Monthly Archive for December, 2006Page 2 of 3

5 months

Published
by
Graeme
on December 14, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Back on the 27th July this year I got the news that my mum was finally back on the waiting list for her hip replacement operation. For those of you who know me personally, this whole saga has been the biggest single weight on my mind during the last few years here in Latvia. My mum has suffered a great deal of pain and frustration due to arthritis and the resultant knee replacements. Then to cap it all she was diagnosed earlier this year with Glaucoma.

Well my Dad has phoned this evening to say that after the latest round of checks, what looked to be a real problem with one eye seems to be starting to resolve itself and that, praise God, she has finally got a date for her hip replacement. So after exactly five months on the NHS list Mum will be going back under the knife on December 27th. Then we can all look forward to her recovery and they will both be able to get out of the house more often.

Christmas has come early for this particular family! Thank you Lord!

Hunger and thirst after justice

Published
by
Graeme
on December 13, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

I’m still reading God in All Things! The book, as a whole, looks at what Hughes calls “Split Spirituality” which in very basic terms is about how we have managed to separate God and the things of God from those of everyday life. Last night I read the following:

Any spirituality that fails to develop an appreciation of the unity of all things and of all peoples, and that leaves us without any hunger or thirst for social justice, must inevitably prove to be a false spirituality. It will not be drawing us closer to the living God who hungers and thirsts after justice, as we read in the Hebrew prophets. It is a sign of the split in our spirituality that in too many churches, people who are active in justice/peace issues find themselves to be on the margins.”
Gerard W. Hughes, God in All Things p 172

No need for a commentary on this as it speaks for itself!

Just a little fun

Published
by
Graeme
on December 12, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

I’ve just discovered the puzzle “Petals around the Rose” which for some reason I’ve never heard of before. It’s the sought of thing that is going to bug people for hours if they don’t work out the secret. Being totally honest though I worked it out after only two throws of the dice.

If you do work it out then you aren’t allowed to divulge the answer, but maybe put a comment here to let us know how quickly you got it!

The Pilgrim Church

Published
by
Graeme
on December 11, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned a few times recently that I’m reading “God in All Things” by Gerard W Hughes at the moment. It seems to be taking me an extraordinarily long time due to various reasons. However, there are some great bits in it and I read this the other day:

Ideally, the Church is a pilgrim people, blissfully happy in their indifference to wealth and possession, unworried by the insecurity of all systems and institutions because they know they have no abiding city here. They are en route, a learning people, always ready to admit their errors in the fac of truth, welcoming the truth where it is found, and knowing that it can be found among all peoples, whether Christian or not.

What a marvellous Church that would be! … [but] it is as though the pilgrim [Church has] … accumulated too many possessions on the way, found the weight too heavy to carry and so settled down to look after and protect the overloaded rucksack. The pilgim Church became the settled Church, the static Church. The pilgrim people, unable to cope with marauding bands, settled down to protect themselves, threw up stockades, then high walls. The pilgrim Church became the parade ground Church, the beleaguered garrison of Christ the King. Within its high walls the loyal troops performed their outmoded arms drill and manoeurves in the parade ground, assured that as long as they kept up the drill and obeyed orders without question, they could be use of ultimate victory”
(Gerard W Hughes, In Search of a Way (first edition), pp 125-6 in Hughes, God of All Things, pp 141-2

After I read it, I read it out to Zoe and commented that it would be incredibly easy to replace the words “Pilgrim Church” with “The Salvation Army”. I reckon that it is probably just as easy to do the same thing with whatever denomination we attend, or even with our local church’s name.

In my mind, this is something that we have to be constantly aware of. It can be easy to shut up shop when the going gets tough. We can end up being more interested in being separate from the world, than we are in it. In Jesus’ prayer before he is arrested, he prays that his followers will be not be taken out of the world (John 17:15-19Open Link in New Window).

Hiding ourselves away in our church buildings is the equivalent of hiding our light under a bushel. Unless we are outside the walls of our church buildings, only little hints of the light are going to escape in the world. However, if we are out in our communities, then the light we shine out will be impossible to miss.

Family Life

Published
by
Graeme
on December 11, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Yesterday Zoe was sick so I got the joy of running the house and family for the day. It never ceases to amaze me how Zoe manages to juggle things as I find it so difficult!

At the same time there are moments when I look at Sian, like last night as she lay down in the bath and was almost the full length of the bottom of it, and am amazed that this little person is the same one as tiny baby I held in my arms just over 3 years ago. She teaches me so much about myself and who I am.

Then over the weekend the thing I have been waiting for finally happened. Zoe is now about 21/22 weeks pregnant (we say 22 but the doctor says 21!) and has been feeling the baby moving around for quite awhile now. However, last night I can be 100% sure that I felt the baby move for the first time. A couple of weeks ago now I went with Zoe for a scan and we were able to see his/her arms, legs, back, etc so clearly.

This little family is so important to me and I cannot imagine what life would be like without them.

Copying the world and questioning structures

Published
by
Graeme
on December 8, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Why do we seem to need to copy the world so much? Why do we need to take things that are relevant to the world and devalue the Gospel by using them to communicate it’s truth? Why do we attack individuals when we should be questioning structures instead?

The reason I ask these questions is because in the last two days I’ve read a couple of entries on other blogs that have raised questions about similar subjects. One was looking at Christian clothing that spoofs well known brands, such as Coca-Cola, and uses the logo to ’sell’ the Gospel. There is an interesting conversation going on about it over at the post on The Forgotten Ways. I particularly felt that the idea of thinking about how we would feel if the companies whose logos/look get spoofed, did an advert using the Cross. I suspect we might not think that’s clever.

You can find the other entry over at Phil Laeger’s blog. He saw an advert on yet another site and one of the comments stood out. Go over there and read what he has to say.

It made me think about the dangers involved in trying to work out where I am going in my faith. I struggle with some of the aspects of The Salvation Army and other established churches because of the barriers that seem to get put in the way of meeting with Jesus. The reality is though that there are a huge number of genuine Christians, who love the Lord with all their heart, mind, will and strength. When we start to point fingers at a particular type of Christian we are getting into the area that Jesus talks about in Matthew 7:3Open Link in New Window.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with questioning some of the things that make up any particular expression of Church, we need to understand that if we attack it then people may get hurt by our attack. I have the right to question structures, but never the right to parody or attack individuals.

Missing…

Published
by
Graeme
on December 7, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Yesterday Zoe came to me in the office and said that our Director of Social Work had seen one of the boys who used to come to Patvērums on a missing child advert. In many ways it has really knocked the stuffing out of me.

He is a difficult kid and compulsive liar, but at the same time had so much potential and we cared so much about him. He was an irregular visitor to the centre for just over a year or so. His family background was extremely tough and there were rumours of sexual abuse. He tried to encourage some of our other boys to visit an older man that he knew, and the social services were supposed to be looking out for him. That was all 4 years ago now, and over the intervening period we’ve often thought we saw him, but were never 100% sure.

Now the questions come! Where is he? Is he safe? How did his situation reach this stage? Could we have done more for him than we did?