Salvogesis

 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  We went to see Frankenstein the Ballet last night. If anyone knows that story. The beginning is like the book. Dr. Frankenstein makes a creation out of the parts of corpses who had had terrible things happen in their lives - and then he brings life to the new creation and it becomes whole - with a whole new lease on life. A new chance to live. No matter all the awful stuff that had happened before. Now - the book actually ends poorly after that but the ballet does not. The ballet includes a story of Giselle. This bride, who herself suffered a horrible fate, learned forgiveness and is resurrected. She meets Frankenstein's creation; they fall in love - and start off again, this time living a transformed life. Revelation 21:3b-4: God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or ...

Hebrews 13:14 (LB): For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven.   2 Corinthians 5:1-2 (CEV): Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. These homes will not be buildings someone has made, but they are in heaven and will last forever. 2 While we are here on earth, we sigh because we want to live in that heavenly home.   It was interesting visiting Toronto, if only for a very little while. We saw the ROM. That was good. We weren’t there long. We didn’t get to see any friends – well Sarah-Grace did; she was prepared but the rest of us didn’t. It did remind me, like it has reminded me when we have visited other places we used to live – Winnipeg, Nipawin, Swift Current, Victoria, Vancouver – that things continue to change when we aren’t there and very quickly the people and places we used to know are not there. Toronto wa...

This poster means very much to me. It was given to me by Remi, a colleague here at The Salvation Army. Remi has taught me much about Nuu-Chah-Nulth culture, tradition, government, and some vocabulary (if only I can remember the words!); he is a friend! On Ash Wednesday this year, the Tseshaht First Nation released the preliminary findings about the  residential school that was on their territory.  It is very sad. Everyday since, as before, as I enter my office and as I sit at my desk, I see the painting by Roy Henry Vickers with the words 'Haalapi Hawit' (Creator) written underneath.  'Haalapi Hawit' (Creator) went to the cross for us. The tears in this picture remind me how sad He must be for the way we have treated each other in residential schools and elsewhere and how sad He must be at the way we continue to treat each other today.  'Haalapi Hawit' (Creator) died and rose again so that we could be reconciled to 'Haalapi Hawit' (Creator) and to one an...

We are told that when we are in Christ we are a new creation. When we are ‘in-Christ’  we are able to have our lives transformed so we can see and do the good things that God wants for us and others (Romans 12:2). Being ‘in-Christ’ is no longer thinking about ourselves. One night I received an e-mail from an old friend of mine who works in a BC prison; I myself volunteered in the chapel in Stony Mountain Penn. We agreed that many of the fellows there who are stuck, unable to change; the ones who don’t get along with their fellow inmates and are threatening and litigious, are the people who act upon ‘a perverse sense of entitlement.’ It is this sense of entitlement, among other things, that embodies the old life for each of us.  It is this way of thinking that traps us. The new life is experienced only as we change our minds to put God, rather than ourselves, first. This is what it means to be ‘in-Christ.’ It is a simple idea - this new life. Jesus has already provided this new...

Today’s offering is entitled ‘Fight like a Christian’ or ‘War like a Christian’. If one is going to speak of such things, it seems appropriate to speak about this at The Salvation Army with soldiers and officers and others associated with the Army present. The Salvation Army has long recognized that our war is not a battle of flesh and blood but a battle with powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12) and this is a key thought influencing our passage in 2 Corinthians 10 today. At the Army when we become soldiers, full members of The Salvation Army we sign a covenant with God; keeping with our military theme, do you know what that covenant is called? – The Articles of War: Soldier's Covenant. Our text in 2 Corinthians 10:2 says that, because we are Christians we do not live by the standards of this world. The word 'world' here refers to 'society’. Our Articles of War talks about a number of ways that our standards – not as Christians but as Salvation Soldiers – a...

A walk with a friend This is true Salvation A means not an end Salvation is not merely a state to be obtained. It is a relationship. When we are in relationship with our Lord we experience the joy of Salvation. When one is not in relationship with our Lord one does not experience the joys of Salvation. As we continue to walk with the Lord we continue to experience Salvation through all the joys, trials, tribulations, and exhilaration of life. True Salvation is not merely a heaven that you walk to with your Lord and Saviour. True Salvation is the heaven that you experience while walking with Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour both now and forever. https://www.facebook.com/Salvogesis/ www.sheepspeak.com

The book is a jacket Until it is read and then It’s an adventure My family loves reading: my kids, my wife, myself. We all enjoy our books. I think every wall in our house that can have a bookshelf against it, probably does. We have everything from children’s books, to cook books, to music magazines, to theological treaties, to historical documents, and much more. Between us we buy a lot of books. Susan gets a lot of books from Amazon. Every once and a while, I find a classic at the Thrift Store or a used book store for next to nothing. Sometimes I find two or three books at a time. I can only read so many books at once so if I find that when  I have purchased or received more than that at a time, I can put them on a shelf or somewhere else and never read them. The whole time they sit on the shelf they are nothing more than a piece of artwork, a title. It is only when I pick them up and read them that I learn and discover and live what the author wrote for me to experien...

2 Corinthians 2 is an interesting chapter. Scholars like to guess as to the nature of the sin and/or event that transpired here and whether it is referred to elsewhere in scripture or not. We do know a few things from the immediate context. We know that someone in the church family has done something to cause some people some grief. We also know that most of the people who were affected directly or indirectly by whatever transpired took some action; referred to here as a 'punishment';[2] we know that if Paul was not directly involved in this whole mess that someone has brought it to his attention and Paul here is recommending to the grieving parties that indeed they should forgive the person who hurt them. He goes on to get as close as I think Scriptures gets to formalizing the 'forgive and forget' concept. Vs 10, he says, "if you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven - if there [even] was anything to forgive - I have forgiven them in the sig...

I met with the Bulldogs, the local hockey team the other week. As a kid, I remember going out to the arena to watch the Victoria Cougars with my dad - it was a big deal. As a kid the excitement is intense. The excitement is amazing when you go out to cheer for the home team. Years later, when I was working for the College (CPCI), I can remember the excitement of taking a number of our Japanese students to a couple of play-off games for the Mann Cup final of box lacrosse. I don’t know if anyone here knows anything about box lacrosse – but the Mann Cup is pretty important. I can remember that at first I didn’t really realize what a big deal the final series was – I thought that I could just get someone to swing by and get tickets for the final home and away series so I asked Susan to just go down and pick us up some tickets on her way to wherever she was going. Well there must have been five to six thousand people lined up (at least!) to try and get one of the remaining tickets. Susa...

 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.   Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Staff and management and Officers, we receive a paycheque or a living allowance for the work we do. We are blessed by God as we serve Him and others. Volunteers are a double blessing. You help without any payment. If there is no money to pay for the work to be done, God still uses you to do His work. It is only because of you that any of the work here is able to be done at all. You come out to help at the times that you help, on the days that you help, in the seaso...

We are moving. We have lived in the same place for a few years. My children have grown up a bit. My youngest is too old for the board books she read when we got here. The hobbies and interests of my teenagers have changed a lot. The clothes that the kids like have changed and of course the clothes that fit them when we moved here no longer fit. We need to examine everything. We need to evaluate whether we need to take it with us across the country to our new home or not. We have to decide if it is valuable and worth keeping or whether we should get rid of it. Paul is saying something similar to the Corinthians. They need to test themselves to see whether they are in the faith or not. If they are not then there are somethings in their life they need to jettison and not bring with them into their new lives. There is even more to this passage too. This part is important. John Wesley spoke about examining ourselves regularly to see if indeed we are Christians or if we are almost Chri...

How can I experience a new life? We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; so then the answer to the question 'How can I experience a new life?' is, 'if I become in Christ I will then have a new life' – great. Let’s do that –um-but what is in Christ ? Well, when we are in-Christ we no longer act the same way as most others; we are changed through changing our minds so that we can see and do the good things God wants for us and others (Romans 12:2). Being in-Christ is no longer thinking about ourselves. Just before I first penned this article for the Nipawin Journal in 2008, I received an e-mail from an old friend of mine who works in a BC prison; I myself spent time in Stony Mountain Penn as a volunteer. We agreed that many of the fellows there who are stuck, unable to change, unable to be happy; the ones who are threatening and litigious are the people who seem to act upon ‘a perverse sense of entitlement.’ It is th...

Last night a number of us were working at the cold weather shelter here in Toronto. Helping out here reminds me of  the morning of Friday April 18th 2008: a terrible explosion rocked Nipawin, Saskatchewan – right behind my office. Soon the city was engulfed in flames. The Salvation Army was among the first responders to the incident because we were right there. It was a difficult time for the community as two of our members were suddenly and tragically taken from us but there were also many blessings and miracles in the midst of this tragedy. I spoke with one lady who was on the street outside the building that exploded. Glass and debris shot out towards her. She was unscathed. I heard of another person who had just paid for their haircut and walked away from the hairdresser’s plate glass window a moment before it shattered in the explosion. Many other people, myself included, earlier in the week were standing right on the corner where the explosion took place to watch this same ...

In this letter, in our verse for today, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” “Therefore if anyone is in Christ…”: This phrase refers to anyone who is a Christian or as the New Testament more commonly refers to us, saints. We know what a saint is, right? The Greek word ‘saint’ in our Bibles is derived from the same word as ‘holiness’. In the New Testament ‘saint’, simply put, just means ‘Christian’. A Christian saint is contrasted with a ‘sinner’. So in the apostolic letters in the New Testament there really are just two choices in this regard. You can be either a Christian saint or you can be a sinner. As Paul’s letter reads ‘if anyone is in Christ’ it is saying that for all of us saints, for all of us Christians, we are a new creation – the old is gone, the new has come for all of us! This is exciting. When we hand our lives over to the Lord, it is like a changing of the guard; a new, fresh ...