A half-strength, weak kind of gospel

*This blog does not necessarily represent the official position of The Salvation Army.

I spoke to my mother the other day. She says when she goes to the coffee shop she orders a skim-milk, half-strength, extra hot coffee. One day though, the coffee she ordered was so weak, she called it dishwater.

I'm going to lay it out straight for you right now:

I think sometimes the gospel we present to the world is like dishwater. 

We have the love of Jesus, but not the power of Jesus. 

We seek to have 'presence' but fail to have 'proclamation'. 

We adopt a watered-down version of the gospel, where we feel enamored by creating community-focused gatherings, without ever a call to salvation. In fact, some Christians today don't really think there's anything to be saved from. We kind of just live, and feel good inside, making sure we help others just live and feel good inside. It's humanism dressed up as friendship evangelism. 

It's one wing of a bird.

We are called to love others and live in community with them. But if all we do is 'help people feel welcome', we have missed the mark. It has to be both evangelism and social justice. 

Though, I admit, it does make us feel good. In fact, it might help us with government funding. It looks good in the eyes of the world. People celebrate us. Friends share our facebook posts. We feel puffed up by our own self-importance. 

A Salvation Army without full salvation through repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, is a weak, dishwater kind of expression of the Christian church. These keys elements are 'necessary to salvation'.

The gospel without a call to repentance, an opportunity for forgiveness and an invitation to holy living means we fall short. It's almost like we believe in universalism; an idea that Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity and that's it. Jesus paid the price. All is finished. Nothing more for us to do here. 

I think Paul would disagree. He's always calling for those he writes to, to have faith in Christ; to choose to put our trust in him.

I think William and Catherine Booth knew all too well, that preaching the gospel and calling people to salvation, was hard and persecution and kick-back would occur. One only needs to remember why the bonnet was first worn; and it wasn't for fashion. It was so it could protect one's head from the projectiles that were being thrown when Salvationists were calling people to follow Christ on the streets of East London.

I'm not calling for every program, every initiative and every cafe gathering to have a soap-box with a raving fundamentalist preaching it hard. I'm saying, without ever 'proclaiming' the gospel, we miss critical opportunities to call people to faith in Christ.

We end up with nice social gatherings, with a flag and shield in the corner with a nice, warm cuppa tea.

And no one will critique us. We will all feel good inside. 

But all we would have served up is a skim-milk, lukewarm, half-strength kind of gospel, that won't ultimately have an eternal impact upon those we serve.

If you're the evangelist I'm speaking to today, I want you to take a moment and consider the words of Isaiah 6:6-8:

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"  

If you're reading this, and your heart is beating and you say, 'I think Pete is talking to me right now,' then I want to pray with you:

God, in the name of Jesus, touch my mouth and anoint me with the Holy Spirit's power, that I might speak about the incredible salvation that is available, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Open my mouth to speak your truth to the world around me. Use me in incredible ways and help me to boldly live out and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer today, please message me and I'd love to encourage you on this journey of serving Jesus. God bless you today.

Pastoral Letter from Commissioner Miriam Gluyas

 

PASTORAL LETTER TO ALL WHO CALL THE SALVATION ARMY THEIR SPIRITUAL HOME

Friends,   I am writing to you today with great hope. We have a big Gospel. We have a big God.   Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”   In these days, our focus will be: “Hope revealed ... Jesus-centred ... Spirit-led.”   Jesus is our hope. Hope at Christmas, at Easter, on the cross, at the resurrection, in the ascension, speaking on our behalf to the Father, sending the Holy Spirit who is in us, for us, working through us. Hope, every day, because of him. And how we need him!   And so, we begin the next chapter of our story. Let’s write a good one.   We must stay focused in these days. They are both urgent and exciting, and there are so many signs of new growth.   Many things will be important as we write this story: Keeping Jesus at the centre and being led by the Spirit A Jesus culture, living like him and for him Speaking words of life, building up, not tearing down Working together, partnering to bring the best in every area that we are part of Raising up leaders Every Salvo/Salvationist on mission. Gather – 1 worship service, Grow – 1 discipleship group, Go – 1 ministry Seeing our Army thrive again with children, youth and young adults Our creatives producing new works Welcoming all people. Treating everyone with love and respect A culture of honour Prayer Really depending on God. “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you” Discipleship New ways of doing corps and working together in areas to bring the very best   I left ‘corps’ until last as I wanted to focus there for a moment. A strong Army has strong corps, strong churches and strong faith expressions. COVID has taught us a lot and, in a sense, forced us to think differently. We are the Church. We don’t ‘do’ church; we are ‘the’ Church, the body of Christ.   And so, we look at new ways of being the Church. We gather to worship, we come together to focus on the Word and grow as disciples, and then we go into a world that desperately needs Jesus. (We need strong disciples who understand evangelism and apologetics in these days).   Some of you are part of healthy, thriving churches focused on discipleship and sending your people. Some of you are part of organic churches, communities of hope and organic faith expressions. Others are sitting at tables and sharing about life and faith and what you can do on mission together. Healthy churches have people engaged in discipleship groups.   And we are at our best when we partner with others, share our resources, lead as teams and trust our great God. It’s happening already, and it will happen more and more. This will be a key focus in these days.   We also need many godly leaders. They will come out of these places. Can I encourage you to be asking God who in your faith expression will rise up to become the next leader? We pray and believe. It might be you.   I am blessed with amazing prayer warriors! I want to encourage our Army to be a people on its knees (first) and then rise up and go forward into a world that desperately needs Jesus.   Some say that our mission statement is aspirational. I believe that it will become a reality: Wherever there is hardship or injustice, Salvos will live, love and fight, alongside others, to transform Australia one life at a time with the love of Jesus.   We need our hope to be secure in him. We need faith to rise.   I love this translation of Hebrews 12:1-3 from The Message: “Do you see what this means –all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”    Let’s now write this new story together.   Grateful to you and for you.   Bless you,   Commissioner Miriam Gluyas Territorial Leader The Salvation Army Australia Territory

Why do we pray SMALL prayers?

[I could say, welcome back. After some technical issues with my former website, I'm now posting new content at www.peterbrookshaw.com]

I remember one night, some years ago, I was laying down on a comfy bean bag. It was around 10pm at night. The distractions of the day had passed. With my mind focused on God, I lifted my hands in gratefulness for what God had done in my life. I was singing "How Great is our God" at the top of my lungs. You may know the song. It's been a big one for the last couple of decades. As I belted out the lyrics, I couldn't help but try to ponder the power and majesty of a creator God.

God is a big God. That's may sound simple, but by no means is it simplistic. NASA's James Webb space telescope put in picture form the magnitude of God's creation. In recent months it released new images, that captivated the world, and followers of Jesus looked and said to themselves, 'Wow, how incredible is God?!'

Let me be provocative for a moment. If we follow such a big God, why do we pray such small prayers? I'm preaching to myself just as much as anyone else. I serve a big God, who loves me, who sent Jesus into the world to reconcile me back to the Lord. The way I pray reflects my depth of understanding of who God is.

This became very apparent to me this week. I was reading Joshua chapter 10. It's a story of 5 kings colluding together to go and attack a group called the Gibeonites. Joshua, as the leader of the Israelites hears of this imminent attack and draws his soldiers out to battle. Then Joshua prays this BIG prayer:

"O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon over the Valley of Aijalon." (Joshua 10:12)

The Scripture then says the sun stood still for a whole day, as the Israelites defeated the attacking armies.

Now, go with me for a moment in my thinking. Joshua prayed a big prayer. And why did he pray a big prayer? He prayed a big prayer, because he had grown in a deeper understanding of how big his God was. By the time we get to Joshua chapter 10, Joshua had seen the following:

- Moses parting the red sea
- Quail coming down from heaven
- A pillar of fire over their camp by night
- The justice of God, when someone was disobedient to the commands of God
- The victory that came in battle, when Moses held his arms up on the mountain
- The passing down of the law of God, supernaturally, when Moses encountered God Almighty
- The crossing of the river Jordan and how God had banked up the river so they could cross
- The walls of Jericho coming down

My point is this:

Joshua prays BIG prayers, because he's matured in his faith. Joshua has seen an Almighty God at work. Joshua now has a bigger faith, a courageous faith; one that dares to pray that the sun would stand still in the sky!

So I'm challenging myself right now. Maybe I've seen God supernaturally provide financially for someone. Now why not a whole village? I've seen God heal someone's leg. Why not pray that God brings healing to my whole community? I've seen someone donate a car to someone in need. Why not believe for a whole parking lot?

I ask the question: If you and I believe in a powerful God, then let's pray big prayers. Sure, start small. See God answer the small things. There's nothing wrong with that. Joshua's faith grew. Our faith can grow. But don't stay there. See God at work, through the power of the Holy Spirit, then stretch your prayers. Believe that God can do immeasurably more!! 

What can you pray for right now, that stretches your faith?