Daily Archive for March 27th, 2006

Confession is good for the soul….

Published
by
Graeme
on March 27, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
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… or so I’ve heard!

Before coming and working in Latvia I spent more than 4 years working for the Anglican Church in the office that tries to link all the various provinces of the church together. At the time I was working in their accounts department and I take a lot of happy memories (as well as many unpleasant and depressing ones) away with me.

Having been brought up in TSA those years were my education into of the formal liturgical side of church. For that alone it is something that I value greatly.

One thing in particular that I have never really understood since this time is why we do not put more empathsis in our services on repentance. Ask me a few years ago and I would have been quite pro-sacramental in my outlook and part of this has shaped my thinking about this subject. In every eucharistic service before the sacraments are distributed there is an act of corporate repentance that is supposed to bring everyone in that service into a place where they can receive from God.

However, in the Army meetings I have been involved I can remember only a handful of times when we have been called to repent corporately. In fact, when I think about it, it is pretty uncommon in my experience for us to be challenged to repent individually within a meeting. How then can we be right with God if we are not willing to accept our own sin.

Is it pride? Is it lack of understanding?

I’m happy to admit that there are many dangers in the sin/repentance cycle. The most obvious being that we are in danger of falling for into the trap of sinning and then confessing without any real conviction of our sin. But I’m convinced that for many Salvationists they come to the Army on a Sunday and never even think about the need to repent of the sins they may have committed duing the week, and by not doing so are not opening themselves to the blessing of God in their lives.

The enemy’s tricks

Published
by
Graeme
on March 27, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

I’ve been reading Joshua for the last few days and have decided that it has to one of the most confusing books to read. God has given me a real passion against injustice, yet here is the same God telling the Israelites to inflict wholesale genocide against those who live in the promised land. Now I understand the reasons why this is, but it is still difficult for me to read!

Still I always try to get something out of what I am reading and once again this is the case even through the early chapters of Joshua. Yesterday I reached Chapter 9 which tells of the way that the Gibeonites deceived the Israelites and managed to avoid the destruction inflicted on all the city-states in the promised land.

This led me to think about how easy it is for us to be deceived by the enemy in our own lives. It many ways it was too easy for the Gibeonites to trick the Israelites by pretending to be something they weren’t. It came down to one thing, the Israelites took their eyes of the Lord.

“The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.” (Joshua 9:14Open Link in New Window).

After everything they had been through and the successes that God had already given them in their battles in the promised land! After seeing the famed walls of Jericho fall! Still the Israelites forgot to go first to God and seek His will.

How often do we make decisions based on what we see rather than what God sees? How often in life do we make a decision only for it to become clear later that it was the wrong one and wasn’t what God wanted for our lives?

For the Israelites they continued to make this same mistake throughout the coming centuries. Various prophets came and went, and still they didn’t learn their lesson.

For us it is important that we don’t make the same mistake and that instead of doing what we want, we should instead try to keep our eyes fixed on Him.