freedom

Sorry I havent been blogging much! Ive been flat out!

On the good side we are seeing God doing some amazing things at the moment, real life changing stuff. The girls that decided to follow Jesus the other week came back for Bible study yesterday where we spoke about Sin and Salvation and deliverance... Today at brekie club they were almost completely different looking kids. I dont know how to explain, they were happy, but something in their spirit is changing. Praise God!

I had a great opportunity to show Gods love today. I was able to give coffee to some people lining up outside in the cold which led to great conversations, and I was able to pray for a guys back. He injured his back years and years ago at work and hasnt been able to work since. He came intoday and it was really bugging him so I prayed for it and he became alot more peaceful, and as he left he said it felt great and that he wanted to come to church with me! Thank you God for loving people!

Heres some holiness stuff from the Holy Spirit via Paul in Galatians 5...

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery...

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature[a]; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."[b] 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. "

Lord, forgive us for sinning. Help us live by the Spirit! Thank you for freedom!

Holiness

"Holiness is a state in which there is no anger, malice, blasphemy, hypocrisy, envy, love of ease, selfish desires for good opinion of men, shame of the Cross, worldiness, deceit, debate, contention, covetousness, nor any evil desire or tendency in the heart." (Brengle)

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." (Galatians 5:16-17)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." (Galatians 5:22-26)

Did you catch that? Holiness is possible. It is expected. We can't do it on our own. But by Jesus death and resurrection we can. By the filling of the Holy Spirit we can. And I can testify that sinful habits that I've had, the ones I thought I could never get rid off have fallen off me. Instead of having a sinful heart my heart has been turned to love.

If you are still sinning today God can change that. We cannot do it on our own. But thats the whole reason why Jesus died and rose again. He defeated sin on the cross. Why not enforce that victory upon your own life today? Ask God to show you your sin. Repent and renounce. Devote all of your life to Him. Believe God has done it. Then testify that He has done it!

There's freedom in the name of Jesus!

Wednesday

Firstly, there is a BEYOND CONNECTIONS blog site up. Theres two there. Wise Words and Youth Speak. All youth out there, make sure you get on there and comment like crazy! Its your Army so do something about it! Share your ideas, thoughts, and grudges and lets win the world for Jesus!

Secondly, No one will want to miss Sunday night at Macleod Salvos! Its the world premiere of "So you think you can preach!" Great speakers in Pete and Jo Brookshaw, Tish Rowe, Alana Armstrong and ME! Its going to be fantastic, Great music is lined up, great preachers! All you need to do now is bring along all the unsaved people you know and they'll get saved! Hallelujah! Lets get heaven partying all night long with all the new converts!

Thirdly, Jesus Saves! He saves us from all evil. The world for God concept is great. We need to win the world for God. This is both individual and social, souls and justice! Its everything! If everyone knew Jesus imagine how cool it would be! Now, imagine closer to home, your family, your school... Get moving, theres a dieing world to save!

Connections

Connections was great!

Heres a couple of the issues that were discussed...
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TSA is most trusted organisation in Australia. We are seen as a group of people who don't preach to people and this is apparently a good thing. People like us because we don't preach?

What does that mean?

Does that mean we only help people in Jesus name but don't try to get them saved? You can only respond to the gospel if you hear it. Have we as an Army stopped preaching with words and are hiding behind our good works hoping that people will want to get saved? Heres a headline for you, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons etc all help the poor too. We have more than good works! We have the one and only true living God who created and loves His creation!

What scares me is that the fact that "we are seen as a group of people who do not preach it" is seen as a positive! Who cares if that means people like us, our friendship with them is not going to save them from facing up to the consequences of their sinful lives! Yeah we might win a few like we have been, which is great, but arent our expectations a little higher than a few here and there? Aren't we all about "THE WORLD FOR GOD?" After all, we did sing about it.

People can not get saved without putting their faith in Christ. People cannot learn about or respond to Christ unless they hear about it. Works are good, and it shows a glimpse of Christ, but for them to be saved they need more.

I propose we need to keep up the holy living, the responding to people with justice and compassion, but also preaching the gospel strongly! We should not be ashamed of God, the gospels or the fact that we're trying to get people saved!

Is the Salvation army wanting to keep going down the not preaching path, or do they want an Army of evangelists who are trying to plunder hell and populate heaven? I know what I'm called to do...

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Rudd wins the election. There will be a few pastors around the country who will be scratching their heads and bunkering down in prayer to see why their prophecies of a Howard win did not eventuate. Im waiting for their explanation, did they mis-hear or did the prophecy come with a "if?"
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More connections stuff...

Over 2000 people marched for justice in the name of Jesus! Followed by a rally at Fed Square. Heaps of people stopped and listened to the musicians, and the gospel! Nazarite Vow were awessome and testified that they play because of Jesus! Frankie Wants Out were great as they always are, their committment to helping the Salvos out is fantastic. Mez Coleman has a fantastic voice and dazzled the crowd with her cool groove. Bits and pieces played some MXPX, Relient K, Planetshakers etc with the worlds smallest guitar player!lol Great job everyone!

Alot of people herd the gospel!

Around 3000 people gathered yesterday morning for commissioning and the Holy Spirit definitely showed up!
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Some stuff from connections:

Uniform was made with the intent to emphasize the priesthood of all believers. -Is it these days? Have we instead gone the other way and broaden the gap between officers and soldiers even with different colored eplets?

In 1901 salvos took up.8% of the population now we're o.4%

T. Costello encouraged us not to get too close to telling the public we're a church because of its bad press, heres an easy way to do that, lets call ourselves CORPS...

Alan Harley is a great Holiness teacher, more on him during the week!

Revolution- by Eleventyseven

I don't mean to cause mass hysteria
It's on its way and its probably gonna bury you
And there's nothing much that you can do
There's nothing good left to immitate
Nobody is left now to mediate
And everybody has still got something to prove

Pre-chorus:
I can't even tell whats right from wrong
Will someone please tell me what's going on

Chorus:
Cause we need more than a revolution
Something deeper than a false solution
To replace what's going wrong
So don't look alarmed when everyone's choking
Suffocated on what they're hoping in
Let's move this along

Don't ask for me to participate
I'm just the wrong kind of candidate
It's pure hypocrisy that makes me, me
God show me past all this ignorance
I can't pretend to be innocent
It takes much more than words to make a stand

Pre-chorus

Chorus

To where we find a passion
And not just fake reactions
In all the words we choose today
'Cause there's no easy answer
When greed becomes a cancer
And now it's eating us away

Nothing in our world is working. Poeple try different things all the time, trying to find, peace, balance, enlightenment... I read an article the other day showing all the trendy religions that the celebreties try out... Jesus is the only way. Lets show people Jesus, He's much better than getting drunk on the weekend, or getting high with the rastas, or sitting in a circle humming, or stretching for an hour, or drinking green tea, or positive thinking... Hes the real deal

sins of omission

Me and Charles Finney are beginning to translate some of his work into modern english... And maybe even youth language... This is modern English mostly, but I'm working on making it even more relevant... Have a read, you're suppose to write down all your sins so you can repent of them... Its from a chapter entitled "How to promote a revival."

Sins of Omission

1. Un-thankfulness: Think of all the times that God has done something for you, answered a prayer, granted a favor and you have not said thank you! Write down all these times, then go over them 3 or 4 times and see the amazing amount of times that God has never been praised.

2. Lack of love to God: Think how terrible and alarmed you would be if you found out your wife, husband, children, and friends did not love you as much anymore. If you saw them absorbing all their time, hearts and thoughts in some one else. Perhaps you would die of a just jealousy! Now, God says He is a jealous God! And haven’t you given your heart to other things and people, acted the adulterer and offended God?

3. Neglect of the Bible: Write down all the times, perhaps it was days, weeks, months, or even longer when reading the Bible was not a priority, or enjoying.

4. Unbelief: These are the times when you have called the God of truth a liar by your unbelief in His promises and declarations.

5. Neglect of prayer: Times when you did not set aside a time to pray in your own devotions, praying with your family, prayer meetings, or have prayed in a way that would have upset and angered God more than if you had just not prayed at all.

6. Neglect of means of grace: When you have come up with excuses not to go to church and share with believers, when you have neglected spiritual exercises.

7. Lack of love for the souls of friends and family: Have a look around and see all your friends and family, and how little compassion you have had for them. You have stood by and seen them heading straight for hell, and it seems as though you do not care. How many days has there been when you have not prayed for their salvation, or at least had an eager desire to see them saved?

8. Lack of care for the pre-believers: Measure how much you want to see them saved by how much you sacrifice for them, how much do you give to give them the gospel? Does your lifestyle change, even to inconvenience you so that some may be saved? Do you daily pray for them in your devotions? Do you attend the monthly prayer meeting? Do you put aside something to give to God to use for their salvation? If you are not doing these things, and if your souls does not ache for the poor unbelievers, why are you such a hypocrite to pretend to be a Christian? Your profession of faith is an insult to Jesus Christ!

9. Not kept family duties: As you have lived with your family, how have you prayed, what example have you given them by the way you live your life? What direct efforts do you regularly do for their spiritual good? What have you neglected?

10. Neglect to watch your own life: Times when you have completely forgot to watch your own behavior, and have been caught off guard, and have sinned in front of the world, in front of the church, and in front of God.

11. Neglect to watch over your brothers and sisters in Christ: How often have you broken your covenant that you would watch over them in the Lord. Would you watch your wife or child going in to the fire of hell and keep nice and quiet? No way! Of course you wouldn’t! What do you think of yourself, to pretend to love Christians, while you see them disgracing themselves and say nothing to them?

12. Neglect of self denial: The are so many Christians who are willing to do anything for religion as long as it doesn’t include self sacrifice. They only give of their surplus wealth, and perhaps that poor woman who puts in $1 at the monthly prayer meeting has sacrificed more than they have in giving thousands!

Revolution Recruits

We at Plenty Valley have turned our attention to discipling this term. Not an easy thing for me to do being such a lover of trying to get people saved! So, we're doing Soldiership Training, now called Revolution Recruits as our discipleship tool. It's not going to be all sitting down and listening to a boring guy like babble on, but each week these recruits fore the revolution will attend a worship, outreach and Bible study activity!

The outreach is going to be a mix of slum brigade type stuff, helping people in our neighbourhood with acts of kindness and service, mixed with street preaching, prophetic evangelism and "Pray For Souls." (P4S is a monthly prayer meeting we're having to pray for souls)

Everyones welcome as we at Plenty Valley are recruiting revolutionaries for the revolution, but what we really need is people to help disciple. If you are an active soldier, can evangelise, mentor, serve and disciple well, then we need you to help disciple this next generation of revoltuionaries!

I'll keep you posted as these Revolution Recruits storm the forts of darkness!

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19

Eccentric Ezekiel

Ive been reading the book of Ezekiel, I love it. There is only one way to describe Ezekiel, he was a crazy crazy man. In todays world we would think he was some weird cult leader!

Ezekiel was a Priest and a prophet, which is kind of rare, which means not only did He work in the temple but He told people what God was saying. From what Ive briefly read it all starts when he has a vision of God, in what I can only describe as a spaceship! I kid you not! Imagine telling people you saw a spaceship and God spoke to you! People would think you were crazy! Thats what Ezekiel was like! (read Ezekiel 1 for a glimpse of the space ship!lol)

He was one of those weird guys that says stuff like, "God told me that..." Even worse he would tell people stuff they didn't want to hear! God had told him that he had to tell people what their sins were because if they didn't and they died then their blood would be on his hands! Imagine being told you need to tell your whole school how their sinning otherwise Gods going to hold you responsible?!? He must have been crazy going around telling people all their sins, I'm guessing he didn't have many friends...

Also, as hes telling people stuff he demonstrates it in all sorts of weird and offensive ways. One of those ways is by lying on his side for 390 days then turning over to the other side and doing the same thing just to prove a point! And to make things worse, he had his food there and God was telling him to cook while he was lying there, so Ezekiel needed a fire to cook. Because he wasn't allowed to move the only thing he was allowed to burn was his own poo!!!! So Ezekiel compromised with God and they decided he wouldn't use his own poo, but he'd use cow poo! YUCK!Imagine if you were doing that? What would people in church think? What would your Corps officer think? I can just see it now, We get the message but thats just too much, don't make too much of a scene, your scaring the people in the church, they think your crazy!" Hahaha

Isn't Ezekiel a bit of a glimpse of how us Christians are seen like sometimes? He sometimes has unpopular beliefs, he tells people they need to repent, he does weird things, he says he hears and sees God, he must have offended and freaked out so many people! But he had good reason to, God told him to! Maybe you know someone who's like this, maybe you need stop judging them, maybe you need to encourage them, maybe thats what God is calling you to. Today, be encouraged that even though God asks us to do things that are weird and wacky, that you are not alone, and that God will reward you! Are you a Jesus freak like Ezeek the geek?

Ezekiel 3:16-19
16 At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for ^[a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

Santified?

What is your idea of sanctification? What does it mean in a practical way? I mean, do you keep on sinning even if it is only every now and then? Brengle claimed at least 15 years without sinning! So, my question is this, 1) Are you sanctified and why do you think so, 2) If you are sanctified do you sin?

My definition of sanctification is "to be made holy". It means that my sinful nature is eradicated and instead I am filled with love! "Its no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me!"

Why do I ask? Because I go through ups and downs in my life when I believe I am sanctified then times when I am clearly not. I often wonder what more do I have to do to receive this blessing of holiness from God? Maybe I have received it but keep losing it. I never want to get to the point though, when I give up on holiness because I don't think its working, after all I have signed a covenant with God saying I believe it! (Not to mention its pretty clear in the Bible...)

Anyway, Got a new book yesterday, "The Uprising" Its a holiness book for teens written by a teen (Olivia Munn) and Steve Court. So far its pretty good. They liken living in sin to swimming in poo! YUCK! But how true?!?!I am sure God will speak to me through it. But answer the above questions, I want to know what you think...

More from William Booth for all those who believe the doctrines and take a bit of fire over believing there is hell etc;

"There are plenty of arguments designed to lessen the importance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, or to explain away its merit altogether... There is plenty of interpretation of the Bible which vainly attempts to explain away the punishment of the wicked, so clearly announced in its pages. Take away these things, and the Bible becomes not only an ordinary, but an uninteresting book, to be neither feared nor cared for."
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Check out the 6 resolutions of William Booth on armybarmy. I felt my Spiritual life had plateaued. I was growing in the stuff I was doing but not so much my relationship with Jesus. So I looked at Booths resolutions and came up with my own. E.g William Booth committed to reading no less than 4 chapters of the Bible each day, I'm doing 5...lol I'm pushing myself so I keep improving my relationship with God instead of maintaining it. Don't keep doing the same thing you have always done, try and stretch yourself!
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And lastly, but not leastly, I believe God is sanctifying me and that a couple of the places in my life where I was sinning have stopped! Hallelujah! I have been freed from these sins! It feels good! Im not sinning there anymore! Now, my consecration (devotion to God) needs to keep up with Gods revelation. That means as God shows me more sin etc I need to keep up my devotion to God and then I will stay sanctified.... More on this during the week!
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GOD IS GOOD! Hallelujah! Have an evangelistic talk to someone today!

Booth Quotes

Some William Booth quotes from "The Founders Messages to Soldiers."

"The ruling spirit of the world is selfishness. The spirit of true religion is the spirit of Jesus Christ- the spirit that seeks the happiness and well being of others, even though it involves self-denial and sacrifice, and the spirit of Jesus Christ is the very opposite to the self-seeking spirit of the world, which always, and under all circumstances, keeps it eye on number one..."

AND

"When you renounce all friendly relations with this enemy, and turn your backs on the world forever, the Holy Spirit will come to you, in fuller measure than before. He will fill you with love and power and joy, and make you conquerors over sin and Hell! Why not make that sacrifice now? What do you say?"

1. When we are having our meetings/church etc are we looking at it for ourselves or for others?
2. What Spirit are you breeding by the choices you make?
3. Is yours a life of sacrifice or being served?
4. Notice how Booth talks of full surrender, then once fully surrendered the Holy Spirit comes like it hasn't been before!
5. Are you a conqueror over sin and hell? I mean does sin still have a hold on you?
6. What of the world do you need to sacrifice?
7. Notice how Booth thinks you can be made holy on the spot by renouncing all evil forever!

PORN

Came across this again this week...





We laugh about it now, maybe find it a little bit offensive, but this is a massive problem in society and many people don't even know it, and if they do know it, they dont want to say anything about it. I even know a few people who have fessed up to porn being a problem in their relationships.

Porn is a $57.0 billion (U.S) world-wide - $12.0 billion in the US industry. Its massive. Its destructive... For more info, stats, help, porn filters for your computer go to www.xxxchurch.com

Old people slain...

I had some good discussion on my last post, but I feel I need to clarify a little bit.

One thing that is bugging me and I would guess with alot of youth in The Salvation Army, (but not restricted to The Army, any denomination in Australia...) is that our ideas are put down or demoted because others see our views as views of our generation. However I would say it is based on what Jesus said for us to do! It is based on the Bible. And how the church in Australia over the past 50 years hasn't been able to do it. (Again this is a problem which has stretched across all denominations and it is a problem as we see the continued effects of the last 50 years...)

And so now we see the problems with the older congregations who have been faithful are beginning not to fit in with a Jesus-biblical-missional culture of being a light in the dark. Thats my opinion, debate it please! But give the youth some slack, we're doing and trying to do what we think Jesus commands us to do, it is not out of our generational difference as such, but out of our generational response to the gospel of Jesus.
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Secondly, Bible study today was great! We read through 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:1. As we read it we were all challenged by the bit "compelled by the love of Christ." We then prayed for each other to be filled with the love of God. As we were praying the Holy Spirit fell and so did we as we were prayed for.

This is often regarded to being called "slain in the Holy Spirit." One of my friends hates the term because slain refers to being killed and we haven't really been killed. I try to make the point we're being "like dead" or we're crucifying the sinful nature type thing, but the phrase, "slain in the Holy Spirit" doesn't quite fit...

So, can you please suggest some other names for being slain in the Holy Spirit? I cant think of any that sound as cool as that but I wanna be more correct... help me out!

Compassion

September 23 Day to pray for peace... And Sunday 30th September is day to pray for victims of the sex-trafficking industry... Make sure your officers are aware of them and will do something special for them...

Check out the generals site, new pastoral letter is up... i joined his mailing list today, so should you... And following an old army tradition, pray for the General and some head honchos at lunch time...

Also, heres a cool quote I found in Bonnke's book I still haven't finished...

"What could Jesus gain from His works of mercy?He did not need them for His own profit. Why did He go to Bethesda among that litter of humanity, who were like flotsam and jetsam cast up on a forgotten shore? Why should He go to Nain to meet a dead man, or go anywhere or come to earth at all, for that matter? There was no possible benefit for Himself. The truth is, Jesus had a fatal attraction to the wretched. It led Him to a cruel death, but that was no consideration to Him. He would bring His healing touch to broken lives no matter what. We read that in the eyes of Jesus, the multitudes were as sheep without a shepherd and, "He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. Matthew 14:14""

As The Salvation Army, we need to have this fatal attraction th the wretched! William Booth said, "Go for souls and go for the worst!" Too often we put our needs ahead of those who need Jesus most. We put our worship preferences ahead of those who could be saved in our meetings, we put our t.v time or fellowship time ahead of reaching the LOST the LAST and the LEAST! If we want to be like Jesus, lets ask God to fill us with His perfect love, so that we too may be filled with compassion!

Holiness is being made perfect in love. Whatever we sacrifice on the altar, God will sanctify. Lay yourself on the altar, do away with sin, and be filled with the love and peace that surpasses all understanding!

Also, check out www.goforsouls.blogspot.com

Jesus ministry

I find it really interesting that throughout all of Jesus ministry in the New Testament that whenever someone was saved etc that it was by Jesus doing something amazing. That amazing thing was often supernatural and was preceeded by someones faith. So the way it went was something like this:

1) Jesus did something
2) People spoke about it
3) People believed
4) People received

So, my logical thinking tells me that we need to do the same as Jesus if we want the same results. The other thing about Jesus was who He was.

1) He was without sin
2) He loved people
3) No one could fault Him
4) He spoke the truth

The reason why He did things often followed a pattern like this:

1) He was walking around
2) He saw need
3) He was filled with compassion
4) He did something about it

And to wrap it up heres a quick list of the things that Jesus did:

1) He did miracles
2) He preached
3) He taught
4) He prayed
5) He died
6) He rose

I think if we did those things we would have amazing ministries! Lets do it, lets get holy, filled with love and compassion, have our eyes opend to need, and be filled with the power of God to perform miracles! Lets get some people saved today!

40 people read my blog each day. If we all got 2 people saved before Christmas thats 80 people!

GO FOR SOULS CONFERENCE IS GONNA ROCK! Stephen Court, Jason Golden, Xander, and a few others speaking! Make sure you check it out! Posters out this week at last!!!

Ignorance, a spit in Jesus face!

Firstly I need to say that I love the youth butting in during the sermon and so does our preacher! The atmosphere in the church is so much better than what it once was! Having said that:

It just bugs me that people don't want to get people saved because that would be uncomfortable for them. I wonder where we would all be if Jesus decided His time on Earth would be comfortable... I don't thinking dieing on the cross was a comfortable experience. Not to mention how Jesus, the most holy of all spent most of His ministry on Earth with sinners! Not to mention the whole reason He came for was for sinners!

I believe that as Christians, we are the ones with the responsibility to lead people to Christ. We are the ones with responsibility to change, to adapt as Catherine Booth said. We have Jesus. Millions of other people don't. We should not be arrogant in thinking our ways should stay the same. If we are filled with love, our heart will ache for the lost, and as Paul says he counts all loss gain if to win one soul to Christ!

i believe the Salvation Army has for too long tried to be a "normal church." And we have forgotten what we are about. We are about bringing Gods Kingdom to Earth! Getting people saved! Defeating sin, addiction, despair, injustice etc!

How dare we put ourselves above those who are going to hell! Imagine if Jesus did that! He didn't, He put others first, and I believe as a Soldier in The Salvation Army,as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I MUST DO THE SAME! Anything less is sinful and a spit in the face of Jesus who DIED for the people we ignore or forget about! Should not our priorities be the same as Jesus'? For us to ignore people out of comfort or any reason is telling Jesus that we think we are better than the rest! That we are more important! Forgive us of our pride Lord!

God helping us this nation will see revival!

Also, evangelism conference looks like OCT12-13th, still waiting on a speaker or two to confirm. It will be great and you will learn something!

revival?

Are we really ready for revival? Do we expect it? My guess is no. I could be wrong here but to the best of my knowledge there is no Salvo material for new Christians. I'm guessing this is because 1) we hardly have any converts these days and 2) we're not expecting it!

Mu aunty is c.o somewhere and they put some Bibles under the mercy seat expecting people to be saved. The following Sunday I believe a bunch of people came forward and gave their life to Christ!

If we're praying for revival and salvations etc, lets get some plans together for when it happens. I don't want to get left behind because I wasn't ready!

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the following has been edited from the first time it was posted a few hours ago...
Will The Salvation Army get serious about our covenant? Will there be a day when people will not be accepted as officers, soldiers and lieutenants if they don't believe the doctrines and follow the therefores? (Not just talking about first time committments like swearing in, commissioning etc) How long can we go along compromising? How can we continue to perpetuate the already bad situation because we dont want to make people upset? If we are allowing people to stay in covenant and the positions that brings even though they constantly break it are we not taking Gods grace in vain? Are we sinning because God will forgive us?

The problems are too great. Bad theology etc leads to bad mission. Dis unity in the body will only hinder revival not improve it.

The covenant is what unites Salvationists. Not everyone is called to The Salvation Army. I love having non salvos help out and do stuff, I know some great non-salvos who help us heaps. But at the same time we need to unite on those things which make us us. The things that separate us from other denominations and movements...

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Sorry I'm so negative today! Just a bit frustrated. Heres some positive to keep us going. One of the guys who has just got saved has been laying hands and praying that his sister will get healed! He has also told me that one of his friends is coming on Thursday night and shes gonna get saved! Hallelujah! The Army is moving! The Spirit is stirring! Lets cut the dead wood and allow the Holy Spirit freedom in our lives!

Assurance of Full Salvation?

As the Salvation Army we believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself. So that means we believe in Jesus and are saved and we know it. Something inside of us tells us "You're saved!" Hallelujah!

Check out agent 832s blog as he testifies to receiving the blessing of entire sanctification! Its great stuff! But it raises some questions for me. (questions have been brewing since holiness intensive...)

Holiness teaching says we get entirely sanctified by faith in Jesus. A total surrender to Jesus. Its basically the same way as getting saved. So, as we get the inner witness, the assurance of Salvation do we get the assurance in the same way for full salvation? (entire sanctification)

You see, I was 'baptized' in the Holy Spirit very distinctly. I changed. I was filled with power and to a certain degree love. Since then I have deepened in both. BUT I am always unsure if I am entirely sanctified. I still have a couple of sinful habits, I still have a couple of things I do without much of a fight. Does this mean I am not entirely sanctified?

In the holiness intensive people were trying to pin point when they were entirely sanctified, for me I don't care. I want full salvation now, I want to live in it now.

How do we know we are entirely sanctified?
Can we have assurance?
If it is by faith we are saved and then we get assurance, does that mean we need faith for full salvation then get assurance meaning, I need more faith because I'm not receiving?
Is there something else in the way?
If what I always called my Baptism in the Holy Spirit is my point of full salvation, what does that say for our theology of baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Is baptism in the Holy Spirit for power the same as for holiness?
Can you have one without the other?
What do you guys think?
Can anyone help me out here?

Porn and some G words...

I’ve been home sick the past couple of days. So, as I was in bed this morning I put the tv on and watched Oprah. Kirk Franklin was being interviewed. Kirk is a gospel singer, perhaps the biggest gospel singer around with tons of hits and millions of fans.

What Kirk had to say was that he used to be addicted to porn. He was coming out with his wife to let everyone know that porn is wrong, addictive and ruins relationships. Some of the interesting facts that the show came up with was that:

Porn is 57 Billion US dollars a year industry
Over 800 million videos made each year (just the known ones being made…)
70% hits on porn sites are while people are at work
And I googled the word ‘porn’ and came up with 94,500,000 Pages!

Kirk and some of the other people Oprah interviewed all testifies that the even by just looking at the images were as good as adultery, that they stick with you, and that it is really addictive. They also spoke about how hard it is just to speak about their porn issues. They spoke about loosing themselves to a fantasy world that they couldn’t break free from.

Kirk testified that once he told his wife things began to get better. They prayed together and his wife held him accountable. But the real reason Kirk says that helped him get through was by giving it to God, by realizing how God saw Him, and being able to accept that picture! Perhaps some words from a song he’s recently written will help;

Imagine me, loving what I see when the
Mirror looks at me ‘cause I imagine me
In a place of no insecurities
And I’m finally happy cause
I imagine me

Letting go of my past
And glad I have another chance
And my heart will dance
‘Cause I don’t have to read that page again

Gone, gone, it’s gone, all gone

The other day I wrote about the ‘G’ sins. But heres a better word to think about. Heres something that is good. Something clean and positive. Something Generous. Its GRACE. Our undeserved favour from our gracious Lord and Saviour.

Are you stuck in sin? Are you addicted? Don’t be ashamed. Give it to God. Realize who you are in Christ. Don’t carry it around. Jesus died and rose to take away our sin and shame. Thank you Jesus for your GRACE. Thank you that its "Gone, gone, it’s gone, all gone!"

If your struggling with this issue, heres a couple of sites that may be able to help you.

www.xxxchurch.com and http://salvomen.blogspot.com/

MORE SALVATION!

Woohoo!

Thursday nights are turning into Salvation nights at Plenty Valley! We had another girl commit her life to Jesus tonight! Hallelujah! God is good!

Also, a girl was there who had been feeling sick. She had tummy problems so we prayed for her. As we were praying for her she was completely healed and started laughing because she couldnt believe it!

I also started our first youth bible study tonight. We read about how Jesus called the fishermen, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." I then challenged them to start getting their friends saved!

i love Thursdays! i love Jesus!

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:15-18