Salvogesis

A few years ago we were in London England to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Salvation Army. We enjoyed the Boundless conference and then stayed to tour England and Scotland a little bit afterwards. It was a good time. It didn't start out that way though. When we arrived in the UK, our hotel reservations had evaporated: we had no place to stay. Our credit cards and bank cards didn't work: we couldn't access our money. We were calling my mom half way across the world to try to help us access our money and help us find a place to stay - but our phones didn't work properly either. We tracked down other Salvation Army Officers. It all worked out in the end but it was a stressful beginning. One day, early in the Boundless conference, I had to leave early with my teenage daughter. She was old enough to stay alone but she wasn't confident enough to take the metro on her own. She wasn't feeling well. I went to help her get to the hotel room....

Our life can't be edited. It can be changed. I remember watching the original Star Wars in the theatre in 1977. In 1981 one of my friends had this neat new machine: a VCR. We could pause shows and even rewind parts of them and watch them over and over again. I saw Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back more than once or twice. Early this century a friend lent me DVDs of the trilogy. I couldn't believe it: Why was Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars ? Who was this new Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi ? I don't remember Storm Troopers on lizards and I am pretty sure that Han shot first. I asked my friend why the movies were different; he replied that he hoped that the changes didn't ruin the movies for me. Later when I was able to look on-line for movies, I looked for copies of the movies as I would have seen them in the 1970s or 1980s. I couldn't find them anywhere. But they are in my memory and the original versions of the movies have left significant impr...

My daughters and I went to see SOLO . It was a surprisingly good movie. There was one scene that stuck in my mind. Han was emigrating and an official asked him his name and then he asked him who his people were. Han replied that he didn't have any people; so the surname awarded to him was 'Solo'. When I was studying restorative justice at Simon Fraser University, my instructor asked us the same question for one of our papers: who are your people? I pondered this for a while and wrote a long essay claiming many people as my people: those in The Salvation Army, those in the community that I lived and all the communities in which I have lived before, those in the courts and the prisons where I have ministered, my colleagues, associates, friends, clients, neighbours; anyone I could think of I claimed as my people. Most of all if we submit to the Lord, we are His people. We are part of the family of God. Even if at one point we were not part of God's family when we accep...

Today we are speaking about Noah so I found a few relevant riddles [1] : What did Noah say as he was loading the Ark? Ø        "Now I herd everything." Why did the people on the ark think the horses were pessimistic? Ø        They kept saying neigh. What animal could Noah not trust? Ø        The cheetah. Why couldn't they play cards on the ark? Ø        Noah was sitting on the deck. Who was the first canning factory run by? Ø        Noah, he had a boat full of preserved pairs. Was Noah the first one out of the Ark? Ø        No, he came fourth out of the ark. Before we chat a little bit about Noah we should probably have a little bit of context. Noah is one story among many in the book of Genesis, so let’s recap what those of us who have been reading Genesis have read in the c...

Isaiah 12:2 “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (see Exod. 15:2). [1] You’ve seen the old American movies about the ‘old west’ where the so-called heroes get into trouble and it looks like all is lost and then the cavalry shows up. In Canadian history – this weekend we are celebrating Louis Riel Day. Louis Riel is an interesting character depending on when and where you live in Canadian history he has been cast as everything as an expectant messiah to the devil himself. Certainly for some in his lifetime he seems to have embodied attributes of both. [2] Similar to the US Cavalry for the settlers whom the North West Rebellion affected was (of course) our RCMP, the Mounties. And – well – Canada being mush more efficient that our Southern neighbours, instead of sending the RCMP all the way west on horseback to save the day, they took the train. There was a certain irony to this as we...

If you read yesterday's post you will remember that one morning when we were missionaries on Vancouver's downtown eastside, I was mugged. It was early in the morning and I was on Main and Hastings – that most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood - and I was on the phone with my wife who was out of town at the time. Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school program I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I…well, I chased the mugger. I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and...

When our children were just little, we sold our home and our businesses and moved into North America’s poorest postal code - Vancouver’s downtown eastside - as full-time urban missionaries with The Salvation Army. We saw many miracles in that setting but our time there, as you can well imagine, wasn’t always rosy though. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was right on Main and Hastings – the most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan who was out of town at the time. Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school program I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I’m sure, I…well, I chased the mugger. I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and a...

We men, as you know, can be fairly organized and very task-orientated and when I was in teacher-training many years ago we learned that while women are generally more skilled at the creative side of things, men have a much higher aptitude for math and all that side of things. So here is a math question for you that my colleague Captain Ed  and I were faced with a few years ago driving back from Beaver Creek Bible Camp. Let’s see how you do. If you start off with 1 Officer bus driver and 5 other men from Maple Creek and you add 1 Officer and 4 other men from Swift Current, how many men do you have? (11). Good. Now if you subtract 1 Alvin and later, after Saskatoon, you plan to add 1 David (David is Captain Ed’s son) how many men should you have on your bus as you leave men’s camp? (10) Do you think we could get that right? With nine men on the bus doing a head count we came up with anywhere from 6– 11 people present and we were quite content with that until someone eventually aske...

Jesus has twice resisted the accuser in the desert. The Devil doesn’t give up though. Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit. He has been resisting temptation through quoting scripture. So you know what Satan does? He quotes scripture too. He whisks Jesus away to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-21).” This is a religious temptation. The Devil quotes the Bible saying that God’s angel will protect Jesus; so go ahead and sin. How many times do we hear this: ‘Go ahead, it’s okay, you’re not hurting anybody;’ ‘Just once;’ ‘No one will care;’ ‘God will never leave you; He won’t mind if you do that;’ ‘Go ahead, we all sin all the time’…? These excuses are temptations the Devil uses to try lead us away from God. This is his culmin...

Reading Numbers 3, we note that two of Aaron’s children have died: his oldest two sons “fell dead before the LORD when they made an offering with unauthorized fire before Him in the Desert of Sinai . They had no sons; so only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron” (Num 3:3,4; cf. Lev.10:1). Just as the whole generation who left Egypt will die in their sins before they enter the Promised Land (except Joshua and Caleb), two of Aaron’s children including his first-born son die here before the LORD. Scholar Ronald B. Allen ( The Expositors Bible Commentary , Version 4.0.2) comments on this passage: “‘Unauthorized fire’ translates a Hebrew expression that is seemingly deliberately obscure, as though the narrator finds the very concept to be distasteful... The essential issue here is that Nadab and Abihu were using fire that the Lord had not commanded (Lev 10:1). The pain of the account is strengthened by its brevity and mystery. We are le...

Jesus asked who touched his clothes. There were lots of people touching his clothes. People were pressing up against him. People wanted to get his attention. People wanted to get his help. People wanted to get his healing. You can probably imagine the incredulousness of the disciples here. This story is actually a part of another story.  Jesus is on his way to heal Jairus’ daughter. She is about to die. The disciples could be in a bit of a hurry here.  There is a girl who could die if they don’t get there.  Anyone ever been in a hurry? Anyone ever had to wait for someone when you are running late and really just want to get going? Have you ever sat in the car or stood by the door waiting for someone to get their coat, find their shoes or do their hair? Have you ever looked at your watch and wondered why are they making us late? Here the disciples seem to be in a bit of a hurry and all of a sudden Jesus, instead of moving along, stops in the middle of a crowd of peopl...