Salvogesis

Today we are looking at the Ten Commandments. Now there is an important phrase at the beginning of our text which we read today that I don’t know if anyone noticed: Deuteronomy 5:3: “It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.” This is important because none of the people were alive when God made the original covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12-15).[1] And Moses, when he says this, he is not speaking for the most part to the people who were even alive when he received the exodus covenant/commission on Mt. Horeb  (Exodus 19-24) or when the Hebrews were delivered from Egypt.[2] As Deuteronomy is taking place, most of the Exodus generation has already passed away. Moses lets the people of this next generation know, however, that they are still bound by this covenant to God even though they may not have even been born when it was first made.[3] This is what God is reminding the Hebrews before He presents the Ten Co...

Our title, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”,  is taken from a Clint Eastwood film, Jude in this very short letter is telling us how to be good in the face of the bad and the ugly. The Book of Jude has been called the most neglected book in the New Testament.[2] Thus there are a couple of things we should probably know about Jude: Do we know who in all probability wrote the letter Jude? (Jude) Jude is a nickname. Do we know what Jude is short for? (Jude is short for ‘Judah’ in Hebrew and ‘Judas’ in Greek; they are the same name). The author of this letter is probably either the disciple named Judas (not Judas Iscariot because, among other reasons, he was dead when this letter was written: Matthew 27:3-8, Acts 1:18-19) or more likely this Jude is Jesus’ biological brother, Judas (cf. Jude 1:1; cf. also Matthew 13:55, John 7:3-10, Acts 1:14, 1 Corinthians 9:5, Galatians 1:19). In Verse 1 the author identifies himself as James’ brother. James was another one of Jesus’ brothers and ...

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I just returned from joining the Toronto community in supporting those impacted by Monday’s tragedy at the #Toronto Strong Vigil. The event was hosted in collaboration with community groups Faith in the City and the Toronto Area Interfaith Council. It was a real blessing to be a part of. Many people shared prayers, songs, words of encouragement and comfort. One of the things that really resonated with me as I was standing with community members and later clergy from other denominations and faiths was a spirit of gratefulness. People were grateful for the support of others. People were grateful for their community. People were grateful for the response, the love, the giving, and the forgiving of others. We were thankful. This gratefulness, this thankfulness to God is one thing we can offer at this time as a community to our community in need. We can offer comfort and support to those who of us are he...

This week I have been reminded of the Exodus. When the people left the only homes they had even known in Egypt to go to what God had promised them, how did God lead them? What went before them? (A fiery pillar/column of cloud that they could follow night or day.) This pillar would lead them from location to location for a whole generation. Some places they would stay for a long time. Some places they would stay for a short time and some places they would avoid altogether as God led them on a circuitous route eastward. Every time the pillar of fire/cloud would stir, it was time for them to pack up, move and follow God to a new location. This is not unlike our vocation and experience as Salvation Army Officers. Every time God stirs headquarters hearts like He did the pillar of fire/cloud, it is time for us Officers to move. At some locations we stay for a long time; others we stay for a short time and there are others, of course, that Susan and I have missed altogether as God has be...

Today is move announcement day in The Salvation Army. This is the day that the Canadian Salvation Army calls each of their Officers and then announces to the world who in this organization is going to move to where in this country in order to take up responsibilities on July 01.It is an exciting day. Genesis 11 is about Abraham receiving his call to move. Earlier in Genesis, it is recorded that when God created us, humankind, He didn’t ask too much of us. At first He simply asked us to fill and take care of the earth and then later of course, in Genesis 2:17, He asked Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – and we know how well that went. Now in Genesis 11 and 12 we are a couple of generations after Adam and Eve and if we haven’t messed things up enough already by eating the fruit and failing to do one of the only two recorded things God asked us to do, in Chapter 11 we are making sure that we really mess things up by failing to do the...

One April after a worship service at the Salvation Army in Swift Current, Saskatchewan we had a self-denial meal. We each bought tickets in advance to raise money for overseas mission. We had no idea of what would happen next... Three people were chosen at random to sit at a beautiful table complete with a nice table cloth, fancy cutlery, bowls, plates, etc. They were each served more wonderful food than one could even imagine. There was so much special food that they could not even finish everything that was served to them. The rest of us lined up and received a scoop of rice in a bowl. We did not have fancy table cloths; we did not have special drinks; we did not even have cups or cutlery. We just had a bowl of rice. Linda and Ora (who put on this meal) informed us that the three people at the head table, who were served and had an overabundance of food, represented us in Canada and the other 'first world' countries. The vast majority of us who only had a single ...

The three-legged race is always fun to watch. Some people seem to run it with ease while others fall down and trip all over each other. I’ve seen dads tied to their kids who’ve simply picked them up and run with them without breaking the tie that binds. It is a lot of fun. The secret is that the winning couple is the pair who moves in sync with each other so that with every stride each matches their partner. Two independently minded people determined to do their own thing have no chance! It is like that with covenants. The origins of the most commonly translated word for covenant (Berit[h], used 286 times in the Hebrew Bible) refers to being bound, tied or even shackled together, not unlike the three-legged race. We in the Salvation Army are a covenanted people. Our covenants are very important to us. They can certainly be one of our organisational strengths. General Clifton wrote in his third pastoral letter that our covenants are one of the main ways in which the Lord chooses to ...

I don't know if you are familiar with the game of Cribbage. When playing a hand of Crib, you are dealt 6 (or 5) cards. The idea to to keep cards in your hand that are the same number, runs of three or more cards, or cards that are all the same suit or that add up to 15 points. Of the six cards you are dealt, you are allowed to keep four of them. You want to keep as many points as you can in your hand so you make the best choices you can. After both players have chosen hands then the deck is cut and one more card is selected. The card that is turned up becomes part of both players hands. As you can imagine that extra card can be quite significant. It can be the difference between a four point hand and twenty point hand. Sometimes the card cut favours one player, sometimes the other, sometimes neither, and sometimes both. There are games when you can't seem to get a card you want cut. There are days when you seemingly play every card perfectly but you never seem to get the cut ...

"As people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), we have been entrusted with the care of the earth's resources (Genesis 2:15). Stewardship requires that we use these resources in a manner which ensures the well-being of present and future generations. God's instruction to 'subdue' the earth and 'rule' over every living thing (Genesis 1:28) cannot be interpreted to justify abuse or disregard for any life, not only human life. The privileges granted require our accountability to Him and one another" (TSA Canada Position Statement). God cares about the environment, the land itself. He lays out some important commands concerning it (specifically relating to Palestine; Lev. 25, 26) in a part of Scripture that is – interestingly enough - known as the 'Holiness Code'. We are directed that the land itself shall enjoy its Sabbath rest (Lev. 25:2, 26:34,35) just as man is commanded to (Exod. 20: 8-11, Deut 5:15), and as God did (Exod. 20:11, G...

Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event. He gives us the 7 P's (Greek 'Pi') of holiness. Today we will have our last piece of pi. Pi 7 = Abstain from every form of evil. Doctrine 10 of The Salvation Army reads: "We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Our text today says, abstain from every form of evil: This is holiness (Cf. TSA doc. 10). God tells us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). God tells us to be blameless (1 Thessalonians 5:23). God tells us to be perfect (2 Corinthians 13; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 11,12). John Wesley argued that this involves more than just avoiding vices. He says, quoting an heathen Epicurean poet, in a sermon entitled, ‘The Almost...

Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event. He gives us the 7 P's (Greek 'Pi') of holiness. Today we will have our sixth piece of pi. Pi 6 = But test everything, hold onto what is good This is one of the most important things (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:21). This is one of the primary reasons that we are given the Bible as it is, I imagine; so that indeed we can and we will test things and see what is right and see what is wrong. We must be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-15). Paul applauds them for this very thing. They do not accept what the Apostle Paul is telling them simply because he is telling it to them; they put his words to the test. They search the scriptures; we need to search the scriptures. It is very important. Smart people sometimes make mistakes. Good people sometimes make mistakes and when we hear someone utter what we think may be a mis...

Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event. He gives us the 7 P's (Greek 'Pi') of holiness. Today we will have our fifth piece of pi. Pi 5 = Do not despise the word of the prophets Like we said the other day, there are many false prophets out there. As John says, there are many anti-Christs pretending to know what they do not know. There are many false prophets tickling our ears for the purpose of financial gain or to lead us astray but indeed Paul says, there are real prophets too – and we should not despise their words. Pi 5 = Do not despise the word of the prophets   More daily blogs at https://salvogesis.blogspot.ca/

Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event. He gives us the 7 P's (Greek 'Pi') of holiness. Today we will have our fourth piece of pi. Pi 4 = Do not quench the Spirit Now, apparently when Paul was writing this letter, there were some ‘wakkos’ predicting the time and the day of the end of the world (cf. Mark 13:32-33) and there were ‘weirdos’ who would perform fake healings, false prophecies, etc. There were these snake-oil salesmen of sorts.[7] And some of these folks were leading people astray and some of these people with their false predictions just looked plain silly and they did so for no easily discernible heavenly purpose. Some things never change! There is a difference between being a fool for the gospel and just plain being a fool.[8] Now Paul knew this and Paul knew that in reaction to these people, some people could go too far in the ot...

Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event. He gives us the 7 P's (Greek 'Pi') of holiness. Today we will have the second piece of pi. Pi 2 = Pray without ceasing: The second P (or Pi) is Pray without ceasing: Unlike Pi #1, ‘Pray without ceasing’ actually starts with a ‘p’ in English, Now we know that our salvation comes from the Lord. We know that He is indeed looking out for us and so we pray continuously and we do give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for us (1 Thessalonians 5:17; cf. Acts 12:7; Romans 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:3). We know that we are in a spiritual battle. We know that we fight not as much against flesh and blood as we do against powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12ff; cf. Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22). When soldiers are in the heat of battle: when bombs are going off, when planes are coming in from a distance, an...

Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event. He gives us the 7 P's (Greek 'Pi') of holiness. Today we will have our third piece of pi. Pi 3 = Give thanks in all circumstances Our third piece of our holiness pi, our third P is 'give thanks in all circumstances' (Thessalonians 5:16, 18; cf. Deuteronomy 12:7,18; 1 Chronicles 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Luke 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philippians 4:4; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 1:26, 4:13). This attitude of thanksgiving is so important. The Lord loves us. Now, like we said about our saved loved ones who pass on, we are not thankful by any means that they are gone but we do know that they have moved on to something better – no more sickness, no more death, no more tears (Revelation 21:4) and we do know that even though we miss our loved ones – God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronom...

Have you ever seen those motivational speakers on TV or in person. They usually have some way that they want you to remember what it is they are trying to motivate you to do. One thing that people often is acronyms – you spell out a word and every letter stands for something else. Sometimes they just have an alliterative list with each item in the cue staring with the same letter or the same sound, like Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Paul in our scripture passage uses some of these very techniques and in this pericope that we are looking at this week.  Paul gives us the 7 Ps (Greek 'Pi’) of being holy or blameless in preparation for Christ’s return  (1 Thessalonians 5:23).[4] In Greek, the language Paul uses in this letter to the Thessalonians, each of these phrases begins with the Greek letter ‘Pi’, which is roughly the equivalent of the English letter ‘P’. Now Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, ...

Ray Arnal, a great soldier at our corps in Swift Current, years ago was working up north somewhere. They were clearing a forest and they noticed a bear cub in one of the trees. Ray thought that it would be a good idea to capture the bear cub and bring it home to Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan. So Ray and a group of others fell the tree and collected the bear cub up in a big tarp. Ray then emptied his duffel bag put this bear cub in there for the trip home. They flew into Calgary without incident where Ray then went to board the bus home with his luggage. It is at some point here – I am not sure whether Ray and his new friend actually made it onto the bus or not but they were definitely in the depot and maybe on the bus when the bear decided it is done with the duffel bag and he escaped to see the world. You can imagine the commotion as this bear cub gets out and people are running everywhere – some to get away and some to get the bear - and in the middle of this all is Ray standing there wit...