The Second Touch

The Salvation Army belongs to a tradition of evangelical christianity known as the "Holiness Movement". In the UK and Americas this movement was spread by the radical (for its time) preaching of John and Charles Wesley and their "methodist" forms of worship.

In this sermon entitled "The Second Touch", Major Clay Gardner gives as clear an exposition of this teaching as you will hear, based on Mark 8 where Jesus touches a blind man not once, but twice to restore complete sight. You can hear Major Clay's sermon here.

As an audio bonus, here is our (much depleted) band playing an arrangement of the hymn tune "Stella" and the postlude "Repton".

What's your excuse?

Do you feel inadequate? Un- eloquent? Inelegant? Not experienced enough? Not measuring up to your full potential?

Well don't beat yourself up too badly! As Major Clay points out in this week's sermon, you are in good company with some famous characters in Scripture! What you will be by the Grace of God may be inconceivable, but is not impossible and may be inevitable!

Check out the sermon here.

[Webmaster's note: We had a bit of an audio glitch this week, so if Clay's transition from Paul's advice to Timothy to Moses' word skills seems a little abrupt, that's because of how we had to edit things! We apologize for any inconvenience this caused! (and that's our excuse!)]

This is a guest article by Capt. Wendy Parkhill who is the Corps Officer (Pastor) at the Ayr Citadel Corps in Scotland. [Webmaster]

Summer Fun!

Summer Fun – Jesus

A few years ago now we bought a tent on impulse. It was a bargain and we decided that we would give camping a go. Some folk thought we were mad to try camping with a young family but nothing could curb our enthusiasm!!! We went away that first summer and it rained the whole week! Everything was damp, but we loved it! The kids enjoyed the novelty of the tent, and it was just a great experience.

These days we still try to get away in the tent, and even if we’re not going away somewhere we will still put the tent up in the back garden and sleep out a few nights.
The tent has been up in the garden for about a week now and we’ve had two nights out in the tent. BBQ, campfire, the lot! I just love sitting round the campfire, for one when you’re near the fire the midges [gnats] don’t come near you, and secondly it’s nice and warm. We never got as far as singing round the camp fire, but we did toast a bag or two of marshmallows.

It was wonderful…11 o’clock at night, darkness had fallen, but we sat there, toasting marshmallows, still able to see because of the light from the fire, enjoying the warmth that it was giving. I could see everyone round the fire was smiling, as the light reflected of their faces.

As I sat, I was reminded that Jesus is the light of the world, but also that we should be the light of the world too, reflecting His light into this dark world. Jesus said: ‘my light will shine for you just a little longer. Walk in the light while you can, so that the darkness will not overtake you. Those who walk in the darkness cannot see where they are going. Put your trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light.’ (John 12:35-36)

I remember listening to a sermon some time ago where the preacher was talking about a bonfire and all the people gathered round. He said that he imagined that it was Jesus in the centre of the circle of people. He observed that those who were closest to the fire, had a light shining from their face, the faces that were a bit further from the fire were not illuminated so brightly. He concluded that if we want to be reflectors of the light of Christ then we need to be close to him.

Stay close to the light of Christ and feel the warmth of his love, repel the midges or the attacks of the devil, and reflect his light to this world. Live as children of light!

Shine, Jesus shine. Fill this land with the Fathers Glory
Blaze, Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire.
Flow, river flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word, Lord and let there be light!

Diligent Initiative

Majors Clay and Pam are having some well-deserved vacation. We were privileged to have Captain Moy Hernandez be our guest preacher this last Sunday. You can listen to his sermon titled "Diligent Initiative" here.

Weee!
by Major Clay Gardner

When Pam was pregnant with our daughter Joy, we flew from San Francisco to Orlando, to visit her parents. Pam was still in the morning sickness phase of her pregnancy. We were concerned with the flight and for good reason. We flew all the way across country in a Boeing 737,  one of the smaller airliners. On the way home we had a layover in Dallas.

Approaching Dallas it got real bumpy. I began to get concerned for Pam. I would have been more concerned except that I was afraid if I concentrated too hard on any one thing, I might get sick. Pam on the other hand (who gets carsick driving across town) was fine.

I read a story recently by a man who was on a really bumpy flight. The plane was getting tossed about pretty good. Next to him was a young boy who was obviously terrified of the whole ordeal.

The man gripped his armrests, looked over at the young traveler and said "Weeeee!!!" Then he said to the boy, "Are you scared?" the boy nodded. "But this is fun!" Suddenly the boy's expression changed and the man and the boy spent the rest of the flight enjoying the ride.

I daresay that you won't find too many people enjoying the ride on an airplane being tossed about by a windy day. Overall it really isn't a pleasant experience!” and most of us have a hard time enjoying unpleasant experiences. It takes a person of deep, inner joy to find a reason to be happy when life isn't.

Now the Apostle Paul and his disciple, Silas had plenty of reason to be happy. When they visited Philippi they had started a small Bible Study and more and more people were coming to know God through it. People were being delivered from idol worship, from sickness, from all sorts of problems; they even cast a demon out of a slave girl.

Of course the slave girl's owner had used her and her demon to tell the future for a price and he wasn't too happy about the loss of income. Likewise the idol makers were losing business. So these businessmen gave Paul and Silas the business by concocting some lies that got Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in jail.

Personally, right about here I would have gotten a bit perplexed, perhaps even discouraged. To think, the reward for all the good they were doing was a back ripped raw with a whip and being thrown in jail. I think that most of us believe that good deeds are rewarded with goodness. But what happens when it's rewarded with evil? That's when we get grumpy!

Except Paul and Silas didn't get grumpy, they got happy! The inner joy - the joy that lived deep within them - surfaced in that jail. They realized that they were being punished for doing the work of God and that if they weren't doing it very well, no one - including Satan would have cared. So they rejoiced!

1 Thessalonians 5:16, "Rejoice always," and John 11:35, "Jesus wept." are the two shortest verses in the Bible. Jesus wept has fewer letters and so technically it is the shorter verse. Except, in the original Greek, the verse Jesus wept consisted of three words while rejoice always only had two - making it the shortest verse in the Bible.

As short as these verses are, they speak to a huge truth. You see, it is when we realize that it was His great love for us that caused Jesus to weep, that we really have something to rejoice about.

Now, perhaps you're thinking, "Boy, I wish I had that kind of inner joy." Well my friend, I have good news for you: Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. We don't need to work on being more joyful or happier people - we just need to work on being more like Christ - and the joy will come.

Because "...the fruit of the Spirit is...joy!" (Gal 5:22)  So enjoy the ride!

Is God Enough for You?

Major Clay tackled this subject in this sermon on Sunday July 19th.
If you were traveling or just want to hear it again, just click here.

Don't forget, you can hear the full Christian Discipline Sermon Series here.

This article is the second of a series written by Major Ian Robinson, from our sister website for Ayr Citadel. You can read the first article by clicking here.

Major Robinson and his wife Isobel are moving back to the UK to take up an appointment at the Sheringham Corps.

Ian and Isobel are well-known all over the Army world as pastors, missionaries, and an incredible music and song-writing team. While they were stationed in Singapore, Ian and Isobel wrote a series of email "epistles" to the rest of the world entitled "Survivor Island". Those letters were always filled with poignancy, hope, and a love for the people for whom they worked so diligently to bring the love of Christ.

We are delighted Ian has agreed to write these articles for us and we hope you enjoy his journey as we publish it!

---

Major Ian Robinson

Life is a Journey – Part Two

The letter 'S' has played a critical role in our journey. We left Ayr in 1977 to live in Surrey, and five years later immigrated to the USA with our two girls. We had a simple plan – open an English pub to sell British drinks and food to Americans at extortionate prices, then retire to a Greek Island where we would write books in the Mediterranean sun! But as Burns once wrote, "The best laid plans of mice and men …"

After eighteen months in our California paradise our relationship was in trouble and our Catholic faith was failing to meet our spiritual needs. The dream was crumbling until one of Isobel's nursing friends suggested we read the Bible. Trial and error led us to the Living Bible and when she read the Gospel of John she was utterly convicted by the Holy Spirit and surrendered her will to God. Seeing a dramatic change in her I did the same. We then knew that we needed to find a church where we could develop this new relationship with God, so I made a list of churches in the area and suggested we visit one each week until we found one we liked. Isobel, ever the pragmatist, looked over the list and, seeing The Salvation Army at the bottom, said, "We'll just go there!" So I returned to the Army and we went to the Santa Ana Corps. Within six weeks I was in uniform and playing in the band. The girls loved Sunday school and we made many new and lasting friendships. Most importantly, we grew spiritually and our family bond was strengthened because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our journey was very pleasant and comfortable. We had a wonderful church home, a nice house, good jobs and a growing family. I played piano at the Corps and began writing music. We taught an adult Sunday school class, started a home Bible study and were increasing our understanding of God's will and purpose for our lives. Then I was made redundant and spent several months trying unsuccessfully to find a new job. I was told by more than one company president that I was the one they wanted then never heard from them again! It didn't make any sense until one day Isobel came down to breakfast and asked if I had been talking to God about Salvation Army officership.

"Don't be so absurd!" I said, utterly shocked.

"Well," she said, "I've just been arguing with God upstairs and He told me I was stopping you from becoming an officer!"

She had been praying and asking God why her talented and intelligent husband – her words, not mine – could not find a job. God answered that it was because she was stopping me. At first she was confused, and then she realized what He was saying. "You don't mean THAT job?" she asked incredulously. And God said, "Yes, that job!"

Isobel never wanted to be an officer so that avenue of service appeared closed. Now it suddenly opened up and within a few months we were appointed as Auxiliary Captains to Santa Barbara on the Pacific coast about ninety miles north of Los Angeles. After seven and a half years we were moved to Santa Rosa, forty-five minutes north of San Francisco in the Northern Californian wine country. Then in 2004, two and a half years later, the Army sent us to Singapore where we served for four and a half wonderful years before reluctantly returning to California. Now, following a few months at THQ we are ready to leave for Sheringham, the sixth 'S' in our journey.

We never achieved our dream but received something infinitely greater and more valuable. Instead of serving alcoholic drinks we have helped people overcome their addiction to alcohol. Instead of serving British food we have given out the bread of life to those who need it most. Instead of making a lot of money we have stored up for ourselves treasures in heaven. And instead of retiring to a Greek island we will spend eternity in heaven with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! We have riches beyond our wildest imagination and the journey's not over yet!

You couldn't possibly have avoided the recent media attention surround Michael Jackson's death, even if you lived somewhere outside our solar system. We heard fans raving about his songs, his music, and the effect on their lives until we couldn't bear it any more.

That only took a couple of minutes for me, I'll admit. Perhaps you are more tolerant or a bigger MJ fan.

Despite my cynicism, I couldn't help going around humming Michael Jackson songs. Probably because I'd heard them playing on the radio or the television, and Michael's career took off when I was just starting to listen to pop music. This one got stuck in my head:

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways,
And no message could have been any clearer:
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

As I hummed it and then sang the lyrics out loud, I started to think about what the song was saying. No, I really thought about it. ‘What does that mean?' I asked myself. ‘Can we, as individuals, even try to make the world a better place? Does the improvement of society depend on one or two people trying to make a difference?'

It was this passage in the Bible that brought my thoughts into some sense of clarity. I've added the bold print myself:

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:22-25

The change we so desire – the one we hope that somehow we can effect on the world – is a conscious decision. The question is not whether or not we can make a difference, if there is really any message for us to tell the world, or if what we as Christians have to do is important.

It's not enough to long for change, to hope for it, talk about it, or even empower others to do it. We have to act.

If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

S. Pierce

Come! Celebrate!

We had much to celebrate this week. We held a very successful Vacation Bible School. Major Clay concludes the Christian Disciplines Sermon Series this week with a sermon entitled "Come! Celebrate!".

The kids from VBS treated us to a song, so no Songster recording this week, but we've included the band playing "God's Children" and the postlude hymn tune "Rachie".

Professor Wordsmart is a little fuzzy on things...

Celebrate!

Everybody loves a WINNER!

These last few days we've been holding our annual Vacation Bible School -- this year the theme is a TV-style Game Show called Studio Go, where everyone is a winner! Well almost everyone, Professor Wordsmart and Coach Armstrong two of our contestants didn't seem to pay attention to the lessons because they got most of the answers wrong.

Fortunately it seem the children were paying attention, because I noticed they were getting the answers right!

Maybe the Coach and the Professor will get a clue from the kids and start paying attention. You can see for yourself on Friday. At 3:30pm we'll have our closing program and all are welcome to come and watch and cheer on the contestants -- even the Professor and the Coach(who need all the help they can get.) Come and celebrate a week of activity, fun and learning about God.

Then on Sunday we're going to celebrate some more. Come early and listen to the band's prelude and see some pictures of the kids.

This Sunday we conclude our sermon series on the Christian disciplines with -- the Discipline of Celebration! So come celebrate our VBS, our kids, and our marvelous staff and volunteers! But most of all, we will celebrate God!

See you Sunday, Major Clay