Salvogesis

Joseph in our text today was trafficked. His family – his brothers, ten of them, ganged up on him and through him into a pit and sold him to people passing by. The people who bought Joseph took him to a foreign country and sold him as a household servant. His family did not know what had happened to him; his dad never knew what happened to Joseph, his favourite son. Joseph was all alone.   Joseph was a domestic servant with no rights. When his employers was done with him he was sent off to jail.   Trafficking like this isn’t just a thing of the past. We have worked to try and help many different people who have been trafficked in a number of the places we have lived and worked with The Salvation Army.   Here in town there are a couple of businesses that are rumoured to be involved in trafficking people, domestic help, like Joseph – one is a hotel. This hotel apparently has a number of new ‘staff’ come regularly from India, stay and while and then be moved along.   I ...

Queen Elizabeth II was Promoted to Glory this week. she had a strong Christian faith that has been evident throughout her life. As well as her formal role as 'Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England', her personal faith was evident even before she was crowned. 'Pray for me’, she urged us all prior to her coronation, ‘that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’   The theme of service to God and her neighbour even ran throughout her coronation ceremony and she mentioned time and time again, very publicly throughout the years that she was inspired by the sacrificial life of Jesus Christ, who said of himself: I ‘did not come to be served, but to serve’. She said, ‘For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.’   In 2008 the Queen encouraged us all: ‘I...

We had a great time at the toy run and the food drive this weekend. 2,878.1  lbs.  of food were raised from the food drive and an elevator load full of toys from the toy run! Thank you everyone! It was great to be able to be out there serving coffee, doughnuts, publicly praying for the community, serving lunch, picking up toys, setting up, cleaning up and helping in everyway we can. So much of my life in this day and age seems to be spent looking at a computer screen: filling out forms, entering information into databases, answering questions, doing computer tasks from headquarters, emailing and messaging people about this or that or the next thing and since the pandemic struck,  Zoom  and now  Teams  has invaded our lives – so that even meetings we used to have in person are carried out on a screen! It is a weird place to be, societally speaking. I grew up in a generation and a household that did have a TV – but we were always told that too much screen tim...

Queen Elizabeth II was Promoted to Glory this week. she had a strong Christian faith that has been evident throughout her life. As well as her formal role as 'Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England', her personal faith was evident even before she was crowned. 'Pray for me’, she urged us all prior to her coronation, ‘that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’   The theme of service to God and her neighbour even ran throughout her coronation ceremony and she mentioned time and time again, very publicly throughout the years that she was inspired by the sacrificial life of Jesus Christ, who said of himself: I ‘did not come to be served, but to serve’. She said, ‘For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.’   In 2008 the Queen encouraged us...

The other day I was picking up the food truck from the mill. They were doing construction near the exit and so a lady was standing in a reflective vest, with a hard hat on, holding a sign for directing the traffic. I admit I was confused by her methods -at first- for she held the "stop" side of the sign facing me but with her other hand she was beckoning me to approach her in the large Salvation Army Community Response Vehicle I was driving. I drove up to her. She motioned for me to roll down my window, which I did. She then said to me that she knows that The Salvation Army uses the truck around 5pm why am I taking it our around 9am. I explained to her that I had to fill it with gas and the volunteers and staff had to clean and stock it. Then, while I was still stopped, she told me about her job. She mentioned how much she was paid - more than other companies that hold signs for road work. She spoke about the training she underwent and how good it is. She told me how one coul...

  I am not going to go through all of the stanzas of this, the Bible’s longest Psalm, but I will take a quick look at the third letter of the Psalm 119 Alphabet Book. The third letter – with which every line of this stanza begins – is Gimel. This page in the Alphabet book reads:   ג  Gimel 17 Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word. 18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. 19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. 21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed, those who stray from your commands. 22 Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes. 23 Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. 24 Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.   This stanza does not offer as much new information as the first to stanzas which is understandable – they formed the opening argumen...

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. 12 Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees. 13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. 14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.   Beth, the second letter and page in the Alphabet Book, further addresses the question of how can one remain faithful to the Lord? How can one remained blessed? How can one remain blameless? In our vernacular today, how can one remain saved? How can a young person stay on the path of purity (given that life is long and there will be many thoughts, actions, people, and problems trying to pull us away from the blessings of purity). The psalmist answers thi...