Salvogesis

The previous few weeks I have been camping with Susan and Heather – and coming back here to work: some weeks I was more with them such as last week and some weeks I was more at work here such the week previous.   The themes I have been preaching on lately are what I have been reading about the past few weeks: forgiveness and the Kingdom of God. I have been reading a few books and articles by and about Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He shares some examples about the power one has when they forgive. You can even be free of awful hurts – pain from murder, torture, racism, etc. – by forgiving people who harmed you. Forgiveness can save your mental, emotional and spiritual health.   Last week was also one of my favourite recent sermons; I was reading a lot of liberation theologians so I shared some of my ideas of the Kingdom of God – where there are no more wars, no more prisons; where countries take the resources we currently spend on killing other people’s children and use th...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: 16 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!   There were many great things about our trip, including just being together but -believe it or not – it was not perfect! The children and everyone else didn’t always get along perfectly – especially when we are travelling in a car for hours together and then sleeping three or so people in a twin bed – when our children aren’t little anymore. And then after having no sleep for a few nights driving and flying through the whole night, one can be tired and cranky. There is a little rainfall in everyone’s life. But here is the thing, the Lord is with us in everything we experience. He will never leave us nor forsake us. A friend of ours, Major David Ivany, whom we have quoted regularly, regularly says, ‘in the end it will all be all right; so, if it is...

How can we have perfect bliss? We will know perfect bliss when we arrive cold, tired, and happy at our destination. We will knock at the door, and the pub keeper will scold us and refuse to open the door. When we wait until the morning in the snow, slush, and wind, cold and drenched, without any feeling of malice for this man, we shall pray for him. Only then will we know perfect bliss. I have a book of daily quotes complied by Leo Tolstoy. This is one he chose for the beginning of the New Year. I thought it would be good for our second daily devotion of 2022 for Salvogesis. After all, What good is it to add to our own suffering of external harms, internal ones of hatred and discontent? www.sheepspeak.com www.facebook.com/salvogesis

Thanksgiving in Canada is to a “day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.” When we were on the prairies, this took on a whole new meaning to me. We came to know a little more what was meant by planting season and harvesting season and we could even tell you what kind of combine you were driving based on the colour of the vehicle. Thanksgiving for the harvest was a real part of life.                Today, in the context of what is going on in the world and in the Army, I want to spend a little bit of time chatting about the power of a spirit of thanksgiving in our lives. It really is something that God can use to get us through even the darkest of times. This is what a spirit of thanksgiving looks like:   Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious ...

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 This weekend, of course, is Mothers’ Day. Yesterday I was thinking about a cat that we had when I was growing up. Her name was Little Spook. I remember when Little Spook had kittens. When it was time to feed them, she would call them all and lie down and they would come, snuggle up and eat. After a few weeks the kittens were big enough to go to their own homes so we sent them off to live with their new owners – except for one kitten, Simon, who we kept. Little Spook would lie down and call her kittens every day at meal time for them to come snuggle up and eat but of course none would come – except Simon. Little Spook missed her babies. Every day she would call. Every day only Simon would come. One day when Simon arrived – everything changed. Instead of getting a cuddle and a meal, Little Spook would swat Simon and chase him away. Every day the same thing: she would call her babies, ...

It can continue The Good News of Salvation As we walk with God All of these analogies are true and more. Jesus gives us many metaphors of Salvation in the Gospels. There are some key things that we should probably know and realize in our lives: 1) Salvation is not merely a final destination; it is a relationship, a journey with our Lord and Saviour. Salvation is us living with and serving our Lord, starting now and with the option to continue forever. 2) Salvation, Christianity and Holiness are not distinct from each other. They are all based on the same word - Hagios; they are one in the same. If you are saved, you are a Christian (Saint), and if you are a Christian (Saint) you are holy. The Bible is very clear that as we spend more time with God, the Holy Spirit makes us more like Him. God changes us; the world doesn't change, we do. 3) When we are experiencing the Lord's salvation in our life it does not mean that we will have the perfect life in that nothin...

Romans 12:15: Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. It has been interesting in the news lately. I saw one survey published the other day in the National Post that said that we are, as a society, becoming angrier. This makes sense intuitively if we read all the social media memes and comments. Alongside this in Canada there is also the reality that more people feel less free to share their opinion at all. This has been evidenced by election polling. Polls which once used to be accurate within 3 percentage points 19 times out of 20 now seem to be way off. The Conservative election victory on PEI recently proved that again. The day before the election they were calling for the first Green party government in Canada. All of this is of course a symptom of a sense of powerlessness. And this powerlessness can lead to a feeling of loss and despair. There are many desperate tragedies and other sad events in our world. On and since Easter there have been those horribl...

William Shakespeare writes, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose    By any other name would smell as sweet;” Sometimes a rose may smell even sweeter still When that rose carries in its aroma Our memories of a loved one Sometimes a rose may smell even sweeter still When that rose carries in its aroma Our feelings of love and adoration Sometimes a rose may smell even sweeter still When that rose carries in its aroma The pictures in our minds eye of people we love who have gone on ahead Sometimes a rose may smell even sweeter still When that rose carries in its aroma All of the times we have shared and maybe even dreams that we are still sharing Robert Burns shares our feelings of love for those dear to us in his poem: My love is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June: My love is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in love am I: And I will love thee still, my dear, Till all the se...

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...

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...