General's Pastoral Letter - Gratitude (2)

PASTORAL LETTER TWENTY-ONE

GRATITUDE (2)

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

Once more it is my great honour and privilege to be in touch with you through a Pastoral Letter.

Commissioner Helen Clifton joins me in sending greetings to you just where you are, thanking God for your fidelity to the gospel and for your service in his great Army of Salvation.

I am writing this Letter from my office in our home because recently I have undergone further surgery, this time for a heart bypass procedure. This took place unexpectedly six weeks ago and I thank God that I am making good progress and am able to keep up with all official matters through the kindness of the Chief of the Staff who meets me in our home regularly to discuss key matters of business and policy and also through the great help of my personal staff at International Headquarters.

Commissioner Helen Clifton is taking wonderful care of me but is also facing her own health challenges at this time. So your prayers are very, very precious to us both and to our family.

The theme of this Letter, as with Pastoral Letter 20, is gratitude. It is a theme that can never be exhausted. It is a natural theme for us at this time for we feel indebted to so many for loving support. Many of you have sent messages of prayer and encouragement. These have blessed and helped us so much.

I want to record heartfelt thanks to Almighty God for his unfailing love to us all. You will know of those times when you have experienced the loving closeness of our Heavenly Father. Sometimes he is so near to us that we can almost reach out and touch him. May you each be drawn closer and closer to God in this wonderful way.

We praise and thank God because he is able to save us from our sin and from the overarching rule of self and selfish ambition. Acts 4:12 tells us that there is no other name by which we can be saved. God the Father has given us Jesus, God the Son, to be our only Saviour. Our hearts fill up again with gratitude.

We have still further cause to be glad and grateful to God. He alone can make us holy. He alone can purify us and sanctify us through and through. In the words of the old chorus, not only is he 'able to save', but he is 'able to keep' - to keep us pure and victorious day by day from falling to temptation. Our part is to consecrate ourselves to God without reserve. He then does his part in cleansing us through and through, again and again.

In closing this Letter, I salute you and thank God for you. I commend each of you - just where you live and serve - to the infinite care of the Father, to the safe and loving hands of Jesus, and to the cleansing and enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

Yours in Sacred Service,

Shaw Clifton

General

Joys of Islam Women

I've been getting quite a few emails and other messages along similar lines of the content of this post which are starting to concern me.

I also received an email last week which contained a video of an Islamic woman getting 'stoned' but was cold blooded murder and everyone present was enjoying it, filming it and being entertained by it! What the people were actually doing, I can't believe humans could do - it was absolutely discraceful!!! The next two nights, every time I closed my eyes to go to sleep the vision of their inhuman acts was all I saw, and a week later, I am still completely scared by what I saw!

Anyway, here is the latest, have a read and feel free to leave your comments;

"20 years from now, I will be in Heaven --bye !!"

This was written by a woman born in Egypt as a Muslim.

This is not hearsay, and it will scare the life out of you.
Make sure you read the paragraph (in red) towards the end.

Joys of Muslim Women

by Nonie Darwish

In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child, and consummating the marriage. The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy.

Even though a woman is abused she can not obtain a divorce. To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses. Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family. Husbands can beat their wives 'at will' and he does not have to say why he has beaten her.

The husband is permitted to have (4 wives) and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.

The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.

In the West World ( America ) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Law so the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law.

By passing this on, enlightened Australian and American women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law. Ripping the West in Two. Author and lecturer Nonie Darwish says the goal of radical Islamists is to impose Shariah law on the world, ripping Western law and liberty in two.

She recently authored the book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.

Darwish was born in Cairo and spent her childhood in Egypt and Gaza before immigrating to America in 1978, when she was eight years old. Her father died while leading covert attacks on Israel. He was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza.

When he died, he was considered a "shahid," a martyr for jihad. His posthumous status earned Nonie and her family an elevated position in Muslim society.

But Darwish developed a skeptical eye at an early age. She questioned her ownMuslim culture and upbringing. She converted to Christianity after hearing a Christian preacher on television.

In her latest book, Darwish warns about creeping sharia law - what it is, what it means, and how it is manifested in Islamic countries.

For the West, she says radical Islamists are working to impose sharia on the world. If that happens, Western civilization will be destroyed. Westerners generally assume all religions encourage a respect for the dignity of each individual. Islamic law (Sharia) teaches that non-Muslims should be subjugated or killed in this world.

Peace and prosperity for one's children is not as important as assuring that Islamic law rules everywhere in the Middle East and eventually in the world.

While Westerners tend to think that all religions encourage some form of the golden rule, Sharia teaches two systems of ethics - one for Muslims and another for non-Muslims. Building on tribal practices of the seventh century, Sharia encourages the side of humanity that wants to take from and subjugate others.

While Westerners tend to think in terms of religious people developing a personal understanding of and relationship with God, Sharia advocates executing people who ask difficult questions that could be interpreted as criticism.

It's hard to imagine, that in this day and age, Islamic scholars agree that those who criticize Islam or choose to stop being Muslim should be executed. Sadly, while talk of an Islamic reformation is common and even assumed by many in the West, such murmurings in the Middle East are silenced through intimidation.

While Westerners are accustomed to an increase in religious tolerance over time, Darwish explains how petro dollars are being used to grow an extremely intolerant form of political Islam in her native Egypt and elsewhere.

(In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in australia and the U.S. to elect the President by themselves! Rest assured they will do so ... You can look at how they have taken over several towns in the USA .. Dearborn Mich. is one ... and there are others ...)

I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!

It is too bad that so many are disillusioned with life and Christianity to accept Muslims as peaceful ... some may be but they have an army that is willing to shed blood in the name of Islam ... the peaceful support the warriors with their finances and own kind of patriotism to their religion. While America is getting rid of Christianity from all public sites and erasing God from the lives of children the Muslims are planning a great jihad on America.

This is your chance to make a difference ...! Pass it on to your email list or at least those you think will listen.

If the world ever needed Jesus - it is now! Christ is what we really need, the forgiveness and a life of holiness is what is essential for us here and now - it's up to you!

I'll leave you today with the words of Jesus;

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

John 10:10

Law = freedom

I walked out onto a pedestrian crossing this morning and realised that it was my right to walk out and have the right of way, but still kept my eye on the cars knowing that not everyone totally abides by the law!

I should feel completely confident to walk out onto that crossing and know that I was safe and wasn't going to be run over by a car, but then as I was leaving that shopping centre in my car, I was at an intersection within the carpark indicating to go right and another car just overtook me on my right and went straight not taking any account for anyone else! I'm just glad I didn't go without checking - even from behind me!

There is a law that the creator put in place for the universe so we don't have to be in fear for safety and can live in freedom. Sometimes we might be unaware like the guy who overtook me, but then again he might have thought he was above the law and had more right than me, but I'm not sure which one, but he did seem oblivious to what the 'rule' was and just did his own thing.

God did give us His law as a safety net for us to live and enjoy life - if you look at all God has said, He knows His stuff!

Sometimes we do stuff up and that's where Jesus comes into it - He is our forgiveness! If we do break the law and effect other people, Jesus comes to us and shows us how to make things right again and bring back 'shalom' - balance and order to the universe.

God is good, and Jesus is that goodness - taste and see the truth in that and how relevant it is even today in this world where we are so 'self sufficient', but then again, are we really!?

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Galatians 2:21

Litter vs Sin

Is litter and sin related?

I was at KFC last week and a few little thoughts came to my mind as I was sitting there.

It was quite busy at lunch time and all the workers were busy serving and cooking, and every table was full of rubbish! The workers didn't have the chance to leave the customers to clean the mess of the customers; customers that were fully capable to cleaning up after themselves, but they couldn't be bothered putting in that little bit of effort.

That really annoys me!

I notice some people don't worry about the trouble or inconvenience they can/are causing others, being selfish, for personal benefit which costs another.

Sin is similar, where we often do something to benefit ourselves, which is at the cost of someone else. We leave a mess that someone else has to deal with - that makes God sad!

Think the next time God convicts you that you're doing something that's not quite right how it's hurting or affecting someone else, and look at it through His eyes, repent and fix it up - clean up your mess to enable someone else to live the life Jesus wants them to live, in freedom - freedom from your mess!

Hope this short insight to my lunch time helps you today

Bless ya

Pastoral Letter - Gratitude

PASTORAL LETTER TWENTY

GRATITUDE

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

I greet you each one in the sacred Name of Jesus. His Name is without equal. Only under his Name can salvation for our souls be found. Let our hearts leap upward with gratitude.

As I write to you, London is going through a mid-summer heat-wave - or at least a heat-wave by London standards! We are grateful for every comfort in this sophisticated western city, yet we remain mindful that not every Salvationist has such things. I thank God for the Army world that shares more and more regularly, more and more effectively, as a global family. We remember constantly our Lord's teaching that we should carry one another's burdens. We are partners in a holy mission and must be watchful of each other's needs.

I hear many prayers in all kinds of places and settings. You also hear them where you are. I am moved by the prayers I hear being offered by my fellow Salvationists. God is helping us to be more and more a prayerful Army. At the heart of prayer is thanksgiving. We come before our Heavenly Father in a spirit of humble gratitude. Philippians 4:6 teaches us to come to God in prayer with a grateful heart. As we pray, we must offer thanks more than offering requests. The Holy Spirit helps us as we pray and in this way we can get the balance right.

'Thank you' is a phrase on every Salvationist's lips, many times each day. We affirm one another in this way and at the same time we honour the God we all adore and obey. When we know how to thank God, we will also know how to thank our fellow believers. Similar courtesy can and should be offered to the unbeliever so that others see the courtesy of Christ in us.

Luke's Gospel (in chapter 17) tells us about the ten lepers healed by Jesus. Only one healed leper went back to Jesus to express gratitude for his healing. One in ten! Only a tenth! Just 10%! It is difficult to understand why the other nine offered no gratitude. It costs very little to say 'thank you'. I am asking God to make us more and more a grateful Army, an Army that constantly gives thanks for every help and blessing.

You will know the Old Testament account of Hannah and her longing for a child (see 1 Samuel 1:9-28). She offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for her son, Samuel. He became a great man of God.

In 1 Corinthians 15:57 the Apostle Paul declares gratitude to God for spiritual victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We join Paul in that burst of thanksgiving. Try to read the words for yourself and perhaps say them aloud as you read. You can say 'me' instead of 'us' and in that way make the verse very personal. It is a verse that you could include in your prayers every day. What a great way to begin and end a prayer.

As I end this Pastoral Letter I offer deep gratitude to God for your faithfulness. I thank God foryou! You are my comrade, my sister or my brother in Christ. God bless and keep you in all things.

May you know the Lord's loving touch today.

I commend you to his matchless grace.

Sincerely in him,

Shaw Clifton
General

General's Pastoral Letter - Counting

PASTORAL LETTER NINETEEN

COUNTING

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

This 19th Pastoral Letter comes to each of you with warmest good wishes and greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I prepare this letter in an upstairs room in my home in London, England, I look out to see the green and blossoming evidence of late spring. The trees are suddenly abundant in leaf. The sky is lighter and the days grow longer. We discern the hand of God in nature once again and we are filled with gratitude.

Readers in the southern hemisphere are in autumn, waiting for the darker nights and colder temperatures of winter to arrive. The seasons march on with seemingly inexorable pace. We feel our smallness, our creatureliness, and we sense too the overarching mind of the Creator in it all.

Little wonder then that we can burst into song to declare: ‘How great Thou art!’ We offer praise amid the awe. We bring to God our smallness, ready for him to help us rise in Christ to all the fullness of what we can be.

It is God’s plan that each one of us should be all we can be. You matter, you count. Tell yourself out loud: ‘I matter! I count in the eyes of Almighty God!’

Now suddenly my mind is racing off in another direction as I see the word ‘count’ appear in my script. The Bible tells us that even the number of hairs upon our heads has been counted and is known to God in Heaven. This is a powerful reminder of God’s intimate knowledge of us. I find it enormously comforting, but many find the thought menacing. Not everyone wants a Creator God who interacts with us. Instead they seek freedom to wander, licence to please themselves, falsely supposing this to be freedom.

Our God is a counting God. We see this in Jesus who spoke about a flock of sheep numbering 100, but one was lost thus reducing the flock to only 99. The shepherd would not rest until the lost one had been found. That lost one is you. It is also me. We are ‘Sheep Number 100’! How good that we have a God who can count and who searches tirelessly for us when we go missing. This divine attribute is ever before us when we do the sacredly routine work of counting how many folk are in a worship meeting, or how many have used the Mercy Seat, or how many names appear on the soldiers’ roll and other rolls.

If our Creator is by nature a God who counts, then we in turn must expect also to be like him. We can count our blessings, we can count the days he has allotted to us and give thanks for each one of them.

God stands alongside us as we count. He knows how many Army soldiers and junior soldiers there are in the world, and how many there are in your local corps. He knows the number of Army officers in the world and the number of cadets in our training colleges. He loves to see these numbers grow. He knows too that we are at work now in 121 countries of the world. Best of all he knows personally and in detail every individual soldier, junior soldier, officer and cadet. He knows those who are his.

We bask in this knowledge.

Commissioner Helen Clifton joins me in greeting each of you in the precious Name of Jesus.

Please continue to pray for us.

I commend each one of you to the grace of Christ.

Sincerely in him,

Shaw Clifton

General

They shall come from the east, they shall come from the west

They shall come from the east, they shall come from the west,

And sit down in the Kingdom of God;

Both the rich and the poor, the despised, the distressed,

They'll sit down in the Kingdom of God.

And none will ask what they have been

Provided that their robes are clean;

They shall come from the east, they shall come from the west,

And sit down in the Kingdom of God.

2.
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God;
To be met by their Father and welcomed and blessed,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.
The black, the white, the dark, the fair,
Your color will not matter there;
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.

3.
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west,
And sit down in the Kingdom of God;
Out of great tribulation to triumph and rest
They'll sit down in the Kingdom of God.
From every tribe and every race,
All men as brothers shall embrace;
They shall come from the east,
they shall come from the west.
And sit down in the Kingdom of God.

Gowans/Larson

[From The Salvation Army Musical 'Blood of The Lamb']

Oh Lord, do it again - bring the harvest - we want to see revival!!

Please Father!

"People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God."

Luke 13:29

NASA PROVES THE BIBLE IS TRUE

What do ya think about this;

For all you scientists out there and for all the students who have had
a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible -
here's something that illustrates God's awesome creation and shows He is
still in control.

Did you know that NASA's space programmes are busy proving that what has
been called 'myth' in the Bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, President of
the Curtis engine Company in Baltimore , and a consultant in the space
programmes, relates the following incident:

"One of the most amazing things that God has for us today happened
recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland .
They were checking out the positions of the sun, moon and planets out in
space where they would be 100, and 1000 years from now. We have to know
this as we do not want a satellite to collide with any of these in its orbits.

We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite and
where the planets will be so the whole project will not bog down.

Computer measurements and data were run back and forth over the
centuries when suddenly it came to a halt, displaying a red signal,
which meant that either there was something wrong with the information
fed into it, or with the results as compared to the standards. They
called in the service department to check it out, and the technicians
asked what was wrong.

The scientists had discovered that somewhere in space in elapsed time a
day was missing.. Nobody seemed able to come up with a solution to the
problem.

Finally one of the team, a Christian, said: "You know, when I was still
in Sunday school, they spoke about the sun standing still."

While his colleagues didn't believe him, they did not have an answer
either, so they said: "Show us."

He got a Bible and opened it at the book of Joshua where they found a
pretty ridiculous statement for any one with 'common sense'. There they
read about the Lord saying to Joshua: "Fear them not, I have delivered
them into thy hand; there shall not be a man of them stand before thee."
(Joshua 10:8).

Joshua was concerned because the enemy had surrounded him, and if
darkness fell, they would overpower him. So Joshua asked the Lord to
make the sun stand still! That's right - "And the sun stood still and
the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their
enemies. Is this not written in the book of Ja'-sher? So the sun stood
still in the midst of heaven and hastened not to go down about a whole
day." (Joshua 10:13).

The astronauts and scientists said: "There is the missing day!"

They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and
found it, but it was not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing
back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes - not a whole day.
They read the Bible again and there it was: "about (approximately) a day."
These little words in the Bible were important, but they were still in
trouble, because another 40 minutes were still unaccounted for, and this
could mean trouble 1000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found
because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. As the Christian
employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible which
said the sun went backwards. The scientists told him he was out of his
mind, but once again they opened the Book and read these words in 2
Kings. Hezekiah, on his deathbed, was visited by the prophet, Isaiah,
who told him he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for some sign as
proof. Isaiah said: "Shall the sun go forward ten degrees, or go back
ten degrees?"

And Hezekiah answered: "It is a light thing for the shadow to go down
ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backwards ten degrees."

And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and He brought the shadow
ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz."
(2 Kings 20:9 -11).

Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and twenty
minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in 2 Kings accounted for the missing
day in the universe!

Isn't this amazing? Our God is rubbing their noses in His Truth!

Forward this to as many people who would think this is equally
astounding.

Pastoral Letter - Unity

PASTORAL LETTER EIGHTEEN

UNITY

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

This eighteenth Letter comes to you with warmest greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are constantly in my prayers. Prayer unites us before the Throne of Grace. We are bonded in prayer. Please continue to pray for me - for wisdom and for constant guidance from Almighty God.

My wife and I, ably supported by my Private Secretary, Major Richard Gaudion, have recently made visits to the Congo (Brazzaville) Territory and to the USA National Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. What contrasting locations! Yet we met in each place the same spirit of Salvationism and the same ardour for the Gospel that marks the Army in every corner of the globe. These two visits reinforced our awareness of the unity of God's Army.

In Brazzaville I was blessed to enrol 190 new Junior Soldiers, and the next day 185 Senior Soldiers - every child and adult in full uniform. The children and the adults made the same sacred promises and entered into the same holy covenants that are such a strong and unifying factor for Salvationists everywhere. The Territorial Commander, Commissioner Mfon Akpan, invited me to sign personally every single Promise Card and Soldier's Covenant. What a marvellous privilege to see the names appended to these God-blessed commitments. Many thousands attended the meetings to encourage the new Junior and Senior Soldiers.

Endless miles away, just a few weeks later, we encountered the same spirit of Salvationism as we met the officers and employees of National Headquarters in the USA. What a contrast from Brazzaville in terms of affluence, as once more we visited the richest nation on earth. Yet the Army spirit is the same. The goals are the same - the souls and needs of others! The commitment is the same - to serve in the Name of Jesus regardless of self!

How moving it has been, how inspirational, to witness our unity in the Army's global response to the Haiti earthquake and shortly thereafter to the quake in Chile. The instant, godly response has been wonderful, resulting in personnel, money, and equipment from across the globe in answer to the plight of the victims. Again, God is blessing and deepening our unity in Christ and in our callings to be Salvationists in a hurting world.

Unity pleases God. The Scriptures make this clear. In John 17 we read our Lord's passionate prayer that his committed followers would not allow discord to divide them. In Romans 12:5 Paul reminds us that 'in Christ we who are many form one body.' So let us each work for unity, especially in our local corps. A united corps is a growing corps. A united corps is an attractive, and attracting, corps.

Our English language Song Book has words that express our unity in Christ. Song 660 speaks of our hearts being bonded 'in Christian love', of the sharing of 'mutual burdens', and of our being 'joined in heart'. Song 573 offers an eloquent reminder of the role and place of the Mercy Seat in symbolising our oneness. It mentions (verse 3) our being gathered 'around one common Mercy Seat'. We are equal, we are one, we are united in our need of grace as we kneel at the feet of Christ.

Therefore I am praying for strong unity in the Army. I am asking God to deepen still further the bonds that unite us. I am praying that there will be no spirit of strife among us. I am pleading in prayer for unity in every part, and in every place where the Trinitarian flag of God's Army - the yellow, red and blue - flutters in the breeze, whether it be Africa or America, whether it be north or south, east or west.

Thank you for your faithfulness. I thank God for you.

Here today in London, as I write, the sky is overcast, but there glows within our souls the bright sunshine of God's love! May you know and feel that same love today, moment by moment.

I commend you to the grace of Christ.

Sincerely in Him,

Shaw Clifton
General

It's all about love!

So Easter is upon us for the year 2010!

What's going to be different this year compared to previous years? Is God going to reveal something new to me about the Easter story? Just the thought of another insight to the love that Easter represents would blow me away - this whole story of what Jesus did by dying on the cross and by raising Himself again on the third day is just almost more than what I can comprehend!

God's love for us just blows my mind!

Tonight I was able to go back to the Harry Hunter Corps chapel even though I finished my placement there last week. I love this centre and what God is doing there! The Officers and the other employees there do such a great job.

Salvation is not a thing that happens like it does in the rest of the world - people don't always find themselves in a position of praying the sinners prayer and being classed as 'saved', but so many of the clients are finding Jesus and it is awesome and it's really a gradual, bit by bit salvation. Even tonight in one of the 'clients' prayers he said "God, I wanna invite You back into my life after all these years" - to me, that's a salvation story right there, but it's so hard to put down as a 'statistic' in a place like Harry's!

Testimony after testimony of people graduating, the 'clients' continually say 'I'd like to thank God' or 'you can't do this without God!'

God is doing such amazing things in these guys lives and it's amazing being a part of it and just watching His relationships grow.

I wanted to keep this short - this Easter, just take a few quiet moments alone, picture Jesus on the cross and know that it was supposed to be you - accept that truth and accept the gift of life you have right now - the breath you are taking and all the good things that surround you everyday!

It's all about LOVE!

Bless ya!

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him."

John 3:16-18 The Message

Spiritual Discussions

Tonight we started a Spiritual Discussions group here at Harry Hunter Centre which Scott and I were leading for tonight. It was totally voluntary and 9 guys and girls turned up which was great for a start.

We didn't have anything really planned but knew that many of the guys had questions of God and spirituality floating around in their heads, and some of these questions were disturbing and frustrating them. Scott started off with a reading then opened it up for discussion, and question after question flowed from the 'clients' of Harry's.

What a night of discussion, ranging from what does it mean to let God in, to the big questions about Heaven and Hell, but I was so pumped with these guys thinking about it and asking the big questions!

Every Wednesday night we have chapel here on the sight of the centre and last week I gave a message on us being spiritual beings in a physical world. The culture here is there is no real response opportunity given, but sometimes a few questions will be given to the Officers throughout the week if required, but I opened up the meeting for prayer and a response if anyone wanted to. No one responded, but 3 guys hung around afterwards and stayed in their seats. One of them stayed and spoke to Scott and myself for at least an hour about what God was speaking to him.

Tonight another guy was telling us that he had given up on all the God stuff, but after the message I gave last week, he really wanted to give God another go! Awesome, Hallelujah! Most of the guys here have had hard lives and bad experiences of God through the church, but hearing some of the stories from here, even just tonight was unbelievable! The Spirit was really stirring, and I felt that God really spoke through me tonight, so hopefully some of these guys really start nurturing a relationship with God, and I believe they will, in Jesus Name!

Please just take a moment to pray for all the men and women here at Harry Hunter Centre in Western Australia - there is some amazing work happening and God is really moving. I'm leading and giving the message again this Wednesday night, so please also pray for that night, I feel God is wanting to use this weeks chapel again for His glory.

God, please open up Heaven and pour out Your blessings on this place as you have been doing and change lives for the better, give hope, joy and peace to all of those that are struggling here presently. Thanks God, we love You and serve You.

In Jesus Name we ask!

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Matthew 21:22

Western Australia - 3 months out-training

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've blogged, but since last time, I've been sent to Perth for 3 months out-training.

It's a great area that I'm staying in, I'm surrounded by tree's and cows. I'm staying at the Harry Hunter Rehabilitation center which is run by some great Salvation Army Officers, who have great experience and are amazing people who love God and serve those who are here with great respect and dignity.

I haven't had much experience in the social side of The Salvation Army before so I am getting 5 weeks of experience in the social side before having 2 months in the Corps (church) side of the Army. I'm experiencing such an amazing opportunities of ministry and evangelism here and really feel God's hand upon this place and my time here.

I'm praying that my time here gives me a great insight to both the social and Corps side of the Army and hopefully the knowledge I gain here allows me to somehow put the two back together within every appointment of my Officership in the future.

Please pray for my training here and allow God to be glorified in all I do here and many people come to know Him in the work that happens here.

Bless ya

Australia - what a filthy country

Last week, I was studying a subject about mission work overseas in different cultures and nations.

Many other nations outside Australia and other 'western' cultures contain quite high moral living in comparison to ours. Even though many of the countries are dirty on the outside, ie on the streets, their living on the inside, ie in their hearts, is at a higher level than here. (Yes, this is a generalisation)

There's so much I can say on this, but I'll keep it brief.

I was watching 'Video Hit's' this morning and everything that the video's were selling was filthy!! How do we let our children watch these things, what are we teaching them! Three songs in a row and I had to turn it off.

What we surround ourselves with and spend our time focused on will consume us. Morals are thrown out the window and we do whatever pleases us, even if that is at the expense of another, we are taught YOU are what's important, don't worry about your neighbor.

What do you need to change in your heart that is filthy? Living in a world surrounded by dirt is making me really dirty, how can we give a nation a shower and a good clean!? I think it starts with us as individuals.

Re-evaluate your heart and balance it up. Being clean is such a great feeling. Who has a shower then decides to jump in the mud because it is better? Let's lift our standards for our family's and our children's sake!

No more immorality, no more rapes, no more stealing, no more adultery, no more murders, no more slander, no more selfishness, no more gossip, no more hate...!!

"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial.

1 Corinthians 6:12a

[1 Corinthians 6:11-13]

Prayer

Prayer is an amazing thing to have as humanity, when you actually get your head around the concept, you realise you can have a conversation with the One who created Earth, the stars, and even you and I. It's quite mind blowing really.

This One who created the Heavens and the Earth is also the one who created the 'natural' laws that the universe was to operate within, the laws that science tell us are in place and that all the formulas that we've come up with define.

Have you ever realised, that at the same time as having laws surrounding us that we have to abide by, we can still persuade God, this Creator of the universe, to change His mind and break natural laws. This is when miracles can occur, such as a person who has developed a tumor is somehow cured and the doctors cannot explain, or someone with a broken leg gets prayed for and it somehow is completely restored without evidence of a break ever occurring to that bone, or how about someone being raised from the dead, even days after the their heart had taken it's last beat.

The God who placed these 'natural' laws in place can also break them as He chooses or is persuaded to do. Pray with perseverance and believe that God loves you and will give you the desires of your heart, not things you may want, but the things you need and especially for things that will glorify Himself. Just as a child brings a petition before their parent, we approach our Heavenly Father in the same way, and He responds as a loving parent does, the perfect parent.

⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

Spirituality - we're incomplete without it!

If you look at every culture since the beginning of creation, we (humanity) have known there was something bigger than ourselves, a 'higher being' that we have the desire within our spirits to search for. The ancient Egyptians had their gods, the Australian Aboriginals have their spirit gods, the Aztec's, Babylonians, Celtic, Greek, Hindu, Japanese, Roman, etc, etc, etc we all have the in built need for something more, something spiritual to fill the emptiness inside.

I've just spent a month in India, and learning about the Hindu gods and how they seem to have, just like many other religions, a god for nearly every aspect of life from welcoming you into a home, your money, harvests, travelling etc.

While I was in India, there was quite a few times I depended on help from God, protection from danger firstly; there was at least 5 times we were very close to death that we know of, and secondly health, so I didn't get sick or 'complications' from the food and water. If I didn't have faith that God would get me through I would have felt helpless. While I was there, there was deaths on train crashes, I went on these trains, there was deaths due to the cold, I was staying in this area, there were deaths on the roads, one night was so foggy there was around 80 people dead or missing on the exact road we were travelling on and many more examples of similar events; yet in all of this, I felt unbelievably safe like I was wrapped in cotton wool - I felt the presence of God surrounding us and hearing our prayers and others who were praying for us also.

I depended on the help of God during my trip and people all throughout history have searched for the help and guidance from the spiritual world, it's in our DNA to find God, yet I return to a country that really has no spirituality. Australia has so many people that are their own 'gods', they believe they don't need anything else apart from themselves, or so they say.

For a nation to have no spirituality is a nation that is lost. When I try to imagine having no spirituality, I think of zombies with no souls, just a shell going through motions without purpose; wake, eat, work, sleep day in day out.

The more I talk to people that claim they don't need God, the more they realise how pointless their life is. When all the business of their life is gone, when all the distractions, paryting, alcohol and all the other things the world does to try to keep their mind off their internal pain and emptiness and they just sit at the end of the day in the dark by themselves, there is still a gaping emptiness inside that can only be filled by God Himself.

If this describes how you feel, read the Bible, I suggest starting with the New Testament, the books like Mark, Matthew and John and if this doesn't work for you, I'll seriously be surprised. When God created us, He made us so that we were only complete with Him, without Him we are incomplete.

A Godless nation is only fooling itself, a Godless man is lost

Accept Jesus today

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.""

John 8:12