The Salvation Army in Moonee Ponds is having an Open Day on the 3rd of October, between 10am and 4pm. Come along to check out what The Salvation Army is up to in Moonee Ponds, and to participate in all kinds of fun activities! There are even prizes to be won!

Even if it’s just for the free feed. Check it out, you won’t regret it!

880 Mt. Alexander Road (cnr. Buckley Street)

2 Corinthians 7:1 – “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

From Major Stephen Court;

Purge yourself of anything that defiles or contaminates body or spirit. Puke up your sin.

and…

Cultured ≠ Cleansed

Habitual ≠ Holy

Domesticated ≠ Consecrated

Laidback ≠ Liberated

Go here for more along these lines.

I’ve just brought over some very old blogs from a previous blog I used to maintain (salvokat.lifewithchrist.org), and I thought I’d draw your attention to them. There’s some gems in there – very surprising as I read over them!

Muscles
”Practicing Grace is like working your spiritual muscle. If you dont use it, then it’ll seize up and die. Ouch.”

…The Church will be found.
Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways

New Words & Insights
…e tour d’horizon, antecedent, civilisatrice, deplorable, tautological, nascent…

In Other Words
“Through being a "peculiar people," the people of God can bear witness to the will of God, as well as bring about transformative change for the cities in which they dwell.”

Transparency
"It was like I was transparent, It was like you could see through me to something bigger."

Proleptic
“…that which represents or characterises something in the future as having already occurred, or already having been accomplished in the present.”

Enjoy!

AMUC is on again in 2010. Are you ready? It’s going to be everything you want it to be and more!

Guest speaker this year is Steve Said from TEAR, and the experience you’ll get from being immersed in Inner-City life in Perth will blow your mind. But, that’s what you want it to do!

Have a look at what God is up to on in and around the “Urban Community” of Perth, and then SIGN-UP! Or, at least be inspired to go back to where you are from and know how to suss out what God is doing there, so that you can sign up there!

Go to the website here.

Get your Full Size Poster here.

Get your Application Form here.

Do it!

“Karen Jayne Jennings entered Heaven on 13 August 2009 into the presence of her risen Lord”

This is an edited excerpt of a testimony given by Karen;

I have early recollections of attending The Salvation Army and cannot remember ever not knowing Jesus being my Saviour from sin. Jesus was a part of my life; I never questioned it. On completion of my schooling and while in teacher’s college I started going out with Philip. After a few years we married. I was very much in love. While I enjoyed teaching and loved married life, I was also starting to experience the symptoms of MS.

What was happening to me? I still had my faith and knew (in my head at least) that God would have the answer. I prayed one morning, "Lord there has to be an answer for me. There must be more to this Christian life than I’m experiencing. It’s supposed to be good! Please show me!" Lying in that hospital bed after the diagnosis of MS, I poured my heart out to the Lord and was enveloped in such a comforting, fear dispelling presence. I was also convicted of my desperate need to be cleansed in the presence of such a pure, holy, perfect God. I knew at this time that I had been rescued by a loving God and that I was His child. That wave of well-being was to continue with me constantly.

The main lesson which I have been continually challenged to learn and practise is the need to be directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit (filled with the Spirit). It has been the difference between life and death for me. When I’m filled with The Spirit I can cope with being sick and when I’m not (Jesus isn’t my boss) I can’t cope. I have soaked myself in the Word and have made the decision to obey what I’ve read. I’ve had to do many things by faith when I’ve thought God’s direction has been too hard or "not me" or I just plain didn’t feel like doing it. As I’ve done His Word (because I’ve had to many times) I’ve discovered the absolute joy that is to be experienced when I’ve done things God’s way and not my own.

Every morning I have to pray and in my prayers I have to tell Jesus that I’ll let Him be my boss. That means I obey what I’ve read in the Word and what I know in my heart. It has taken me all these years of sickness to really know and feel the consequences of my actions attempted without God being my boss. I know that God only wants the best for me so I will trust Him in everything that happens. Because I’ve been in obedience training I have been ‘doing the Word’ in faith many times. A wonderful thing has happened as a result. I have had many of the rewards promised in the verses. I know without doubt that God’s way is the only way to live.

I was in Perth this week, and had an afternoon of flicking through channels on Mum & Dad’s Foxtel. Now, It’s been weeks since I’ve watched any commercial television at all, let alone had access to several hundred channels – so it was a novelty. But, interestingly (well, maybe it might be normal..) there was nothing on! Nothing that grabbed my attention anyway! Except.. I saw “veggie tales” on the episode list! And, I thought – “that’s just what I feel like watching!” But it wasn’t on for another 25 mins. So, I flicked to the channel anyway – it was “ACC” – the Australian Christian Channel.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the program on before ‘veggie tales’ was featuring a preacher who was a quadriplegic. Her story seemed quite amazing, they had a little piece prepared about her life before she came on. And, in the end I only stayed to watch the TV for a few more moments, but I heard the first point that she wanted to make in her ‘preach’.

WAKE UP EACH MORNING DESPERATELY NEEDING JESUS

She went on to fill in her point with some anecdotes and scripture – and the sentiment of the line sunk in with me, and stuck for the rest of the day – and evidently enough for me to write about it. I think lately, even though I’ve been growing in my listening and obedience (Praise God!), I haven’t felt a desperate need for Jesus – first thing. Or, I haven’t known that I’ve needed it. I’ve been reflecting on my days and realised that I do desperately need Jesus. There is no greater need in my life. I’ve got no strength outside of His. None at all. No wonder I’m tired, I’m trying really hard all on my own.

God please transform the first moments of my day – renew my passion for your love, and your strength. Keep reminding me about how much I need you.

Related to this, I was listening to 614’s “Souls and Justice” album on the way home in the car today, and kept having to go back and play this song over and over.
Lord, I need you. Thanks Danielle for writing words so familiar to my heart’s cry.

“The Wall” – Danielle Strickland

I see the wall before me,
I wonder will I ever be free,
Oh, I know the pain to try and climb
Yet, in You, peace is mine.

Lord I need you now,
Lord speak to me just now,
Lord, wrap in your might, teach me to fight somehow.
Lord, I need you,
I need you right now.

I see the giant face-to-face,
And, I can fight, but only by your grace.
Oh I, seem so small in this war,
And yet, there’s hope – that’s what your power is far, what it’s for.

Lord I need you now,
Lord speak to me just now,
Lord, wrap in your might, teach me to fight somehow.
Lord, I need you,
I need you right now.

I see the cross before my eyes,
I know the place where I must die.
Only, only by the strength you give,
Can I learn learn to die and live, again.

Lord I need you now,
Lord speak to me just now,
Lord, wrap in your might, teach me to fight somehow.
Lord I need you now,
Lord speak to me just now,
Lord, wrap in your might, teach me to fight somehow.

Lord, I need you,
I need you right now.

I need you, right now.
Wrap me in your might, teach me to fight, somehow.

The basic affirmation of personal worth and being that occurs in Christian and Jewish monotheism is grounded in a certain understanding of the relationship between God and human beings called grace. This relationship is rooted in the creation of human beings, but it is more than the esteem a creator might have toward the object of creation, more than the familial relationship of being created in the divine image and partaking in the divine nature, more than the essential givens of our humanness.

The thoroughgoing assurance of God’s affirmation of our worth comes through an all-inclusive love called grace. Grace is the acceptance and affirmation of the person before and independent of any action a person can take in the world. Grace affirms that each human being is irreducibly valuable – nothing done or not done can increase or decrease the worth given in the love of God.

“Grace is assured in the covenant God makes with humanity, which is God’s all inclusive, even per-temporal yes to humanity” (Outka 1972: 242).

It is possible for humans to refuse the call of God toward wholeness, to choose to live outside the healing relationships of mutual love, but even this rejection take place within the context of grace. The divine yes is a constant invitation to the renewal of life and to the recovery of integrity. God is for us. This most elemental of convictions of Judaism and Christianity undergirds all healing and liberation.

- Augsburger, D. W., (1986) Pastoral Counselling Across Cultures, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, p. 140

Back-up singers = Classic.

I was recently challenged to try my hand at something new.

I took to a keyboard, and with the help of Glenn Smith (my trusty Producer/Assistant!) I was able to write a new tune for a Salvation Army song, Someone Cares.

I’d love it if you’d have a listen and let me know what you think! Keep in mind, it’s my first go!

Download Here.

Someone Cares (SASB 238)

Do you sometimes feel that no-one truly knows you?
And that no-one understands or really cares?
Through His people God himself is close beside you,
And through them He plans to answer all your prayers.

Someone cares, someone cares,
Someone knows your deepest need, your burden shares,
Someone cares, someone cares,
God Himself will hear the whisper of your prayers.

Ours is not a distant God, remote unfeeling
Who is careless of our loneliness and pain
Through the ministry of men, He gives His healing
In their dedicated hands, brings hope again.

I know He cares for me (SASB CH 133)

I know He cares for me,
I know He cares for me,
I’ll trust my Father in Heaven,
For I know that He cares for me.

I know He cares for you,
I know He cares for you,
I’ll trust my Father in Heaven,
For I know that He cares for you.

Taken directly from; The Rubicon – Deeper Shade of Grey – Broken Bread (26th March 08)

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying,”This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22:19

To enter this scripture through Lectio Divina was interesting for me last week on Maundy Thursday; to fast from the proof texts of a polarised and perhaps tired debate in TSA and to meditate on what shone for me revealed something of an obvious surprise.

“For you….”

I wonder what shone for Albert Orsborn the General who penned My life must be Christ’s broken bread, originally as a song? To me he got it, he understood the sense of “for you…” I’m thinking that to reduce these words to a Salvationist apologetic for its position on sacraments is a disservice to the sentiment of mission that Orsborn captured long before mission became a euphemism for evangelism or was introduced as a trendy word to sell books. The sacrament is Christ himself; his life that was the Reign of God. Perhaps what the church needs to capture and dare I say ‘remember’, is the sense of “for you…” that Jesus modelled and calls us to.

My life must be Christ’s broken bread,
My love His outpoured wine,
A cup o’erfilled, a table spread
Beneath His name and sign.
That other souls, refreshed and fed,
May share His life through mine.

My all is in the Master’s hands
For Him to bless and break;
Beyond the brook His winepress stands
And thence my way I take,
Resolved the whole of love’s demands
To give, for His dear sake.

Lord, let me share that grace of Thine
Wherewith Thou didst sustain
The burden of the fruitful vine,
The gift of buried grain.
Who dies with Thee, O Word divine,
Shall rise and live again.

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Break me.
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Break me.

(SASB 512 w/- added Chorus)