Re:Forgiveness (1)

Think of the worst prank that you have ever played on a younger sibling or the worst thing that an older brother has done to you and I imagine that this is probably worse. Genesis Chapter 37:12ff records how Joseph’s nine older brothers treat him. They grab their 17 year-old younger brother and throw him into an empty well and then they sit down to have lunch all the while, it seems, discussing whether or not they are going to kill him or what else they are going to do with him. (Imagine what it would be like in the well, hearing that conversation!) Providentially some slave traders come along; so instead of killing Joseph, his brothers decide to sell him into slavery. This is the last time they see Joseph for many, many years. Joseph then spends quite a few years as a slave before he is sent to prison for a crime he doesn’t commit. All of this directly follows his brothers’ actions of kidnapping, confining, and selling him into slavery. They have a few things for which they need forgiveness and they are scared of their brother, Joseph. And they are more than a little bit afraid because Joseph is now – in our story today – the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.

Joseph has already shown too that he is not necessarily above games and a measure of retribution. Remember when Joseph and his brothers met the first time after all these years: Joseph accuses them of being spies; he frames them for theft and then wrongfully imprisons Simeon, one of his brothers. Then, upon their next meeting much later, Joseph threatens to do the same thing to one of his other brothers. The brothers were afraid of Joseph and they are particularly afraid of Joseph right now because their dad has just died. Remember that Joseph was dad’s favourite so the brothers figure that maybe Joseph is just waiting until dad dies to finally really get back at them once and for all for the horrible things they did to him as a teenager. Dad, they figure, was their protection from their brother, preventing him from exacting his long overdue revenge on them and now dad is dead so they fear that it is payback time (cf. Genesis 27:41-45).[2]

Genesis 50:15 records that “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did him.’”... Have you ever done something wrong and just sat there worrying about the consequences? This is what it is like for the brothers. Have you ever had that feeling?

 

It is the same feeling, when you are driving along, look in the rear-view mirror, see the red and blue flashing lights come on behind you; you look down at your speedometer; you pull over to the side of the road, roll down your window and wait for the inevitable, “Driver’s licence and registration please. Do you know how fast you were going?” It is that same feeling in the pit of your stomach. You are guilty and there is nothing you can do; you are entirely at the mercy of the nice man or the nice woman in blue. For Joseph’s brothers it may even have been more intensified than this too because with the protection of their father out of they way, they know that Joseph has the power of life and death over them. He can -with impunity- have them all killed, if he so desires.[3]

It is in this setting that they contact Joseph and say (and they might even be lying)[4] that, Verse 17, their dad said before he died that, “This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.”

 

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/08/genesis-5015-21-regarding-forgiveness.html

The Apostle Paul's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

…it was just like the children’s book says, “a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

In Acts, today, up to and including Chapter 23, you will notice that Paul has been having a little bit of a run like that himself.

In Chapter 16, as we read about last week Paul winds up in detention in Philippi and again in Thessalonica after being attacked by a mob there and again in Berea all in Chapter 17. By Chapter 19 Paul is in the centre of a riot in Ephesus and by Chapter 21 he is now in Jerusalem again and arrested again after being attacked again by still more mobs. Paul really seems to be having “a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad” time of it.

Now Paul is arrested when he is spreading the good news. But it is not the gospel that gets him in trouble with the secular authorities really. They are just trying to keep the peace and save his life. The gospel is getting Paul in trouble with some of the religious leaders.[2] It is they who God delivers Paul from, through the Romans.

Paul is saved[3] but the Romans really have no idea why the religious people want to kill him;[4] so, they keep him under a full, armed guard. He is in the custody of the Superpower of his day[5] and because they do have a vested interest in keeping the peace and because he is a Roman citizen himself, they REALLY want to find out exactly what he has been accused of here; so, they order the Sanhedrin to convene to try to shed some light on the situation.

Now in our text today then, Chapter 23, it opens with this fact-finding hearing with the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin (you’ll note from your ‘Sermon Helps’ in the bulletin) is a council of the chief priests of Judaism. They are the Jewish authority.

So with the occupying Roman authorities looking on as official observers, the trial begins. Paul begins. He looks straight at the Sanhedrin (23 vs. 1) in his opening statement and says, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.”[6] … and then the High Priest (vs. 2) orders someone to punch him in the mouth. What?

The Romans are asking, ‘what’, too, I’m sure; when I first read this I was asking, ‘what’? So I turned to my reference books and poured through Acts to see if I could find out what Paul said that was so offensive. Yeah… No luck. All I can guess is that they perceived Paul as misrepresenting God in some way here – but that is just a guess – however, we do know that whatever it is, it obviously offends Ananias,[7] the High Priest, so much that he gets someone to punch Paul in the mouth.

Now Paul, as we already said, is apparently not really having a particularly good day and so he does not maintain his usual composure under pressure.[8] He lashes out at the High Priest – this is pretty bold – he says, verse 3, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” and look at what happens after this in verses 4 and 5: Those who are standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?” Paul replies, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’ (Exodus 22:28; cf. also Hebrews 13:16; Romans 13:1, 5; Titus 3:1)

So… now… this is interesting: Paul says that he doesn’t realize that he is the High Priest...

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/09/acts-23-1-11-punch-in-mouth-or-terrible.html

Army Barmy on leadership and people going to hell....

http://armybarmy.com/blog.html (August 01/11)
Interesting stuff:

Leadership should have a local base.

There are exceptions to this statement, but generally speaking, leadership should have a local base.

So, how does that look practically? The DS oversees a corps. The DC oversees a corps. The cabinet members all oversee corps. The TC and the General all oversee corps.

It gives credibility. It permits you to lead by example. It gives a dose of reality. It helps you to keep your finger on the pulse of the culture. It keeps you closer to people.

Now, I am not suggesting that the general run the corps on her own. I am being realistic, too. Give her a couple of majors as associates or something, but leave her in charge.
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Remember the poor.
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How about this, from Reuters News Agency (Zelie Pollon, July 17, 2003)?

A New Mexico family is suing their local Catholic church over a funeral Mass in which they claim a priest said their relative was only a middling Catholic and going straight to hell.

Court papers filed last month say that Rev. Scott Mansfield said at Martinez's funeral last year that the deceased was "living in sin," "lukewarm in his faith" and that "the Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell."

Wow. What do you do about that? I’m pleasantly surprised that someone had the guts to speak the truth instead of this devilish nonsense about a ‘better place’. I’m not advocating the tone, of course (vomiting him out of His mouth).

All of you who are preachers had better be careful about what you say this Sunday. The lawyers are loose. And this goes for Canada, especially, where it might be construed to be a hate crime to note that liars and fornicators are going to hell.

Read more:  http://armybarmy.com/blog.html

JAC is BACk tomorrow

Tomorrow JAC74 will be available at http://www.armybarmy.com/jac.html

Seven Years of Abundance

Genesis 41: Seven Years of Abundance

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 24 July 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

One of my daughters collects stuffed and ornamental cows; when she was involved in 4-H, it was the cow programme she was interested in. We have pictures of her with my mom’s cousin’s cows around Tisdale, Sk. So being as we read about Pharaoh’s dream with the fat cows and the skinny cows, I asked her to share some cow jokes with me. She found me one or two. I found a couple more. Here we go:

 

 What do you call a sleeping bull?

(A bull-dozer.)

 What could you call a newborn calf?

(A new moo!)

Do cows give milk?

(No, you have to take it from them.)

How would you get a cow in your car?

(You promise to let her steer.)

What is a milking barn full of happy cows called?

 (A merry dairy.)

Where do cows go when they want a night out?

(To the moo-vies!)

What did the bored cow say when she got up in the morning?

("It's just an udder day")

What's a cow's favourite musical note?

(Beef-flat)

How did the farmer find his lost cow?

(He tractor down.)

What sound do you hear when you drop a cow?

(Cowboom!)

Why did the bow-legged cowboy get fired?

(Because he couldn't keep his calves together.)

Why are round hay bales not as good for cows?

(Because they need a square meal.)

Did you hear about the cow that couldn't give milk?

(She was an udder failure.)

Why did the cow have a bell around its neck?

(Because its horn didn’t work.)

Knock, knock (Who’s there?)

Cowsgo (Cowsgo who?)

No, silly, cows go ‘moo’

 

In our story today we are actually addressing a very serious situation. There is about to be a famine throughout the country of Egypt.[1] The government of the day is well aware of it and our text today (Genesis 41) tells us what they are going to do about it.

 

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/genesis-41-seven-years-of-abundance.html

Catherine Quotes

“Friends, are you more concerned about relieving temporal distress than you are about feeding famished souls? If you are, you may know where you Charity comes from – [hell]” (Papers on Godliness, p 27-28).

“All other objects and aims of life [are] subservient to the one grand purpose of preaching the Gospel to every creature and striving to win every soul with whom they come in contact to its salvation” (The Salvation Army in Relation to the Churches, pp 31-32).

Joseph and the Prosperity Heresy

Joseph’s family life, as we have been discussing, was not the greatest but as one can imagine a terrible home life probably beats being a slave in a foreign country but it is as a slave when it is recorded that, Genesis 39:2, “The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.” This is key. This prosperity is not wealth. He is a slave. This prosperity is not luxury. He is a slave. This prosperity is not freedom to do what he wants when he wants. He is a slave. Joseph is a teenager who has been sold into slavery in a foreign country – where I imagine he doesn’t yet even know the language. He is a slave completely against his will without even specified terms for release. This is the condition that he is in when and where it records, Genesis 39:2a, “The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.”

Let me tell you some more about this prosperity.[6] While Joseph is a slave, his master’s wife takes a liking to him. She wants to fool around with him a little bit – have an affair. Joseph will have none of this and spends much of his time trying to avoid her. She finally gets so upset at Joe for not giving into her attempts at seduction, that she accuses him of sexual assault and his master has Joseph thrown into prison. This is what it looks like in the house of his Egyptian master when and where it says that the LORD was with Joseph and he prospered.

Joseph is then sitting in prison in a foreign country charged with a crime that he didn’t commit with no specified length or end to his sentence. This prison, while it was reserved for prisoners of important people, was no 21^st century Canadian prison (not that these are a picnic by any means) - there is no TV, no Charter of Rights and Freedoms, no early parole; just a dark dungeon, or a pit as some translations (KJV, ESV) refer to it, where you live out your days with the other prisoners. This is what it looks like when, Genesis 39:2a, “The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.” This is what his prosperity looked like. No money, no luxury, no freedom, just slavery and then just sitting in a dungeon (or pit) in a foreign country with no hope of parole for a crime he didn’t commit. How many of us would consider this prosperity? I want us to remember this to the next time someone that believes the prosperity heresy tells us that when you are a good Christian you won’t get sick and you will always have all the money and freedom that you want. It is not true. That is NOT what God’s prosperity looks like. What God’s prosperity in our lives looks like is when God’s work is being done through us.[7]

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/genesis-392a-lord-was-with-joseph-and.html

Characteristics of Salvationism

JAC Online, Issue #73

By Commisioner Wesley Harris

AMONG the people of God Salvationists are likely to have certain characteristics.  I would mention a few.   For one thing they should be visible.  In the street where we live my wife and I are known as Salvationists because week by week we are seen in our uniform.  Our garb has sacramental significance and gives silent testimony to our creed. Others may keep their faith under wraps and only share it with close neighbours but we are called upon to stand out because we stand up and at the very least let our uniform do the talking.

The visibility of our profession is a privilege and a responsibility. It announces our availability to be of service to any in need.  The honour of the movement is on our shoulders.  If  behind the wheel of a car a uniformed salvationist behaved badly the Army might share the blame just as courtesy on the road could confirm a positive view.

On my travels through the years my uniform has encouraged complete strangers to confide in me and made it possible for me to help in ways that would not have been likely otherwise.  Of course, what I have been able to share has needed to be more than ‘uniform deep’ – a living and personal faith, no less.

Then Salvationists are often audible. Through the years some of us have shouted the odds on issues of life and death on beaches and street corners and market places.  But there have also been opportunities to speak up for our Lord in an office or factory where it may have been known that we were professing Christians and therefore expected to witness.

Have we sometimes been non-committal or struck dumb?  It is said that silence is golden but sometimes it may just be yellow! The psalmist wrote, ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so…’ (Psalm 107.2 KJV). It should be in our spiritual DNA that when opportunity arises we will not hold back from speaking  a word in season.

Then it should be characteristic of the Slvationist that he or she is credible. There is no doubt that in the early days of our movement some of our forebears were outlandish in their methods.  No doubt sedate souls looked askance at some of the means employed to attract attention but they could not but be impressed when drunkards  became sober and wife-beaters gentle men.

Holiness was a prescribed part of salvationism so that even  critics had to admit that they were Army folk were good people.. Now in some parts of the world we have to pray that we may be at least as good as people have come to think we are for we are all too conscious of our imperfections.

When The Salvation Army is working at its best there is abundant evidence for the credibility of the gospel.  It is found in the lives of souls reborn. God is honoured by the lives of his faithful people.

Read more from this issue quickly before the next one comes out: http://www.armybarmy.com/jac.html

Its Not Actually About You...

Devotional Thought presented to Swift Current Corps Staff Meeting on July 04,201. Based on the Sermon, Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale on April 20/08 Swift Current Corps on August 09/09 and the article, On the Job Experience, presented to 614 Vancouver Leadership July/04. By Captain Michael Ramsay

As many of you here know when our children were just little (not that they’re so big now), we sold our home and our businesses and moved into North America’s poorest postal code - Vancouver’s downtown eastside - as full-time urban missionaries with The Salvation Army.

We have shared with many of you the excitement from our time there as we saw people who were turned from their addictive, destructive ways of life; transformed into new creations by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was exciting to open up our home and our lives to the miracles that indeed the Lord is still performing today and were, oh, so evident in that environment. We met people who have been cured of cancer, cured of AIDS, and completely cured of diabetes. We have seen and experienced the power of God (cf. Romans 1:4, 1:16, 11:23, 15:13, 15:19-20) first hand.

Our time there, as you can well imagine, wasn’t always rosy though. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was right on Main and Hastings – the most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan who was out of town at the time.

Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school programme I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I’m sure, I…well, I chased the mugger.

I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped from in front of the bus with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the programme files for the kids.

It was when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent from this incident, that I experienced the miracle that happened: I encountered an angel, a messenger of God, in the back alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still remember vividly; he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he offered me these words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I knew he was right. God gave me these words to encourage me.

There was more to come. My life at the time of the mugging; here is a partial list in fast forward:

My foot was injured (which slowed me down as I tried to catch my mugger), I was mugged and had my laptop stolen. My hands were painfully swollen; my eye was injured (painfully enough that I couldn’t even get up for days) and later re-injured; my 2 year-old daughter suffered seizures in front of our eyes, my car stopped working, a person in our home was struggling with heroin addiction, the police visited our home and encouraged a roommate of ours to leave, my in-laws’ computer and camera were stolen on subsequent nights spent in our home along with my wife’s engagement ring and another heirloom...There is more but the important thing is God prepared us for these events that were to come through the comforting words of the angel after the mugging. God emphasized in our life in the next little while: perseverance, obedience, letting the saints pray. We re-learned that it wasn’t all about us and the importance of trusting and fully relying on God.

Where have you seen God working in your life and what is your response?
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http://www.sheepspeak.com/
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Click here to read Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside.
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Click here to read On the Job Experience