Pruning

This picture is from our front yard in Myrtle Beach. It is a Crepe Myrtle. At the moment, it looks wonderful. That is, compared to what it looked like just 2 months ago!

When we retired into our home, this tree had been growing in our front yard for 10 years. In that time, apparently no one knew what to do with a Myrtle Tree. Therefore, it was covered in some kind of tree rot, did not look good at all and appeared to be dying. 

So we did some reading and called a local guy to come out and murder our tree. Yes, you read that right- it's called Crepe Murder!

I figured he would clean the junk off the bark and cut it back a bit. After a minute of bark cleaning, he started his chain saw and cut it down to almost nothing! I was horrified! Imagine this image with no leaves at all- just 3 sticks about 4 feet high and you've got the picture. We had 3 sticks in our front yard as our central tree! Aauugghh!

After a winter of "stick in our yard," all of a sudden it started to grow branches. I'm told this is normal for such a tree. Every few years we will do the same thing and it will grow again into a much larger, healthier tree.

Pruning. It's a common gardening practice. However, it's not so common in The Salvation Army. I think it should be.

We are currently in a tough place. COVID and (frankly) dealing poorly with our officers has left us in a state much like my old tree. Rotting and appearing to be near death in some places. We are stretching ourselves way too thin with way too few resources. Some of our locations are dead already and leadership refuses to see it.

I'm not going to go into a lot of explanation here, because I think you are smart enough to figure it out. We should get about pruning those dead locations and put the resources into ones that are still living and have actual potential for growth.

Yes, it would look bad for a time, but when the "Spring" comes, all of a sudden we would begin to see new growth that is much healthier. And that growth will supersede what we have now. But I don't think it's going to happen if we continue on our present course.

Corps Murder. There- I said it.

The Foundry

April 1st, 2007 at 7:00 PM was the beginning of The Foundry in Bangor, Maine. Tonight was the continuation of that blessing.

What, you might ask, is "The Foundry?" It's a NEW contemporary worship service envisioned, organized, put together and run completely by the Young Adults of our corps.

For this first month (April), the decision was made to start meeting with those who worked on it's "founding" (heh, heh) and anyone who heard about it by word of mouth. The intention is to bathe the process in prayer and found a core of those committed to it's success.

We have not been disappointed! God has shown up, people have been touched and the core is being melted and formed (I'm thinking of the chorus 'Break me, Melt me, Mold me, Fill me').

Tonight was my first time (we were on vacation last week) and I was amazed at the spiritual openness and immediate presence of Holy Spirit. Things will be accomplished in this setting (in our Corps and Bangor) that cannot be done in our regular AM worship services (for a variety of reasons we won't go into here).

Suffice it to say we are excited! And anxious to see what God has planned.

We need to get the word out- May 6 is the public "opening." Pray with us that God will be honored and His Kingdom will be advanced through this new endeavor.

BTW, the picture above was a God-incidence (as opposed to a coincidence, which I don't believe in). The Foundry's Title slide was being projected on the screen at the end of the service, when someone retracted the screen before shutting down the projector. The image melted onto the back wall of our chapel to reveal an inkling of God's hand on things.

Isn't God awesome?!

BTW, check out Denise's blog for her thoughts (it's her picture) and The Foundry Blog (both linked on the lower right) for more info and future blessings.

Thoughts on 2 Chronicles 15-16

Check out 2 Chronicles chapters 15-16. It's a fascinating passage and I'd like to leave you with a few thoughts about it. I'll assume you've already read it now, so I'll just make my comments on specific verses:

15:2 If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

There's a promise and a curse here. If you do the right thing, you get the promise. If not- well, you get the idea. But the main issue is God's concern that his people seek him. Mind you, he WANTS to be found so he's not into hiding.

He actively seeks us, but that's not enough for him. He wants us to do the same. That doesn't just "happen" because we go to church once a week. It takes effort and time. He promises that we will find him, but we've got to do the seeking. The last thing we want is for God to forsake us, but it WILL happen if we do NOT seek him.

4 But in their distress they turned to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.

It always seems to take some distress for us to really seek God now, doesn't it? I wonder what serious blessing we'd receive if we sought God BEFORE we got into trouble? Yet still, either way, he IS found WHENEVER we choose to seek him (whew!).

7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.

Nice promise! I hang onto this one all the time, because just when I want to give up, I need a reminder to hang in there just a little bit longer.

12 They entered into a covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.

A covenant; a contract, if you will. Wouldn't it be great if we were so serious! To actually sign a contract with God that we would seek him with all our heart and soul. Wow! Powerful!

13 All who would not seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.

Ouch! This would be a little hard to follow through with today! :) But they were serious and my bet is there weren't too many people that had to die that day. Seeking God was the most important thing they had to do.

14 They took an oath to Yahweh with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So Yahweh gave them rest on every side.

Not only did they take the oath, they did it wholeheartedly and with LOUD shouts and the whole band! They sought God with everything they had and, of course, they found him- because that's the promise. And God is good for his word. Always.

16:9 For the eyes of Yahweh range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

Here's the kicker: If we will fully commit ourselves to God, he will strengthen us to be successful. And we see God seeking again- seeking all over the earth to find those who sincerely want to find him and know him with all their hearts.

Often in today's world, there are way too many things keeping us from giving God everything. Anything in your way of seeking God with ALL your heart?

Power

Power (pou' er) n. 1. The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority. 2. A person having great influence over others.
[excerpted source: The American Heritage Dictionary]

There are quite a few more definitions, but for this blog I'm sticking with these two.

- - - - -

How you understand power tells others quite a lot about you. If you are a person who seeks to control others, you will exercise whatever authority you have over people. If you are a person who seeks to impact others, you will influence them by your manner of dealing with them.

It is all too easy to fall into the former. The problem with that is people follow the leader out of respect for the position (not the person); because they have to. Irritation, distrust and even anger can flow from this model of leadership. Followers feel constricted, undervalued (if at all) and rarely good enough. One can easily see how this model of leadership will always cause a downward spiral for the followers and their work.

However, if a leader works with his people and influences them, people follow their leader because they want to. Trust develops, friendship, and satisfaction. Followers feel freedom to try and explore, valued, confident and successful. One can easily see here as well, that this model of leadership will always build people up, creating an uplifting environment with positive results.

In a business it is assumed we will find both models in various places. In the church, we should never find the former. Yet we do for a variety of reasons. {sigh}

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
- Matthew 20:25-28 (NIV)

I guess the bottom line here is that the best leader is the one who actually serves his followers (imagine that!). He doesn't try to control them or mold them in his own image, rather he cherishes who they are and allows them to grow and flourish in who God has made them to be.

I know I'm not perfect, but I really try to be a leader who serves his followers. I want to have influence over people not control. To me, that's real power.

An Answer to Sin, if Not Our Depravity

After talking about what terrible sinners we are, I think it only right to give some equal time to what God has provided to help us with it. Besides his grace (which really is the keystone of our salvation), God has provided a way for us to live above sin. In The Salvation Army we call it holiness (sanctification, perfect love, Christian perfection [not Sinless Perfection], a subsequent blessing, fully saved, a clean heart, et al).

Before I go any further, I must reiterate that nothing good we do buys us anything toward our salvation. Our good works are basically filthy rags (I got that one from a guy named Paul). But once we see our depravity, we can come to God in repentance and he will freely offer his grace (Paul wrestles with our need to see our depravity in Romans 7). But when we're lifted up out of our sin, it doesn't change what we are- just how God sees us. We become justified (made right) by believing that Jesus' death paid the penalty of our infractions.

But what a terrible God Yahweh would be if he told us to be holy (live without sinning) and didn't provide a way for us to actually reach that lofty goal. And he does command us to be holy repeatedly throughout scripture (Leviticus 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15, 16- not an exhaustive list).

However, in our discussion of holiness we are often confused with the untenable doctrine of "Sinless Perfection." Sinless Perfection is "Such a state as that of Adam before his fall, wherein, he being a perfect creature, was enabled to render a perfect obedience to the perfect law of God" (William Booth). We cannot reach that state because "An imperfect creature cannot perfectly obey a perfect law, and man, being imperfect both in body and in mind, is plainly unable to keep the perfect law of God" (Booth). We will always have a natural tendency to focus on ourselves, which is the core of the sin nature. In other words, we will never get back to that perfection and purity of nature until we reach heaven ("Finally Saved," again Booth).

Holiness also does not make it impossible to fall from grace: "Satan fell from heaven, and Adam from Paradise, and they both were perfect, in a sense in which we never can be in this life; and we do not see any state of grace revealed in the Bible as attainable in this life from which it is not possible to fall" (Booth).

What holiness does (as mentioned in my response to my previous blog) is attune us so closely with Holy Spirit, it becomes unlikely that we will sin- as long as we are in that constant communion with the him. In other words, if we are about to do something we shouldn't (or not do something we should- the sin of omission), Holy Spirit nudges us "back to our senses" (as it were) and we avoid that particular sin. Sin is an offense against God; something that hurts him. Therefore our close connection with Holy Spirit keeps us attuned so we know beforehand, what God wants or doesn't want from us. In that way, we can live without sinning on a regular basis- ie: be holy.

Again, I remind you, we MAY still sin, but we don't HAVE to. Holiness does not cause us to attain some kind of "higher" or better state of grace.

I remember a story told by Samuel Logan Brengle about a time in his life where he went 14 years without sinning. Then one day, he was heading to (I think it was) Old Orchard Beach to preach at a meeting and was running a bit late. His cab driver was being a bit poky and Brengle yelled at him for this. As he left the cab, he was smitten by the Spirit (in order to bring repentance), immediately repented and after the service, tried to find the driver to apologize (I'm not sure if he ever found him).

My point is, even after 14 years of living so close to God that you avoid sin (I believe it is possible), there is still that "something" in us that pulls at us. If we are ever less watchful; if we ever let our guard down, we will most likely sin. That's why we must stay ever so close to God's Holy Spirit.

In that closeness, we don't have to sin. We don't have to let sin get over on us like it used to, controlling us and causing us to "not do what we want to do, but what we don't want to do" (Romans 7).

I am grateful to God for providing his grace not only for our salvation, but also for our holiness. Salvation is all about his grace. Good thing, because there's nothing good in me without him.

Thanks God!

Over the last week, I observed a friend as he discovered that prayer is all about talking to a friend, not some college elocution professor.

We were praying in my office and when he finished, I said something to the effect of: "Had some trouble there putting all those big words together, huh?" Then we started talking about just regular conversation with God- "you know, like we're talking right now."

At that moment, I watched a large light bulb go off over his head. It was awesome seeing that new understanding light up behind his eyes! He was so excited, he spent the whole week practicing.

This week in my office it was a whole new person speaking when it came time to pray. Nothing fancy, no big words or anything. Just real, live connection with God. It wasn't a long prayer either, but it had a simple power that can grab your attention- it did mine.

Thank-you God for allowing me to witness that. It made my day!

3 Things God Cannot Do

Ever heard of the question, "Can God make a rock so big he can't lift it?" That's an example of ridiculous thinking! It leads people to saying things like, "If God can't make a rock that big, then he can't do everything" or "If God can't lift the rock he made, then God can't do everything." Therefore, God has limitations; if God can't do everything he's not God.

Rubbish! Why does God need to be able to do everything anyway?

O! I just realized I might be stepping on a few toes out there! I bet there's at least a few who DO think this way about God! Actually there are a LOT of things God cannot do- sin, die, make a rock so big . . . but he's STILL God!

Our definition of God should not be so small as to limit God to OUR understanding or how WE think! So I'm not interested in setting limitations on God, rather I just want to look at 3 things he cannot do.

God gives us a good place to start with this in Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT):

"My thoughts are completely different from yours," says Yahweh. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

I'm not doing this to see how cute I can be. These 3 things tell us a LOT about God and give us something solid to hang our hats on. Because of these 3 things, you can COUNT on God! And if you can count on God, then you can give your life TOTALLY to him without worry.

1) God Cannot Lie.
We have this tendency to make God in our own image. In other words, we think he's just like us and we try to define him that way. But don't forget Isaiah 55 above- God is NOT like us. He doesn't think like us. God is TOTALLY good; there is NO darkness in him. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. His motivations are pure. Anything attributed to evil is NOT found in God (as opposed to us).

Hebrews 6:18 "It is impossible for God to lie." Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man that he should lie." Titus 1:2 "He (God) cannot lie."

Therefore if God says it, we can count on it. No waffling. No doubt. If we find it in God's Word to us, it's as good as fact.

You know any scriptural promises? You know, the kind you may have written out and posted on your refrigerator or put in your Bible? Some of my favorites are: Galatians 6:9; Isaiah 41:10; John 14:12; Psalm 81:10; Jeremiah 33:3; 1 John 1:9 (you'll have to look them all up!).

Take a look at some of your favorites. There should be NO doubt in your mind about what the Bible tells you. It is truth. There promises are certain facts because God cannot lie.

2) God Cannot Learn.
Ever thought of that before? If God knows everything, what is there to learn? There is nothing out there he's not completely aware of. Isaiah 40:14 asks the question:

"Whom did Yahweh consult to enlighten him and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?"

1 John 3:20 says "God knows everything." 1 Samuel 2:3 says "Yahweh is a God who knows." Psalm 147:5 says "Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit."

So if this is all true (and we already know God cannot lie!), guess what follows this?

• God never says "oops!"
• God is never surprised.
• God knows everything you think.
• You can't hide from God.
• God knows every outcome.

Give a run around with this one for awhile: Can God be disappointed?

The more you think about God not being able to learn, the more you see how awesome he really is! God cannot learn, because he already knows all there is to know!

3) God cannot make us love him.
How many movies are out there about unrequited love? Hundreds? Thousands? Isn't it a sad thing; when someone loves another who doesn't love them back?

In the movies, you can get inside the person's thoughts and you can see with them that the other person SHOULD love them; they would make a good couple, etc. But the other person goes on traipsing after someone else who always seems to hurt them!

How sad the greatest love story in the universe includes millions of people who do not love God back! And God can do NOTHING about it. It's their choice.

It's YOUR choice.

God loves you and BECAUSE he loves you so much, he gives you the freedom to choose. God cannot make you love him.

It's interesting that while God cannot do these things, YOU can! Stop lying to yourself, learn to trust God and love him with all your heart.

Because you now know these 3 things God cannot do, here's 3 more sets of 3 things:

3 Things you can be certain of:
1) There IS a God and he is utterly faithful.
2) God knows EVERYthing about you.
3) God loves YOU immensely!

3 Things you cannot do:
1) You cannot distrust God.
2) You cannot hide from God.
3) You cannot continue to control your own life.

3 Things you MUST do now:
1) You MUST believe in God and trust him.
2) You MUST Stop trying to run from God.
3) You MUST give him everything- TOTAL control of your life

It was a LONG Night Last Night

Yesterday we traveled back from visiting Jenn & Josh for a week in Canada. It's a LONG drive, but we decided to take some scenic roads to stave away the boredom of the monotonous highway. Somewhere around 2/3s of the way home, I began having chest pains.

It didn't hurt all the time, just when I took deep breaths or moved a certain way so I figured it was nothing to worry about. Around 11:30 I was just trying to get to sleep and a couple of my fingers began to tingle. This concerned me and when it wouldn't go away, I decided Deb should take me to the emergency room.

When I told the nurses what was happening, they asked me a lot of questions. It seemed every other thing they asked about was positive so they took me to the nearest room (it happened to be in Intensive Care Unit, even though I wasn't considered that bad). There, they wired me for an EKG, took lots of blood to test (ouch) and put an IV in my arm just in case. They gave me more aspirin (I had taken a small dose at home before leaving) and some Vicodin (I'm STILL groggy from it!).

Deb went home, because they said I was going to spend the night there waiting for test results and more test results. I actually slept about 1 1/2 hours, going in and out of consciousness, until they told me all was well- I could go home; it wasn't my heart. Maybe I pulled a chest muscle or something, but the Doctor said I did the right thing. In any such case, caution should prevail.

What an experience! I don't remember the last time I was in the hospital and the last time I was in the emergency room for myself was when I was a young kid. I don't recommend it- unless, of course, you need it!

The thing that I am most pleased about is how I handled it all. At no time was I worried or even anxious. I was praying the whole time, but I wasn't at all frantic. I joked with the nurses and kept upbeat about the whole situation. The thing that concerned me the most was Deb missing her sleep (she never mentioned it)!

Now that I look back on my long night, I am glad I was able to trust God through all that was happening. I just knew he was in control and I could have faith in his provision. I guess some of what I preach is rubbing off on the preacher!

BLESSING:
May the things you have learned about Christianity be expressed regularly in your life; especially in the rough moments you experience. May your faith be strong and may you know for certain God is in control. And may you accept all that without accquivocation.

Think God's Not Listening?

The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me?" he cried!

Early the next day he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. When he stepped into the boat, he asked his rescuers "How did you know I was here?"

Their reply: "We saw your smoke signal."

- - -

Feel like God isn't listening to your cry for help? Feel like everything around you seems to be crashing down around your feet? Maybe the crash is God's way of providing. Have faith while you're waiting. Tomorrow you'll see he was working even when you thought he wasn't.

BLESSING:
May you trust God in the middle of your crises. May you believe his promises to take care of you . . . even when it doesn't look that way at the moment.

A Battle School Guest Blogger

Today I want to offer another guest blogger. The teenaged Eddie Bell just got back from 5 1/2 weeks of Battle School in Vancouver, Canada and shares his experience (no editing). I was impressed and blessed, as I'm sure you will be as you read of his exploits. O that all of our teens would be so fired up for God!

If you want to know more about the Battle School, click on my title above, which links to the ArmyBarmy info pages. Next years session is already beginning to book, so sign up early!

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Hello Everyone,

This is Eddie Bell I am back from Vancouver and wanted to tell some of the things that happened to me.

My days in Vancouver were long and they were filled with excitement. During the mornings I had a class taught to me, one about cleasing stream. We went threw a book and we talked about problems and learn to deal with the problems and what scripture say's.

We also had a time, ground force, which is physical labor at the shelter for homeless people. We did all sorts of manuel labor like painting, organizing and cleaning.

On tues. we had class with Danielle Strickland and learned about leadership. I learned that we cannot be a leader with out good character.

Thurs we had class with Stephen Court and we learned about Evangilsm. sharing the gospel with everyone you meet. After I had the class we went to Oppenheimer Park which is a park that has alot of drug dealers and addicts and we played with the kids that were at the park. We were trying to be friends to the kids.

God was teaching me to be on fire for him! We also learned that we can be helpful to everyone we meet. We gave people things that they needed like food, coffee, and Jesus.

I also think that we should dive into the cleansing flood of Jesus. Just be like Jesus, by trying to be pure and heal people and pray for people. I am not going to turn back away from the flood of Jesus.

On my last day there I was surfing on a crowd of people and they were shouting blessings over me. We were at Cariboe Hill and we were singing send the fire and the fire alarm went off. God was trying to tell us that He is going to send the fire!

I also found out that I have the gift of evangilism. I found out by talking to people on the streets that were high on drugs and drug addicts and dealers. Regular people too. I was nervous talking to these people but I felt God told me to talk to them and I wanted to be on fire for God so I talked. I talked to kids
about God too. This gift has changed me.

I want to start a cell group for 11-15 year old kids at our after school club. This will be a bible study and fun time to hang out and learn about God. My mom and I are going to work on this together.

thank you for praying for me while I was away.
Eddie Bell

The Way it Should Work

I have been frustrated for years in finding the right people for special ministry in Bangor. We've got some long time faithful people ensconced in ministry here, but finding new people to add just the right "missing pieces" has been tough.

I was very pleased when Aurora Atell heard a call to come to Bangor for specialized ministry! She was the first, as it were, to join our team from "afar" and her input has been wonderful. In fact, she has added so much in many more ways than I originally imagined.

But she can't do it all (neither can those who are already playing their part here). There's much more to accomplish for The Kingdom.

So I have been frustrated again recently in trying to find someone to help with our pre-teen ministry (which I blogged about the other day). All of our leads have come to naught and I was feeling badly that we were back in the middle of a great plan with no one (the RIGHT someone) to put it into action. {Boo hoo, woe is me!}

Today I got an email from a young lady who is moving to Bangor and wants to get involved in ministering to pre-teens (no names yet, but she read my blog). She has held a position as a youth pastor and has experience in and passion for listening prayer- with pre-teens! Sounds like God has something in mind, I'd say!

{HUGE sigh of relief here!}

And shouldn't that be the way it works? God gave me the assignment to get a pre-teen ministry going, so why would he do that and not send me the right person to make it happen? I don't know if this person will be the right one, but I do believe they will at least play a part. Maybe even in forming the ministry's shape. I'm psyched!

And therefore at ease to go on a week vacation to London, Ontario to visit Jenn & Josh! We leave tomorrow bright and early.

BLESSING:
May you have the grace to trust God even when it doesn't look like he's working on your situation. May you know without a doubt he doesn't give assignments without giving the resources to make them happen. And may you know the difference between your "bright" ideas and God's, because he isn't obligated to make your plans happen, but he does obligate himself to make his own plans come to completion.

The First Presentation of the Gospel

When does the Bible first present the Gospel message of Jesus Christ? Matthew? Isaiah? How about Genesis. Genesis 5 to be specific. Take a moment and look it up. Do you see it?

"The first genealogy!" you say. "Those things? I just bleep over them!"

Why do you do that? Doesn't the Bible say: "ALL scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching . . . " (2 Timothy 3:16)?

I learned an awesome tip the other day listening to a teaching tape (mp3) by Chuck Missler. When the Bible lists a genealogy or list of names, put the name meanings together and see what the sentence says! Tricky, huh?

So NOW take a look at Genesis 5:1-29. Adam means "man," Seth means "appointed," Enos(h) means "mortal," Cainan means "sorrow," Mahelal(eel) means "the blessed God," Jared means "shall come," Enoch means "teaching," Methuselah means "his death shall bring," Lamech means "the despairing," and Noah means "rest."

Put that sentence together (with a couple of connecting words) and you get:

Man('s) appointed (to) mortal sorrow. But the blessed God shall come down teaching (and) his death shall bring the despairing, rest.

Sometimes it may be harder to put them together coherently, because some names may mean more than one thing. But all that aside, isn't this AWESOME?

Even at the beginning of time (as we know it), God was hinting at his planned redemption of his people! The more I learn about the God of the Bible and his Word to us, the more I see how very much we DON'T know. And the more I see how incredible he is!

Now try this with the lists of the tribes of Israel- they're often written in differing orders- maybe for a different message? Or maybe the Apostles? There are certainly plenty of other genealogies. Any other name lists you can think of? Anyone out there willing to do some research- fill us in on what you find!

BLESSING:
May you begin to discover the brilliance of our God, Yahweh. May you learn of the incredible ways he has worked throughout time to reach and connect with us. May you know his great love for his creation- especially his great love for you!