Waiting, waiting and more waiting...

Sat in the Juror's lounge today waiting to be called. Told we would be called at 10:30, then 12 noon, then 2pm and finally 3pm. Never called and let home at 3:40pm with instructions to come back tomorrow.

Used the time wisely and wrote a dedication song (based on Romans 12) for a new soldier who is being enrolled this Sunday – if you want to sing along the tune is Denmark HillJ

Eyes wide open, held by mercy,
Focussed on the love of Christ
In my heart the Spirit asks me
What have you to sacrifice?

Knowing now the worth of worship
Knowing now praise has a price
Freely I present my body
As a living sacrifice.

Though the devil tries to tease me
From the loving hold of Christ,
In his worldly mould would squeeze me,
All I have stays sacrificed.

Now I fear no separation
From the love that’s mine in Christ,
For this living consecration
Keeps the life I’ve sacrificed.

Grace and peace, A

May this solemn consecration...

I have had a very good week!

I'm experienced enough to know that life – even the life of a Christian – is full of ups and downs; however, I believe the quality of my week (not my circumstances but my awareness of God) has been a reflection of the seriousness of my consecration. It's early days – and like Fletcher of Madeley – I have lost this blessing on many occasions; even so, there is a deep confidence and sense of security within me. I have not found my 'fasted' lifestyle a problem, indeed it has been quite a liberating and refreshing experience. I have had a good week and an excellent Sunday – which could be summed up by what the songbook used to call 'holiness enjoyed'!

As for this week and the week after and the 'rest of my days' I will trust God and by his grace remain obedient. I will do my utmost to keep my Christian walk in step with the ever increasing clarity of the revelation of his will. I am in a safe place. Like a 'Tommy' tucked away in his underground bunker in the Great War – the shells seem to be exploding above me and the most damage they do is cause my candle to flicker. Of course I must spend time in the trenches if the front is to advance but only a fool would choose to return anywhere but here when the push is over.

My song for now and the future is a simple one.

"May this solemn consecration
Never once forgotten be;
Let it know no alteration,
Registered, confirmed by thee.
Thine I am, O Lord, forever,
To thy service set apart;
Suffer me to leave thee never,
Seal thine image on my heart."

Set apart by Christ, for the lost, in the Army!

Love and prayers

Holiness IS conditional

I've been involved in a lively debate recently on an internet forum recently.

In the end I had to withdraw because I've was being accused of arrogance and even rudeness by some of my potractors.

It is very difficult to debate when you possess the truth and it is impossible to sound anything other than arrogant when that is the case!

However, on this occasion I was right and everyone else was wrong!

The debate was whether holiness is conditional or not. I stated that it was. Others argued that it was all the work of grace and that no contribution from us was required. Although I chose my words very carefully I was accused of saying that consecration is holiness whereas what I actualluy said was that holiness is conditional upon consecration.

The 1923 Doctrine Book (the whole chapter on sanctification can be found at bloodandfire.org.uk) says the following:

CHAPTER X
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION

Section III.-ITS ATTAINMENT

1. THE BESTOWAL OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, as with every other gift of God’s grace, IS CONDITIONAL — it depends upon the whole-hearted co-operation of the person to be benefited.

Assuming that conversion has already taken place, the necessary conditions are: Conviction, Renunciation, Consecration, Faith.

7. SANCTIFICATION IS THE WORK OF GOD. Man’s consecration and faith do not sanctify; they are simply conditions upon which God’s sanctifying grace is given.

I think the phrase is QED!

I am deeply worried that covenanted Officers in The Salvation Army do not understand this most basic of doctrines!

Love and prayers

A

Consecration or compromise? holiness or hell?

Jesus reduced the complex Jewish legal system down to just two simple straightforward commands:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two.”

Jesus was able to do this by simply removing the word ‘not’ from the end of ‘thou shalt not’ and thereby turning reactive legalism into proactive righteousness. By replacing a list of what we couldn’t do with a list of what we ought to do Jesus was able to condense the entire Jewish law into just two short sentences.

At the same time he did this he also reduced the list of sins for which a Christian can be condemned to just one. The only sin a Christian can ever commit is the sin of compromise.

The greatest commandment demands the active surrender of all that I have and the second commandment gives me back the time and space I need to satisfy the needs of family and friends. Beyond meeting my ‘neighbours’ needs every minute, every penny and every influence I have must be entirely dedicated to God.

Just before William Booth died he was asked what had set him apart from other men, was it the fact that he had given all he had to God? The old man replied that there was nothing remarkable in such an act of devotion and that many people had given their all to God; the founder went on to say that what made his personal consecration remarkable was that he had never taken anything back.

Holiness – that supreme love that gladly gives all I have to God – is the only way forward for the Christian, but sadly, most Christians having laid all on the altar keep returning to take bits back – like a child chipping away at an Easter egg they are supposedly saving for later, in short they compromise.

Compromise is the killer of radical Christianity, there can be no such thing as primitive Salvationism without a constant, hour by hour consecration of all I have to God. The only reasonable act of Christian worship acceptable to God is a ‘living sacrifice’ – nothing else will do.

‘Without holiness none shall see the Lord’ not in our own lives, in our Corps, in our Division, neither in our territory nor indeed throughout the Army world.

There is only one choice - consecration or compromise, holiness or hell, there is no middle ground.

Derelict, defunct or just undevoted?

Most Christians don’t win. They might win occasionally but they don’t win consistently on a daily basis. In spite of a plethora of scriptural promises that ought to ensure that we are ‘more than conquerors’ we continue to experience the occasional lapse (some more than others).

This tendency towards ongoing defeat is true both on a personal basis and also on a corporate basis. Our Corps do not win battles consistently – we win the occasional skirmish – a soul here and a soul there – but as for revival…

The Salvation Army, together with the wider Church, is also prone to defeat, in fact as I consider the performance of individual Christians, Corps and Denominations the phrase ‘could do better’ seems like a massive understatement – at least it does if you make Acts 2 your benchmark.

A quick review of our personal and corporate performance as believers calls to mind the following words…

“We have not served Thee as we ought,
alas, the duties left undone,
the work with little fervor wrought,
the battles lost or scarcely won!”

This lack luster performance bothers me – in my own life it terrifies me. I have enough knowledge of revival and holiness to know that something is seriously out of kilter.

Why are we so familiar, both personally and corporately, with (at best) half hearted victory and (at worst) defeat? Why is it that we seem to have “been made liable to destruction”

In Joshua 7 we see a contest that ought to have been no contest. We see an Army of superior skill, experience and numbers defeated by a substantially inferior enemy. Had this been a game of football the Israelites would have been odds on to win (that is if you could have found a bookie that hadn’t closed his book). Yet the Israelites lost because they had “been made liable to destruction”. If God has made you “liable to destruction” then you are destined to defeat no matter how much the odds appear to be stacked in your favour.

I believe that the Israelites in Joshua 7 are a metaphor for the contemporary western Salvation Army and Achan is symbolic of many contemporary (western) Salvationists. We have “taken some of the devoted things; (we) have stolen, (we) have lied, (we) have put them with (our) own possessions. That is why (we) cannot stand against (our) enemies; (we) turn (our) backs and run because (we) have been made liable to destruction.” Consequently, God “will not be with (us) anymore unless (we) destroy whatever among (us) is devoted to destruction.”

The early Salvationists were very quick to point out that holiness was the secret to their success; they credited holiness as the source of their consistent victory.

Holiness requires a complete surrender of all we have to God. Those things which God has “devoted to destruction” we must give up – that means everything that is sinful and everything that is doubtful. Secondly, we must surrender all that is left to God. This means all our time, talents, money, passion, influence – even our families and personal relationships – everything we have must be fed into our love for God. We must ‘Love the LORD our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength” and the reality of our absolute commitment must be evident to “our children” we must “talk about it when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up.” They must see, our brothers and sisters in Christ must see and the lost must see that Jesus is not only first and last in our lives but also everything in between.

We must respond to the words of Paul, so ably paraphrased in ‘The Message’…

“So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.”

I have come to the realisation slowly and painfully that have (individually and collectively) been made ‘liable to destruction’. God will not give us victory until we have dealt with the consecrated things we have hidden away in our everyday lives. Perhaps, if you belong to a church other than the Salvation Army, you might need to prayerfully debate what those things are, however if you’re a Salvationist (especially if you’re an Officer) there is no need for a debate for our covenant demands an absolute surrender.

I've been content to dwell,
while multitudes are dying
and sinking into Hell.
I can no more be careless,
and say there's naught to do,
the fields are white to harvest
And labourers are few.

O hear, thou God of Heaven,
the vows that now I make!
to thee my life is given,
'tis for the lost world's sake.
to serve thee I am ready,
though friends and foes despise,
I now present my body
a living sacrifice.

I want this experience for myself, I fed up with occasional failure, fed up with a hit and miss Christianity that sometimes wins but too often loses.

There is obviously no other way to secure victory than to give God everything - so by his grace that is what I am going to do – no – that is what I am doing from this moment on. I give everything to God. I refuse to be held back any longer by those who say that such a commitment is unreasonable, old fashioned or no longer required. I want to see revival (both in me and around me) I want to see Dartford on fire, I want to see my Corps explode like a scatter bomb of fruitful evangelism – not only successful where it is but also planting cells and outposts in other places too!

I want this, God wants this and he has promised that I will be ‘more than conqueror’ – if I pay the price.

By his grace I will – God help me!

Hallelujah!

Yesterday's Army for today?

My good friend Carol Young sent me some material recently that came out of an ‘all night of prayer’ she had attended. Some of it was for private consumption and some I am sure will find its way into the public domain via her blog (The Old Wells).

However, in a discussion afterwards, on the phone, she mentioned that (I think it was a quote from a book) the Army’s early success was directly related to the fact that it perfectly reflected the needs of the day.

Last night I was walking down Dartford High Street thinking about today’s needs and what a Salvation Army that met them might look like.

Dartford High Street is pedestrianised with a kind of cobbled effect road service. The shops are mainly made up of cheap cafes (what we in the UK call ‘a greasy spoon’) betting shops and pubs. We also have the obligatory ‘Primark’, a bingo hall, two amusement arcades (slot machine parlours) and two pawnbrokers. The people that walk up and down the High Street are primarily poor (though not as poor as some in the UK) and many of them look harassed and lost.

In Dartford (as in the wider UK) gambling, teenage pregnancy, violent crime, prostitution are all rife and on the increase and alcohol costs less than bottled water - it is very easy to get seriously drunk in Dartford for less than £3.

It would seem that in spite of new technology, sexual liberation, sexual equality, human rights legislation and political correctness, post modern Britain doesn’t actually look that different from how it looked 140 years ago.

So I’m going to attempt an experiment in consecration – that sounds less sincere than it ought to – I’m not playing games here, what I’m about to do I have been prayerfully considering for some time.

It seems that the primitive Salvationists in their attitude to things like worldliness, Sabbath keeping, evangelism, fighting for social justice etc actually got it about right.

Now I have a copy of O&R’s for Field Officers 1908, an early doctrine book, a copy of ‘Heathen England’, a Salvation Soldier’s Guide, Cadet’s Lessons and countless other instructive books from those early days.

I’m going to attempt to live my life as I would have been expected to live it if I had been a Salvationist about the turn of the century. I’m not looking to utilising old methods (unless they still work) but I do want to recreate that primitive spirit that enabled our pioneers to be so completely focussed in what they did.

I’ll use this blog to let you know how I get on.

Love and prayers

A

“Further up, and further in!”

I once went for a job interview where I was asked to list all my weaknesses and all my strengths. I filled up a whole page with weaknesses and my list of strengths contained just one – “ability to identify weaknesses”!

On reflection I was a bit hard on myself yesterday – completely honest – but probably not totally fair. My CSM said to me last night (he had read my blog) “Andrew if the Mercy Seat was lined every week with new converts you’d still not be satisfied” and he’s probably right :-)

What I was trying to say yesterday is that spiritual achievement is directly proportional to spiritual commitment and subsequent obedience and as Finney reminds us if we surrender 99.9% to God but knowingly hold back .9% that act of deliberate disobedience is sin.

It’s a good job we can bring grace into the equation or none of us would get to heaven!

I feel that something good and exciting is in the air, I feel that we as a movement (and Dartford as a Corps) are ready to enter the promised land, but our victory depends on surrendering to God ‘the devoted things’ and moving further along the path of holiness.

I recently re-read ‘The last battle’ (final book in the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis). As the characters make their way to heaven they are constantly urged to go “further up, and further in!” one of them encourages the others with the observation that “the further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.”

Our human perspective often leads us to be deceived! We act as if this is the real world, as if everything is down to us and our limited ability and resources when in fact reality is where God dwells and this is the ‘truth that sets us free’. On our own we can do nothing but with God we can do everything! Too often all we can see is the narrow doorway through which we are commanded to pass into greater achievement and effectiveness (and it is narrow), but we can’t see beyond to the wonderful possibilities opening up just beyond. What we need isn’t more discipline or greater self denial we just need more ‘faith’.

“Lord I believe help thou my unbelief!”

Love and prayers

A

Holiness testimonies please!

I recently bumped into an Officer who was a delegate at 'Brengle' (here in the UK) some time ago but was disappointed when the teachings of Brengle were dismissed early on in the proceedings due to the fact that 'no one today testified to holiness' (as understood by Brengle).

Once again biblical standards are brought down to our miserable levels of moral ineptitude and poor performance rather than held up as an attainable goal – so let me put my neck on the line and throw out a challenge at the same time!

I am fully saved by the blood and grace of Jesus. I am saved from sin and also from sinning. I can testify that everything I have and am is fully consecrated to God. I have (in line with God’s revelation) renounced all that is sinful in my life (and doubtful) and by God’s grace I do not deliberately break any known laws of God. By God’s grace I do not sin!

I still make mistakes, I still act impulsively and I am still sometimes a little immature (especially when I play with my two little girls!) I still have to go to Christ and seek his forgiveness when these human traits make my ministry less effective than it might be but by the grace of God I do not sin.

I am not under law but under grace, I am no longer a slave to sin but I am a ‘living sacrifice’ constantly and consistently set apart for God.

I believe that the rediscovery of personal holiness and its power to deliver us from sinning (as well as from sin) will prove to be the salvation of the Salvation Army.

What about you? – do you enjoy the blessing of a clean heart? Do you walk each moment by the saviour’s side? If so then please fulfil that last condition of holiness and testify (here in the 'comments' section of this blog) to God’s power to save completely!

“Lord, give me more soul-saving love,

Send a revival from above,

Thy mighty Spirit pour.

The Army of salvation bless

With righteousness and holiness,

Pressed down and running o'er.”

Hallelujah!

A