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William Booth: Founder of the Salvation Army

11/30/2014

 
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William Booth was born near Nottingham, England,  in 1829.  During his childhood his family became quite poor and he received relatively little formal education.  At the age of 15, however, he was  invited to attend Wesleyan chapel, where he was converted.  Booth then began to read extensively and trained himself in effective communication through writing and speaking.   Together with a friend, Booth began to preach to the poor in Nottingham. 

In 1849, Booth moved to London, where he joined the Methodist Reform Church and preached for them in a number of assignments.  But his pastoral duties meant he was unable to accept many requests to do evangelistic campaigns. Frustrated with this situation, in 1861 Booth resigned from the Methodist ministry and became an independent evangelist.  He began to draw crowds of listeners as he preached in the streets and commons of London, and in 1865 he was invited him to lead a series of meetings in a large tent in London’s impoverished East End  at which he brought the gospel to a great many of the poor and destitute. 

Booth realized this was his calling and  later that year he and his wife Catherine opened ‘The Christian Revival Society’ – later renamed ‘The Christian Mission’ for which they  held daily meetings attended by many of the poor and  homeless along with social outcasts such as alcoholics, petty criminals and prostitutes.   The need was vast and The Christian Mission was only  one of some 500 religious and charity groups working with the poor in the East End of London.  But a turning point occurred in 1878. Booth was dictating a letter and after saying “We are a volunteer army...” one of his sons objected  that  they were, in fact, “regulars”  and so the word "volunteer" was changed to “salvation.”  

Thus the “Salvation Army”  was born and, as it developed,  modelled after the military. Booth  became the Army’s “General” and his co-workers were made  "officers.”  Other members became “soldiers” and all wore the Army’s uniform for the missionary and charitable work they performed.  The success of the Salvation Army was profound and in the late 1880s it extended its humanitarian and religious work to the United States and several European countries,  eventually spreading throughout much of the world.  Booth travelled extensively and saw the Movement established in almost 60 countries and colonies in his own lifetime.  

But the Army’s success, and some of its positions, met with opposition from a number of quarters such as the alcohol industry, which realized that the work of the Movement would significantly cut drinking among the poor.  Groups were formed to oppose the Salvationists  and clashes led to the deaths of several  of them, with many others – including women and young teens - being injured. Much about the Army was misunderstood and misinterpreted and Booth was often personally criticized, insulted  and ridiculed. Yet even many of his detractors eventually came to see the good work he and his Salvation Army were undeniably doing. 

This was a clear example of letting one’s light shine and eventually the Press, the Church of England, and others who had been initially cautious about the movement came to accept it. When Booth died in 1912, some 40,000 people attended his funeral, including England’s Queen Mary.   Despite opposition and discouragement, William Booth had persisted in fulfilling his calling.  His work, continued in the Salvation Army he founded,  has brought hope and help to the lives of millions.  

Season of Overflowing Abundance – and Forgiveness?

11/26/2014

 
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The Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate in the United States is one in which we celebrate and hopefully give thanks for the abundance we have been given.  The Autumn “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” has “overbrimmed,” and we are conscious of the overflow of good things with which we have been blessed. 

A biblical verse often quoted in this context is that of the words of Christ regarding blessings: “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).

Notice how four measures are used to describe the overflowing fullness of the blessings being spoken of:  Good measure – this is not a short-filling, but a filling to the brim. Pressed down – this is the first way we can get more into a container, by forcing even more in. Shaken together – we can also shake a container to make the contents settle to make room for more. Running over – finally, we can overfill till the container has an overflowing excess.

It would be hard to better describe the concept of the cornucopia – the horn of plenty spilling out abundant blessings that is so often used as a symbol of Thanksgiving! But let’s go back to the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.  We should remind ourselves, of course, that Jesus spoke of being blessed to the extent we bless – gifted to the extent that we give.

But there is actually more to consider when we look at the preceding verse – which is less frequently quoted – and we grasp the whole context: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:37-38).

Reading these verses together shows us that Christ’s words regarding overflowing blessings were set in the context of not judging, not condemning, and forgiving, as well as giving.  In each of these cases the overflowing aspect of what we are given applies.  Jesus’ words stress that we must be willing to “overflow” in our not judging or condemning others, and in our forgiving them (Matthew 18:21-22).

So what does forgiveness have to do with Thanksgiving season? God’s word shows us that with blessings come responsibilities; God’s gifts are freely and abundantly given, but they come with expectations.  Jesus’ words remind us that we will be blessed (there is nothing in his words indicating that he was not talking about both physical and spiritual blessings) as we bless, and we will be forgiven as we forgive. In a season in which we focus on thankfulness for the blessings we receive, we should perhaps also focus on the blessings we give – the gifts of not judging or condemning and actively forgiving.  And the blessings we give should be “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.”

Our God is an abundantly generous God. In giving and in forgiving, may we strive to be the same.

Is Your Behavior Scandalous?

11/23/2014

 
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In the English language a scandal refers, of course, to anything widely regarded as morally or legally wrong and that causes public censure or outrage such as “a bribery scandal.” But the word has an interesting origin. Our word scandal comes from the Greek word skandalon signifying a snare, trap or stumbling block.  

In the Old Testament, the term for a “stumbling block” is mikshol which was rendered as skandalon in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. In addition to skandalon, the Greek language also had another word, proskomma, for “stumbling.”  Both these words are found in the Greek New Testament: for example in 1 Peter 2:8 where Peter speaks of both a “stone of stumbling” (using a form of the word proskomma) and also a “rock of offense” (using a form of skandalon).

The English King James Version translated both these word as “offense,” but almost all modern translations use “stumbling” or “stumbling block,” which are more accurate renditions in modern English. We can see the underlying literal meaning of the Hebrew word mikshol in Leviticus 19:14 which tells us not to place a stumbling block before the blind, and in the use of the Greek word skandalon in Romans 11:9 which quotes one of the psalms speaking of “a snare and a trap, a stumbling block.”   But both the Hebrew mikshol and Greek skandalon were also used figuratively of things that cause us to be ensnared or to stumble spiritually.

For example, skandalon can refer to God causing the wicked to stumble, to things that the ungodly do that cause believers to stumble, and even to things that believers themselves do that may cause others to trip and fall spiritually. It is vital that every Christian understand this last usage of skandalon, and we will consider four ways in which it can be applied:

Most obviously, our behavior can be “scandalous” by consciously or inadvertently enticing others to sin (Luke 17:1), but we can also become a stumbling block by offending a brother or sister through doing something we feel is fine, but of which they are unsure.  Paul speaks specifically of this in saying: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9). Yet again, we can become a stumbling block to others by encouraging them not to do something positive they know they should do. This was the situation when Christ told Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:23). Finally, we can even be a stumbling block through our disapproval and rejection of others who do not understand a spiritual situation fully, or who feel they are doing the right thing when we feel they are not:  “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister” (Romans 14:13).

All of these ways in which we might cause a brother or sister in the faith to stumble deserve our thought and meditation. Is there any way in which we might inadvertently be doing one of these things?  It is to the degree we think these possibilities through, with God’s help, that we can help rather than hinder our fellow believers with behavior that truly is not scandalous.

Not Just a Face in the Crowd

11/19/2014

 
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“When Jesus … saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14).

It’s easy to read right over simple verses like this in the New Testament and not notice things.

First, it’s easy to miss what is actually said  – that Jesus didn’t just have compassion on the sick in the multitude, he had compassion on the whole crowd which led to his intervening wherever there was a need.

That means that Jesus didn’t just see and have compassion on the noticeable members of the crowd – the blind, the lame and those clearly afflicted with diseases and problems. It means he had compassion on the ones who were helping carry the lame, lead the blind and support the weak. It means he had compassion on the ones we might not notice as readily in a crowd – the shy, the grieving, the lonely and the discouraged.

Second, it’s easy – of course – not to see what’s not said.  When we read the accounts of Jesus’ works we tend to read them in a vacuum, but we have to remember how much the Gospel writers are summarizing each incident.  When Jesus had compassion on the crowds we get only the highlights of the healings – a kind of Gospel triage in which the most important healings and significant signs were recorded.  But in having compassion on the crowds – not just the sick in the crowds – would Jesus not have noticed people with less obvious problems and had compassion on them also?

Surely Jesus saw the loneliness in the eyes of some and, having compassion, offered them a warm and accepting smile. Surely he saw the discouragement in the faces of others (Luke 18:24) and offered a few words of encouragement.  In every case in the New Testament where we are told Jesus had compassion on people, he followed it with action; and having compassion on the crowds doubtless meant he interacted with and helped many more than the few people on whom he performed miracles of  healing.

Perhaps we may feel we do not interact with crowds in the same way, but the totality of people we see and pass by as well as those we actually meet and with whom we interact in a day is often a small crowd, and for some of us a large one.  If we are followers of Jesus, do we have compassion on that daily “crowd”? Do we seek to encourage and to smile, to check that people are all right?  These may seem like small things and may seem hard to do in our over-crowded and impersonal world.  But following in Christ’s footsteps means doing the things he did to the extent we can.

We know that God pays attention and knows the hairs on our heads, though we don’t tend to think of that in perspective of the teeming world  of billions in which we live. But God does see every face in the crowd, and in his physical life the Son of God doubtless did his best to do so also.  We are not just a face in the crowd to God, and no one in the crowd should be just a face to us.

When Prayer is Unanswered

11/16/2014

 
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Every Christian experiences answered prayer. Every Christian experiences unanswered prayer.  It’s easy to appreciate the former and then to move on,  but unanswered prayer sticks with us:  the illness that persists, the job opening that doesn’t come, the ongoing difficulties we all face and may have prayed about fervently.   We see this  situation in the apostle Paul’s admission regarding a problem he prayed about unsuccessfully:  “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Cor. 12:8).  Apparently Paul’s  prayers were unanswered in this case, just as ours are sometimes, too.

But there are reasons why our petitions are sometimes not answered - or don't seem to be; and sometimes we can change that situation.  This week we reproduce a past article on this subject from our sister site, TacticalChristianity.org. It is one of the most-read articles on that site and one that fits in well here, so we provide it for our LivingWithFaith readers and hope that it proves helpful for you also. You can read "When Prayer is Unanswered" here.

Please Confirm Before Your Scheduled Departure

11/12/2014

 
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There are many Christians in this world whose religious background is such that they feel that because at some point they “committed to Christ,” “gave their heart to the Lord,” or whatever expression might be used, they have effectively completed any necessary transition to Christianity and that they are now saved through faith.   But God’s word does make it clear that any kind of “committing to Christ” is not the completion of the process of  salvation, but only the beginning.

To put it another way, we may have been invited and we may have accepted the invitation we were given, in faith, but we still have to confirm our desire to enter the Kingdom of God – somewhat in the same manner that we can purchase an airplane ticket,  tell the ticket agent that we definitely want to go and believe totally that the flight will occur – but we still have to confirm our booking prior to taking the flight.

The apostle Peter makes this clear in his second epistle: “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11). But how exactly do we “confirm our calling and election”? What are the things we must “do”? Peter explains exactly that in the preceding verses:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us …For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 1:3-8)

So Peter clearly tells us that we confirm our spiritual calling and election by adding to our faith the qualities he lists. The faith we demonstrate at the acceptance is only the beginning, and the  “transformation” that occurs as we grow beyond that point is itself the confirmation God wants to see. 

We can understand this process of confirming our calling and election another way – God confirms important promises (Exodus 3:12, Isaiah 38:6-8, etc.) and expects us to confirm ours also.  We even see this principle in action as He worked through the first disciples: “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it” (Mark 16:20). Here we see that just as God issued the promise of eternal life through the disciples’ teaching, He confirmed it through His actions – in exactly the same manner that we too must confirm our promise of commitment through the “signs” of our growth, as Peter explained.

So, accepting God’s invitation to travel toward Him in our life is the perfect beginning; it’s the ultimate ticket purchase (and we don’t even have to pay the price). But once we have accepted, we do need to confirm.

The King's Friend

11/9/2014

 
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Tucked away in a list of King David’s priestly and governmental officials in 1 Chronicles we find a reference to
“Hushai the Arkite [who] was the king's friend” (1 Chronicles 27:33b). This man appears in the story of David’s disloyal son Absolom. When Absolom rebelled against David, the king had Hushai infiltrate the opposition (2 Kings 15:32-37), and Hushai’s timely warning when Absolom plotted to kill David saved the king’s life at this time (2 Kings 17:1-15).

Notice two things here. First the title given to Hushei -  “king’s friend” – is also used of Zabud son of Nathan – a priest and adviser to King Solomon (1 Kings 4:5). Although the NIV translates this man’s title “advisor,” it is the same expression “king’s friend” used of Hushai and is translated so by the KJV, ESV, and other translations. In fact, the term “king’s friend” occurs at several other places in the Old Testament, and although it is often translated in the plural as “the king’s friends” (e.g., 2 Samuel 3:8), the Hebrew is in the singular and it is clearly the same title.

So who or what was the “king’s friend”?  The title was given to certain individuals in the royal courts of ancient Canaan – and later Judah and Israel  – to designate an advisor of especial closeness to the king. As we see in the case of Hushai, this person was truly a confidant of the king – even regarding private family matters. But the role of the “King’s friend” extended in several directions, and the “Kings friend” might be involved in the preparations for the king’s marriage, for example, or in introducing people into an audience with the king.

It is common in Christian circles to think of prayer as an “audience with the King,” of course, and this analogy ties into that of the king’s friend.  We remember that Abraham was called 
“the friend of God” (2 Chronicles 20: 7, Isaiah 41: 8), and in the New Testament we have Christ’s words spoken to his disciples on the last evening of his life: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends” (John 15:14).  So even if we do not feel we could presume to put ourselves in the place of Abraham as a friend of God, the words of Jesus plainly show that if we are obedient to him, he has placed us in that role.

How does this tie in to the concept of the “king’s friend”?  When we think of Jesus’ words that we are his “friends,” it’s easy to think of friendship in modern terms – our friends are people with whom we enjoy casual everyday friendship. Jesus may well have meant to include the spirit of such everyday friendship in what he said, but we should also remember the more formal aspects of friendship in the ancient world – especially that of the “king’s friend.”   

Remember that one of the roles of “king’s friend” was doubtless introductory – taking people before the king and introducing them in order to discuss problems and issues of royal concern.  If we regard prayer as an “audience with the King,” perhaps we can think of each audience we have as not only being for our own needs and those of family and friends, but also as an opportunity to introduce someone else who has a particular need, by name. Naturally, in God’s case, he already knows the person and is aware of the need, but that is what intercessory prayer is all about (1 Timothy 2:1).   Ancient kings frequently took the advice and counsel of their court “friend” – and we can humbly bring the cases of others into audience with the same confidence that God will listen to His friends, also.   Doing this in prayer can help us to focus on the needs of others as individuals. It’s one of the things friends are for. It’s one of the things a “King's friend” is for.  

The Second Step of Forgiveness

11/6/2014

 
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When it comes to forgiving others as we know we should (Matthew 6:12), we sometimes need to remind ourselves of advice the apostle Paul gave to the Corinthian Christians.  The church at Corinth apparently included an individual who had caused some problems for the brethren in that city. 

We don’t know exactly what the problems were, but we do know that once the matter was sorted out, Paul reminded the other believers of an extra step in the process of forgiveness that we often overlook.

When we forgive someone who has done something against us, we often jump from the act of forgiving in our own mind (which is difficult enough) to trying to “forget” the incident as well as we can (which can be just as hard – see the blog post on our sister site: “What Forgiving and Forgetting Really Means”).  But this jump overlooks a part of the process that Paul chose to stress. Notice what he told the Corinthian church regarding the one from whom they had become alienated: 

“If anyone has caused grief…The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him” (2 Corinthians 2:5-8).

Notice that Paul immediately follows the admonition to forgive the individual with one to “comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.”  This clearly indicates that the individual was already sorry for whatever it was he had done and Paul seeks to limit or to end the ongoing sorrow. But Paul doubly stresses this admonition to accept the forgiven individual by telling them to “reaffirm your love for him.” 

Forgiving someone a serious hurt can be difficult enough, and  we sometimes are tempted to feel satisfied if we do reach a point of sincere forgiveness. But Paul shows we must resist the temptation to then continue in a kind of hurt distancing of ourselves from the individual forgiven. The apostle shows that if the person does respond to our forgiveness, it is then our responsibility to reestablish an accepting relationship.

We can also see in Paul's following words that he meant this important principle as a firm admonition for us rather than just something he was offering as good advice:  “For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything” (2 Corinthians 2:9 ESV). Paul clearly equated his readers’ acceptance of this principle of reconciliation after forgiveness with spiritual obedience. 

Being as conscious as he was of his own need for God’s forgiveness and acceptance (Acts 9:4) (1 Timothy 1:15-16), Paul probably understood as well as anyone that the second step of forgiveness is just as important as the first. Having himself been fully accepted by Christ after his persecution of the Church, Paul reminds us that forgiveness without acceptance is meaningless and hollow. Only as forgiveness is followed by acceptance is it truly full forgiveness, and that acceptance in turn makes the final step of forgetting the incident, where possible, that much easier. 

You May Believe – Even if You Think You Don't

11/3/2014

 
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In a fascinating recent Science2 article titled “Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke,” writer Nury Vittachi summarized recent studies indicating that metaphysical thought processes – such as religious beliefs – are more deeply wired in the human brain than had been previously suspected.

In fact, says Vittachi, “…scientists are becoming increasingly aware that a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged.”

What does this mean in your life and mine? Although many atheists might well hate the idea, Vittachi’s article shows that evidence from several areas of science indicates that what we believe is perhaps not fully a decision we make for ourselves – and that some of our most fundamental beliefs are permanently “fixed” within us.

Vittachi says that some scientists (avowed atheists themselves) claim that actually “atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think.” This idea is based on the fact that from birth humans can be shown to have an innate sense of justice (fair play, karma, or whatever we may call it) set within them, just as C. S. Lewis argued in Mere Christianity. Other clues show that humans have a built in sense of awe and even a desire for eternity. In fact, “A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith,” writes Pascal Boyer in the journal Nature, even though most people “are only aware of some of their religious ideas.”

These findings, says Vittachi, may go a long way to explaining a series of puzzles in recent social science studies – such as in the United States, where 38% of people who identified themselves as atheists or agnostics nevertheless went on to claim to believe in a God or a Higher Power (“Religion and the Unaffiliated,”
Pew Forum, 2012). Likewise, in the United Kingdom, where formal religious belief is not common, only 13% of adults agreed with the statement, “Humans are purely material beings with no spiritual element.”

“The implication,” Vittachi concludes, “is that we all believe in a not dissimilar range of tangible and intangible realities. Whether a particular brand of higher consciousness is included in that list ... is little more than a detail.”  The findings of the studies mentioned, and others, seem to be in harmony with the ideas put forward by many Christian thinkers and apologists that God has placed within human beings the capacity for spirituality, and whether most people ever develop that capacity or not, it is nevertheless there as a latent capacity of the human mind.

Perhaps this is what Ecclesiastes 3:11 means in saying, “He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  Even if many do not feel they can recognize a spiritual dimension of life,  that does not mean that they are not aware, at some level, that it is there.

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    Unless otherwise stated, blog posts are written by R. Herbert, Ph.D.,  who writes for a number of Christian venues – including our sister site: TacticalChristianity.org
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