Monthly Archive for July, 2006Page 2 of 3

Some days I struggle

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Graeme
on July 20, 2006
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There are days when I really struggle to understand why some things happen. This morning is one of those days!

My mum suffers from arthritis and just under 3 years ago had her knee replaced. This resulted in a series of problems that still haven’t been fully solved. Then about 2 years ago she had her other knee replaced which compounded the problems. She is still unable to walk as she basically has no cartiledge left in one of her hips and the pain makes it impossible to walk. Add to this the rash on her leg, it means her life is pretty much sat at home!

Yesterday she finally had an operation, but not on her hip. Instead it was on her eyes, both of them! From what my dad says it was due to the early stages of a Glaucoma type problem and she now has two tiny holes in each eye. This means that she will, for the unforeseeable future, have to have eye-drops every day.

Sometimes I wonder why this sort of thing happens. My parents were officers for just under 20 years and served faithfully despite been treated shoddily by the Army at times. They lost their first son before he was 2 years old! Sometimes, I want to shout at God and say at what point will He give them a break and let something wonderful happen!

One thing though, despite everything I will still give praise to God! This particular problem with my mum’s eyes could have resulted in blindness if it hadn’t been caught so early, but it was!

Technology and the Bible

Published
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Graeme
on July 19, 2006
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A few years ago I got my very first Palm Handheld Computer and have had a love affair with them ever since. That first little wonder succumbed to a particularly sad death due to being in the bottom of my bag as someone decided to step on it on London Underground. Quite amazingly my household insurance covered it and I managed to replace it with one which lasted for 3 or 4 years. Then 2 years ago I upgraded to my third which has served me well ever since.

Last year I finally got round to getting Bible software for it and I now have 5 (yes I said 5) Bible versions on a piece of software. It means that I always have my Bible with me wherever I go and can make notes, highlight verses and even read commentaries and daily reading notes. The only thing it misses is the ability to just thumb through the pages and read a highlighted verse at random.

You can see therefore that I am a sucker for new technology things and eBible.com looks to be an interesting development. According to the information it already has several Bible versions available (including my new favourite ESV) and various Commentaries and Dictionaries. All of this is aimed at helping the average person to study the Bible online. Its still in development at the moment and access is by invite only! I’ve joined the list today so once I get to join I’ll post more information and a review.

What is Church? - Christ’s Ambassadors

Published
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Graeme
on July 17, 2006
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Something that has become increasingly clear to me is that for many Church has become about what we can get for ourselves. At the best end of this selfish spectrum we see people enjoying the blessing of the Holy Spirit on their lives time and time again, and at the worst end Church has become little more than a kind of Christian working men’s club where people go to have a chat and be entertained!

Whatever happened to the Great Commission that shows that God’s only plan to save the world and to bring people back to Him is the Church? His only plan is the flawed group of individuals who can show the world what it is they are missing!

2 Corinthians 5:18-20Open Link in New Window calls us to be Ambassadors for Christ. That means we are called to speak on God’s agenda at all times! The Ambassador of any country works both for the interests of that country and to promulgate the message that the country stands for.

My mind goes to an interview I remember with an Ambassador of a country which I forget at present, who, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, continued to argue the official position of the state. At the time I could not understand how he could possibly argue this, but then realised that this was his job.

Whether we like it or not, people who are not citizens of God’s Kingdom look at us and what they see reflects what they think the Kingdom of God is like. If they think that Christianity is boring, that’s because the type of Christians they see make it look boring! If they see the Church as irrelevant it’s because Christians are often more worried about the irrelevancies of the Christian sub-culture, than they are the troubles of the unsaved!

I’m reading The Drama of Scripture at the moment and one line struck me as I was thinking about this:

Those who follow Jesus now are called to be the harbingers of cosmic restoration yet to come. pg 28

We have a message that surpasses anything that any modern state has to offer. Let’s act as if we are the true Ambassadors that we have been appointed to be. Let’s take our message outside of those embassies in the world that we call churches and be what the Lord has called us to be.

New website

Published
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Graeme
on July 17, 2006
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Just to let you know that The Salvation Army in Latvia has a new website. There isn’t a lot of content yet, but we’ll be adding to it over the coming months!

You can visit it by clicking here!

Our little girl

Published
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Graeme
on July 13, 2006
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Keeping us on our toes all the time at 2½! (Zoe took the photo yesterday!)

Christ’s Apprentices

Published
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Graeme
on July 13, 2006
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Soon after arriving in Latvia almost 5 years ago I learnt a lesson that has stayed with me ever since. The Latvian words for disciple and apprentice are exactly the same - māceklis.

I’m happy to be a disciple of Christ, seeking to follow His ways and live a life that is worthy of Him.

But I also have to admit that I am an apprentice, that I make lots of mistakes and the quality of my work is usually not up to the standards that Christ’s example sets us. However, I am apprenticed under a Master Craftsman who is always guiding my hands in the work that He has set me!

Passion again

Published
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Graeme
on July 12, 2006
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In the editor’s comment of last weekend’s Salvationist (8 July) he asked the question, “Why are some readers so quick to fire off a letter on cosmetic issues and then the silence is deafening when it comes to sharing good news?”. This was off the back of a mailbag full of responses to a letter about uniform, but only a handful sharing about positive things happening in corps.

In response I sent the following letter:

In the Editors comment for the 8th July issue he asks the question “Why are some readers so quick to fire off a letter on cosmetic issues and then the silence is deafening when it comes to sharing good news?” and I can almost imagine the reaction in some quarters! There were almost certainly some Salvationist who were made angry by this question as it suggests that issues like uniform-wearing, musical styles etc are critical of their Salvationism.

There in lies the problem. For far too many people, the things that make The Salvation Army what it is today are uniforms, brass bands and our “unique ministry” to those who society ignores. However, of all those things the only one that matters in anyway at all is the last, and lets be honest there are not really many Salvationists involved in that ministry outside of the professionals and officers!

The simple truth is that for many The Salvation Army is little more than a social club, where they can meet their friends on Sunday and at practices during the week. It’s a place where they can sing on a Sunday and thank God for the things that He does for us and then go home proud to be a Salvationist! Few of our Soldiers live their lives according to the promises they made when they signed the Articles of War. Few can probably even remember what they signed!

We think that the answers to our problems lie in the past and if we keep on doing those things God will supply our every need. But instead we only need to take one thing from our glorious birth and that is the passion that the early day Salvationists showed! Not a passion for the things that make up the modern day Salvation Army, but a different type of passion. A Passion for souls! A Passion for work! And above all a Passion for Christ!

This morning I received an e-mail from the Editor, Captain Dean Pallant, asking whether he could publish an edited version of the letter. Having read his edited version the writing made it the letter I wish I had written so I gave permission. So watch out for it if you get the Salvationist!

The distressing thing though is that so many Christians are all to willing to get on the bandwagon about the irrelevancies of life, both Church and secular, but seem unable to see the good that is being done for the Kingdom. There is so much good going on around the world in God’s name and in The Salvation Army, yet we are blinded to it.

Yesterday two things stood out for me. The first was my discovery of Jude 17-23Open Link in New Window which I spoke on for my morning prayers. Those who want to detract from the good by concentrating on the little things that make no real difference to the Kingdom. Instead we should be building ourselves up and doing those things that Jude implores us to do.

The second thing was the discovery of another ministry that is striving to be relevant to modern culture and meeting the needs of the community. The Freeway can be found in Hamilton in Ontario, Canada and runs a coffee house with a creative edge. Visit their site and find out more! The thing that stood out though is that they are trying to be church in a way that is meeting a need in their community and is totally outside the box in terms of a traditional understanding of church. To me they embody the Jude teaching!

This post is a bit of a mish-mash of thoughts but I hope it makes some sense. I’ll leave the last word to Captain Pallant though as he has a much better command of the English language than me:

“There are many mission-critical issues to debate … We will not always agree with each other but let’s keep the discussion … focused on building the Kingdom by sharing positive and encouraging experiences.”