Jubilee (We are all nobility)

I looked into the eyes of one of our regular homeless guys yesterday as he came in for his soup.

We were standing under a string of British flags, you know, the really cheap ones everyone's buying for their jubilee parties. Well someone's (mentioning no names, Dawn) has hung up in our prayer centre to help us all feel all jubileeish!

I was talking to this guy, he was showing obvious signs of panic. He had missed his social security appointment for the second time in a month which meant he wouldn't get his money. He was sweating profusely and shaking because of lack of alcohol, he was pale and had a pained look about him. He was Desperate and looked a hopeless sight.

I calmed him down, we went and sat on a sofa and I got him a six-sugared cup tea, and we began to work out what we could do about his dilemma.

As I looked into his eyes, I could still see the jubilee paraphernalia hanging in the background.

It didn't feel much like a day of jubilee.

Not at all.

My mind switched like lightening to a different kind of jubilee.

It switched to an image in my mind of Jesus.

The king of kings.

Not exactly a diamond studded, gold adorned kind of king, lying down in a lavish palace being fed massive juicy grapes.

O no!

But a king who died a brutal death on a cross so that we could live full lives forever in his glorious courts and be part of his family forever.

Then a realisation, or maybe a revelation, or something anyway, flashed full pelt into my head and radiated immediately to my heart.

If we are part of this kings family?

That makes me nobility.

It makes my homeless friend nobility too.

So this homeless guy really doesn't relate to the jubilee that we will all celebrate this weekend in honour of Queen Elizabeth.

Not at all.

He doesn't really care much.

Alcoholism and utter social isolation takes care of that.

But if I can get him to see that he is actually nobility?

He is a child of the king? That he is a welcome addition to the kingdom? Headed up by the king of all kings?

He will have a chance of survival.

I desperately pray he will one day see that as we fight for his very life.

How are you feeling right now today?

Do you feel like royalty?

Do you see yourself as nobility?

Children of the king of kings?

Maybe it's time in your life journey for a different kind of jubilee.

The true day of jubilee!

Seeing ourselves and others as nobility opens up a new perspective. It opens up unending opportunities for our own lives to develop and indeed changes everything in terms of how we look at others.

No longer would we pick and choose who comes into our churches. No longer would we have an us and them situation. No longer would we have limited salvation (especially when God warns us that His salvation
is for everyone: Isaiah 56). If we are able to see everyone as fellow nobles, brothers and sisters? Maybe we would fight even harder for them.

We would just see things differently and maybe it could make all the difference.

Have a great time celebrating the jubilee this weekend if you are into royalty! Enjoy your street party, your barbecue or your lazy day watching queenie type things on the TV. Of course we honour our monarch.

But maybe let it remind of you of a different kind of jubilee. One that we can be part of every day of our lives.

The kingdom of God.

The true day of jubilee.

Recovering from the damage of harsh words

I remember being in school.

I never really liked my school days. I don't look back on them with any amount of good feeling.

Yet there was one day towards the end of my high school days that is massively important.

I was in the headmasters office. He was one of those old school guys who everyone was fearful of. He had one of those hairstyles that seemed like he had slapped it down with pure grease. Parted on the side, with the parting closer to his left ear than the top of his head. He wore dull Ill fitting grey suits with once white shirts and strange green and brown ties. He without fail always wore his black academic gown over this dreary attire.

He always had a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

He had only one manner.

Pure aggression.

And I wasn't his favourite pupil.

Oh no.

Definitely not.

On the day I am recalling now, he had me stand in the corner of his equally dreary office facing his desk.

I felt like I had a flock of swans flying around in my lower abdomen.

I was terrified.

I had been caught along with one of my classmates letting the tyres down on the car of a teacher who had put me on detention for something ultra trivial.

I know now that wasn't good really!

The headmaster was on the other side of the desk, tapping his cane into his hand with a deeply intimidating rhythm.

It wasn't the six of the best that hurt me that day.

It was his vicious tongue.

"Lacey, you will never amount to anything. Your just a useless piece of trash."

It was a day I have never forgot.

I went home that night with a set of six deep crimson stripes on my backside and a very deep wound in my heart.

Yet somehow that dubious false-prophecy spoken by a severely troubled man, has served to help me to rise from the damage that could have inflicted on my life. After the dust settled from that remark, I sat in my little bedroom looking in a mirror, and I said to myself, "I will amount to something, I will make sure of it." I don't know where it came from because I was fifteen years old and did not understand anything about God whatsoever, but I heard words drop into my head that I have tried to hold on to right up to this day. "I will be an extraordinary person. So from that day on I have tried to be an extraordinary person, tried to work harder at being extraordinary. I've tried to work and live an extraordinary existence.

Never would I listen to anything or anyone who directed shameful words of discouragement ever again. Things have been said to me since that have hurt of course, but I always rise up from it.

It could of gone another way.

I have ministered to many people who have been almost mortally wounded by similar words.

People who feel less than ordinary, whose lives have been shaped by the devastation caused by words.

Someone once told me how when she was six years old, her mother had said to her when she had done something wrong, "mummy doesn't love you anymore!" probably said in anger, yet fifty six years later this lady had found it difficult to believe anyone could love her. It had affected her relationships at work, in her family and had prevented her from believing God could possibly love her.

Damage caused by words.

So this is for those who have been damaged by words.

God really does love you.

You are everything to him.

He loves you unconditionally and his love is not measurable.

You amount to worth that is also unmeasurable.

In the eyes of God? You are the apple of his eye.

And in that knowledge you can rise from the ashes of the hurt caused by Ill-directed words that usually come out of a persons insecurity.

You are extraordinary. Is it time to walk in your extraordinariness?

I pray right now that God will strengthen us to be able to get up when we get knocked down by someone's harsh words.

I guess this blog post seems a bit random to what I usually write, but I'm sitting on the train somewhere between London and Durham, and I just felt compelled to write. So my fingers just began to type on my iPad and I felt strongly in my spirit that this is what I needed to write so I guess it's for someone today.

So then if it is you this is for? Whatever has been said to you? Refuse today to let those words land on you. Rise from the hurt and allow Gods extreme love to land on you instead.

What now? (live from the I'll fight congress London)

I'm writing this from a box in the Royal Albert Hall.

The "I'll fight' congress has just begun.

As the ceremony and saluting begins my mind begins to wander.

It wanders to the outside of the Albert hall to the streets that stretch the plains of the globe.

Often desolate, dark, seedy places.

I see people slain down by the force of alcoholism. I see children and young people hurting by the experience of broken familyhood. I see older people dying, lonely and lifeless. I see drug addicts shooting up their lurid substances. I see so called rich people carrying their crazy debts around with them. I see the exploitations of conglomerates shattering lives through cool media presentations. I see the grey dull neon signs of the sex rooms that adorn our cities. The pictures go on and on. I see the destructive work of the evil one lurking at every turn.

It's a cold dark fearsome place.

It's the ground to which we exist to be sent.

I look around this amazing building. It looks particularly brilliant tonight. Fantastic lighting, a colourful stage with one big baby of a flag hanging on the back of the stage. The biggest flag I've ever seen in fact!

Just now they've played a recording of William Booth saying to Salvationists. I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves but don't forget those who are living in darkness on the streets." or words to that effect.

I look out at 5000 faces with eyes glued to the stage.

Enjoying ourselves.

5000 living-breathing parts of the Salvation Army in the UK.

I think Booths little message there, spoken in another era, to a previous generation of Salvationists, is ultra challenging. When 5000 people walk out of here tonight it brings a two-word question for us all to ponder.

What now?

These bright lights and big flags are somehow comforting to some annoying to others, familiar to many.

So if we are comforted, annoyed or feeling the familiarity of the Army tonight, the question still stands.

What now?

I am listening right now to massed youth chorus people singing.

Boy it sounds beautiful.

It's so full of hope and life.

Their faces are radiant and beautiful beyond belief. I see the life that they could bring to the broken, to the hurting, to the lost. We are so talented and gifted. We have so much in our armoury to march into the darkest of places and rescue the darkest of souls.

We can't stay in the bright lights though.

We can't live for moments like these.

We can't put all our salt in producing excellence in music, media and spoken word.

So what now?

The Generals going to be speaking shortly so I'm signing off in a second.

But before go I feel bold enough to speak this.

What now?

Get out of the comfort of the lights. Come out of that place. Find those who need us.

Desperately.

Don't settle for the bright lights, the concert hall, the cool worship service, as great as they are and so they should be, just don't settle for them that's all. Don't put all your efforts into that stuff. Take those talents and that sort of passion and direct it not to each other but firstly to God then to the lost.

Be an Army.

An Army with a massive flag.

But let that flag be the Spirit of God flying high in the deepest darkest battle grounds this world has. Your street, your family, your community, your city, your workplace, anywhere you find yourselves.

Offer a saving hand to those who are drowning in despair, listlessness and hopelessness.

Come on guys.

What's under the hood?

I am hooked on technology.

Particularly phones.

The choice in the marketplaces both physical and online is ever growing.

Right now we have quad core monster phones that bring the Internet world and the business communication world, as well as gaming and all the rest of it, to the screen at breathtaking speeds.

Once you get one phone though, another bigger, brighter, clearer, better one is released.

You just can't keep pace with advancement in technology these days.

But the thing is.

At the end of the day?

They all do the same things virtually.

Calls, texts, emails, browsing, apps and the list goes on.

Sitting in Starbucks with my own phone this morning, my mind went back to the days when we didn't even have a home phone. If anyone in our family wanted to make a call we had to trudge, rain or shine, to the phone box which was about quarter of a mile away from our house.

How the world has moved on in such a short time.

One of the choices we are faced with when deliberating over the choice of a new mobile phone is 1. the outer appearance and 2. what is under the hood.

Some phones look so futuristic while others are robust and functional. But the fact remains you can have the most eye pleasing outer appearance but with less than pleasing workings under the hood, yet the same can be said the other way, with clumpy functional phones that aren't so pleasing house super fast technology on the inside.

My phone looks pretty cool but has good, but not top of the range, functionality. But it gets the job done.

What is under the hood matters much more than the outer appearance because its the inside that gets the job done.

I think of the world flashing around me every minute every day. Advertisements, books, TV, magazines and the like aimed at the importance of the outer appearance of both humans and material things. It's almost like as long as we take responsibility for the outside of us we are truly part of society, no matter what's going on on the inside of us!

As I'm writing this I've got this weird picture of Mother Theresa coming into my mind? I've been reading some amazing books and articles about the ministry of Mother Theresa lately, and I have to say when you look at the pictures of Mother Theresa, God love her, I'm not sure at first glance she would have caught my eye at a party (when I was young and virile of course!) According to me, she ain't all that high in the good looks department!

But boy what she had under the hood!

She had a massive heart, a dogged faith, a strong mentality towards mission, she had an inner beauty that was magnetic and full of charm. She had strength courage beyond the natural.

She was beautiful! And in kingdom terms? She got the job done.

Wouldn't it be really refreshing to see adverts and the like, aimed at taking responsibility for the inside of us as opposed to the outside. Where we focus on what is under the hood in our lives.

God gives us a chance to take responsibility for everything inside our hearts and our lives. He knows what's under the hood. He should do, he made it. Whatever is going on right now on the inside of us God knows!

You have searched me O Lord and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the Heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me. If I say, "surely the darkness will hide me,and the night become light around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, and the darkness is light to you. For you created my inmost being ; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139: 1-14)

He knows what is under the hood alright!

For this psalmist, he was taking responsibility for the inside of him.

He could see inside his own life because he used spiritual eyes, he was in a deep relationship with God no matter what was going on on the outside.

Today guys you have a choice.

What the outer appearance looks like? 2. What's under the hood?

Holiness, is for me anyway, about taking responsibility for what is under the hood. To make sure we are continually moving on, making things better inside our lives and especially inside our hearts, improving things, not being afraid of the new in regards to making changes inside of ourselves. The bible calls it changing from glory to glory.

At the end of the day in Kingdom terms?

It means we will constantly get the job done.

Blessings on your life today.

Face to face

I'll fight to the very end.

Famous last words.

In this case the last words of an ultra potent prophetic statement wrapped into a profound sermon given by William Booth at the outset of the last century.

I'll fight to the very end.

He is talking about fighting for those in desperate need of a saviour.

It was a perennial call for people to join him in that fight.

So how are we doing on the fighting for the lost front?

I was deep in a highly frustrating conversation with a fellow leader a couple of weeks ago. He made this assessment of how we are doing with fighting. "We (The Salvation Army) fight smarter these days. With well planned campaigns national campaigns, technology and elaborate traditional programming. And we fight smarter because we have more academically efficient leadership in our Corps and centres."

Interesting statement.

I can tell you now that this statement doesn't really float my dinghy.

If that's how we are fighting? Then the last man standing please hand the keys in.

I mean academically efficient leadership? Is that a vital factor in the fight? Not that there is anything wrong with that of course. Nothing at all, and I'm all for bettering our knowledge etc. And as for elaborate traditional programming? What on earth is that?

Its just that I don't think it always sits alongside the fact that Jesus chose fishermen to be his right hand men guys who hadn't always done too well in the jewish academic arena. And I definitely don't agree with the view that it makes leadership more efficient. Sounds a bit exclusive to me really. And I don't think it is a absolutely critical factor in the fight for the lost either. But maybe that's just me.

Writing this today I am aware that following me getting this down on paper, I will be going to a meeting with a guy who has just been released from prison to help him try and get a roof over his head for tonight and the coming days. One of my team sat with him yesterday and talked to him directly about rebuilding his life from this point on and how God could help him to steer clear of another prison term, and how his life could change beyond understanding.

My team member was fighting, with all her might to save another lost person from possible destruction.

As I watched this amazing conversation conducted with love beyond measure, I thought about the statement that we "fight smarter these days."

I am up for innovation in the fighting for lost souls battle, but not at the expense of the one thing that I believe the Spirit of God is asking me to communicate today.

And that is?

Face to face fighting.

How are we doing on the fighting front?

I can't answer that really because that would involve me judging people , and I'm not up for that, so no sweeping statements here.

But?

If we aren't getting face to face with the lost then we won't reach them.

Will we?

We won't reach them from our offices, or our citadels, or our church buildings or even the comfort of our own homes.

Can we?

It doesn't take academia to work that one out.

Does it?

God is calling us to be face to face with the world.

Here's Booths last few sentences of his amazing prophecy.

"While women weep as they do now I'll fight, while men go to prison in and out in and out, I'll fight. While there is a drunkard, while there is a little lost girl upon the street, while there is one dark soul without the light of Christ, I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end."

This statement speaks of a fight for Justice, salvation and liberation. It speaks of seeking and saving the lost. It speaks of an Army fighting for the very lives of the needy with love, acceptance and compassion coursing through its veins.

So how are we doing on the fighting front?

The Spirit of God says, "I call the whosoever. Whoever you are you are, regardless of social standing or educational prowess you are essential to the fight. I call those who would come to be face to face with as many people as you can. Whatever plans you have, however efficient you are, if you are not face to face with those who need a saviour, then the fight is diminished. I call those who would be pioneers in the fight, those who would from the spiritual place go out in to the world and stop at nothing to transform it covered by my power. I call those to the fight who have lost the fighting Spirit. I breathe that fight in to your spirit this day. I call those who are dreaming and visioning, I call you out of the shadows, I call the prophetic to rise from the same shadows and into the fight because the fight will be lost without you. I call those who are passionately involved in focussing on the things that don't matter, I need you to focus on the fight to the very end. I call those who see justice as a product of the victory, I call you to step up. I charge you to embrace bravery and courage to be face to face with the darkest of souls and the most floundering of spirits. I call you to take up the fight and take it up to the very end of your days. I don't want smarter, I want real."

In the name of Jesus we say amen.

Just as you are!

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated high on throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were Serapis, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the door posts and the thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6: 1-8)

A mesmerising textual picture.

Isaiah, sitting in the temple, being in the presence of God drags up inner feelings of inadequacy in the presence of God. How can God possibly love or use me? He thinks.

Then he experiences the incredible mercy of God as God reminds him with an angel using a red hot live coal straight from the altar that his mercy is real and alive, and forgiveness is assured.

Isaiah accepts Gods incredible mercy immediately responds to Gods challenge to be sent out burning with the Spirit of God.

The thing I love about this most of all is the simple truth that even though Isaiah doesn't feel worthy of being in the presence of God, God accepts him into his presence just as Isaiah is.

God accepts us Just as we are!

Wow, that's massive!

Last Saturday I was invited to speak at a prayer breakfast as part of a number of speakers who people could choose to go and listen to. I got up at 7am, showered, and listlessly got into the car, tapped the post code into the satellite navigation, and pulled out of my driveway and out into the misty early morning. I have done a lot of travelling lately and feel like I need a break to recharge my batteries. I wasn't looking forward to the whole event that lay ahead of me and it was making me feel guilty.

Guilty, because here I was doing what I love to do, sharing the gospel, but wishing I wasn't that morning.

As I got up to speak in the first session after breakfast, I felt a bit unworthy.

Like I shouldn't be doing this.

Especially when I my heart didn't feel in it.

But my experience reminded me That at times like this there is only one thing to do.

Press into God!

So I just pictured God and said a prayer that said something like, "Please help me here Lord!"

And I believe God used me that morning to touch others with his presence.

He really moved!

That is because he accepts me just as I am at any given moment.

At Church on Sunday night the service started with that old worship song, come, now is the time to worship. Another line in that song is, "Come, just as you are to worship." The second song was called, Majesty (The delirious one!) that contained the line, "Your grace has found me just as I am!"

Isaiah sees that truth first hand.

Gods grace found him just as he was.

Whatever state he was in.

Maybe today you are feeling a bit inadequate or unworthy.

Maybe those feelings are preventing you from experiencing the wall-shaking, doorpost-rattling presence of God?

Today, remember that his grace will find you just as you are.

His acceptance is total.

So press into God, whatever you are feeling!

Humongous blessings today!

The Salvation Army: Spiritual life is its heartbeat!

I met two of the loveliest girls you could ever wish tomeet.  One of them hails from Brazil, theother from the USA.

They are both part of the Centre for spiritual lifedevelopment (CSLD), covering all sixty two territories that make up theInternational Salvation Army.

I want to say what a fantastic department that is.

God has been pouring prophetic juices into my speaking for awhile now essentially with the message that the Salvation Army has to get backto the spiritual.

So I was really taken and deeply blessed by what these amazing girls had toshare with me.

Not that the Salvation Army is not spiritual, or there areno spiritual people.

That’s a bit daft really, and definitely untrue.

But what I am talking about is where the spiritual becomesthe big thing.

The biggest thing.

The only reliable source of power the Salvation Army willever have is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

No programme, no mission plan, no evangelistic campaign, nostrategy will ever succeed unless it flows from the heart of God.

So this centre, this small group of people led by Lieut- ColJanet Munn, Is like a heart.

I remember when I worked in open heart surgery in myprevious working life before becoming a full time minister, every day seeingfirst hand actual human hearts, and studying the intricacies of the anatomyattached to them.

When the heart doesn’t work the body is useless.

Spiritual life can be likened to that scenario quite easily.

On the front of the leaflet that the CSLD there is aprophetic statement from the SAs current General, Linda Bond, it says, “I see aGod-raised, Spirit filled Army of the 21^st century.”

I see it too.

I really do.

When the heart is beating.

When prayer becomes the focal point of the whole Army. When weare not afraid to lay down the sacred cows of bland religion. When from thesacredness of being on our knees we rise and run towards the lost. When ourhunger is for God alone and what he is doing in the world today. When we turnour eyes from the material side of the Salvation Army and turn our eyes uponJesus. When holiness becomes more than a doctrinal concept and becomes ourwhole being. When the word of God is our only mandate.

Then the heart is beating.

It is spiritual life.

And spiritual life is the lifeblood to the future of theSalvation Army and the lifeline to the millions who desperately need a saviour.

I guess the crux of spiritual life is taking responsibilityfor the inside of ourselves, for our personal spiritual life. And I guess thisis what the Centre for spiritual life development is keen to encourage.

It seems to me that we could do with spiritual life centres everywhere, we need them so much.

More than that we need to take responsibility for the inside of us!

spiritual life is everything.

Otherwise the body can’t live.

It will always be our heartbeat.

And the Salvation Army will not live unless the heart isbeating.

The spiritual heart.

Bless you big time today guys.

Storm

Looking out of my hotel room window, I am mesmerised by the view.

I am in a hotel right on the edge of the eastern coast of the UK; I am at a Salvation Army Officers retreat. It’s a compulsory event for me.

I’ll let you into a secret.

I really don’t like these types of gatherings. 

Don’t like them at all.'

But the hotel is absolutely amazing.

I’ve dipped out of a couple of teaching sessions (Amazingly the guest speaker, who is a really good guy, gave us permission to be absent if we felt like just being peaceful on your own).

I’ve taken him up on the offer.

So im looking out to sea.

From my hotel room window.

I’m captivated by the waves rolling in; the sky is an ominous green- black colour and there is a storm heading towards the coast preceded by mist that’s thick and swirling. Fine rain is starting to lace the air, wetting the ground. Heavy rain is imminent.

It is natural awesomeness at work.

Lately I have been really frantic with work. I’ve travelled for miles by Land and air, speaking at events, lecturing, praying, ministering, pastoring. I’ve hardly had a moment to think. Life has been consumed with busyness and the stresses and strains that it inevitably brings.

It’s felt at times like I’m in the middle of a storm.

Like I am being tossed about and blown every which way by the winds of work, responsibility and mission.

Yet right now?

I’m sitting in almost total silence, except for the distant boom of the sea and the gentle patter of rain.

I have nothing to do right now.

But sit and stare at the gathering storm.

It’s nice to stop.

It feels like I have found a shelter out of the life-storm that has seemed to be a bit on the relentless side lately.

And shelter from life storm is never easy to find.

But it is necessary.

There are times when we have to stop.

Really stop.

It’s funny, this officers retreat I am on, isn’t really a retreat at all. These so called retreats are really conferences. It’s as if people have to fill space in with teaching and other stuff otherwise it’s not worth gathering. So really we fill the space with even more busyness. Most people in ministry i guess are really desperate for a break.

People need to stop.

Get shelter from the storm.

As I sit here this afternoon, since I’ve stopped doing stuff, I have touched the very presence of God. I’ve felt his nearness, been soothed by his voice. I’ve been able to put some perspective on things that are going on in my life.

Maybe it’s time you stopped for a while too.  Got out of the life storm for a while. Maybe this is word for you today.

The Spirit of God says, drop the busyness. Get out of the storm. It’s time to recharge the batteries, to just stop. Come to me and rest. I am your shelter, you safe place, your home. I am your replenishment and your storehouse. I am your restoration, your peace, your hope giver. I am your fixer, your healer, your life giver. I am your garrison, your fortress, your castle. I am your comfort, you embrace, your protector.

I am your God.