Armybarmy Blog

October 30, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
He is risen!

Hawk- die everyday

armybarmy.com now has Fulton Hawk's DIE EVERYDAY preach up on the main page. Enjoy.

Elaine's a deep blogger, eh?

I got to hear General Gowans preach a couple of times this weekend. RIch times. The first one was ' to obey is better than anything.' And the second was on going outside the camp. I heard one of the best prayers ever in a public meeting - Wow! People had to stand up to do it justice and there was some applause (hat tip RM).

ACC is over- lots of great stuff happened. People got saved - a fair number. But training, deployment, service, inspiration, sanctification, and other blessings have poured out. Glory to God.

God is here.
grace
stephenC
posted by Stephen Court

TRUSTING
Trusting as the moments fly;
Trusting as the days go by;
Trusting Him what ere befalls;
Trusting Jesus that is all!


Psalm 125:1 gives an impressive image of a trusting individual.
"Those who trust in the Lord
Are as Mount Zion,
Which cannot be moved
But abides forever."

In my experience trusting can be a challenge. When everything in my circumstances say, "Bail on the vision. This is a sinking ship! Stop it now! You won't have enough money to pay the bills."
There are days when everything in me gets aligned to this screaming voice in my head and I panic. But in the midst of this turmoil somewhere deep, deep within there is this still small voice. Sometimes even a slight feeling that says, "Don't panic. Just wait. Trust. Think of all the other times I've come through."
There are times that the things God calls us to do just don't make sense to us. It can be difficult, overwhelming, challenging and a whole bunch of other adjectives but through these light a momentary trials He is actually working something out in us.
I have come through a year of wrestling, questioning, panicking and on the other side of the mountain I look back and wonder why on earth I made such a fuss with the Lord. (And with Ian who endured most of my wrestling events up close and personal.) When I read a verse like Psalm 125 I am cognisant of how true it is. When we trust the Lord with all things in our lives, when we rest in Him and believe Him "what ere befalls" we truly are like Mount Zion. Strong, immovable, secure, abiding.
I will grow a trust like that. How about you?
Blessings and shalom
Elaine G

October 28, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

From 'best of the web':
"Nicaragua's Congress voted [yesterday] to ban all abortions, including those that could save a mother's life," the Associated Press reports from Managua. If the president signs the bill, it will "eliminate a century-old exception to Nicaragua's abortion ban that permits the procedure if three doctors certify that the woman's health is at risk."
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1 John 1:9 is a famous verse we're memorizing. Welcome to join us (NIV).
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Good times at ACC: Gowans in classic form; Michael Collins ripping the roof off; PraiseWorks rocking out; the whole crowd hitting the streets all afternoon doing different types of evangelism; Joe the Turk tonight (aka Major Eddie Hobgood); etc. More to come...
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Heathen England can be downloaded here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.bale3/heathenengland.pdf
or the main site: bloodandfire.org.uk
God is here.

SA daily reading: Job 19, Mark 1,2.

Much grace,
stephenC
posted by Stephen Court

Found this and thought it great daily prayer.
Enjoy.
Danielle


A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfor
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world.
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

A movie king I am not. But there remains a redemptive aspect to finding oneself in a theatre on occasion.

On a recent date with my wife (of 18 years) we went to see "the Guardian." I was struck by a line near the end. Kevin Costner plays a valiant U.S. Coast Guard member, well decorated for his fearless efforts. Reportedly he made over 200 rescues from tempestuous waters. But when quized by a young and cocky protegy as to how many, Costner only replied, "22."

The young Coast Guard graduate, obviously unimpressed, managed a lacklustre word of encouragement. To which Costner countered, "22 was the number of lives I lost!"

And then the revelation came. It pierced me. He did not boast in the saved lives. His glory was in the lament. I fall short of that kind of selfless living.

Costner, in his role, chose to lament the lost lives in the sea rather than rejoice over the ones he saved. How much more so the anguished Christ who beckons us from the dark, angry waters of the sea of humanity? Pleading to us. Who will come join me to fearlessly rescue lost sinners?

"The Lord...is patient...not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NIV)
(Read William Booth's 'The Vision' for further insight on the sea metaphor.)

Ian Gillingham
614 London, ON

'gotta get your money's worth...

CB and WB- underrated.
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on covenant:
"How can we establish relationships secure enough to become the basis of cooperation, without the use of economic, political, or military power? The use of power is ruled out by the requirement of human dignity. If you and I are linked because, one way or another, I can force you to do what I want, then I have secured my freedom at the cost of yours. I have asserted my humanity by denying yours. Covenant is that attempt to create partnership without dominance or submission. It exists because of one extraordinary feature of language. We can use words to place ourselves under obligations. (J. Sacks. THE DIGNITY OF DIFFERENCE. p202).
grace
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October 26, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Hebrews 13:15,16- through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that confess His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such SACRIFICES God is pleased.

hmm.

And, Andrew Bale has completed scanning HEATHEN ENGLAND and it is now available online at his site:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.bale3/startpage.htm

This is one of the best books of all time and is very worth the read.

SA daily reading for today: Job 17; Acts 24-26.

God is here.

Much grace
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posted by Stephen Court

Cahill on picking your battles

Thomas Cahill defends Paul for not tackling patriarchy and slavery in DESIRE OF THE EVERLASTING HILLS:
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Paul may also, in his advice to the Corinthians about liturgical exhibitionism, have seen himself under an obligation to 'keep the lid on' the Church, so that it would not draw more unwonted attention from the larger society than it was already drawing on account of its (absolutely necessary) theological and social positions.
Paul and his fellow Christians were already fighting a war on three cultural-political fronts: against Jews who accused them of the capital crime of blasphemy, against Greeks who found the Jewish notion of physical resurrection hilarious, and against Romans who were eager to round up 'troublermakers', especially ones who prayed to a 'god' that the Romans themselves had executed. In their monotheism, Christians were accused of atheism, in their Messianism, of heresy. In their communism, they appeared an obvious threat to the economics of class; in their joyous inner freedom and their comprehension of the essential equality of all human beings before God, they stood an outrageous challenge to the whole socio-political order of the Roman empire. How many more fronts could they fight on?
...
If, in addition to the wars they were already waging, Christians had followed their ideas to their logical conclusions and taken up cultural crusades against patriarchy and slavery, they would never have survived and we would never ahve heard of Christianity.
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Whew. That was a lot of typing. I hope you liked it.
grace
stephenC

assorted

Hat tip to Rose M for an update on the holey bible 'spoof':
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_061018bible.shtml
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We’re expected and expecting, by God’s power and grace, to go beyond our elders. After all, we can stand on their shoulders. And, Jesus has a ‘greater things’ expectation. In the process, OF Munn and IDSmith and maybe some others, note that we should follow the example of Shem and Japheth. These sons of Noah, when they encountered a drunk and naked father, “took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness.”

The generation that follows will not write hagiography of us, but will nobly and humbly cover up our nakedness, our shortfalls, our weaknesses, and our failures. The honour they exercise will inherit the blessing of Shem and Japheth. That blessing includes God adding a new nickname- God of Shem, and an extension of territory. And it is probably not too late for you and me to so honour the generations that preceded us. God help us. And God grant the blessing.
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grace
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a couple of more...

I heard this morning of Dallas Willard's concept of vampire Christians (hat tip Steve W). These represent most Christians, people who want a little of Jesus; blood to get saved but not really much else.

I pondered, if we're to be more than vampire Christians, what is the next step? Cannibal Christians? It fits with john 6:53-59.

Also, have you checked out the Free Shooters (see armybarmy.com main page drop menus) recently? This is a list of preachers and worship leaders that armybarmy.com offers as you pray up leaders and guests for events around your region (North American only, at this point...).

Grace
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October 24, 206.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

On the miracles at Lourdes: "For those who believe in God no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, not explanation is possible." (John LaFarge)

- Nice, especially as a lot of miracles happened in the New Testament so that people would believe.

"The welfare of the world and our own welfare depend on the character of the God we serve" (Ronald Byars).

- Obviously, but it is suggestive to those who serve others gods.

"Holiness is fullness in the Spirit." (Salvation Story)

- Fullness is a term of growing popularity these days, and is fresh richness promises to stir us to new experience (we who are hungry). I think that, as bandied about so far, fullness implies more than holiness and includes something of a macro-shalom. One comrade suggested that fullness is holiness+. But she also wonders, maybe our view of holiness is too small...

I'm not sure of the ultimate definition of the term, but I found it interesting to see in the new handbook of doctrine. The uncertainty on this reminds me of the declaration of Thomas a Kempis: "I'd rather feel compunction than know the definition thereof." And, for today, I'll settle with the confession, "I'd rather experience fullness than know the definition thereof."

SA daily reading: Job 15; Acts 19,20 (19 is where you read about the proto-War College in the lecture hall of T with Paul).
God is here.

Much grace,
Stephen Court

October 23, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

God is here.

Graeme Smith lets me know that the blog yesterday on the 'holey' Bible misrepresents a clever bit of publishing. It may merit a little google search...

"Character is predisposition toward certain conduct rather than prescription." (W. Willimon CALLING AND CHARACTER)

Hey- there is a new memory verse: Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV). Bust it up!

SA daily reading: Job 13-14; Acts 17-18.

more later...
Much grace
stephenC
posted by Stephen Court

October 22, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

I attended a corps today where one CSM is an ex-Muslim and the other is an ex-Buddhist. I"m guessing that is unique. Hallelujah. This is my home corps, which used to be white middle class but is now very colourful.

Our guys do ExPro (extreme prophetic) Friday nights and this past Friday they went our and saw three people get saved! Hallelujah! And on the way home a couple of them detoured for a couple of hours of conversation with a guy and get got saved, too! Yahoo.
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(hat Tip Harold Hill via ekklesia.co.uk)
"A new Bible translation is causing controversy after it cut out difficult parts surrounding economic justice, possessions and money.

"The new bible version, released by the Western Bible Foundation in the Netherlands, has created a storm by trying to make the Christian gospel more palatable.

"According to Chairman Mr. De Rijke the foundation has reacted to a growing wish of many churches to be market-oriented and more attractive. "Jesus was very inspiring for our inner health, but we don't need to take his naïve remarks about money seriously. He didn't study economics, obviously."

"According to De Rijke no serious Christian takes these texts literally. "What if all Christians stopped being anxious, for example, and started expecting everything from God? Or gave their possessions to the poor, for that matter. Our economy would be lost. The truth is quite the contrary: a strong economy and a healthy work ethic is a gift from God."

"The foundation wanted to "boldly go where no one else has gone before" by cutting out the confusing texts.

"“We don't use them anyway! There's no single Christian selling his possessions and giving them to the poor."

"The Western Bible is published – in Dutch only so far – by the well-known Christian publisher Buijten & Schipperheijn. IN it, some of the most important passages of the Bible: the Ten Commandments, sections of Isaiah, Proverbs, and the Sermon on the Mount, contain holes where the original translation urged radical actions around money, justice or affluence...

Frank Mulder, chairman of (the publisher), is surprised by the commotion.

"Many Christians accept the Western lifestyle, including the degradation of creation and the injustice of our trade, and they only take the easy parts of the gospel. But it isn't until we publish this gospel with holes, that they get confused!"
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There are some youth out there too young for The War College and wondering what to do. Well, We have RAW (ready and wiling - hat tip Box HIll!) over the school break in March. There is Battle School over six weeks in summer. And we've got a book called Revolution you can pick up at the eStore (armybarmy.com). RevoDevos (download free at armybarmy.com). CDs, and stuff, too. And, more to come...

SA daily reading: Job 11-12, Acts 15,16

Hey- this is the last day for 1 Corinthians 10:13. Tomorrow we tackle a new verse...
God is here.

Much grace
StephenC
posted by Stephen Court

end of poverty
Muhammad Yunas won the Nobel Peace Prize for the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He believes that by 2015 we'll halve total poverty and "We'll create a poverty museum by 2030." (Time Mag. Oct 23- probably online, too).

That is, our grandchildren will have to go to a museum to see poverty.

God grant it. Be a hero.
grace
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October 21, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus'name, friends.

He is risen!

My buddy is trying to shape my mind, still, and lent me a couple of books. One is Os Guiness UNSPEAKABLE : Facing up to evil in an age of genocide and terror (good subtitle). I haven't read it so I can't recommend it. The big idea is that the only way to overcome evil is through hope enacted by people with courage. Jim assures me that this is not contradictory to the fairly recent love is the opposite of fear blog.

Jim also thinks that Flag of our Fathers is a fantastic movie (Danielle disagrees). For context, though, know that Jim also loves Thin Red Line (worst movie of all time).

I just heard that Japan's birth rate has increased for the seventh consecutive month. I wonder if they are reading Mark Steyn?

If you're not booked next weekend, it would be nice to see you at ACC (Aggressive Christianity Conference) in San Francisco (see front armybarmy.com page for more details). It looks to be a rich time.

SA daily readings: Job 9-10, Acts 13,14
(and Job 11-12, Acts 15,16; Job 13-14, Acts 17-18; etc.).

God is here.

Much grace,
Stephen Court

October 20, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Jonathan Edwards on manifestations (hat tip Jonathan Evans):
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How do we know whether it is God or not?

Jonathan Edwards wrote a treatise in 1741 called The Distinguishing Marks of the Spirit of God. He stated that we could recognize God 's hand by five sure distinguishing, scripture evidences:
1. It raises the esteem of Jesus in the community.
2. It works against the Kingdom of Satan.
3. It stimulates a greater regard for the Holy Scriptures.
4. It is marked by a Spirit of Truth.
5. It manifests a renewed love of God and of man.
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Regarding the blogs yesterday (or Wednesday?) on worship, do know that I'm just trying to save the word (for the People of God!) from going the way of 'baptism in the Spirit' and 'filled with the Spirit', and possibly, even (tell it not in Gath, proclaim in not in the streets of Ashkelon!) 'holiness' (though the argument is strong that this word is just becoming obsolete?).
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There is an interesting Globe and Mail article this morning on The Salvation Army and architecture (hat tip John Murray):
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061020.BODDY20/TPStory/?query=%22Salvation+Army%22

"This is the context for one of the best-designed Vancouver apartment buildings of any kind constructed this decade, Belkin House on Homer Street between Dunsmuir and Pender. The client here is one that might not seem at first inclined to support leading edge design: The Salvation Army.

"Au contraire, the organization that combines the Social Gospel with housing and feeding the poorest in our society has, surprisingly, been a regular patron of leading edge architectural design for a century, and has always built to last.

The story goes on a historical rampage and then a technical contrast with fancy condos...
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SA daily reading: Job 6-8, Acts 12.

God is here.

Much grace,
StephenC

Court awards The Salvation Army Victory and Compensation in Russia

(hat tip EB)
It turns out that the government must pay The Army 10,000 euros for denying our legal status in the 1990s and not acting 'in good faith'. The European Court of Human Rights didn't buy Russia's argument that The Army was a militarised organisation. It also ruled that while Salvationists wear uniforms, "it could not be seriously maintained" that it was a paramilitary organisation advocating violence or undermining the integrity or security of the state." (from a report by Maria Mackay).

grace
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Great

Great commands.

- love the Lord. How do we address this in our corner? Holiness is the solution to every problem and a pure expression of the love commanded (in fact, the command is one of the definitions of holiness). My comrade and I are working on a project to champion holiness as we speak (stay tuned- early 07, I hope).

- love your neighbour. How do we tackle that one? Be A Hero. You might have heard of it (there is a link on the front armybarmy.com page). We're aiming to raise up 10,000 heroes who undertake five disciplines: Pray the Bible, sponsor a child, adovcate for the marginalized, build a children's hme (project), and go on a her holiday. We're about halfway there. We'd love to sign you and your comrades up (revolution @ mmccxx . net).

Great commission.

- make disciples of all nations. How do you even begin to obey that? Well, besides discipling someone in your neighbourhood, how about MMCCXX? This is a vision to see new outposts established in 2,000 cities in 200 countries in 20 years. For our part they will be primarily bi-vocational, incarnational (for us this smells like cells) ventures (again, revolution @ mmccxx .net).

covered.
grace
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More quotes

From Francis Frangipane (THE HOUSE OF THE LORD)...

"The virture of any institution is not so much in its doctrines or organization; rather its virtue resides in the quality of person it produces."

sec- a good test for The War College and CFOT and RevolutionHawaii and so on. Wait a second, it might even apply to your corps! Imagine that.

"God is not raising up ministries; He is raising up bondslaves... The goal is not ministry but slavery."

sec- fellow Barmy blogger Elaine Gillingham should love this one. I do. Ironically, while most established institutions and veteran Christians might lean to the call to ministry, it seems to me that most newer initiatives and newer Christians are enamoured with the idea of slavery.

From Colonel Milton Agnew (TRANSFORMED CHRISTIANS)...

"In the same way that Jesus must die for sin, just so must His disciple die to sin, until, with Paul, he can witness, "I have been crucified with Christ"."

- sanctification as death. It just keeps coming. This is another reminder for those who unthinkingly accept that Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20 applies to them - it doesn't, unless you are sanctified and your sinful nature - your natural inclination to act selfishly - is 'neutralized', 'rendered powerless', 'done away with'.

"When we give to God a mere fraction of ourselves, God Himself becomes a mere fracion of what He might be to us" (Halford Luccock, in Agnew).

sec- a nice formulation that might not frighten away those offended by the camp tune 'I want more of Jesus, more and more and more' or the Ruis classic tag 'more of You and less of me...' (which reminds me of the old Vineyard church in the Okanogan, the mission statement of which, back in th e90s when the Church slavishly aped the business world by infatuating over such things, was, 'More'. As offensive as it is to those who don't lik ethe damp tune and Ruis tag above, I love it. It is right up there with "Thy Kingdom Come", the old mission statement of Cariboo Bethel in Williams Lake BC).

much grace,
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October 19, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

We've a couple of brigades leading youth councils this weekend. Yahoo (Next week, San Fran is hosting ACC- you might want to check it out at the logo on th efront page of armybarmy.com).

Virtual Tourist sets the landscape for you on vacation. It has a page on warnings. NYC's warning is Central Park at night. Toronto's warning is Ice and Traffic. London's is parking. Vancouver's? Downtown Eastside, followed by beggars, homeless, and junkies. Here's the bit on the DTES:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/Canada/Province_of_British_Columbia/Vancouver-903183/Warnings_or_Dangers-Vancouver-Downtown_Eastside-BR-1.html

SA readings: Job 5; Psalm 108; Acts 10,11. In Acts there is a phrase, "evidence of God's grace." Nice.

God is here.

Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

definition of death

I thought of this while thinking of some dear comrades and their lives and examples: Their desires are disposable.

Hallelujah.
grace,
StephenC

Worship and Prayer...

There is corporate worship, and then the worship that is a lifestyle of living sacrifice (Romans 12).

I like the Jewish notion that Torah reading can only happen when 10 (I think) people are present. It lodges worship in a corporate setting, which is essential.

But it is also true that whatever we do is to be done to the glory of God. So serving and doing good, even eating and drinking, is to be done to the glory of God - ergo, worship. Not necessarily corporate worship, though we are all part of the body, but a type of sacramental lifestyle worship nonetheless.

Worship can be part of prayer, prayer can be part of worship. They overlap, in my mind. But they are still 2 distinct things. So you can be worshipping God by serving or doing good, but that does not necessarily mean you are praying.

I do believe, in the context of 24-7 prayer, that we are called very specifically to non-stop prayer, not just good works called prayer. In that case justice and mission are to come out of intimate communication with God, not replace it.

Grace,

Aaron

Heard today that Canada is the most urbanised country in the world. Bit surprising.

What might that mean for the Church, for The Salvation Army? If more people are moving to the urban centres, where should our Corps be?

Grace,

Aaron

Hannah Walker, one of my heroes...

One of the teens in my cell group lives with her family in the DTES. She's a warrior for Christ, great leader, and it turns out, a pretty good photographer.

The PIVOT legal society holds a community-wide photo contest every year, and the winners get some cash and their pictures in a calendar. The calendar is called "Hope in the Shadows".

Hannah snapped a picture of two small children on her porch, right across from Oppenheimer Park, where we run our kids' cell. (The 2 kids are in our cell). She ended up winning the contest, and her photo will be on the front cover. Her story was told in 3 newspapers today, and on the tv yesterday.

Our cell is committing money to Tanzania, and Hannah is donating a substantial portion of her winnings to Children's work there.

Hannah rocks.

Grace,

Aaron

October 18, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

I've a narrow understanding of worship that it is expressing adoration to God. Many understand that everything, if done for the glory of God, is worship.

We had a little discussion earlier this week...

Our difference is that most understand prayer to be a component of worship and I understand worship to be a component of prayer. (mine is much more narrow understanding of worship, as I noted)

So, from the standpoint of most, if whatever you are doing is to the glory of God, it is worship, but, because prayer is, for them, a component of worship, then what you are doing is not prayer, or not necessarily prayer.

In my formulation, 'whatever you are doing is worship' leads to the conclusion that it is also prayer. And that sounds patently ridiculous. If everything is prayer, nothing is prayer. If everything is worship, nothing is worship.

(No one is pressured to hold either of these positions. I merely thought I'd clarify things)

SA daily reading: Job 3-4; Acts 8-9.

memory verse: 1 Corinthians 10:13.

JAC: still over there with provocation (top right)

God is here.

Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

2007 Year Focus: WHILE WOMEN WEEP

Women's Ministries Centenary Message
(from IHQ site- it has a sharp logo, too)
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"William Booth, Founder of The Salvation Army, had a big heart of compassion. He was known to shed tears over the suffering of humanity. The women in his life shared this vision. Catherine, his wife, along with her daughters and daughters-in-law, longed for women to be empowered and offered inclusion by The Salvation Army. The Army is a place where they can shed their tears of spiritual longing, repentance, sorrow and joy - and find acceptance, faith for the future and opportunities for Christian service. It is in this spirit that one hundred years of women's ministries will be celebrated and a logo for the year 2007 is offered. The teardrop represents a softened heart. The phrase 'while women weep...' has been translated into many languages. In English, the international language of the internet, the initials are www. This is a challenge to us all, that even in modern days, women need the network - the world wide web - of The Salvation Army.

"Women's Ministries has been an area of vibrant activity and witness for the Gospel since its launch in 1907. The most recent surveys show more than 500,000 members in the various groups. The Home League, which is the basis of Women's Ministries, peaked at 431,000 in 1995. It is our prayer that on the eve of the centenary year there will be more tears of joy than tears of sorrow; that there will be tears of laughter as well as tears of pain; but most of all, that joys and griefs alike will be shared in the many fellowships around the world. May the Founder's fighting spirit - to work and pray for a better life for all - continue to be a hallmark of Women's Ministries in every land.

The General and World President of Women's Ministries
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grace
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October 17, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus; name, friends.

He is risen!

(hb2MW/dw)

Mark Steyn has a book coming out. Veterans here will know the name from various posts over the years, and from the blogroll (news and comment). Here is a bit on multiculturalism:
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"In a culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of “suttee” — the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural: “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”

"India today is better off without suttee. If you don’t agree with that, if you think that’s just dead-white-male Eurocentrism, fine. But I don’t think you really believe that. Non-judgmental multiculturalism is an obvious fraud, and was subliminally accepted on that basis . . . . But if you think that suttee is just an example of the rich, vibrant tapestry of indigenous cultures, you ought to consider what your pleasant suburb would be like if 25, 30, 48 percent of the people around you really believed in it too. Multiculturalism was conceived by the Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own: it is, thus, the real suicide bomb ..
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On another topic, I've heard a bit of negative comment on an email signature (bottom line: It's Jesus or hell). Some who don't have Jesus are offended, I guess. Others who do, don't want to offend those who don't, and so are offended themselves. And some of the latter group, those who do have Jesus, seem, possibly, not convinced that it is actually Jesus or hell and are, thus, offended at this black and white declaration. hmm. The beautiful thing is, from my standpoint, that I didn't make it up. I'm quoting General Catherine Booth.

God is here.

SA daily reading: Job 1-2; Acts 6-7.

Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

GSR on Women

One of my favourite books is HEATHEN ENGLAND, long out of print. But hat tip to Andrew Bale (Brit blogs on right) for scanning Railton's classic and making it available to all. Here are a couple of tastes:
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"If the Salvation Army ceased to exist to-day, it would have amply justified its past career, and covered its origi-nator with glory, if only because it has brought forward again to the light that chosen instrumentality of the king-dom of heaven, Female Ministry, and allowed of the de-monstration of its utility and power — its Divine right."

"The most constant female preachers we know are married women! No woman deserves a good husband and a nice home so much as a female preacher, and even supposing that they so far lose their religion, when they marry, as to cease to preach, or suppose that household care and ill health prevent their doing so, what worse are they than the millions of women of Israel, who never began to do their duty? Is not the work of their past, the memory of their faithfulness, the salvation of the souls they led to Christ, as precious, if not apparently more so, when they turn aside to folly-to the unspeakably awful folly-of an extinguished lamp?"
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Also, happy birthday to primitive salvationist (see top right). It is their first birthday. They are getting an impressive traffic. If you've not visited yet, hit the link on the right for the blog but also be sure to check out the complete site.
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This is HOMELESSNESS WEEK in BC. It doesn't really help f acouple of my active cellmates (and several inactive ones), but we're focusing on it this week, and noting that:
-The Salvation Army is the largest nongovernmental provider of direct social services in BC
-The Salvation Army operates approximately 44% of all the shelter space in the Province of BC
-The Salvation Army celebrates the Provincial Governments commitment to "Housing Matters" the new housing strategy announced last week by Minister Rich Colman
-The Salvation Army served more than 1.5 million Canadians last year
----
And Michael Ramsay (Canadian Blogs on right) as a new personal website: www.sheepspeak.com. Enjoy.
grace
stephenC

Testimony from a Revolutionist

I jump in midstream...
----
But maybe the word referred to people like ____ that I met Sunday am under an overhang--he was a new believer, 2 months old in Christ, and cold and hungry, and he was saying, "Father if You don't want me to eat today, it's ok.  And God told me--a few times before I decided to obey and be late for church--to go home and prepare him some oatmeal and get him some clothes.  So I got to feed and clothe him, and pray the Father's heart for him, etc. It was so incredible and precious to see Father honored and HIs love confirmed for ____! [When I got to church, ____ _____ was preaching the Good Samaritan where the priest walked by and then the levite, and if I'd not stopped for ____, I'd have been in such heart anguish!]
----
:-)
----
Also, Shaw Coleman (http://undercoveragent.lifewithchrist.org/2006/09 ) has daily updates from the Melbourne ACC (the SanFran ACC is in two weekends).

grace
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October 16, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

(updated)

He is risen!

(hb2OFM)

Heather D. in North Carolina, on the divinely-growing cell experience: It's "Freezies, Febreeze, and Freedom in Christ."

Memory Verse for this week:
1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Francis Frangipane: "We are not looking for divine acceptance but divine endorsement." (THE HOUSE OF THE LORD).

-- Let's get beyond our only personally salvation. Once we repent and believe we're saved (and continue in that state). Let's look for endorsement.

"Until we see that the Father's highest purpose is to reveal in us the nature of Christ, we will not qualify for the power of Christ, which is God's full endorsement on our lives" (FF).

-- Bring it on, Lord Jesus.

"With greater authority comes less liberty and privilege." (FF)

-- Not that attractive, eh!?

"It will take a city-wide church to win a city-wide war." (FF)

-- he's on about unity, here. Unity is good. Difficult. And I'm not sure essential (Finney has some exceptional testimonies in northeastern USA), but certainly desired.

God is here.
Much grace
stephenC
posted by Stephen Court

October 15, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

General Rader preached today on fear. He is in fine form. We'll see if we can scare up a copy to put on our preaching page (armybarmy.com).

Peter Kreeft:
"(God) wants him to be an elitest about ideas and ideals, and an egalitarian about people; to be suspicious and critical of ideas but open and welcoming to all people. (Satan's) strategy is to make him just the opposite; an elitest about people and an egalitarian about ideas." (The Snakebite Letters.)

-- nice. This is evident most places we look.

Mission: "to go and subjugate the world to Jesus" (Catherine Booth, Aggressive Christianity. p189).

-- I love it. Of course it is a little too full of conviction for most Christians.

Battle: "What did you do to help win the war today?" (Winston Churchill to generals, sometimes)

-- Ouch. Well, not so much. We hit the holiness meeting. We did SWAT. We did street combat. No one saved. No one sanctified. Faith for greater things, tomorrow.

City War: "If evil can enter our cities through our negligence, evil can leave through our diligence." (Francis Frangipane. THE HOUSE OF THE LORD)

-- God help us.

Discipleship: "God has given us people so that we can train them, not merely count them." (FF).

-- Amen. Thanks, for the reminder (and, an encouragement for the pre-revival corps in which many of us are fighting).

God is here.

SA daily reading: Nehemiah 13; Malachi 1-2; Acts 4.
Much grace,
stephenC
posted by Stephen Court

October 14, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

That open air I mentioned yesterday scored no converts but did experience a bit of persecution (see http://www.olivia-munn.blogspot.com/ and http://thewarcollege.blogspot.com/ for mention; there is also, at the latter page, a neat poster for the next session- INCENDIARY- starts September!). While I mention The War College, there is now another place to score intel:
http://www.myspace.com/thewarcollege

I'm led to believe that this one is under-the-radar, but that is why you keep coming back... ((apparently General Paul Rader is preaching at the 11am holiness meeting at Cariboo Hill Temple tomorrow morning)).

A bit from GKC on humility:
----
"What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty was indeed from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth. This has been exactly reversed." (Chesterton, ORTHODOXY)

"The old humilty made a man doubtful about his efforts which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will makehim stop working altogether." (GKC, OTHERODOXY)
----
SA daily reading: Nehemiah 11-12; Pslam 1; Acts 3.

Only two morre days to memorize John 16:24; JAC is still out there, as provocative as always; the new JAC is trickling in- the Interview Issue (juicy stuff)...
God is here.
Much grace,
sec
posted by Stephen Court

quick update

Paternoster Press is publishing A HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE KINGDOM by Russell Rook and Aaron White. The Barmy Army will know Aaron as one of our bloggers, the author of the cell curriculum that multitudes of salvos use (get yours free at the alove website), international speaker, and our resident cultural expert (and a power forward of strong technique on the hardwood). Congratulations to Aaron and Russell. Stay tuned for the release date.

And, it looks like we've got a new United Nations Secretary General coming:
"Ban Ki-moon was born in 1944 to a rural family in South Korea. He is married with three children. A Christian, he is member of a "group without Church", a serious organisation that emerged in Japan at the beginning of last century. Its members, mostly intellectuals, make the Gospel a source of inspiration for their private and public life. Ban is not a politician, but a diplomat by vocation and career. He graduated with top marks from the prestigious universities of Seoul and Harvard (USA). He joined the foreign affairs ministry in 1970 and climbed the ranks until he was appointed foreign affairs minister in 2004. He speaks English and French fluently, he knows Japanese and even some German." (asianews.it)

" He identifies himself as a non-denominational Christian."
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061010230958AANo74g

There is some concern about what that means (cultic/evangelical...)... We'll see.

So far as I can tell, 93 sites currently link to armybarmy.com. Thank you, if you are one of the 93. If you are not, why not? We'd love to bust the 100 barrier, just because it's there!

grace
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October 13, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Blood and Fire Supply Company is NOW officially open (thanks to those who jumped the gun with me on October 1's blog). So you can start ordering your very own, Salvation Army, Fair Trade apparel: bfsupplyco.com.

"Practical. Identifiable. Affordable." Cheers to Corey Baudinette and the Turbine team.

SA daily reading: Nehemiah 9-10; Acts 2.

How's that memory verse coming (John 16:24)? How's JAC? (have you read it all, yet?)

More later (I hope)- off to open air.

Much grace,
sec
posted by Stephen Court

incendiary
This is the name of the next session of The War College. This is what it means:
----
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)
–adjective
1. used or adapted for setting property on fire: incendiary bombs.
2. of or pertaining to the criminal setting on fire of property.
3. tending to arouse strife, sedition, etc.; inflammatory: incendiary speeches.
4. tending to inflame the senses: an incendiary extravaganza of music and dance.
–noun
5. a person who deliberately sets fire to buildings or other property, as an arsonist.
6. Military. a shell, bomb, or grenade containing napalm, thermite, or some other substance that burns with an intense heat.
7. a person who stirs up strife, sedition, etc.; an agitator.

[Origin: 1600–10; < L incendiārius, equiv. to incendi(um) a fire (incend(ere) to kindle (in- in-2 + -cendere, transit. v. from base of candēre to shine, be hot; see candent, candid, candor) + -ium -ium) + -ārius -ary]
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary
adj.
Causing or capable of causing fire.
Of or containing chemicals that produce intensely hot fire when exploded: an incendiary bomb.
Of or involving arson.
Tending to inflame; inflammatory: an incendiary speech.

n. pl. in·cen·di·ar·ies
An arsonist.
An incendiary device.
One who creates or stirs up factionalism or sedition; an agitator.
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

WordNet
incendiary
adj 1: involving deliberate burning of property; "an incendiary fire" 2: arousing to action or rebellion [syn: incitive, inflammatory, instigative, rabble-rousing, seditious] 3: capable of catching fire spontaneously or causing fires or burning readily; "an incendiary agent"; "incendiary bombs" n 1: a criminal who illegally sets fire to property [syn: arsonist, firebug] 2: a bomb that is designed to start fires; are most effective against flammable targets (such as fuel) [syn: incendiary bomb, firebomb]
WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University
----
If you are thinking of going, visit thewarcollege.com.
grace
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24-7 in USE

Here is an update on the summer of non-stop prayer in the USE Eastern Territory:
http://www.24-7prayer.com/cm/news/2752
Praise God.

Who's coming on board? (revolution @ mmccxx . net)
grace
stephenC

http://www.salvationist.ca/theme/

This is a new C+B Territory Music site called THEME (after the long-running dead-tree periodical). It is a resource for SA musos into bands, songsters, and other gospel arts.

Enjoy.
grace
StephenC

October 12, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Here is another preach by salvo Fulton Hawk (minister of propaganda down in the west- famous for, among other things, the rEVOLolution logo/theme and saytunes.com). It is called SIMPLY SERVE and was delivered at The Army's Western Youth Institute in California in 2005.

Simply Serve Intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyujirOP_VA
Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL8AoSPLR6k
Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhSsEyCSRyU
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zvwc7VgWx4

Some of your people organize conferences and councils- here is a guy ready to bust loose on your youth...
----
SA daily readings: Nehemiah 7-8; Acts 1 (gotta love Acts 1:8- I heard that Bill Bright, crowding his promotion to Glory, stood up before his staff to preach and said that God had been revealing some great stuff to him in a new verse, Acts 1:8! -- this was a life-verse for him and yet God continued to animate it to vivify him. Hallelujah! For those who don't know you can search Bright in our blog archives and I think you'll find that we place him in our top five Christians outside of the Bible. Among other things he is responsibile for the two most statistically effective evangelistic tools in history (Four Spiritual Laws and Jesus Film) and one of the most wonderful great commission ministries in history (Campus Crusade for Christ)).
----
Don't you think Jesus lived a life of flourescent, day-glo adjectives? I know a few people like that, like Jesus. Hallelujah.

God is here.

Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

October 11, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

SA daily reading: Nehemiah 5,6; Psalm 146; Luke 224. Don't you love Nehemiah in chapter 6? He has some of the best attitude in the Bible (up there with God in later Job chapters and in Isaiah 44).

I thought I'd highlight different resources available at the eStore and on the site once in awhile. Today? well, you got the blog last night about Fulton Hawk preaching. But my dad has a biography of Colonel Bramwell Coles called IN THIE FIRING LINE, after one of his famous pieces, also available. It features a CD of very old recordings (off of scratchy records) of some of his classics.

Some 1997 lines...

Faith: "Faith is the word that describes the direction our feet start moving when we find that we are loved." (Frederick Buechner. The Magnificent Defeat)

The road to Mount Zion progresses from Mount Sinai through Mount Calvary. These are God's two outstanding explicit manifestations of covenant (1997).

"When did I last, by faith, experience the presence of the living Saviour?" (O+R for Soldiers).

"I... determined to study to be a saint, and then, to be a scholar' (George Whitefield).

"There is no Old testament sacrifice for voluntary sin" (David Ashton, Welseyan Distinctives- online course at WCBC).

"The prolem with Christianity is not thatit has been tried and found wanting but that it has been found difficult and left untried" (G.K. Chesterton).

God is here.

Much grace,
StephenC
posted by Stephen Court

solid salvo preaching

Hey- I found some solid salvo preaching by Fulton Hawk (LA) at WYI at youtube:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0IrT32unPY
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoSAmkPQSms
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUi1tNFMQ4

Holiness preach. Some classic lines. Watch out for those 'near death experiences'.
Enjoy. Much grace,
StephenC

rations

Barmy regulars know we've recently started including the Life Journal daily Bible readings references. But veteran Barmyites also know that they can get the online version at,
http://www.drwas.blogspot.com/ or http://www.havelock-viha.com/journal.htm ;

Advises, Cadet Michael Ramsay (Can blogs on right), "We also provide the service of mailing live links to the rations directly to people's e-mail inbox. If anyone would like to take advantage of these tools, they are welcome to shoot us an e-mail at subscribe@havelock-viha.com."

Enjoy.

And, thanks to the patience of those would-be JAC readers from one large territory whose internet filter is denying access because JAC is slanderously called 'hate speech'. There is nothing we can do from our end to correct it, but maybe you can all pester your IT department...

grace
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Corps Sergeant-Major

CSM is an important local officer position. We have two people filling it in our corps.

CSM Phil Wall (an LO at a corps in UK) was heard recently to say, on accountability, "If you don't master yourself, your self will master you."

On the same subject, the quotable CSM continued, "leadership is lonely. Isolation is a choice."

He quoted John Cassian that, "We worship a God who is always lapping at the shores of our lives."

And, finally, CSM Phil Wall said, "If all the leaders of The Salvation Army determined to invest 25% more time in making friends with people who don't know Jesus it would transform The Army in six months."

Whew!
grace
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October 10, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Eric Himes has a brand new demo of the week (armybarmy.com) called JESUS, I COME (from SASB 300) for you to enjoy.

Here's a very useful site with lots of ideas for those who want to tackle human traffic:
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/help/10.aspx
You can visit sotphumantraffic.com, too!

Related this these sites, here is an important announcement:
____
FREEDOM DAY

March 25th 2007 will be Freedom Day – not just as a celebration of history, but a moment to be inspired by the champions of history of the past to help us fight for freedom from the bondage of slavery through people trafficking.

At the heart of Freedom Day will be tens of thousands of local events around the world organised by coalition members and supporters; whether NGOs, local charities, schools, businesses, clubs and faith groups. Together we will raise awareness of the problem that is people trafficking and call for change.

Every member organisation and individual should consider ways in which they can mark Freedom Day. We will provide ideas and suggestions through the website of practical ways in which you can build up to Freedom Day, and make the day itself as one to remember. FREEDOM DAY

March 25th 2007 will be Freedom Day – not just as a celebration of history, but a moment to be inspired by the champions of history of the past to help us fight for freedom from the bondage of slavery through people trafficking.

At the heart of Freedom Day will be tens of thousands of local events around the world organised by coalition members and supporters; whether NGOs, local charities, schools, businesses, clubs and faith groups. Together we will raise awareness of the problem that is people trafficking and call for change.

Every member organisation and individual should consider ways in which they can mark Freedom Day. We will provide ideas and suggestions through the website of practical ways in which you can build up to Freedom Day, and make the day itself as one to remember. http://www.stopthetraffik.org/freedomday/
----
Mark your calendars.

God is here.

Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

October 9, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

1 John 5:11,12: And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has lief; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 JOhn 5:11,12).

This week's verse: John 16:24 - Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. (NIV)

That young boy I mentioned yesterday today clarified that Jesus is the ultimate Salvation Soldier. I've got to get this super hero stuff straightened out in my mind!

Our territory changed, some years ago, the name of the Brengle Institute (holiness retreat for officers) to Spiritual Life Institute. The name was intended to give,"broader significance to the total spirituality of our vocational calling." Fair enough. I like the old name. And I hope the change doesn't reflect a slight (?) embarrassment of Brengle's theology and testimony.

Have you read JAC yet?

Did I suggest that you check out Bale (Brit blogs on right) on Railton's teaching on gambling?

God is here.

Much grace,
StephenC
posted by Stephen Court

redeemed...?

My young friend I mentioned in the last blog was asked by an adult if he knew who William Booth was. He told her that William Booth is my friend.

:-)
grace
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October 8, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

1. A have a close friend, a young boy, who is into super heroes. I've been emphasizing that Salvation Soldier, depicted on our wall on the cover of a 1944 War Cry, high-collared, sword unsheathed, duking it out with the dragon of sin, is the ultimate super hero. When he plays up the full-colour glossy super heroes the world markets, I remind him that Salvation Soldier is the ultimate. Yesterday, he responded, "Salvation Soldier doesn't exist any more (note- it is black and white, hand-drawn art work)." And I corrected him, "I'm Salvation Soldier." He said, "No, you just dress like Salvation Soldier."

Two profound, though arguable, points: a. Salvation Soldier doesn't exist any more?; b. I just dress up like him? hmm.

2. My close friend, not so young, preached today at a church whose denomination is pacifist. I found it interesting to see her try to express her points to them in language that was not saturated with militant terms. Though the preach was powerful, she was less than successful at her peacful vocabulary. She is immersed in war, and found it unnatural not to use that lingo.

3. How not to do public collecting: I've a friend who was collecting for a certain movement one spring Monday night, many years ago (I heard the story today) and happened upon a rich person's house. The resident, upon seeing her and guessing her purpose, began to close the door immediately. That didn't work. She stuck her foot in the door and asked, "how much does each of your tires on that fancy car in your driveway cost?" A confused expression warranted a repeat of the question. "Why?" "I'm just wondering how much they would cost for you to replace if someone came along tonight and slashed them." The person decided to give some money. I'm not recomending that type of appeal, at all. Brutal. I'm merely recounting an interesting story.

SA daily readings: Ezra 9-10; Psalm 131; Luke 21.

1 John 5:11-12 memorized by tomorrow.

JAC - have you read it all yet?

God is here.

Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

The Costs Of Disobedience To Covenant Are High

It seems that whenever God is at war, He establishes an uncompromising standard for holiness, and the costs of disobedience to covenant are high, the consequences of sin are immediate.

• So it was with Moses on the way to Egypt. God was evacuating His people. He insisted on circumcision of Moses’ first-born son as remainder of ownership and covenant. Failure to immediately obey almost cost Moses his life (Exodus 4:25).

• So it was with Uzzah who tried to steady the tottering the ark (2 Samuel 6). God was establishing His presence in His capital as the ark moved to Jerusalem. The people had been to familiar and casual with the presence of God, and God was restoring a sense of His holiness. The treatment of Uzzah sets the standard. The other consequence is that the ark went to Obed-Edom’s home for a while.

• So it was with Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who offered strange fire (Leviticus 10). God was impressing His signature smell on the priesthood, prescribing an exclusive perfume for sacrifice. This odor was the olfactory identification of God. Their sin was to offer an imitation perfume to God (the word, ‘strange’ suggests deviation), and the fire from the altar consumed them. Right after Aaron’s sons died God imposes the law of abstinence for priests (10:8,9), suggesting that possibly Nadab and Abihu’s judgment was impaired by alcohol.

• So it was with the 50,000 Jews who presumed to look into the ark (1 Samuel 6:19). God was restoring the ark from Philistine occupation. Symbolically, God was returning to His people, and the terms were His to establish.

• So it was with Achan, who stretched God’s rules and paid for it with his life, the lives of 36 otherwise innocent Israelite soldiers, and the lives of his extended family (Joshua 7). God was conquering the Promised Land. In Joshua, the people of God fought 34 battles and lost only one! This is the one! And yet, God invests two whole chapters articulating Achan’s story. Achan only took a small booty, by booty standards. God’s instruction is that He’d fight for them, but He’d get all the spoils.

grace
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a few nuggets...

"There are occasions when we should be a disturbing influence in the world, and wherever and whenever there is a need for a moral crusade The Army should be in the van." (General Wilfred Kitching)

Another friend has begun blogging, and you can visit her at www.olivia-munn.blogspot.com

Tara Ayer (http://www.ayerupthere.blogspot.com/) has a gem of a blog on evil speaking.

How's your JAC reading coming? (top right)
grace
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October 7, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

I lifted this from last year's blog (the beauty of blog archives- top right under 'previous'), which I scored from Michael Ramsay:
----
Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in
Plymouth, Massachusetts!

Canadian Parliament: Thanksgiving would be "a day of general thanksgiving to
almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."

http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p2614.htm

Canadian Thanksgiving

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!

For a few hundred years, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November, before it was declared a national holiday in 1879. It was then, that November 6th was set aside as the official Thanksgiving holiday. But then on January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be "a day of
general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed." Thanksgiving was moved to the second Monday in October because after the World Wars, Remembrance Day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving kept falling in the same week.

Another reason for Canadian Thanksgiving arriving earlier than its American counterpart is that Canada is geographically further north than the United States, causing the Canadian harvest season to arrive earlier than the American harvest season. And since Thanksgiving for Canadians is more about giving thanks for the harvest season than the arrival of pilgrims, it makes sense to celebrate the holiday in October.
----
This Monday is Thanskgiving in Canada. We thank the Almighty God for His bountiful blessing to us. Hallelujah.

There are a couple of football games. And one collection of people at our corps is enjoying a simple thanks giving fellowship over beans and rice with a donation to a charity helping feed people who can never even dream of chowing down like many of us normally do. That gets you thinking...

SA daily reading: Exra 7-8; Luke 20.

God is here.
Much grace
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posted by Stephen Court

SALVATIONIST

Today four issues of Salvationist showed up on the site (bringing it up to date). You can read them bottom right. But here are a couple of human trafficking articles worth highlighting:
http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-issue/848F743E7CDE0989802571FE0040B1E4?opendocument&id=5394FD5A0BA628C1802571FE003E25F0

http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-issue/8FB82FCA4C9C684A802571FE0041D1BA?opendocument&id=5394FD5A0BA628C1802571FE003E25F0

grace
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Blocked

We apologize to those for whom JAC is blocked because of 'hate speech'. We're sure that this must be a techincal problem at your offices and not a human decision by your IT departments or administration. But you are missing some good stuff...

grace
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October 6, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

We busted out a very catchy new tune last night by Kirsten Ivany, a love song to Jesus called Honey. You will want to get to know it. I do predict that it will grow more widely known as Roll Over Me, though, as in Let Your Love Roll Over Me (the chorus).

Also, last night, we sang Rise Up by Grounded (groundedworship.com) for about the fourth knee drill in a row. You have got to love that tag (who are the one who believe it? I know I'm not the only one...).

Meanwhile, since we're on music, saytunes.com continues to grow. Word is Joshua Ivany just dropped a couple of bootleg demos on the world...

And since I'm on saytunes.com again, I met today a Kiwi Salvo at our open air who was plugging Vatic (NZ salvo worship also on SAY).

This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. You will likely see some blogging on it over the next few days...

SA daily readings: Esther 9-10; Luke 19.

God is here.

Much grace,
StephenC
posted by Stephen Court

Combatting Fat Heart
I think I'm stuck on the fat heart thing. I've been meditating on it. Last night I kept having a recurring picture. It was of a heart that was encapsulated with layers of fat. In order for the heart to function properly the fat had to be removed. Layer by layer the fat was burned away.
I asked the Lord how do you get rid of the fat that has accumulated around our hearts. Again my thought went back to Daniel. Instead of gratifying his desires with the fat of the king's table he chose to deny himself. Oh, Oh... it sounds like a cross thing. The key to burning away fat is fasting.
So often we just say yes to whatever our impulses or desires are. I feel like a piece of pizza. I go get some pizza. I feel like watching T.V.. So I watch T.V. I feel like listening to music. I listen to music. Whatever urge or desire I have I can usually just do it. When I reflect on it I can easily just live my life responding to my own personal desires and never learn to deny myself anything. After all why should I have to. Everything I need I can get. I have the means and the access to it. But what does this kind of living do to me spiritually? Is there ever any cross bearing or self denial?
So I've started some fat burning exercises. After a hard day of house work, childcare, serving the masses when I feel like vegging in front of the T.V.... I say "no" to myself and pick up a book - right now it's about a missionary in Equador - new book - and read.
When I feel like running out to a movie and munching on a big bag of buttered popcorn... I say "no" to myself (until I'm in Vancouver with Danielle) and stay home and play Scrabble with Caitlyn.
When I feel like going out to eat a Big Mac... I say no to myself and Hannah and go home and make a scrambled egg fajita thing. (Trying to eat healthy)
When I'm boiling hot in the summer and feel like installing air conditioning... I say "no" to myself and choose to send the money to another country to help purchase a well so a whole community has safe water to drink.
When I feel like I'm stuck spiritually - Bible reading is hard - prayerlessness is taking root... I say "no" to myself and fast and pray for a few days.
For many of us it can be a new discipline to say "no" to our desires. This actually can be a revolutionary practice. Say "no" to some impulses in your life and be led by Holy Spirit as to what the replacement should be. It may be more time in the Word. New activities, habits and adventures!
Shalom
Elaine G

today...
I taught a seminar on Be A Hero. Have you heard it? We're trying to raise up 10,000 people to undertake five disciplines to help transform the world. Children-at-risk will tank you (for more info, the book is at our eStore top right or visit beahero.org).
I taught a seminar on covenantal holiness. I believe that holiness is the solution to every problem. I know it sounds facile, but read the article (check archives of JAC top right).
I taught a bit about 614 and The War College. Pretty good stuff God dreamed up! And that's not to mention the War Room.
I just returned from Knee Drill tonight. There was a fear of the LORD there - holy times. What is next? God only knows. We press in.
God is an amazing King.
I heard today about an exciting new project from OM on holiness. Stay tuned here for a book announcement in 6-10 months!
I saw GSR over at Bale's blog (UK blogs at right).
And Anthony Castle defends himself in response to Jason Pope's JAC article over at Anthony's blog (see Aussie blogs at right).
I thought I'd give you a little peak into things on this front. It is a huge blessing to fight alongside such committed warriors. Hallelujah.
grace
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October 5, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

I read SALVATIONIST.CA's interview with General Clifton (see below SA in Canada). There are some interesting nuggets, including Islam and terrorism. It also seems like we're rolling back the clock on a couple of things (welcome back to the lite colonels?).

SA daily readings: Esther 3-8; Luke 18.
JAC still new.
Memory verse: 1 John 5:11-12.
Read Elaine's blog below. More, possibly, later.

God is here.
grace
sec
posted by Stephen Court

FAT HEART
I was reading through Psalm 119 today and stumbled across a passage that arrested my attention. Listen to this...
"Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your law."
Through out the Psalm the writer is fixated on the statutes and law of the Lord. He longs to walk fully in God's boundaries, in what God decrees as just, in God's customs and regulations. He wants to conform the pattern of His life after God's blueprint. This is the writer's constant request to YHWH.
In contrast to this are other people who live their lives according to their own desires. Through their living their hearts become fattened or callous/unfeeling.
When I read the word fat and then looked it up in the Hebrew translation I immediately thought of Daniel in the courts of Babylon and how he was enticed to eat the fat of the king's table but would have nothing to do with it. I paralleled that with our lives here in North America. We have so much at our disposal to fatten our hearts so that we are numbed to the laws, decrees and statutes of the Lord. We fatten ourselves through our endless consumption of goods and in effect cause other lands to be in want. We fatten our hearts through the things that we allow ourselves to watch - we can ingest hours and hours of T.V., video games, computer stuff and barely tolerate 1/2 an hour a day in God's word. I could go on and on but I won't.
Suffice it to say this little verse has pierced my heart. I hope it does yours as well.
Shalom
Elaine G

October 4, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Page 11 of the online PIPELINE has a great graphic of William Booth's Way Out plan. And just a few pages later is an interview with the new Chief of the Staff, Commissioner Robin Dunster (Pipeline is linked bottom right on this screen). You'll be interested to read of this 'daring, 'cheeky', 'crazy in the eyes of the world' leader with 'street credibility'. There is also an interview with Gareme Hodge on Human Trafficking (he's involved with the strong UK SA effort).

http://www.salvationist.ca/webelieve has mp3s of the doctrine interviews (you can buy them on DVD) with the likes of Generals Brown and Tillsley, Commissioners Pitcher, Read, and Busby, and others.

Have you read JAC yet? If you covered THE PAST IS GOOD, how about tackling Jason Pope and his Biblical Basis for Military Metaphor in Restricted Access Countries?

How's 1 John 5:11,12 coming along? (this is the weekly memory verse, for those who only read weekly and start at the top...).

God is here.

SA daily readings; Esther 1-2; Psalm 150; Luke 17.
Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

October 3, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Reports are in that the burgeoning FULLNESS movement experienced a God-saturdated prayer and fasting weekend in USE, focussed on victims of human trafficking. Hallelujah!

New Zealand Territory has a Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit, the mission of which is as follows: We work for the reform of society by alleviating poverty, deprivation, and disadvantage, and by challenging evil, injustice, and oppression, in the name of Jesus.

Whew!

Word is that General Albert Orsborn would shave before praying.

Major Frank Daniels points out five distinctions of Christian prayer: 1- teaching of Christ; 2- exqample of Christ; 3- blood of Christ; 4- intercession of Christ; 5- name of Christ. Hallelujah.

SA daily reading: Ezra 5,6; Ps 138; Luke 16 (verse 11 of which says, Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.)

God is here.

Have you read the new issue of JAC yet? Why not start with Andrew Bale and THE PAST IS GOOD. Thick stuff.

How's this week's memory verse coming? (1 John 5:11,12)
grace
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posted by Stephen Court

Yom Kippur

"Words have power" is a famous slogan at our corps, adopted from Major Janet Munn's teaching. Hat tip to Olivia M for the following:
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Happy Yom Kippur! Or should I say, "Repentant Yom Kippur" : (

Lots of fasting, and resting, and not working or bathing, and apparently lots of dressing in white (for purity).

I've spent a little time this p.m. reading about Yom Kippur on line and was especially interested in the significance of their version of "words have power" i.e. "the power of speech" which is explained at Judaism 101 online (link below FYI). I've also included a few particulars of use of words which are forbidden. Very interesting -- and you can see that if everyone in the community was actually abiding by these laws/principles, there would be justice, and charity, etc., abounding.

http://www.jewfaq.org/speech.htm

Wronging a Person through Speech

Leviticus 25:17 says, "You shall not wrong one another." This has traditionally been interpreted as wronging a person with
speech. It includes any statement that will embarrass, insult or deceive a person, or cause a person emotional pain or distress.

Here are some commonly-used examples of behavior that is forbidden by this mitzvah:

You may not call a person by a derogatory nickname, or by any other
embarrassing name, even if he is used to it.

You may not ask an uneducated person for an opinion on a scholarly matter (that would draw attention to his lack of knowledge or education).

You may not ask a merchant how much he would sell something for if you have no intention of buying.

You may not refer someone to another person for assistance when you know the other person cannot help (in other words, it's a violation of Jewish law to give someone the run-around!).

You may not deceive a person, even if no harm is done by the deception; for example, you may not sell non-kosher meat to a non-Jew telling him that it is kosher, even though no harm is done to the non-Jew by this deception.

You may not sell a person damaged goods without identifying the damage, even if the price you give is fair for the goods in their damaged condition.

You may not offer a person a gift or invite a person to dinner if you know that the person will not accept.

You may not compliment a person if you do not mean it.

interesting, eh?
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grace
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October 2, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

We're starting some Scripture memory here. Please feel invited to join us. This week's text is 1 john 5:11,12. We're all using NIV. We're only doing one week at a time so that review over months and years is a little more realistic. This is a verse on the assurance of salvation.

We had the Training Principal from Melbourne here teaching today and he was on about contemplative prayer (and other kinds). One interesting note was that in the last night before Jesus was crucified, He mentioned a new prayer angle five times. To pray in His name was an approach that wasn't mentioned in the rest of Scripture outlining His life and teaching, and yet, ver the course of some hours, He throws it out for us as a powerful means of praying. Nice (And, we'll be memorizing one of those five verses in the nxt week or two).

Another thing that he mentioned was that in training college forty years ago there was 6:30 am roll call, alphabetically, after which each cadet dove into personal rations. Something for The War College? Hmmm.

Have you cracked open the new JAC yet? (top right)

God is here.

SA Daily readings: Zechariah 13-14; Psalm 147; Luke 15.
Much grace
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posted by Stephen Court

Whew!

Those looking for great salvo gear have come to the right spot. You are almost there... just click here: bfsupplyco.com (blood and fire). It went up today, so you are the first onboard (except for a couple of conferences).

This is FAIR TRADE Salvo gear. You can't beat it.

"Practical. Identifiable. Affordable." Cheers to Corey Baudinette and the Turbine team.

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We started another SA101 course today here's a bit from the new version (in progress):
"Primitive Salvationist history is one of the great romance stories of our world. God wrapped a small group of misfits in Holy Spirit- conviction, infused them with love, dressed them in prophetic garb, fitted them with a holy disdain for dignified reputation, trained them in the sacrificial Cross-life, deployed them amongst the poor, and transformed great swaths of the world.
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Where do I sign up?
____
From yesterday's blog on selling out properties... A friend emailed with an argument to keep our properties:

"Don't sell the corps. The Lord has entrusted us with this property and it can be used greatly for the Kingdom. We don't need to have Sunday meetings there if you don't want. We can still use the property for His purposes. Property is one of the best investments going at the moment..."

sc- fair enough position. We invest in property now so we have more money later. But if we invest the money directly into the war NOW then maybe we'll have won by 'later', or, maybe God will entrust us with more...

Property friend: Here is question: why do we ever rent space when we can own it. Who would ever want to pay someone else rent when you could pay that same money to yourself in the way of a mortgage. For example, if we need a condo for something, we should buy the whole building and rent it out: a sound investment money wise and if we own the common areas it can also be a sound investment Kingdom wise - get to know our neighbours, if we have meetings there to which we personally invite them, etc.

sc- legit argument. Flexibility is the main reason. You've freed up other funds for other things. And you're not as tied to the property. Granted, this argument only seems to make any sense in the heat of great commission expansion (I'm not saying it makes sense always to those in that process...).

sc- Rick Warren is the classic modern western Christian example. They rented until they were at 12,000 or some such number. They just kept moving to larger places. If they'd built at 200 or 1,000 or 5,000 or____ they'd either have outgrown the thing and been stuck trying to expand or sell, OR they might not have grown to the 25,000 or whatever it is today. (notice how I nimbly win over the Rick Warren crowd!)

sc- The property line at the top (your position) makes some sense. My argument is asset light to free up cash for the war. If we're moving we don't need to settle. One of the fastest growing Canadian companies is famous for not owning any assets (well, I guess furniture, computers, that stuff). Once we own property the stewardship responsibility is to maintain the property, which takes time and money. Once we own, the temptation is to settle down.
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I suspect the argument could go either way, though it usually goes the stewardship way. In the context of the initial blog, suggesting approaches to the General, it would take HEAPS of guts to liquidate The Army as General (usually in for less than half a dozen years) just to win the world for Jesus. I mean, how about if we failed, twenty years down, and had little to show for it?

Granted, it might not be the right decision. But if it is, then longer terms for Generals might help the one in charge make the longterm gutsy call.

grace
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Articles of War undertakings

This is the righthand side of the version most of us alive signed (all before 1989?):
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Previous Articles of War undertakings (right hand side)

Therefore, I do here and now, and forever, renounce the world with all its sinful pleasures, companionships, treasures, and objects, and declare my full determination boldly to show myself a soldier of Jesus Christ in all places and companies, no matter what I may have to suffer, do or lose by so doing.

I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquor, and from the use of all baneful drugs, except when such drugs shall be ordered for me by a doctor.

I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of all low or profane language and from all impurity, including unclean conversation, the reading of any obscene book or paper at any time, in any company, or in any place.

I do here declare that I will not allow myself in any deceit or dishonesty; nor will I practice any fraudulent conduct in my business, my home or in any other relation in which I may stand to my fellow men; but that I will deal truthfully, honorably and kindly with all those who employ me or whom I may myself employ.

I do here declare that I will never treat any woman, child or other person, whose life, comfort or happiness may be placed within my power, in an oppressive, cruel or cowardly manner; but that I will protect such from evil and danger so far as I can, and promote, to the utmost of my ability, their present welfare and eternal Salvation.

I do here declare that I will spend all the time, strength, money and influence I can in supporting and carrying on the Salvation war, and that I will endeavor to lead my family, friends, neighbors and all others whom I can influence to do the same, believing that the sure and only way to remedy all the evils in the world is by bringing men to submit themselves to the government of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I do here declare that I will always obey the lawful orders of my officers, and that I will carry out to the utmost of my power all the orders and regulations of the Army; and, further, that I will be an example of faithfulness to its principles, advance to the utmost of my ability its operations, and never allow, where I can prevent it, any injury to its interest, or hindrance to its success.

And I do here and now call upon all present to witness that I have entered into this undertaking and sign these Articles of War of my own free will, feeling that the love of Christ, who died to save me, requires from me this devotion of my life to His service for the Salvation of the whole world, and therefore do here declare my full determination, by God's help, to be a true soldier of The Salvation Army till I die.
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grace
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October 1, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Here is the editorial introduction from the brand new issue of JAC...
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Greetings in Jesus' name, friends. Thanks for frequenting the Journal of Aggressive Christianity over the past seven years. We appreciate your patronage. If you've not been around that long, you can catch up with our comprehensive archives...

Issue #45 is riding on the provocative waves of WOMEN IN THE WAR (#44). While lacking an official focus, this issue addresses a few different topics that have been raised in JAC and in the armybarmy blog over the last little while.

So, Andrew Bale in England midrashes on General William Booth's holiness imperative in THE PAST IS GOOD. It all comes down to holiness for this Movement. You should experience it. And you should preach it.

Then, directly following up on our last issue, we intend to tick a lot of western Christians off with Brynn Camery-Hoggatt's and Nealson Munn's WILD AT HEART: Essential Reading or "Junk Food of the Soul"? And if that isn't enough, Major JoAnn Shade offers something right out of left field for most of us, in WOMANIST SALVOS.

Jason Pope takes a serious stab at playing out the ramifications of Anthony Castle's big-splash article from a recent JAC (ARE WE A METAPHOR?) in "SALVATION ARMY: A Biblical Basis for Military Metaphor in Restricted-Access Countries". While he disagrees with Castle's main assertion, they share a concern for strategy to closed countries.

In the next section of this issue, Fleur Hodge and Patricia King team up with articles on Glory and Joy (GLORY IN JOHN and THE POWER OF JOY).

Cadet Christopher Footer lets us lift a paper from training college called PRIMITIVE SALVATIONISM: "Warriors in The Army of Salvation; & Soldiers in The Salvation Army", in which he surveys this movement for the casual reader/salvo.

Matthew Champ takes on screamos and bandos in his thoroughly Biblical article WORSHIP WARFARE. Major Bruce Power applies 2 Chronicles 20 to our current situation in COME JOIN OUR ARMY. Andrew Bale breaks down each of the Biblical 'spiritual gifts' in SPIRITUAL GIFTS, an article that expands on a recent armybarmy blog topic. And Cory Harrison asks some serious questions about the trendy 'revolution' slogan in THE REVOLUTION CATCH-PHRASE.

There is enough reading here for awhile. If you wade your way through it, do hit the archives and the armybarmy blog, which is relentlessly consistent, and for which there are archives going back long enough to fill your every free hour for the next couple of months until, unless Jesus returns, we're planning to offer a special interview issue of JAC for #46 at the start of December.
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God is here.

SA Daily reading: Zech 10-12; Psalm 126; Luke 14.
Much grace,
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posted by Stephen Court

JAC IS UP!

(and, on a totally unrelated note, here are the 1890 undertakings of soldiers as outlined in the Articles of War)
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1890 Articles of War undertakings
Therefore, I do here, and now, and for ever, renounce the world with all its sinful pleasures, companionship treasures, and objects, and declare my full determination boldly to show myself a Soldier of Jesus Christ in all places and companies, no matter what I may have to suffer, do, or lose, by so doing.
I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, and also from the habitual use of opium, ludanum, morphia, and all other baneful drugs, except when in illness such drugs shall be ordered for me by a doctor.
I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of all low or profane language; from the taking of the name of God in vain; and from all impurity, or from taking part in any unclean conversation or the reading of any obscene book or paper at any time, in any company, or in any place.
I do here declare that I will not allow myself in any falsehood, deceit, misrepresentation, or dishonesty; neither will I practise any fraudulent conduct, either in my business, my home, or in any other relation in which I may stand to my fellow men, but that I will deal truthfully, fairly, honourably, and kindly with all those who may employ me or whom I may myself employ.
I do here declare that I will never treat any woman, child, or other person, whose life, comfort, or happiness may be placed within my power, in an oppressive, cruel, or cowardly manner, but that I will protect such from evil and danger so far as I can, and promote, to the utmost of my ability, their present welfare and eternal salvation.
I do here declare that I will spend all the time, strength, money, and influence I can in supporting and carrying on this War, and that I will endeavour to lead my family, friends, neighbours, and all others whom I can influence, to do the same, believing that the sure and only way to remedy all the evils in the world is by bringing men to submit themselves to the government of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I do here declare that I will always obey the lawful orders of my Officers, and that I will carry out to the utmost of my power all the Orders and Regulations of The Army; and further, that I will be an example of faithfulness to its principles, advance to the utmost of my ability its operations, and never allow, where I can prevent it, any injury to its interests or hindrance to its success.
And I do here and now call upon all present to witness that I enter into this undertaking and sign these Articles of War of my own free will, feeling that the love of Christ who died to save me requires from me this devotion of my life to His service for the Salvation of the whole world, and therefore wish now to be enrolled as a Soldier of the Salvation Army.
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grace
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Rehashing the blogs for a new General.

As I warned in the last blog, I'm resurrecting this July 2004 effort since we now have a new General. I'm not sure if he is a loyal and regular barmy army reader (and I doubt I'd tell even if I knew!), so if you have any connections, feel free to use them to give him and other leaders what is likely an alternative option...
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There is a big conference (Lausanne) every decade or so that tackles evangelical issues for the Church. They have a couple of score panels that generate positional statements on all kinds of topics. The Army has shadow panels that produce statements on each topic for The Army specifically. Most such statements are condemned to be so much committee-speak, full of fence-sitting nothings that you can't really disagree with but with which you can't really do anything, either.

My suggestion is to forget the committee-speak (WB called the committee-system unwieldy). Let's come out boldly FOR something in these statements. To that end here are a few possibilities on a handful of topics for which the General will soon be blessed with an official Army recommendation:

1. On Denominational Identity and Organization:
"The Salvation Army must emphasise that it is a loyal, formidable band of covenanted warriors exercising holy passion to winning the world for Jesus. To that end, any and all soldiers who do not fit the profile will be given opportunity for repentance and further training or will be demoted to adherent membership. Rather than limp, apologetic, generic evangelism, we will endeavour to lead with The Salvation Army, boldly, aiming for souls saved, keeping saved, and getting someone else saved."

2. On Impact of Social Environment:
"We need to live with, speak with, and prophesy to the world on each of our fronts. (that is, live there- incarnational; speak with- community; prophesy to- escape the corruption (2 Peter 1) and speak righteousness into the world.)"

3. On Congregationa Health:
"Let's dismantle all of the congregations. We were going to try to sell you, General, on adding cells to the mix, but we all know that this won't work. Since cells seem to work historically well in China and Korea and other places, let's throw in the towel on a typical Sunday morning. We can sell all of the buildings and invest the cash in the mission (read- AFRICA). Then anyone who still wants to be a Salvo can actually get to know their comrades by meeting with them in their homes, fighting alongside them in their streets, and praying beside them in their closets."

4. On Theology of Mission:
"General, our last suggestion (on this issue) is three-fold- first, don't listen to the liberal seminary graduates (on this issue); second, don't pay for any more to be made in our ranks; three, don't complicate things- we are aiming at winning the world for Jesus- getting everyone saved. Very simple (though admittedly, impossible, to date). To do that, we'll need to disciple, to teach and experience holiness, to reach out with a bias to the poor, and to throw ourselves away in this great endeavour."

How about that? Do you think the General would buy it? Do you think we can live it? In our young corps,
1. we lead as The Salvation Army in our evangelism. It hasn't worked wonders but it has gained some results.
2. we're living incarnationally and aiming at community while attempting to live such lives that we can speak prophetically.
3. we don't meet publicly on Sundays.
4. none of us went to a liberal seminary! None of us plan to go! Well see how it works (you can email me for a discussion on this- revolution @ mmccxx . net).
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grace
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corps scorecard.

Don't ask my why but I had occasion to rummage back through the July 2004 archives of this blog (you can pick and choose your research- top right - previous blogs) and found two things I'm going to update here, now. The first is a corps scorecard... (with sc06 comments interspersed)
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July 26, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Thanks to SALVATIONIST, I read that the Chief of the Staff had water balloons thrown at him while officially re-opening a corps that had been burned down in the Channel Islands. Nice stuff.

Oh, I forgot to tell you one of my favourite corps mission statements- to love people to death. I wish I thought of that!
(sc06- beautiful- it remains probably the best corps mission statement (a redundant document, by the way) I've heard. HAave you heard a better one?)

The USA Western Territory came out with 6 priorities:
1. field
2. holistic ministry
3. youth
4. global vision
5.identifying and training leaders
6. resources into mission.
For the sake of honesty, and some practical personal reflection- here goes an application off the cuff here at 614 Vancouver:

1. is field a priority? Our cell-based corps is on the streets when not in living rooms (meeting as cells). Some of our own figure that we don't emphasize evangelism enough. They are probably right. While we live here we need to be intentionally out there more often. This includes open airs, street combat, prophetic justice acts, prayer walks, and so on. How about a B?

--sc06- I'm going to upgrade us to a B+ because of the consistently effective open airs of late and the consistent prostituted persons fight and the new Extreme Prophetic leadership under the 614 umbrella. Hallelujah.

2. holistic ministry. I'm not sure what this means. We have a thing called the Renew Network (tutoring initiative) that trains the mind (while making friends to get people into the community of cells). We do some parish nursing to the margins. And we refer people to other services. That's about it. And I think it reflects the philosophy of our corps. Maybe a C (but I'm not disappointed with that score in this area).

--sc06- The things I highlighted for the C are not happening officially anymore so I guess we drop to a D.

3. youth. We're pretty weak here. We're starting with kids and working our way up to youth, so we really haven't started yet. Since we lack emphasis, we lack results in this group. We'd get probably a D. Obviously this will explode in coming years.

--sc06- My prediction paid off, bigtime. Youth is a big strength of our corps right now and we praise God for all of the independents who are getting to know Jesus in community and in justice initiatives. There is still a maturing to happen with Jr. Soldiership and so on, but let's say an A-.

4. global vision. Yah, we're strong here, I think. Our mission is to win the world for Jesus, starting in Vancouver's downtown eastside. We've got this BE A HERO campaign to raise up 10,000 heroes to make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of children at risk. We pray for the international community. We sponsor kids, and so on. And our guys have preached on 5 continents in the last year or so. Oh, and we recruit students form 8-10 countries for The War College, do this armybarmy.com thing, write, record, network, and so on. I suspect we might pull an A.

--sc06- Since this we've started half a dozen outposts or so and built on the stuff mentioned. There is also a new anti-human trafficking component (stophumantraffic.com) that looks large. I hope that we're still worth an A or A-.

5. identifying and training leaders. I'd give us a B on 5. We obviously train War College students (well, such that I am happy to go to war with them shoulder to shoulder with any of them watching my back). We try to train up the next generation of cell leaders, too, but we have recognized the need, over the last couple of months, for us to be more intentional about this in our cell leaders cells.

--sc06- SWAT starts tomorrow again (spiritual worship and training). A local part-time component of The War College didn't work out that well (there were a few stirring exceptions). Maybe we're at B-.

6. directing resource into mission. That's a tough one. This is one of the perennial tension issues. So, possibly C+ or B- to reflect our efforts to mobilize resources for the world. We really aim for big fat cartridge totals, and we do pretty well. But we don't do as well on special projects as the corps across the street from us. We have to keep pushing on the cash issue. As for non-cash resources, we do pretty well. I mean, we're gearing up for deployment, pioneering and invading new areas. We hope to be ready soon.

--sc06- this is a constant tension. I'm guessing that we're still somewhere in the C+ - B- range.

So I guess we're averaging C+ or B- on these 6 issues. That is partly a result of our weaknesses (and young age) and partly of our focus on a few different things (you might know we're big into community- cell, discipling, prayer- War Room, kids- Warrior Academy, corps pioneering, and primitive salvationism- mission-focussed, chari-flavoured heroism). I expect that the USW would bless it.

--sc06- I guess we just scored B- or B. In some seasons of SA history that might not even warrant keeping us open! Yikes. But we praise God for the good stuff He has done and is doing. And, though completely off the cuff, this is a helpful exercise regarding priorities (even if you don't hold the USW 6 as yours). May God help us focus and optimise each battle opportunity.

Much grace
stephenC

Carson Conversing with Emergents

Hat tip to www.lublink.ca/ for this link to D.A.Carson's dealing with 'emergency' (my term- do you like it? I'm guess scores of others have made it up already but I don't read the write blogs, maybe. Otherwise, September 30- you can quote me on it):
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(1) I hope that the movement or conversation in its present form will increasingly divide between those who deeply and intelligently desire to be faithful to Scripture while learning to communicate the gospel to a younger generation, and those who, whether mischievously or ignorantly, happily domesticate and distort the Scripture because of their analysis of contemporary culture—and that the former will become among the sharpest critics of the latter.

(2) I hope that Christians both within and outside the movement will become more discerning. The Bible says that certain offenses must take place to demonstrate who is approved by God. In this fallen and broken world, God uses irresponsible ideas about Scripture to enable Christians to formulate a robust doctrine of Scripture; he uses convoluted and exegetically unwarranted approaches to justification to help Christian thinks through what Scripture says about justification more carefully; he uses sloppy analysis of culture to guide Christians into thinking about the complex ways in which the gospel is proclaimed within any culture, and is called upon to transform that culture.

(3) I hope that increasing numbers of Christians will come to embrace the joint responsibility of cherishing all that is good in tradition so that we learn to see ourselves in continuity with the people of God across the ages, while simultaneously probing and understanding today’s world so that, even while remaining anchored in the past and above all in Scripture, we clearly love the men and women of our own generation, and passionately desire to serve as faithful witnesses here, facing the challenges and opportunities of our own time.

(4) My most forlorn hope is that as this fad—for that is what it is—burns itself out, rising numbers of Christians will learn a great lesson, and resolve afresh to be passionate about Christ, about Christ crucified, about the gospel holistically considered, and not about fads. As a result, when new fads come along, we will learn from them what we should, while maintaining our allegiance to and excitement in the old rugged cross and him who hung upon it, was buried, and rose again for our justification, so that our reading and praying priorities, the kinds of conferences we attend and the colleagues we cherish and admire, the language we use and the heritage we seek to pass on to a new generation, are all shaped by eternal realities, and not by fads. Soli Deo gloria!
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grace
stephenC

Warrior Academy v. Jesus Camp?

Some of you might have heard of Jesus Camp. It is a movie out this week in major US cities about some hard-corer Christian training that the media calls political brainwashing. People send me notices of this because of the Warrior Academy, I guess, and wonder about similarities.

Hat tip to Deborah B for the following media coverage on it from a North American news network:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=2115B5A4-1002-4337-9C21-9C46224610D6&f=00&fg=email

From the clips, it seems pretty intense- more so, than warrior academy, in expression, anyway (it is tough to compare content and results based on the short video)...

grace
stephenc

September 30, 2006.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

He is risen!

Tomorrow morning issue #45 of Journal of Aggressive Christianity busts out onto the internet (top right- jac online). There is a nice mixture of edification and provocation this time around to stir you up. Contributors include Harrison, Bale, Power, Champ, Footer, King, Hodge, Pope, Shade, Camery-Hoggatt, and Munn. Be sure to read like crazy and then tell ten friends...

We're into youth councils month tomorrow and we've got some preachers from our corps preaching at Northern BC Youth Councils and at Southern BC Youth Councils. If you are from around here, you'll want to hear Aaron at Sunrise and Olivia and Xander up north!

http://sauvesean614.blogspot.com/ is another blogger started up in the neighbourhood...

Next week we start a