The latest War Cry is now available!

The latest War Cry is now available!

You can pick up a copy for free from your local Salvation Army centre or read it online here.

This online service is made available by the team at Issue.com and you can view or download a copy right to your computer.

As always there are an array of different articles and features within the War Cry which will inspire people of all ages and stages in life, including features on belonging and sustainability.

Why not help get the word out there by sharing this post via facebook, or forward the links on to others 🙂

You can also view / download previous publications here.

 

The latest War Cry is now available!

The latest War Cry is now available!

You can pick up a copy for free from your local Salvation Army centre or read it online here.

This online service is made available by the team at Issue.com and you can view or download a copy right to your computer.

As always there are an array of different articles and features within the War Cry which will inspire people of all ages and stages in life, including features on this years Easter Camps, the importance of prayer, and on fascinating glimpses of the early Army.

Why not help get the word out there by sharing this post via facebook, or forward the links on to others 🙂

You can also view / download previous publications here.

 

May Newsletter now available

The Salvation Army Wellington City Corps May newsletter is now available online here, or by clicking on the image.

Within its pages you’ll find information about our weekly and monthly ministries, activities and events etc. that we have running.

We are continually developing our weekly worship service to make it available online in the form of ‘Church Online‘ so that we can effectively reach out to those within our wider community and beyond. People who are unable to physically meet with us each week due to ill-health, underlying health conditions, or are in a rest home etc. are enjoying our hosted ‘Church Online’ services.

These are posted on facebook for a 6pm (NZ time) start on Sundays and are then made available throughout the remainder of the week, many people around the country and from around the world are blessed by our Music team and Wellington Citadel Band. Links are available via our Corps or the Wellington Citadel Band Facebook pages, alternatively you can subscribe to our Corps YouTube channel or follow this blog to ensure you get notifications as they come through.

If you live in the Wellington Region (especially the Inner City) and would like to know more about what we do, what we are about, and how you can partner with us – Check out our facebook page, leave a comment, give us a call at the office (04) 801 9278 or email: wellingtoncity.corps@salvationarmy.org.nz and we will get in touch.

God bless you each 🙂

Lenten Reflections – Easter Sunday

Leading up to Easter as part of Lent Salvos For A More Inclusive Church have invited you and I to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

Today I’ll be posting both the Good Friday & Easter Sunday reflections separately for you to use as a devotion, and to be reminded of the lengths that Jesus went to win our hearts.

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Easter Sunday)

Today we finish our series on the seven “I am …” statements of Jesus. Please welcome Captain Belinda Cassie (Australia) who is our guest presenter today. We’d also love to have you share your Easter reflection with us today as you respond to the question, “What does the Easter story mean to you as you share the inclusive love of God?”

Belinda writes. “Whosoever. It’s an interesting concept really, whosoever. If you’ve spent any time around churches or church folk you’ve heard it said over and over, in sermons, in readings, in songs. Usually with gusto. But I wonder sometimes how much we really mean it. Or does our whosoever really mean, whoever looks like me or speaks like me, whoever dresses like me and behaves like me, whoever believes as I do or loves like I do, or comes where I’m from?

 

John (John 11) tells us the story of one of Jesus’ friends Lazarus’ death and resurrection. There is a moment as the story unfolds in which Jesus comforts Martha, the sister of Lazarus. I like Martha, I kind of like to think I’m a bit like Martha myself. She’s been cut a fairly raw deal over the years, painted as the whingy woman from the kitchen, but I don’t think we’re telling Martha’s real story when we see her as such. Martha is the one who fronted Jesus when it seemed he arrived too late, four days too late , four days after her brother had died and she asked him why.

 

Why were you late Jesus,
why weren’t you here when we needed you?

We’ve loved and supported you,
we’ve believed in you, so where were you?

 

And I can’t help but think that if we were all completely honest with ourselves, we’ve all had those kind of moments. The moments when we want to ask Jesus why.

 

Why did that happen?
Why did I experience that?

 

In the middle of my darkness where were you Jesus? Martha was just brave enough to ask the questions that we often don’t allow ourselves to. Jesus’ initial words fall a bit flat with our friend Martha. Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.” Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”

 

Basically, Martha, I imagine with a sigh, is saying ‘yeah, yeah, I know’. And Jesus replies, “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”

 

Other versions quote Jesus as saying ‘anyone’ or ‘whoever’. I like that. Because the thing that stands out to me is that there is no caveat. It’s that whosoever that we speak of. See the thing that I noticed about Jesus is that he never left anyone out. It’s almost as if he intentionally reached out to those that the religious folk of the day decided didn’t belong. The ones they would have kept out of the collective whosoever.

 

Today as we gather in churches or homes, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ we may well recall those words again, ‘I am the resurrection and the life – whoever believes in me will live’.

No hoops to jump through, no boxes to tick, no rule book you have to follow, just an acceptance of the grace of God that means in Jesus we are each the whosoever, and we find life and a new beginning in him. It doesn’t matter what you might have heard elsewhere. Maybe someone told you that the way you live, look, or love leaves you out, and dear one I am sorry if someone spoke that over you, because that’s not from Jesus.

The Jesus I know, the crucified Christ, who defeated death and the grave, the one who rose again, did so that you and I and the whosoever would have life, and have it to the full. Here, and now, and for eternity.

 

Captain Belinda Cassie, Australia

 

Lenten Reflections – Good Friday

Leading up to Easter as part of Lent Salvos For A More Inclusive Church have invited you and I to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

Today I’ll be posting both the Good Friday & Easter Sunday reflections separately for you to use as a devotion, and to be reminded of the lengths that Jesus went to win our hearts.

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Good Friday)

In the past few weeks we have considered the “I am …” statements of Jesus from John’s gospel. Each writer has challenged us to examine the words through an inclusive lens. Today we pause briefly before looking at “I am the resurrection and the life” on Easter Sunday. How appropriate that we join with Christians around the world on that day to remember the risen Christ.

But today there are some words from Gethsemane and the cross that remind us that Christ hears and remembers us. How often like the criminal in Luke 23:32-43 do we ask God to be included. “Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” and Jesus answers us each, “Truly I tell you, … you will be with me in paradise.”

But what about the present? We may struggle with the pain of not being accepted, not being seen, not being heard and not being loved. Jesus knew what it was to be alone even with his friends around him. He experienced the pain and anguish of knowing what was about to come and he expresses this to his father. Jesus is in no doubt that God is able to take away what he is facing. But there is also a moment of recognition that God has it all under control. Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

How often do we pray, “Lord make me straight” or “Lord may I be cisgender” in the belief that this is what God requires. Sadly this is so often because of the expectation that church lays on us.

But like Jesus, there may come a time of submission where we can understand that God has a plan for us each which may require a different outcome. Let us not forget what the next verse, Luke 22:43 tells us. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.”

We are not alone when we experience the anguish of facing a painful outcome.

 

In Philippians 4:19 we are reminded “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

 

We can have hope in what this promise means.

1. We will have more than enough,
2. Not only does God supply our needs, but prepares us to face anything and everything
3. We are not only equipped for what we need to do but also for who we need to be.
4. We have the privilege as followers of Christ to be present in the situations of those we encounter even when we are in isolation.

And with that assurance we can sing,

Thank you for the cross, Lord, Thank you for the price You paid,
Bearing all my sin and shame in love You came
And gave amazing grace

 

Thank you for this love, Lord. Thank you for the nail pierced hands,
Washed me in Your cleansing flow. Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace

 

Worthy is the Lamb, seated on the throne,
Crown You now with many crowns, you reign victorious.
High and lifted up, Jesus Son of God,
The Darling of Heaven crucified, Worthy is the Lamb …”

 

Thank Lord that we are a people of hope, who don’t only see a man on a cross, but look to the empty tomb and celebrate your resurrection and conquering of death, pain and anguish.

 

I invite you to join with me and Wellington City corps to sing,
Crown Him with many crowns

 

 

The Easter Edition of the War Cry is now available!

The Easter Edition of the War Cry is now available!

You can pick up a copy for free from your local Salvation Army centre or read it online here.

This online service is made available by the team at Issue.com and you can view or download a copy right to your computer.

As always there are an array of different articles and features within the War Cry which will inspire people of all ages and stages in life.

Why not help get the word out there by sharing this post via facebook, or forward the links on to others 🙂

You can also view / download previous publications here.