonderful
life through the only means that will get your there, Jesus
Christ. Contact me at
info@thewarcollege.com.
*Pantheism, the belief that God is everything and everything
is God, is hopelessly obsolete. At one point it was, of course,
true. But then "God created." To the chagrin of stubborn reiki
masters, wiccans, channellers, new agers, and pop eastern
religionists everywhere, God created .
posted by Stephen Court, July 7, 2003.
July 6, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
It is time to stop playing around. The world has a better idea
of the struggle that we’re in that we do. Terminator plays out
the truth that life is war. In the second flick Sara Conner
focused the entirety of her motherhood on training her son for
his calling, to be prepared to lead the war. The world of Matrix
plays out the truth that life is war. Morpheus states the
obvious, preaching to the choir: ‘This is a war and we are
soldiers… Isn’t it worth dying for?’
Meanwhile, we tend to get distracted by the enemy in sheep’s
uniforms, convincing us to waste precious time and valuable
money on show, on shows, on comfort, on maintenance, on
credentials, on luxuries, on political correctness, on fear of
man, on trends, on protecting reputations, on building temporal
kingdoms, and on a myriad of similarly vain projects.
Rick Joyner has suggested that God speaks to the Church through
the movies (probably because we know them better than we know
our Bibles?). It seems that He is shouting out to us that we are
in a war. And the enemy isn‘t polite enough to only engage us on
Sunday mornings. The enemy knows a few things better than we do.
One of them is that this is bigger than life and death- this is
heaven and hell. The consequences are enormous, gigantic.
And we piddle along.
Warriors make war. It is our lives.
posted by Stephen Court, July 6, 2003.
July 5, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
On May 9, 1912, General Booth preached his last message, at
London’s Royal Albert Hall. The rhetorical climax went as
follows:
While women weep as they do now, I’ll fight; while little
children go hungry as they do now, I’ll fight; while men go to
prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl
on the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the
light of God, I’ll fight—I’ll fight to the very end.
Here we are, nearly 100 years later, still fighting. I’m ticked
off. I’m ticked off that millions of women still weep. I’m
ticked off that tens of millions of children go hungry (I’m
ticked off that we haven’t stopped millions of them from dying
every year from starvation). I’m ticked off that men go in and
out and in and out of prison. I’m ticked off that there are
millions of drunks and drug addicts (I’m ticked off after seeing
a friend of mine back on the street shaking like a leaf from a
terrible drug that he should be free from if God could trust me
with His delegated authority). I’m ticked off that there are
millions of lost girls prostituting themselves on the streets,
along with many boys, and a bunch of confused people who aren’t
sure of their gender identity. I’m ticked off that there are
more people going to hell right now than at any other time in
the history of the world.
I’ll fight. I want to see us rise up in the zeal and authority
of the Lord to break the fangs of the wicked, to crush the back
of injustice, to shatter the bonds of poverty, to smash the
chains of addiction, to demolish hell’s throne, and win the
world for Jesus.
posted by Stephen Court, July 5, 2003.
July 4, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
July 1st Canada celebrates Dominion Day. Of course, ‘they’
changed the name to Canada Day a decade or so ago. You ask, ‘who
is the ‘they’ who changed it?’ I tell you, it was the same
‘they’ who bumped up the standard restaurant tip from 10% to
15%, the same ‘they’ who changed AD to CE, the same ‘they’ who
changed the definition of marriage from a lifelong exclusive
union of a man and a woman, to any kind of relationship between
any number and kind of people we say it is. It is those ‘they’
who changed Dominion Day. And they did it for the same basic
reason.
They’re sheepish about the fact that God has influenced their
lives so much (okay, maybe not for the tip-raisers). They like
to think that they are independent, self- cultivated,
self-civilized, and self-just about anything else you can think
of.
And they hate to admit that every morning when they wake up and
hear the alarm radio welcome them with today’s date (for
example, today- “Good morning! It’s 6:15 am on a beautiful July
3, 2003, and your listening to…”) they are reminded that
something as basic, as fundamental as the very day in which they
live is measured in relation to its distance from the
incarnation of God. So they changed anno Domini to Common Era
(even that was an evolution, as they first switched it to
Christian Era and realized the new term didn’t help!).
And we’ve talked in this space about how they have just upped
and changed the definition of the word ‘marriage’, tied
implicitly, as it is, with Biblical ethics.
And, so, uptight about their Maker looking over their shoulder
at every turn, they changed Dominion Day to Canada Day.
You see, the country of Canada is properly known as the Dominion
of Canada. Its motto is ‘A Mari usque ad Mare’. Of course, that
is from Psalm 72:8: “He shall have dominon from dea to sea and
from the river to the ends of the earth.”
Canada’s identity, a dominion, is so tied up with God that we
are, by definition, the subject of God’s dominion. We are, by
definition if not in reality, God’s kingdom! And our motto
proclaims God’s purpose to have dominon from sea to shining sea,
and beyond that, His global evangelistic purpose to reign from
the river to the ends of the earth!
They are so embarrassed about this that they changed Dominion
Day to Canada Day. Change all the names that you want, but He’s
still going have dominion form sea to sea and from the river to
the ends of the earth!
posted by Stephen Court, July 4, 2003.
July 3, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
We’re starting this thing called The War College in September,
in Vancouver. Our original capacity was 12. We’ve had to expand
to handle the many worthy applicants. The deadline was the
first. We’re at 21 now (there are a couple still in process).
Praise God.
If you’re thinking about God’s purposes for you, maybe pray
about attending next year and start saving up.
If you’re set on your own front and have access to cash, maybe
pray about establishing a memorial scholarship for a needy
student (thewarcollege.com has more details).
posted by Stephen Court, July 3, 2003.
Posted by Stephen Court, July 2, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Founder's Day is July 2, but it is not William Booth’s birthday
(that would be April 10). It is the date of the start of William
Booth's preaching campaign in London in 1865 which led to
the formation of The Salvation Army .
I read something online suggesting that Founder’s Day was the
number 4 celebration for Salvos, behind Christmas, Resurrection,
and Pentecost.
Praise God. But I wonder how many read this and can’t remember
the last no-holds barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, lavish,
extravagant celebration of Founder’s Day you participated in at
your corps? Not to mention Pentecost.
So, for those of you in Canada, let yesterday be a warm up. For
those of you in the States, bump up the festivities from the
Fourth. For the rest of us, pull a Deuteronomy 14:26 and throw a
big celebration with great food and drink (non-alcoholic,
please), great times, and great praise of God.
posted by Stephen Court, July 2, 2003.
July 1, 2003.
Greetings in Jesus’ name, friends.
Highbrow periodical Criterion recently released its greatest
lists that culminated in a list of the greatest person ever list
(which was based on number of appearances on other lists) (http://criterion.uchicago.edu/issues/vi3/greatestman.html)
Here is the list, along with links I’ve found for the people
named:
1. King Alexander III of Macedonia
http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/Balkan/Alexander.html
2. King Tamerlane of the Turks
http://www.authorama.com/book.php?title=famous-men-of-the-middle-ages&part=28
3. Emperor Caligula of Rome
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/Mediterranean/Caligula.CP.html
4. Emperor Shi Huang Di of the Qin Dynasty
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang_Di
5. King Genseric of the Vandals
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaiseric
Now, have you heard of any of these people? I’ve heard of
Alexander and Caligula. But that’s it.
Now, my list would totally different. It would include people
like the following group (omitting Jesus, and not in any
particular order):
Paul- for spreading a little sect around his known world within
a generation; for modeling a holy life; for his wisdom; for his
fearless, persistent, flexible example (Paul will stand in for
the other biblical apostles, a couple of whom might have made
this list); for remaining one of the most influential people in
history;
Bill Bright- for ‘inventing’ the two most effective evangelistic
tools in history (the JESUS Film and the Four Spiritual Laws);
for getting tens of millions saved; for raising up a great
commission movement that is fulfilling the great commission
(‘win, build, train, send’ is the Campus Crusade for Christ
motto);
John Wesley- for rediscovering both Biblical holiness and
Biblical church government and structure; for raising up a
missionary and church movement that has shaken the world; for
his teaching; for his role in one of history’s greatest
revivals;
William Booth- for raising up an army of warriors that became
the fist of the Body of Christ; for restoring the prophetic to
the Church; for wedding evangelistic zeal with simple holiness;
for transforming societies as he struggled to save them; for
sanctified creativity…
Martin Luther- for rediscovering justification by faith, and in
so doing, transforming the Church (both the Protestants and the
Roman Catholics).
Now, the conditions were not set. And there are heaps of
possible variations on this theme. I think I’ve even argued, in
the past, for a place for Chairman Mao, since his legacy is one
of the greatest revivals in history (his persecution of
Christians spawned tens of thousands of house churches and
millions of converts- but, of course, he is totally unworthy,
especially in light of any one of tens of thousands of heroic
martyrs he and his evil regime made and makes). But praise God
for these great persons, who have transformed history way more
than Genseric, Shi Huang Di, Caligula, Tamerlane, and Alexander,
and who have, more importantly, transformed eternity.
posted by Stephen Court, July 1, 2003.
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