Earlier this month General Brian Peddle released a new video message in light of the challenges brought about by COVID-19.Acknowledging the tragic tolls of death, hardship, and loss, the General invites viewers to ‘exercise the kind of faith that we find in Hebrews 11’.
The message also brings assurance that the international Salvation Army – with its presence in 131 countries worldwide – continues to meet very real need.
Within New Zealand with the release of the We Commit statements in the later half of 2019 at Congress, we commit to re-imagining mission centres to be effective and sustainable. This will require us to set aside our preoccupation with ‘the way things have always been done around here’ as we embrace what God is doing in disrupting our ‘normal’.
These are going to be testing times, trying times and challenging times as we come to terms with where we fit in all of this, and I reckon that God is refining us so that we can be better shaped to reach out to HIs world, with His love, through of all people US! What a privilege, what a scary proposition.
Are we up to the task?
Do people look at us as Christians and see Christ in US or do people see yet another angry opinionated person which they have become so accustomed to in this world? We should be examples of what it means to be living a Christ-like life in all of our interactions – sadly for many of us that is not the case.
But there is Hope and Life! God is doing a new thing, He is changing us from the inside as Paul in Romans 12:1-2 can attest to if we are willing to be transformed by Him.
“I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy – the kind he can accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?
Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.” (The Living Bible)
And I love how The Message puts it; “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
So Lord we pray that you would take our everyday, ordinary lives and use them to draw All people to you, for that should be our act of worship – It is not about us and what we want – But what we can do!
Blessings 🙂
The life and times of Perry... 