God is Dead?

Okay, let me set the record straight…as if you needed me to. God is most certainly NOT dead. However Black Sabbath has resurrected (no pun intended) their music career with Ozzy Osbourne lending his vocals once again to the band. This heavy metal/progressive rock band is known for their dark gloomy, foreboding songs and lyrics. So I guess in that context you shouldn’t e surprised to hear this song on their new album.

Questions:
I get the sense from this song though that Ozzy or the writer is searching for the right answers. You know we all sometimes regret the angst of our youth, and within this song there is a questioning of what is known.

It’s been claimed many times since Nietzsche stated it ‘God is Dead’, and I believe it speaks more from the human rebellion (sin) inside of us than is truth.

God is most certainly not dead, I don’t have to defend Him, He is alive and well and evident in this world through the wonders of nature and through our faith and compassion to others.

Live it daily and don’t buy this lie!

June 29, 2013 0

Off to Music Camp

Well I’m off to music camp today. Should be a great week with the kids and with the staff. I’m looking forward to a great week of music education, spiritual emphasis and general fellowship.

I have a fond place in my heart for summer camp…that’s where I first accepted Christ and I know it’s the perfect place to reach kids for Him!

Will post more as the week begins.

June 29, 2013 0

A Call To Revolution – A Letter to the youth of The Salvation Army (Prepare for battle)

Dear Junior Soldier, Senior Soldier and Corps Cadet, this Army that you are growing up in is a living and breathing organism. The purpose that I write this letter to you is to encourage you and to remind you that The Salvation Army is made up of more than just people but it is also and primarily a mission and a cause for Christ! I humbly acknowledge that it is at times faulty and flawed. I also acknowledge that there will be times that its soldiers and even officers are flawed. We are all sinners saved by grace, yet holiness is not always everyone’s first priority in their identity as people and soldiers of God.

That being said, there are a few instructions I would like to leave with you as you develop and grow as first of all a child of God and secondly a soldier of our Army.

These instructions are as follows:

1. Never waver in your faith (1 Corinthians 16:13).

We all have to grow up in this world. There are a lot of pressures and traps that as we grow older, become more and more appealing. Temptations abound and as we mature with age we may begin to question the very foundations of our faith. Some within our culture(s) may even tell you that what you grew up believing about the bible are very nice stories but that is all that they are. DON’T BUY THE LIE! Don’t let doubts consume you and especially be mindful of the fact that there so many people living contrary to scripture that they would love you to join them in order to justify their lifestyles and choices. Don’t allow Satan to muddy the waters of morality and these Christ-like teachings that you are learning…keep them close! As proverbs tells us, “Guard your hearts!” (Proverbs 4:23)

Also remember that though you may feel all alone at times because of this stand that you take for the cause of Christ, “Be strong and courageous!” (Joshua 1:9) You are called to be a mighty warrior for God, and you ARE NOT ALONE! God is and has equipped you for this spiritual war…so take confidence and never waver in your faith!

2. Don’t forget the purpose we fight on! (Ephesians 6:12)

The battle that is waged in this world, as the apostle Paul so aptly put is ‘not against flesh and blood’. The battle is very much a spiritual war! And so many people are trapped within the confines of sin in this world, and if you are a soldier of God your objective is to be used by the Holy Spirit for the purposes of setting captives free. We CANNOT do this in our own strength, nor by our own mortal wisdom. We are mere conduits of Him who has sent us. Don’t forget who has sent you and why we must soldier on! Sin is the ultimate slaver and is Satan’s primary tool. It is powerful and effective in a lost and dying world…but we who know the truth, we have been set free! Christ has, by his blood and death, redeemed us and delivered us from this destructive path. And since Christ has called all of us to this truth and then commanded us to ‘go into all the world’(Mark 16:15)…we must go! We must fight on!

BUT…

3. As Revolutionary Soldiers of God, use Revolutionary/Evolutionary Weapons! (2 Corinthians 10:4)

You probably didn’t have a choice growing up where you would worship. You became a member of The Salvation Army most likely because your family came here…but know that this Army IS/SHOULD be a living and breathing organism. By that I mean, the methods by which we convey the gospel of Jesus Christ ought to continue to be revolutionary and evolutionary! If we are truly using these ‘heavenly weapons’ then we MUST rely on The Holy Spirit to guide us and equip us, thereby making us effective in this fight. At times, the conduits by which we have employed these spiritual weapons need to change. It is most certainly a fine line between relevancy and complete world immersion. BE CAREFUL! That as we employ these revolutionary tactics through evolutionary means that we do not lose our focus and become so like the world that we look nothing like Christ any longer.

That being said, you are the current pulse of a whole new generation! The revolutionary methods we once employed, a generation ago, have become common place and static. Therefore BE THE PULSE of Christ to your generation! Employ new methods of ministry and evangelism in this Army that so desperately needs an adrenaline shot of passion once again!

If we are to survive as The Salvation Army that God intended, WE NEED YOU to revolutionize and make waves of change in an Army that has somewhat lost its forward momentum. The Message of Christ is still relevant and vital to this world, but the methods by which we relay His love and grace has to continue to reach an ever evolving society and culture. Proponents who insulate and protect traditions in our Army might argue that we don’t need to change and that we must plod on as we have always done…this line of thinking only serves to preserve what we’ve done in the past but doesn’t help to invest in what we will do in the present and the future. WE MUST NEVER lose sight of where we’ve been and our rich heritage that we have inherited, BUT WE MUST BE UNAFRAID to risk much for the faith and cause of Christ! This must be our identity as an Army if we are to survive and continue the battle God has placed us in.

Dear Junior Soldier, Senior Soldier and Corps Cadet member, I conclude this note to you with a word of encouragement:

Stand firm, be brave and never lose sight of the war that we wage as an Army. Don’t let the internal battle, both in your heart and in the Organization discourage you or cause you to flee the cause! Fight on and keep your focus on ‘Others’! Use revolutionary means and evolutionary tactics to claim victories in the hearts of the lost. And lastly, you are not a soldier who is by yourself in the midst of battle…never forget that! There are other soldiers and officers who will gladly join you on the front lines…and if they fail to or abandon you they should be considered ‘unfit for duty’…move on and recruit others to soldier on beside you, keeping one another accountable through love and grace and purpose.

You are our future and present…gear up and prepare for battle!

Sincerely,

A Captain in this Army and ongoing war!

June 27, 2013 1

Electing A General…More Money, more Soldiers? More questions than answers…

Correct me if I’m wrong here, because often I am. And I do not want to rely on hearsay or useless erroneous conjecture. But as I’ve been reading various publications and blogs of officers and leaders, I hit on a disturbing notion in regards to how Generals of The Salvation Army are elected. Am I incorrect in assuming that a large portion of the election process is weighed within economic and statistical measures? By that I mean do we put that much emphasis on those leaders who are perceived to have grown their territories in leaps and bounds? If this is the case, and I hope they are not, is this biblical?

Secondly, does this then preclude potential candidates who clearly have the intellect and godly principles from being elected based on the territories in which they are currently serving?

Hopes: The fastest growing regions of The Salvation Army are also within the poorest regions of this world…would the High Council consider a Commissioner from one of these regions as a viable candidate? My hope and dream is that we begin to see the progressive movement within the Army to consider the leadership of the entire world regardless of its economic or statistical support.

What I know: Not much. That much is true. But what I do know is that This Army has been historically revolutionary in this movement! We allow women to preach, Hallelujah! Regardless of gender, Salvationists have more equality than a lot of churches around the world! We are a holiness movement, and thus we must continue to rely on His promptings and proddings within our Army for ‘greater things’. The mission is not over yet! And we continue to need leaders to rise who will not insulate the Army and play it safe but those who are willing move it forward!

June 25, 2013 4

Attention: People Pleasers…it’s pointless.

When it is all said and done, our feeble meanderings and our efforts of people pleasing will be meaningless…in the grand scheme of things and in God’s glory if we have not lived as servants first and spent our time sharing the grace of God with others we will have little or nothing to show of our earthly efforts and endeavors. -Just a thought.

June 25, 2013 0

“Don’t let my son die!”

There are no lengths in which a parent will go to in order to save their child! Few things in this world terrify a parent more than the threat of an illness or death of their child. As a parent, my worst nightmare in this world is that something would happen to one of my children. We love them dearly and we want them to live long, healthy lives free of harm and illness.

Such was the case of a royal official. His story is found in John 4:43-54. Jesus was back at the place where He had performed His first miracle at a wedding feast. The wine is long dried up, yet memories of this epic event still linger. Hearing the news that Jesus, the healer, was back in the area of Galilee, this royal official traveled twenty miles to find Him. Leaving his sick child behind in this last ditch effort to heal him, the royal official is desperate. As a parent I can imagine his heart wrenching panic and fear. His son, whom he loves, is dying. The distance is great, and yet if Jesus can heal him it will be worth it.

Finding Jesus, this worried father begs Him to come and heal his sick boy. With tears streaming down his face and panic in his eyes he makes his plea to Jesus. “Come! My son is dying!” This desperate man is facing his worst fear and not so much with his words, but with his eyes he is pleading with Jesus; “please don’t let my son die!”

Others are gathered there too. Listening and waiting expectantly for Jesus to do something…something miraculous. Jesus looks at them and sighs. They don’t understand who He is. Their Messiah is standing right there in their midst and yet they still do not believe. He says to them, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.” There is certain sadness in His words. Jesus understands them all too well, and has struck at the heart of their disbelief.

For a moment, at the words of Jesus, this royal official is afraid He will not come. There is a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as this last hope seemingly appears to evaporate. Prompted by this momentary panic, he implores Jesus one last time; “Lord, please come before my son dies.” Jesus looks at this frightened father and says; “You may go, your son will live.”

The father feels relief as he hears Jesus say those words. ‘Could it be? Is my son really healed?’ He hurries off to find out, taking Jesus at His word. The twenty mile journey will take him over a day to reach home. Yet while on the homeward trek his servants meet him. They confirm this long distance miracle: his son is healed and very much a live! What joy must have filled his heart! His fears relieved, his son’s health restored! A parent’s nightmare is lifted and is replaced with a dream come true!

This is what Jesus does. The healer of the sick, the resurrector of the dead brings us hope and a chance at new life! To any parent, this is a relief. But to all Jesus comes and longs for everyone to believe in Him. He can perform a miracle in your life. He still heals and binds up the wounds of the sick, and He can still put broken lives back together again. For this royal official, Jesus provided healing for his dying son. For all of us, Jesus can and will provide the restoration that we need in our lives.

June 25, 2013 0

From Darkness into Light (Poem)

Taking each moment

breath by breath

leaving my old life

assuming the new.

I don’t deserve this

death was my closest friend

embraced by a moment

found by the light.

Cold, lost and empty

now standing up right.

Could we be salvaged?

Could we be saved?

Hanging by a thread

my soul in the grave…

But you come to me

when I had nothing else

But you lifted me

when I was drowning

I was going down.

Confronting my demons

facing my shame

retracing my shadows

for much I’m to blame…

Yet your light falls on me

Binding all of sorrows

soaking up my broken mess

joy becomes me

joy infiltrates all that I am

penetrating my defenses

and redeeming this lost and lonely soul…

this is redemption

from darkness into light.

June 24, 2013 0

Sermon Podcast: “Living for God” by Captain Scott Strissel

New Sermon Podcast is up follow it here: http://scottstrissel.podomatic.com/entry/2013-06-23T11_08_34-07_00

1 Peter 4:7-11 (NIV)
⁷The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. ⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Sermon Transcript:

Living For God

How to live consistently as a Christian:

1) Be Clear__ Minded__ (v7)

Clear minded implies that we can’t be of two minds about our faith in Jesus…it’s either all in or nothing! Peter is reminding us that our commitment to God is complete not just a portion but everything…body soul and mind.

Do you have doubts? Do you struggle with worry? Are you fearful that you aren’t good enough for this cause of Christ? Wrong…don’t let second guessing hold you back either! The mind can be a battle ground that Satan likes to prowl, but if we allow him access he will give you doubt, give you uncertainty of your mission and cause you to doubt you were even called in the first place!

2)Be Self-Controlled (7b)

Secondly in order to live for God you have to be disciplined. That’s what self-control means. How do you control what you put into this body of Christ? How do you maintain your devotion life with God? How do you continue to live for Him and be clear-minded? You have to exercise self-control and be disciplined. Our lives can be chaotic at times, we may get so busy that we forget to pray or read His word and that’s when we can starve our spirit. Did you know that our spirits require sustenance? How else can we continue to live for God if we’re not reading what He has said to us? How else can we continue to live for God if we aren’t feasting on his promises and finding peace with His still small voice? Why are we to be disciplined?

Why? so that you can Pray!(v7)

We some- times doubt prayer…and its effectiveness. We sometimes doubt that prayer is really THAT vital. Have you ever had someone tell you that they would pray for you? Have you ever felt the effects of people gathered together to pray for you? Sometimes we treat prayer as if it is a secondary after thought. We pray to get ourselves out of trouble…we pray when times get difficult, but do we actually treat prayer as a primary weapon?

Do you consider prayer to be a primary weapon? IF you haven’t before I would like for you to consider the potency and power of prayer! Prayer is vital but it shouldn’t just be used as a reactive weapon…you know what I mean by reactive don’t you? Prayer shouldn’t be something we just do when something bad happens to us…or happens to someone else. Prayer ought to be a proactive discipline we should strive to hone in our own life. Instead of prayer being a reactive thing that we do, we should instead pray over every area of our lives… “Lord thank you for my family, how blessed I am that you have given me this group of dysfunctional people…” Ok maybe not quite like that…but you get what I’m saying? Pray for people and reflect on the blessings that God has given you! When we arm ourselves with proactive prayer…do you know what takes place? We have placed everything already at God’s feet! We essentially are saying the Lord’s prayer when we do this in that we’re stating in our actions “Lord, thy will be done…in all of my life!” Living for God implies that our conversations with God are not just reactionary prayers of petition…but we are arming ourselves with His might and His power. This type of prayer life creates too in us a disciplined lifestyle. We begin to expect His responses, we begin to converse with Him as freely as if we were talking to a good friend. We begin to find His hand in our lives and through the things that we experience. He guides us into a deeper relationship with Him which is holiness.

3) Love_______Deeply_ because it brings

Forgiveness and Acceptance_(v8)

3rdly in order to live a godly life we ought to love deeply. When we love deeply and without any kind of hidden agenda or selfish motives we begin to experience Agapa love. Agappa love is godly love. Love that permeates who God is…that’s the kind of love that sent Jesus to the cross for us. That’s the kind of love that doesn’t want us to remain in a state of sinfulness but wants a right relationship with us. Godly love is something that far too few possess. When we fulfill that first command to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” What we are saying is I no longer put the needs of myself first. I no longer wish to be God in my life…but I am giving God his rightful place in all things. And in the same breath I am then saying I will also love others as I love myself.

How can this be? People are tough to love aren’t they? Especially if those neighbors are seemingly unloveable people. Yet we are called to love them as we love ourself. DO YOU?

If we get this love of God right…the rest falls into place. If we can worship our Lord with all of our hearts instead of just a portion, then we can do this other thing regarding loving our neighbors.

When we love deeply as this scripture passage says we begin to focus less on the transgressions of our neighbors and instead focus more on the grace and love of God who first loved us in our awful state.

This passage says love covers over a multitude of sins…let me ask you…has someone sinned against you? Has someone wronged you so painfully? Has someone hurt you to the point that you can seem to find it in your heart to forgive them? Let God help you…You can’t possibly do this on your own. You aren’t supposed to. But when we love as God first loved us this paves the way for healing. This paves the way for forgiveness and reconciliation. It won’t be easy, but His grace is enough! His power can do the impossible! Do you believe that?

4) Use the Gifts God_ has given you!

(V.11)

“Living for God” 1Peter 4:7-11

June 23, 2013 0

Misunderstood or Humorous Church Song Lyrics

I love music. I love to sing and play music. It’s a real passion of mine. Frequently I will have a lyric or two in my head throughout the day. Recently a conversation was struck up on one of those social networks about this very topic. It quickly centered on funny lyrics within songs. Most of the time these lyrics were written long ago or even recently and the implication or meaning has either been lost or was simply written into a song without much thought.

For example here is one such Meme out there from David Crowder’s ‘How He Loves’

The truth is though that when we sing these songs sometimes we just accept them for what they are but do we consider what perhaps new comers might think or interpret these songs to be?

In the very same song by David Crowder he penned these words, which were later edited:

‘And heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss.’ Ha! The first time I read that I had to laugh out loud! Did he really write that? Now I know what he was trying to say and I’m not criticizing him for it, he’s done some amazing worship songs. But I do often wonder what new comers think about these lyrics.

Here are a couple of others:

Song: Come Thou Fount – “Here I raise my Ebeneezer” most don’t know what that is and some like me think of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens when we sing that second verse.

Song: My Jesus I love Thee – “And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow” …more like death eww…Not sure I’d be able to sing that with a straight face, however I do know that this was a poem before it was a song.

Song: Word of God Speak – “…and the funny thing is, it’s okay!” Is it really funny? Is it really okay? I don’t know it just seems like a silly line to me.

I know there are other songs out there…and if you know more please share.

Then there are the other misunderstood church hymn lyrics, for example:

“Bringing in the Sheets (Sheaves)”

Amazing Grace: “That saves a wrench (wretch) like me.”

In the Garden: “Andy Walks with me” (who is Andy?)

“While shepherds wash their socks by night”

I say all of this with tongue firmly planted in my cheek, so I hope I don’t offend anyone out there. I think it is important to consider what we are singing though before we sing it. We should also understand that there might be some misconceptions out there and also consider what new comers might be misinterpret from these songs that we sing.

June 22, 2013 4

What am I preaching on?

How is your soul?

How is your relationship to God? To Christ?

In a world that struggles with acceptance and identity, there should be comfort in the fact that as a family of God, we serve One who accepts us and loves us without strings attached.

Living for God isn’t easy…but it will be and is rewarding!

Here’s the passage that I will be speaking on tomorrow…and I really feel that the Lord has something for us to hear from Him on this topic:

Tune in tomorrow here on this WordPress blog as we explore this passage together…I will post the podcast of the sermon here as well as some notes…join us!

-Blessings on you today, and may you live for Him!

June 22, 2013 0

Author: Pastor'sPonderings