Salvogesis

Salvationists have sometimes been compared to the Nazirites of the Old Testament. The Nazirites, like us, are people bound by a covenant to the Lord. One aspect of their oath that obviously parallels our soldiership covenant is the promise to abstain from alcohol. Another parallel is that both Nazirites and Salvationists are easily identified as such. Salvationists have their uniform; Nazirites wore their hair long. A third aspect of the Nazirite vow which I suggest has applications for our soldiership covenant – though less immediately obvious – is their prohibition against contact with dead bodies. Numbers 6:7 states specifically that the Nazirite is not to come in contact with a dead body, even if the deceased person is the Nazirite’s own parent. The Nazirite is not allowed even to attend a funeral ceremony. Ordinarily, the Israelites have important responsibilities pertaining to the passing of one’s parents, even though it would make them ceremonially unclean (Numbers 5:2, 19:1...

Saul was Israel's first official king. He served as king for 42 years. That is twice as long as Canada's longest serving head of government; Just as Queen Elizabeth is the only monarch many of us remember, so Saul would be the only king that many of the Israelites remembered. Remember too that Saul wasn't just a figurehead. He was the head of government (such as it was then and there) and more importantly, he was not only in charge of the armed forces but he actually led them into battle. Our queen is 91 years old. Her husband, Prince Phillip, served in the armed forces from 1939 until she was about to inherit the throne, in 1952. Though he just retired from his royal duties this past Wednesday (he is in his 96), he hasn't served in the military in 60 years. King Saul, on the other hand, is 72 years old in our story today and he is actually fighting in the war and in the battle himself.  Anyone here in their 70s? Can you imagine strapping on 100+ lbs of armour, picking...

This is a question that I have actually heard quite a bit in my life. I was privileged to be invited to a birthday party at AA recently and at these celebrations one hears, among other things, the remarkable stories of success as the Lord delivers people from our addictions. We have been blessed to serve the Lord, among other places, in Winnipeg’s North End, Stony Mountain Penitentiary, and Vancouver’s downtown eastside with The Salvation Army. There are many stories. Some are of wonderful successes as the Lord transforms lives and some are of daily struggles that continue for a lifetime. I think of friends from our time on Vancouver Island. The day she and her husband accepted the Lord she stood up sober and never turned back. He has fought almost everyday to defend his sobriety: It is a struggle. To some of us, substances possess a Siren-like song: this song has such a powerful draw. In Greek mythology, the Sirens are creatures with the head of a woman and the body of a ...

I received as a present a book entitled, ‘Swansong’. It is a collection of letters, speeches, and most of all journal entries written with imminent fall of Germany pending, from April 20 th 1945 until the end of the war a couple of weeks later. There are journal entries from famous people like Churchill and Mussolini; Russians, English, and Italians; but mostly the journals are from everyday Germans watching their whole society come crashing down around them. Friends and family are dying or being separated from each other. Homes are being bombed day and night but if they go out in the street they may be shot by their ‘liberators’. There is no food. People sleep with their clothes on in case they have to flee at a moment’s notice. People try to figure out how to surrender without getting shot or killed in the process - just so they can eat, sleep and not be bombed. It is tragic. Here is the thing – even though no one seems to believe Goebells’ propaganda anymore, the people se...

Creator. Genesis 1: The first chapter of Genesis reads like a love story of sorts or like a wonderful little children’s book. It shows a loving God who carefully prepares an environment for his newborn creatures just as a mother bird carefully lines her nest in anticipation of the advent of her little ones. Let us read this story ( to view it in picture book format click   HERE ):  [1]   It was the first day and God the Father made a wonderful room for His creation and it was good. On day one, He made in this room, light and He made the darkness; He made the day and He made the night. And then it was morning. So God the Father, on the second day, made another wonderful room for His creation.    On day two, He made this room, separating the waters. He made the sky and then it was evening. And then it was morning. So God the Father, on the third day, made another wonderful room for His creation.    On day three, He made this room, gatherin...

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 our scriptures today Moses is talking to the children of the people who received the 10 Commandments. It is important that children are reminded of and remember these experiences of and with their parents. It is important to remember what the Lord has done. When we fail to remember our culture, we lose it; when we fail to remember our past, we lose our future; when people fail to remember what makes them a people, they find that they are not a people anymore; and when a people fail to remember their salvation, then we will find that we are not experiencing it anymore. This is what Moses is driving home with the next generation of Israelites. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a Bon Jovi concert with my teenager daughters. Songs are a great way to bring things forward from one generation to the next in our world today. I remember turning on the radio a year or two ago now and... There is this old Irish folk song – generations old – called 'Whiskey in the Jar'. I don’t know if...