Brengle on Zeal!

Speaking as a self-confessed zealot I found the following from SLB in ‘The Soul –Winner’s Secret’ most encouraging

"It is said that Sheridan went to battle with all the fury of a madman, and recklessly exposed himself to the shot and shell of the enemy. He told General Horace Porter that he never went into a battle from which he cared to come back alive unless he came as a victor. This desperation made him an irresistible inspiration to his own troops, and enabled him to hurl them like thunderbolts against his foes. If he became so desperate in killing men, how much more desperate, if possible, should we become in our effort and desire to save them!… He that is anxious about his dinner and eager to get to bed at a reasonable hour and concerned about his salary, and over solicitous about his health, and querulous about his reputation, and the respectability and financial condition of his appointment, and afraid of weariness and painfulness and headache and heartache, and a sore throat, may make a very respectable field officer or parson, but not a great soul-winner.”

And as William Pearson prayed…

"Spread Calvary's great salvation fame,
Make every tongue a living flame,
Soul-saving truth inspire.
With zeal inflame thy fighting host,
Baptize us with the Holy Ghost,
And set us all on fire."

Yours under Christ and irrepressibly over the Devil

Andrew

The unsaved need the saved!

I haven’t seriously read Brengle since I was 16 and my spiritual makeup at 44 is quite is different from what it was nearly 30 years ago.

So having completed several excellent books by Andrew Murray and Charles Finney I have decided to re-read the works of Brengle.

Starting with “The Soul-Winner’s Secret” (Because I like the title!)

Brengle starts with an obvious but oft forgotten truth which might be behind the problem that the contemporary Salvation Army in the west seems to have with soul-winning..

“Every soul-winner is in the secret of the Lord, and has had a definite personal experience of salvation and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which brings him into close fellowship and tender friendship and sympathy with the Saviour… In short, he must have a definite, constant, joyful experience of God’s salvation in his own soul in order to save others… It must be a definite experience that tallies with the Word of God. Only this can give that power and assurance to a man which will enable him to lead and win other men. You must have knowledge before imparting knowledge. You must have fire to kindle fire. You must have life to reproduce life. You must know Jesus and be on friendly terms with Him to be able to introduce others to Him. You must be one with Jesus, and be “bound up in the bundle of life” with Him if you would bring others into that life.”

As I have already said, it is a simple truth but one we often forget. Is there a lack of soul-winning in our lives, Corps, territory – Army? It is probably because we are either not properly saved ourselves or we doubt our salvation. The average western SA Officer no longer considers salvation to be the first or most obvious solution to an enquirer’s problem.

I fear that until we get this right we will continue to struggle.

Saved people are used by God to save others!

Yours under Christ and irrepressibly over the devil.

The return...

If there were such a thing as SA Officer-spotting (like bird watching or train-spotting) then Bromley South railway station would be an anorak’s delight.

There is probably a greater density of SA Officers in the London Borough of Bromley than in any other geographical location in the world!

So, when I am sitting on that station waiting for the next train to Orpington or St Mary Cray I am not surprised to see the occasional Army fleece (although a cap is harder to spot these days!).

Some SA Officers stand out more than others – such as my DC Anthony Cotterill – like Saul he is (literally) head and shoulders above the average commuter!

So it was, that at about 4:40pm on Wednesday 17th May, I bumped into my DC.

This was the moment in time when I heard that my application to return to Officership had been officially endorsed by the TC.

How did I feel upon receipt of this momentous news? – not elated not even a sense of relief. I simply felt an immense sense of gratitude mingled with overwhelming deep humility.

I do not deserve to be an Officer and deep down in my heart I never thought this door would open to me again but my leaders have accepted the validity of my testimony and have placed their confidence firmly in Christ’s ability to forgive, change and empower!

As I travelled home on the train, the following words came to mind,

I have no claim on grace;
I have no right to plead;
I stand before my maker's face
Condemned in thought and deed.
But since there died a Lamb
Who, guiltless, my guilt bore,
I lay fast hold on Jesus' name,
And sin is mine no more.

O pardon-speaking blood!
O soul-renewing grace!
Through Christ I know the love of God
And see the Father's face.
I now set forth thy praise,
Thy loyal servant I,
And gladly dedicate my days
My God to glorify."

What will happen now?

Due to circumstances beyond my control I cannot take up an appointment until 2007 which gives me plenty of time to prepare myself and to wait (like the disciples) until my Pentecostal appointment arrives.

Then what?

Watch this space!

I am not returning to Officership to be nominal or to ride the gravy train or to keep regular office hours. I am not going to pace myself along the way of holiness. I am not returning to adopt a maintenance role. I am coming back to burn! I am coming back to ‘spend and be spent’. I am coming back to ‘restore the years that the locusts have eaten’. I am coming back to save the lost, to fight for social justice, to befriend the friendless, to lead and inspire, to challenge, encourage and chastise, to teach and live holiness. I am coming back to be at the centre of the revival that God is about to pour on the western territories of The Salvation Army. I am coming back to engage every hour, every penny, every power, every influence – all that I am in the Salvation War and it is my intention to fight until I die – Hallelujah.

I am coming back and I cannot wait!

Yours under Christ and irrepressibly over the Devil

Andrew

Are we fit enough for revival?

In relation to revival - I wonder whether we fully understand the demands that it will make upon us. The following quote is from 'Heathen England'

"YES; every day! That is it! The wild whirl of city life is daily carrying the multitude on its thousand eddies to the awful rush and boom of death's terrible waves and to the dark depths of eternity. No day must be lost if anything effective is to be done for the poor dying souls. There are a thousand objects all around to catch every eye and to fill up every mind. The Son of Man cannot be lifted up too often if we are really anxious to have all men drawn unto Him. And once a man is laid hold of he must not be let go for an evening. A hundred public-house doors must be passed ere he gets home from his work. His home may have little attraction at any time. Since his conversion it may have become a very nest of hornets to him. If you want to make it possible for such a man to get established in the ways of God, you must not leave him one leisure evening un-provided for. "

Something productive for the new convert every night of the week in a world where many Corps only meet once a week - Are we ready for this? Are we prepared to put in the hours that revival will demand?

one more quote from the same book...

"The Army having found out the need of the people has: therefore, from the first laid down the law. “An open-air service and an indoor service - at least one of each at every station, every night, if possible.” Of course, it is not always possible to hold an open-air service; and it is not always possible to hold one open to the public indoors, seeing that meetings of a more private kind must occupy the only building we have to use. Of course, every officer employed by the Army has not had the strength needed for so many services- some, alas! have not had the diligence either. These last have soon found that, as there was a way into the Army, there was also a way out!"

Evangelism and discipling in the midst of a revival is tough work and not for the lazy, worldy or faint-hearted - are we up for this?

I believe so - Hallelujah!

A typical Army Sunday...

A quote from GSR’s Heathen England (1877)

“There is a prayer-meeting at seven in the morning, an open-air service from ten till eleven, indoor service eleven to twelve-thirty, open-air again from two to three, indoor service, generally an experience meeting, from to half-past four, after which a plain tea is provided, at cost price for those who prefer to keep together preparatory to the evening’s work. A prayer meeting is held after tea, concluded in time to get to the open-air stand at six o’clock. The indoor service at seven o’clock with the prayer-meeting, which forms its great practical feature, rarely concludes before ten o’clock. Such is an Army Sunday.

At large station, of course, a number of open-air services are held simultaneously on Sunday evenings, and in some cases at earlier hours also, in order to fully utilize all the available force, and occasionally the whole of the Sunday morning or afternoon is spent out of doors.

We need scarcely say that, in many cases, our people have to walk a considerable distance to each service, so that really an efficient Army Officer or member has, with the exception of an hour or two for meals, some fifteen hours on duty every Sabbath.”

How did we get from this to a suburban Corps where people commute in (few live in the neighbourhood) to meet for one indoor meeting with no prayer meeting not even an appeal?

Revival costs!

Yours under Christ and irrepressibly over the devil

Andrew

Read it and weep - Court & Campbell

I am currently reading Campbell & Court’s ‘Be a hero’.

I cannot stress enough just how essential this book is to those who see themselves as true Salvationists. If you like to add the tag ‘primitive’ to your calling then you cannot escape reading this book.

I think that, in time, this book will be seen as a major catalyst in the revival and reformation of The Salvation Army.

However, I want to talk specifically about chapter 6.

I have only got as far as Chapter 6 so what follows may be true of other chapters as well.

I normally read books very quickly but this book needs to be chewed well. The powerful revolutionary rhetoric, information and challenge within this volume cannot be quickly swilled around the mouth and swallowed whole. To do so would cause spiritual indigestion on a damaging level – in addition this book needs to have every ounce of nutrition absorbed by the soul.

Reading chapter six anointed me! Now I know I am prone to flamboyant speech but this is not hyperbole – as I read Chapter 6 of this book I felt God’s anointing come upon me - like the oil in Psalm 133 - as I read Chapter 6 God’s spirit oozed all over me. I felt that I had entered the Holy of Holies. This was not a shiver down the spine moment this was a powerful manifestation of God. I have never felt such an anointing come upon me as a result of simply reading a book. I trembled, I crumpled and I cried (and I was in The London Borough of Bromley Staff Canteen at the time!)

Why did I feel like this?

Because God was confirming and underlining to me the fact that he is going to surpass what he did (so comprehensively described in Chapter 6) in The Salvation Army 1865-1894 and he is going to do it in and through us. He is going to give us a revival of truly Acts 2 proportions – indeed what is coming probably needs another word than simply ‘revival’ as that word has become so watered down over time that it has lost some of its impact.

This is going to be a “revolutionary” revival for “primitive” Salvationists (tautology I know but so is born again Christian!)

If you consider your life to be nothing more than a resource given freely to God for the mass plunder of the devil’s kingdom and the global Salvation of the world then buy this book. If on the other hand you quite frankly couldn’t give a damn about the damned then buy this book and your mind will be swayed!

Be warned, however - this book will upset you and offend you because it peels away the crusted bandages of our so-called civilised world and makes us stare upon the fetid sores and smell the putrid puss that oozes from years of sinful oppression and Christian compromise

Buy this book and read it on your knees and then enlist to be a hero, a glorious soul-winner, a victorious saint, a champion of the poor and needy, a victim of persecution, a potential martyr – in short a true Salvationist!

Yours under Christ and irrepressibly over the devil!

Andrew

Youth Council's Syndrome and a Roots rant!

This Blog entry carries a Sensitive Salvationist health warning!

When I was a teenager we used to go to Youth Councils, usually, while we were there we would do one or possibly all of the following;

• Go to the Mercy Seat
  
• Buy takeaway food on a Sunday
  
• Lead a glory march
  
• Offer for Officership
  

On the way home we would lean out of the mini bus windows and sing ‘When the roll is called up yonder’ and shout out at strangers on the street ‘Jesus loves you’.

By the following Monday lunchtime most of us would be back to our old ways, playing football in the school playground and swearing at our friends.

I call this the ‘Youth Council’s Syndrome’ and I have noticed that it is now applicable to other SA events; in particular I think that we have developed in the UK a ‘Roots Syndrome’.

Now don’t get me wrong, great things happened when we went to Youth Councils and great things happen at Roots too but the impact is largely limited and the effect short-lived.

Why is this?

I believe it is because the territorial spirits that beset the Salvation Army, work wherever there is a crest, a shield or a flag (even if they are carefully tucked away in the corner). Whether it is Youth Councils, Congress, Roots, Bible Weekends the demons are always there and they know the Army - the SA is their specialist subject.

Their modus operandi is to make any ‘encounter’ with God as emotional as they can, their wish is to keep any thought of real commitment as far from what takes place as possible. Again, please don’t get me wrong – you can’t have an unemotional encounter with God but you can have an emotional experience in which you do not encounter God.

These spirits are helped by our own apathy, self righteousness, self importance and self reliance.

This year at Roots I heard a sermon which contained little substance and inappropriate illustrations, a sermon which contained one illustration which lasted nearly 10 minutes (which I have heard at least twice from the mouth of the same speaker – and which my wife tells me the same speaker used last year at Roots!). This sermon was ill prepared (probably) because the one who delivered it is blessed us with the gift of communication and so therefore thought he could get by (and even impress) with what was in the light of day nothing more than poorly tacked together revivalist rhetoric?

Do we really expect God to honour this?

Then there is the issues of music. Music is a wonderful gift from God but like all gifts it can be manipulated and twisted by the evil one.

Some Salvationists go to band festivals and listen to brass and call it ‘inspirational’ others go to Roots (or something similar) and call it praise. Both groups of people tend to criticise each other and think of themselves as superior. Yet, at the end of the day, if the activity (in terms of the commitment it generates) is simply nothing more than a concert it is not a better concert simply because it carries the tag ‘charismatic’. For many people the ‘praise’ at Roots is no more ‘praise’ than is the ‘inspiration’ received received by some at Band festivals. Worship will always result in lifestyle change, always lead to greater commitment and always humble us. Whether it is a band festival or a praise party the questions we should be asking are; Does it change us? Are we different because of it? Does it empower us? Does it humble us? Does it lead us into repenantnance? We would do well to remember the words of Isaiah…

“When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

Music is irrelevant what matters is the state of one’s heart; if the heart is right then whatever comes out of the heart will be the music that God wants to hear. If the heart is wrong then whatever the style used it will offend God.

I heard someone at Roots explain to me why we hardly sing any Army songs? The answer, I was given was because the Army songs are old and people at Roots want to sing new songs. Yet we sang ‘Holy, holy, holy’ and ‘Be thou my vision’ both of those songs have got at least 200 years on anything published by the Army!

Another reason for the Youth Council’s Syndrome is that we refuse to accept who we are. Momentarily we catch a glimpse of what God wants to do with our lives, but it quickly fades as we re-enter the real world. Why do we struggle not just individually but as an Army when both the need and our destiny (which is to meet that need) stare us in the face. With such a clear calling set before us why do we refuse to look? One of the best things I heard at Roots 2006 was Danielle Strickland’s take on ‘true humility’ – For God’s sake we AN ARMY!!! Let’s fall on our knees, repent of our ‘false humility’ and be what God wants us to be.

We have drums and bands (whether powered by electric or our lungs who cares?) We have flags; we wear uniforms (a simple t-shirt with a crest or shield will do). We fight social injustice, we fight sin, we protect widows and orphans, we go for souls ‘and go for the worst’. We are not a middle class, limp wrested, main stream, left of centre, comfortable, evangelical denomination! WE ARE AN ARMY!

God doesn’t need a church he already has one! He doesn’t need unidentifiable Christians wandering the streets – he has millions of them! He doesn’t need a humanitarian organisation subsidising people’s addictions or entertaining young people – We are not the YMCA or the Red Cross WE ARE THE SALVATION ARMY, FOR THE SAKE OF THE LOST, FOR GOD’S SAKE LET’S BE ONE!

Youth Councils certainly helped me but it didn’t change me only the red hot God of Pentecost could do that! Roots will help, it will help individuals – it has helped me but it will not change our movement (not even in the radical way it seeks to). To really change, to have a revolution, then the God of Elijah will have to “hear our cry”.

Yesterday the Officer Review Board will have sat down and determined whether or not I can be an Officer again – what will their answer be? If it is a yes then watch this space for as an Officer (without the distractions of secular employment) I will live and pray and strive for nothing less than an absolute unadulterated revival-revolution in the SA UK, then the western territories and then the world (if they haven’ already beaten us to it). There is nothing grandiose, unrealistic or arrogant about such a calling - indeed this ought to be the attitude of all Officers and Soldiers.

“We need another Pentecost” please, please, please dear God send the fire!!!!

Yours -frustrated, sometimes angry, chomping at the bit, yet as always - under Christ and irrepressibly over the devil.

And you, you can't even get out of bed!

Every day Roots Uk starts with a knee drill.

8:30 am in the prayer tent.

I reckon that once you have deducted the prayer tent 'staff' there was on average an attendance of 25 delelgates at each prayer meeting.

I calculate that to be about 1/2 % of delegates.

Practicalities allowing that's still a pretty poor show...

Reminded me of the hard hitting Keith Green song, 'Asleep in the light'

"The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church can't fight, cause it's asleep in the light,
How can you be so dead, when you've been so well fed,
Jesus rose from the grave, and you, you can't even get out of bed,
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead, come on, get out of your bed."

Prayer is the boiler house, without sacrificial prayer the ship can't even leave the dock let alone sail around the world.

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil

Roots 2006 and a holiness manifesto!

I went to Roots expecting God to deal with some specific concerns and he dealt with all four.

Although I attended the first 5 Roots events I have not been since – until this year. I chose to go this year only because I wanted to hear some of the advertised speakers.

There were four areas of my life where I needed God to work;

1) Past sin and present guilt.
2) Destiny
3) Lifestyle
4) Self

Jeff Lucas was used by God to deal with issue number one. Jeff preached on Peter’s restoration following his betrayal of Christ. This was a powerful message and left me trembling. Ultimately I allowed the God who forgave me to also take away my guilt.

Danielle Strickland was used by God to deal with issue number two. She took the text that was part of a word first given to me 12 years ago when I got saved. She took the words ‘Mighty warrior God is with you’ from the story of Gideon and spoke of true humility. She explained that to back away from one’s destiny because we feel unworthy is false humility, whereas true humility is to accept what God says and respond accordingly. When I was prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit the man who prayed for me spoke a prophetic word. The word concerned my life and what God wanted to do with it within TSA and it also spoke of the scope and proportion of that potential work. In spite of repeated ‘fleeces’ and repeated confirmation I have baulked at the massive scale of that word. Sunday night I responded to the call (not to Officership that was done a long time ago) but to destiny, my destiny and I exercised true humility and accepted it – watch this space! I have to stress here, if Danielle knew me well and was familiar with all my circumstances she could not have been more personal, specific or accurate as was this address, it was if God had singled me out.

The third issue had already partially been dealt with before I arrived in Southport but the confirmation I received at Roots was profound. For some months now I have been uncomfortable with the issue of lifestyle. Before going to Roots I penned some resolutions which I have now turned into a personal manifesto, these can be read at my webpage blood and fire Steve Court’s book and campaign ‘Be a hero’, together with the UK Watershed and Human Trafficking initiatives underlined the importance of embracing an ascetic, Franciscan (or to use an SA saint) Railtonian lifestyle – this may not be for everyone but it is certainly for me. Then when I returned home I looked up my good friend Matt Clifton’s Blog and saw a William Booth vision that was suggesting the same thing – more confirmation!

The final issue was nailed without anyone’s help apart from Gods!. During the final song, in the last session, I rescued the Army flag from a flag holder in the shadows in the corner of the tent and confidently marched around the Big Top with it – did anyone follow? I don’t know I didn’t look behind me. Did anyone object? I didn’t care. I crucified self using the flag as my cross. It wasn’t about me or anyone else it was about parading the fact that both my sin and guilt were gone; it was about parading the fact that I was happy with the massive impossibility of my destiny, it was about being obedient. It was both hearing and responding to that little divine whisper that said ‘go and get the flag and parade it, stake your claim, make your case and start taking ground.’

Quite a bargain for £150 and 500 mile round trip!

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil!

Revised Resolutions

Last night I shared my embryonic resolutions with a couple of good friends and the result was that maybe I need to expand these into a kind of personal manifesto. The suggestion was that they are maybe too extreme (and maybe a little sentimental) and therefore of little practical use. Targets have to be achievable.

However - there is a part of me that disagrees, I want to be the extremist's extremist!

Why? To identify with the lost? To prove my love for Christ? To rise above reproach from those who criticise? Possibly all of these things but most of all because I want everyone to know that heart and soul I am a slave of God in The Salvation Army forever and completely.

When I come back from Roots I will post this manifesto and invite those so minded to sign up!

Hallelujah!

Bill & his resolutions

Found myself walking from Kennington Oval to the Elephant & Castle on Monday and went past 176 Kennington Park Road - this is the building where William Booth served as a pawnbroker when he moved to London in 1849. As I looked up at the attic window where he had his lodgings I thought of the resolutions that he wrote in that attic room on 6th December 1849. (See below)

RESOLUTIONS

I do promise - my God helping -

1st That I will rise every morning sufficiently early (say 20 minutes before seven o'clock) to wash, dress, and have a few minutes, not less than 5, in private prayer.

2ndly That I will as much as possible avoid all that babbling and idle talking in which I have lately so sinfully indulged.

3rd That I will endeavour in my conduct and deportment before the world and my fellow servants especially to conduct myself as a humble, meek, and zealous follower of the bleeding Lamb, and by serious conversion and warning endeavour to lead them to think of their immortal souls.

4thly That I will not read less than 4 chapters in God's word every day.

5thly That I will strive to live closer to God, and to seek after holiness of heart, and leave providential events with God.

6thly That I will read this over every day or at least twice a week. God help me, enable me to cultivate a spirit of self denial and to yield myself a prisoner of love to the Redeemer of the world.

Amen & Amen WILLIAM BOOTH.

I feel my own weakness and without God's help I shall not keep these resolutions a day. The Lord have mercy upon my guilty soul.

I claim the Blood
Yes, oh Yes,
Jesus died for me.

On Friday I am off to Roots - haven't been to Roots for 6 years but I'm going this year to hear Steve Court and Danielle - it's cheaper than going to Canada!

I have been working (in prayer) on my own resolutions over the last couple of weeks and will share them here once I am certain that they are off God. I will seek confirmation during Roots.

This is not legalism, this is not an attempt at trying to get God to bless me - this is a response to the blessing that he has already given me! This is setting parameters for his holiness in my life, the establishment of what the Private Sector calls key performance indicators - a means by which I can judge me effectiveness and development.

Love and prayers

Andrew

What's my theological outlook?

Thanks to Andrew Clark at Army Renewal for the following test

Try it out and see where you stand:

I scored as an "Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan." (But then I knew that!)


"You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists."

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 100%
Reformed Evangelical 82%
Fundamentalist 82%
Neo orthodox 71%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 57%
Emergent/Postmodern 50%
Classical Liberal 43%
Modern Liberal 29%
Roman Catholic 14%

Genuine Holiness and 'Heathen England'

For the definite article when it comes to Holiness check out the 1922 Doctrine Book Chapter 10 “Entire Sanctification” you can download a PDF file from my web site Blood and Fire .

Without a doubt we lost the thread in the fifties and sixties if you want to find the real deal you must go back before the war.

You can also find the first five chapters of ‘Heathen England’ here, George Scott Railton’s classic and extremely rare eye witness account of The Army’s birth. Chapters 6-15 to follow (as soon as I can transcribe them into electronic format).

Download the Holiness PDF and experience holiness, preach holiness, restore holiness to our movement.

The rediscovery of holiness will be the salvation of The Salvation Army!

Download the 'Heathen England' PDF and see primitive salvationism in all its raw and untreated militancy.

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil

Andrew

The Open Air Season

From 'Heathen England' (GSR 1877)

"Look at the crowds who fill the bar of every public-house, with the cold draught from the great swinging doors continually let in by some new-comer! Look at the surging multitude pushing about the pavement, and jamming the entrance of the music hall and the theatre! Count the men and women sitting in the covered yards of brewery taps, perfectly open to the street, before the low tables that are just wide enough for "refreshments" which destroy body and soul! Observe, just as you pass by, the crowds gathered to laugh at the ribald songs and obscene jokes of the street comic or Christy Minstrel! As you pass along, the butcher and cheesemonger of the poor, bustling up and down in front of their shops, will fill your ears with their cheery shouts, as line after line of women gather round them to "Buy, buy, buy," as they are continually exhorted to do. The lusty voice of the costermonger, male or female, who has been at it since the early morning and is not yet hoarse, will greet you in every side street, and the comfortable " All-hot! " of the chestnut and potato men, surrounded by a waiting group, will make an impression on your memory. ... God help The Salvation Army still to preach, and always to preach while the millions are streaming into hell! "

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil!

Andrew

Risen indeed?

He is risen!

Is he?

Is he risen indeed?

If you have an annual income of £25,000 you are in the top 2% richest people in the world. There are 6 Billion people poorer than you. If you have an annual income of £10,000 you are in the top 10% richest people in the world. There are 5.3 Billion people poorer than you. If you have an annual income of £4,000 you are in the top 14% richest people in the world. There are 5 billion people poorer than you.

Britons gambled £50 billion last year - more than the state spent on defence and transport combined. That represents more than £800 for every man, woman and child and is a seven-fold increase on the total gambled in 2001. That’s £3,200 for a family of 4 – If you had an annual income of £3,200 you would be in the top 14% of people in the world. There would be 5 billion people poorer than you.

Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than 75 pence a day

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.

20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods

A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and none of these 12 percent do not live in the developing World.

Of the 1.9 billion children on the planet 400 million do not have access to safe water and 640 million are homeless.

Last year Europeans spent £5 billion on ice cream and £45 billion on alcoholic drinks.

12 Million children a year die before reaching 5, mostly from preventable diseases and starvation (4 times the number of Tsunami victims per month).

In the UK, children begin to worry about being too fat by the age of 8.

1,000,000 Children work in the Asian sex trade.

1,000,000 children worldwide have been born HIV-positive.

By age 15, between 20-25 per cent of British children have tried solvents or other drugs.

Unless Christ lives in me, unless I embrace poverty to feed the hungry, unless I surrender all to save the lost, unless I live a life of unrestrained and extreme service to those who have nothing, unless I stand in the firing line for those who are abused and victimised and rescue them - then Christ remains in the tomb and as for me…

I see my children battle with their misery,
I see the poor with nothing left to spend,
I see their torment and their painful tragedy
I see them all and wonder who to send?

I see the blind and feel their disability,
I see the lonely looking for a friend,
I see the bound and feel their loss of liberty,
I see them all and wonder who to send?

I see the starving looking for a crumb to eat.
I see the homeless trying to defend
His cardboard house against the rain and sleet,
I see them all and wonder who to send?

I see the nations fighting when there could be peace
Pushed on by greed that seems to have no end.
I see their envy and their lust for land increase
I see it all and wonder who to send?

I see poor countries held by needless poverty
I see rich lands on whom they should depend
Press on regardless of their neighbour's misery
I see it all and wonder who to send?

I see the weak held low by harmful frailty
Beneath their heavy loads I watch them bend
I see the strong ignore their fearful insecurity
I see it all and wonder who to send?

I see my children trapped by immorality
Into the dark I watch their hopes descend
I see their thrill and their impending misery
I see it all and wonder who to send?

I see the unloved child with nowhere else to go
Get in the car he hopes is driven by a friend
He risks abuse or death to get out of the snow
I see it all and wonder who to send?

I see my word unheard or even worse passed by
The little left I see turned on its end.
I see the truth dressed up and dancing like a lie
I see it all and wonder who to send?

I see eternal life without the light of me,
I see the hearts my people failed to mend,
I see their wealth and shameless apathy
Then I see hell and wonder who to send?

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil

Andrew

Along with many others I receive a twice monthly prayer newsletter put together by Paul du Plessis in his role as Commissioner for World Evangelisation

‘Operation Desert Rose’ focuses on the Middle East and North Africa.

One quick story shared by Paul with our congregation at St Mary Cray on Good Friday.

An African from Mali visiting Sierra Leone was saved (Hallelujah!) and was encouraged to return to Mali and establish a congregation in his home country. This he did – in fact he established two congregations! Then he had a dream where his Mother visited him and told her that she had seen her son marching with a group of uniformed people playing tambourines, brass instruments and drums and carrying flags. Never having heard of TSA the man entered the words ‘tambourine’, ‘flag’ , ‘uniform’ and ‘brass band’ in Google and was taken to the War College website in Vancouver! As a result the man from Mali has made contact with TSA - Hallelujah!

“To the beat of Army drums, make known
That the Saviour-King has sin o'erthrown;
Tell the rich and poor, the sad and lone,
Till his power to everyone is shown.
Tell it to the people you may meet,
Tell it in the hall and in the street;
Let this banner be unfurled:
Christ for the whole wide world.”

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil!

Andrew

What a 48 hours!

First of all a superb day on Friday at the Training College – watch this space!

Then a posting on my blog from my ‘atheist’ son Ben saying that he’d rather have an insane Father who ‘walks the walk’ than a hypocrite.

Then Saturday night…

Those who couldn’t be there you have just got to check out the welcome to, and dedication of, General Shaw Clifton at http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf/vw-sublinks/12872CBCD8ED7F06802571470051E113?openDocument

If you haven’t got time to see the whole meeting (which would be a shame) then make sure you get part 3 and jump to 34 minutes in – if you’re really pushed for time then go to 42 minutes and pick up on the General’s vision. This is heavy, powerful, militant – absolutely DELIGHTFUL stuff! Be warned this is an Ezra moment!

Then jump to part 4 and catch the congregation singing all 7 verses of Boundless Salvation! Watch the General grab the flag and wave it over the congegation, this is Churchillian stuff - some people will hate it but who cares? - what it says to me is "Comrades I love the Army and this is God's moment for us"

However the best thing to do would be to see the whole thing parts 1 through 4 and then you’ll catch the Chief and Commissioner Helen too who were also quite exceptional.

With apologies to Shakespeare "Cry God for Shaw, The Salvation Army and St George * and let slip the dogs of war!"

Comrades I think we are in for a good few years – Hallelujah!

The revival is coming, the revival is coming!!! More corporate repentance, more fasting, more pragmatic holiness, more brokeness, more humility, more aggressive uncompromising Christianity and we'll be there! Send the fire!

Energetic love and urgent prayers

Andrew

*George Scott Railton - The patron Saint of Salvationism!

This is the day!

Today is the day that seals my fate!

I am at the William Booth College in London for my reacceptance assessment conference.

I slept well last night, woke early and feel a wonderful sense of peace surrounding me.

I feel relaxed (maybe even excited) about today.

I got the results of my psychometric test yesterday - very encouraging!

Whatever happens, whatever the outcome I know with absolute certainty that...

"my all is in the Master's hand 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!"

Abiding in his hands...
Andrew

Original Primitive Salvationism!

I think I have found the first ever use of the term ‘primitive Salvationism’ and it is used (not surprisingly) in reference to GSR!

Taken from Chapter 14, page 137 of ‘Commissioner Railton’ written by Eileen Douglas and Mildred Duff and published in 1920 by The Salvation Army (well worth reading if you can get a copy). The quote says:

“To-day we understand the wonderful provision made by God for thus bringing the very essentials of primitive Salvationism to labourers in far-off corners of the earth. He sent them one who, but, for the disability of his health, would never have been free to stay long weeks in their midst, unhampered by any set programme, and living out The Salvation Army before their eyes. This explains the marvellous hold Railton had on the hearts of thousands of Officers and Salvationists in all parts of the world. He came to them alone, unfettered by previously prepared lists of' engagements. He brought to them his wealth of experience, his boundless energy, his sympathy, his humility, and the reverent love he always showed for those struggling with difficulties. 'He saw their side only, and he left behind him a fleeting but wonderful vision of what a consecrated life can mean on earth. Truly, he was an apostle, 'a man sent from God, whose name was Railton.'

During this period in Railton’s life he was out of favour with the powers that be and given free rein to travel the world as he saw fit. What took me by the throat when I read this paragraph was the superb definition of PS that comes later in the quote:

“Living out The Salvation Army before their eyes” and later still “a wonderful vision of what a consecrated life can mean on earth.”

Friends - what a nugget this is! Take these two lines together and you have a definitive description of primitive Salvationism in its original uncluttered state – what it is it?

“To live out The Salvation Army before there eyes, to show them what a consecrated life can mean on earth!”

This discovery hit me with all the force of a twenty ton truck, flattened me, challenged me, encouraged me, delighted me and pumped me up beyond measure.

What better wind could I have in my sails as I make my way tomorrow to Denmark Hill and the future!

What is all the fuss about? - The world for Christ or bust!

There are several debates ongoing in blogland at the moment all of which seem (to me) to be strands of an overall theme.

Gordon Cotterill at www.urbanarmy.blogspot.com/ discusses the merits of mission/evangelism and the use of phrases such as ‘aggressive Christianity”. Carol Young at old-wells.blogspot.com/ warns against the rising fashion in salvation by process rather than by crisis. Primitive Salvationism at www.primitivesalvationist.com/ps./ discusses the possibility of schism in The Salvation Army. Matt Clifton at futurefireblog.blogspot.com/ has started to be more strident in exposing the folly of blaming all decline on a lack of cultural relevance and longs for another Pentecost Andrew Clark at armyrenewal.blogspot.com/ (in spite of the arrival of a new daughter) recounts the 1960’s and 1970’s renewal movement so brutally crushed at the time and Steve Court deals with 8 myths of PS at www.armybarmy.com/jac.html.

I think that it is time to tie all of these threads together into one central debate. I make no apology for sounding arrogant as what I am about to say does not flow from personal opinion but from the facts.

All Salvationists voluntarily signed their articles of war and publicly declared that they ‘believed’ in the SA doctrines. The only thing you can accuse a Primitive Salvationist of doing is actually attempting to live their lives as if their Articles of War were meaningful and the Doctrines real.

I do not consider myself an extremist I consider myself a Salvationist. When I say the things I say, do the things I do, live the life I live - all I am doing is trying to be a proper Salvationist. The problem we face in today’s western SA is that a genuine Salvationist appears fanatical because his/her life is shown up against a background of inactive, apathetic, materialistic, wealthy. Over-fed, card carrying Salvation Army club members.

The truth is that a Salvationist by definition is a fanatical, militant, aggressive, poverty-embracing, holy-living soldier of Christ who has swapped a life of ‘ease and worldly scheming’ for a life which is totally given over to preaching the gospel, loving the unlovable, fighting for social justice, protecting the vulnerable and doing all of these things in a Salvation Army context. They see themselves as ‘chosen to be” soldiers, living, sleeping, eating and breathing The Salvation Army and its ongoing mission. They have no time of their own, no money of their own and no interests outside of the Salvation War. They are single minded, determined, fearless, reckless, persecuted, misunderstood and always fruitful.

There should be no debate.

Salvationists should simply be called to account, either they live up to the covenant requirements of their Articles of War and act as though Doctrines 10 and 11 were true or they go and join a church.

We are not a church, nor are we a club, nor are we a humanitarian social care organisation – we are an Army and we are at war and we will fight until the war is won or until we fall at our posts.

My sentiments, and surely those of all Salvationists, match those of Booth-Tucker simply and wonderfully stated in Song No. 780.

They bid me choose an easier path, and seek a lighter cross;
Thy bid me mingle with Heaven's gold a little of earth's dross;
They bid me, but in vain, once more the world's illusions try;
I cannot leave the dear old flag, 'twere better far to die.

They say the fighting is too hard, my strength of small avail,
When foes beset and friends are fled, my faith must surely fail.
But, O how can I quit my post while millions sin-bound lie?
I cannot leave the dear old flag, 'twere better far to die.

They say I can a Christian be, and serve God quite as well,
And reach Heaven just as surely by the music of church bell;
But, O the drum and clarion call of band make my pulse fly!
I cannot leave the dear old flag, ‘twere better far to die.

I answer, life is fleeting fast, I cannot, cannot wait;
For me my comrades beckoning stand beyond the pearly gate;
I hear their hallelujahs grand, I hear their battle cry:
O do not leave the dear old flag, ‘twere better far to die!

Love and prayers Andrew