So, it's official. I will no longer be the youth pastor of Bangor Corps as of sometime in December. I don't know what I'm doing, or where I'm going from here, but God knows, because He knows everything. God's Good like that.

false teachers and a bad brew!

I'll start with the bad brew, since Michelle already beat me to it! It wasn't really the brew that was bad, more the choice of putting the super-hot metal pot straight from the burner to the counter, putting a huge crack in my counter top! It was hilarious! I had been too long without catching anything on fire, or crashing into something, so it was time, yet again!

And now, for this week's course study question....the question had to do with false teachers, and where we saw false teaching in our community. Here's my thoughts on the subject:

Both Peter and Jude mention two signs of false teaching almost word for word. The first is sexual immorality, and other lusts of the flesh (2 Peter 2:14,18,19, Jude 7)
The second is the rejection of authority and slander of celestial beings (2 Peter 2:9-10, Jude 8), including made-up doctrines and mixing lies in with the truth.

"These men blaspheme in matters they do not understand"(2 Peter 2:12). "Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand" (Jude 10)
Peter calls these false teachers 'dry springs', while Jude calls them shepherds who feed only themselves...

So there are some pretty obvious telltale signs in false teachers to look out for...the integrity of their personal life, and the glorification of themselves and their work instead of Jesus.

As for sexual immorality, I haven't seen any evidence of that within the corps that I know of. Actually, I think we're doing pretty good on that one.

But what about this other thing about 'slandering celestial beings' and rejection of authority? What might that include, I wonder? The pharisees got mad at Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath, and we read the story thinking, 'Silly pharisees, can't you see you're talking to JESUS???' But really, how many times are we willing to accept true spiritual healings today? One of the men from our corps has this amazing testimony of kneeling down beside his AA sponsor, inviting Jesus into his heart, and being completely delivered of his addiction to alchohol. Not only does he not drink, he doesn't even WANT a drink. That's a pretty powerful transformation. Praise the LORD!!!

I don't want to get into the arguments for or against the gift of speaking in tongues, or the existence of angels, or the use of prophecy today, because I have seen true and false expressions of all three.

My worry for the Army, is that we have neglected and shut down the Spirit of God on more than one occasion. We've stopped actually expecting God to show up in our midst. Where some people put too much weight on experience and none on discipline, I fear that we place too much weight on discipline and rationality, to the point of shutting out certain elements of the divinity of God. I fear that too often we embrace the security of religious legalism rather than stepping out in the freedom that Christ's life represents.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to bve a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit" Romans 8:1-5

Paul's letter to me and Bangor

I'm taking an online course, and one of the discussion questions had to do with Paul's letters, and what his letters to our corps would be. Here's my response:

I like Joyce's comment about wondering whether the churches would have been looking forward to Paul's letters...I have to wonder whether I would be looking forward to Paul's letters myself....maybe he would send me someone I had given up on and turned my back on because they weren't living up to my standards at one time. (Phi 10-12) Or maybe he would remind me that it's actions that speak louder than words and not to get stuck in the rut of witty wordplay and pious manipulation (Titus 1:10-16). He would remind me that I have been foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures to keep me humble, and help me remember what it was like to be without Christ, and what His saving grace looked like for me. (Titus 2:3-7)
He would tell me to stay strong and expect persecution and hardship, because Christ was rejected, and so was Paul (2 Tim 1:15) He would remind me of the foundational truth of the Gospel, that "The LORD knows those who are his" and "everyone who confesses the name of the LORD must turn away from wickedness" (2 Tim 2:19)
He'd even give me lists of what was to look out for in my flock and myself (Gal 5:19-21, 1 Tim 4:1-3, 6:3-5,9,10, 2 Tim 3:1-9, 4:3-4 ) and remind me of how he overcame those things, and how God empowers us to rise above the muck through Holy Spirit (Gal 5:16-18, 22-26, 1 Tim 3:2-13, 5:1,2, 6:1,6-8, 2 Tim 3:10-4:2)
As a corps, He would remind us to welcome eachother, and see eachother, and listen to eachother, rather than spending all our time worrying about ourselves and how we've been wronged. He would remind us to keep moving forward, not keeping to traditions for traditions' sake, but to do whatever was neccessary to reach the people Christ has called us to reach. In the Salvation Army, that would be the drug addicts, the single mothers, the gang members, the lonely, the depressed, the mentally afflicted, etc etc. He would encourage us to be who we were created to be, and to choose to love one another as a family, since that is what we are.

partly because of a new course I'm working on, partly because a lack of positive things to say, or deep insights to life, partly because of doing stuff for the auction, partly due to weekends away, and partly due to a growing addiction to online games and my pillow!

Today I am $300 in the hole...mostly from becoming lazy and not paying attention to when money was coming in or going out properly.
Yesterday I tried to help clean an apartment, but she didn't want to throw out any of her collected items. She has to sleep on the street, but would rather do that than part with any of her 'things'. What kind of a society have we created where people latch on to stuffed animals and children's car seats over staying in from the cold at night? So frustrating.
I'm not talking a little bit of clutter, here. I'm talking floor to cieling, boxes on boxes, shelves on shelves, and toys on toys of STUFF. I've seen this before. A six-person household in Toronto living in a two-bedroom apartment. The family was going to lose their children because they were hoarding so much stuff. In Vancouver, the same thing. In Bangor, the same thing. Looking at our family's basement, it was the same thing again. What's the deal with possession? Why do we feel the need to keep grasping hold of stuff until the stuff strangles us out of house home and family? Isn't this just the same as gluttony, alchoholism, or drug addiction? There truly IS too much of a good thing.

The biggest thing I think that is lacking in our corps, what I crave, is simply community. The idea of house churches, and living together with other Christians, giving to whoever has a need, the whole Acts 2:42 lifestyle.
I think it's easy to distance ourselves from eachother, to keep our lives sectioned into our little orderly pieces, or hide from eachother. One of the people I feel closest to in my life is my mom. The reason why, is that she's seen me at all hours of the day, in all kinds of moods, and still cheers me on from the sidelines and loves me despite myself.
I think part of the reason injustice exists is because of this whole sectionalizing dehumanizing thing....out of sight, out of mind. But if we are truly living in community, there cannot be injustice, because
It's easy to smile and 'be happy' for one hour a week on a sunday morning, but letting those same people get to know your little ideosynchrocies (big word, and probably not spelled anywhere near right) and get to love other people for their idiosyncraseez (try #2, probably worse than the first!) is a whole different story. When someone preaches a hard word on tithing or sexual immorality, people run from the church because they feel like they've been 'found out' so they keep their distance for a while until new officers come in, who will give them the open arms without the accountability.