“In Ruth Barton’s book, ‘Sacred Rhythms: Arranging our Lives for Spiritual Transformation’ she explains that the human soul gets to the point when it is ready for a new way to pray – one that allows for a new intimacy with God. She explains that ‘Prayer is all the ways in which we communicate and commune with God.’ (63) 

Questions to consider: 

• What are some of the ways I commune with God?
• What percentage of my communication is talking TO God vs. listening or being with God?

Barton suggests that there are a number of ‘signs’ that we are ready for something new in our prayer life – something that is deeper and more intimate. Some of the signs include doubt and confusion (because what ‘worked’ in the past no longer ‘works’), emptiness, and hunger for intimacy with God. (64-65) 

• Have you felt some of these feelings about your prayer life?

We know that God desires a more intimate relationship with us, but how do we get there? Barton states that: 

Prayer means letting God’s creative love touch the MOST HIDDEN PLACES of our being… 

Prayer means LISTENING WITH ATTENTIVE, UNDIVIDED HEARTS to the inner movement of the Spirit of Jesus, even when that Spirit leads us to places we would rather not go. (66) Based on this quote, what do you think are some of the obstacles we put in our own way?  Some common obstacles include: 

• Risking
• Control
• Patterns of intimacy or non intimacy with others
• Wordy prayers

More questions to consider: 

• Is it possible that my striving for a deeper prayer life is getting in the way?
• What is the difference between knowing more about God, and knowing God more?
• What does it mean to truly listen to God? Is it simply a matter of an absence of words or thoughts on our part? Is there something more?

It may be helpful to compare our relationship with God to best friends who simply enjoy being with each other, sensing each others support and care without the necessity of words. This comes close to the communion that God desires for our relationship with him. In this kind of relationship words are secondary. 

How comfortable are you with silence? In your friendships and with God? If it is a really good friend you simply enjoy being with them. Intimacy with God is a growing connection with God / being with God throughout our day. The key point about silence and listening for God is this: God ‘fills’ the silence with something deeper than words – a new depth of communion with him. So it isn’t truly silence… In order for us to go deeper in our intimacy with God ‘we come to him with EMPTY HANDS AND AN EMPTY HEART, HAVING NO AGENDA… we just come with a sense of our own spiritual poverty.’ (68-69) The work of emptying is letting go…  The question is: What do I need to let go of, and how do I let go? 

Ruth Barton suggests ‘breath prayer’ as a way of letting go / dropping our guard, and connecting with God on a deeper level. Breath prayer is a ‘simple phrase that expresses the truest thing we know how to say to God at that time.’ (71) It is a phrase that captures the truth of my own spiritual longing. It helps to ground me during times of stress or distraction. 

Examples: 

• “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
• “Come, Lord Jesus, Come”
• “Lord Increase my Faith”

After you have chosen or created a breath prayer, try using it throughout your day to help you let go of negative thoughts and feelings, and center on what God is saying to you. Slowly repeat the first part of the phrase as you breathe in. Then slowly repeat the last part as you breathe out. Repeat as often as is helpful.” 

For more information on Breath Prayer and other Spiritual Disciplines check out Ruth Barton’s book: Sacred Rhythms: Arranging our Lives for Spiritual Transformation. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006. 

Captain Robert Russell

Post written by Captain Robert Russell. Robert is appointed to CFOT as the Distance Training Officer, where he faciliates the training for Auxiliary Captains throughout the Territory.  Robert also teaches Spiritual Formation and Salvation Army Business and Management. 

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A popular song that debuted on Christian radio in 2003 entitled “Everything To Me” describes the relationship that many who grew up in a Christian home, have with the Bible. It speaks of someone who “[grows] up in Sunday school, [memorizes] the Golden Rule and how Jesus came to set the sinner free”, someone who “[knows] the stories inside out[1]” as a small child but does not yet understand the full implications that these stories hold for their lives and their personal salvation. This does not belittle the significance of the Bible, or the belief that “the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God[2],” but instead speaks to the personal journey that many, like me, take with the Bible.

Growing up in a Christian home and regularly attending church, I was well versed in the Bible, obediently and earnestly learning my memory verses and paying close attention to the Bible stories as they were told to me. It was not until I was challenged about my personal faith at a summer camp at age 12 where I began to view the Bible as more than a story book. At this time and in the months and years to come, it became a book through which I could grow in my understanding of who God is and how He wanted me to live my life. I set aside my “Book of Bible Stories” and took the kids study Bible I had been given the year prior off the shelf and began to read it passionately, internalizing key verses through which God spoke to me and through which He gave me strength to stand strong as a Christian through my times attending public school and other secular based activities I participated in. 1 Timothy 4:12 became my personal mission statement.

This very strong faith in the Bible as the divine word of God carried me through much of the remainder of my grade school years. It was upon entering my post secondary studies that my confidence in the Bible began to be challenged. Through my studies in various science disciplines and anthropology, as well as being immersed in a very post-modern environment of a large university campus, I began to question the reliability of the Bible from a historical and academic perspective. Did the Bible stand up as a reliable historical text, and could it be used to defend my position as a Christian in an academic environment?Was it wrong of me to study geology and human evolution but still claim parts of the Bible as truth? And what implications did this have on my view of the Bible and my personal beliefs? For a time I took on the role of a skeptic, rigorously contrasting the Bible with what was being presented in my University studies. At this time I also began reading the works of Lee Strobel, which I found to be a reaffirming commentary on the validity of the Bible. Looking back, I see that this time of reflection on the Bible as a whole strengthened my faith in it and, subsequently, it strengthened my faith in and relationship with Jesus Christ. I can with confidence sing the title words in the song, “He became everything to me, more than a story[3].”

As a Salvationist, my personal journey with the Bible was further shaped by the study of its first doctrine which states that, “the Scriptures . . . were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.[4]” Looking further into The Handbook of Doctrine, one reads that, “the Bible is a human document . . . that . . . is also God’s word.[5]” The Bible is a human creation and inspired of God. Gordon Oliver in his book “Holy Bible, Human Bible” argues that, “one of the questions pastoral practice must ask concerns how the Bible can be taken seriously both as the writings of communities of people in the distant past and as holy Scripture.[6]”

These two definitions of the Bible, the “writings of . . . people” and “holy Scripture”, seem at first glance to contradict one another. Upon closer inspection this is not the case. The Bible most certainly is a human creation written by people. It is a collection of historical documents written over the course of thousands of years and in many languages by many authors and within many political and cultural contexts. Individual writing styles are evident as are human limitations. It is even humans who selected which historical works, or Books, should make up the Bible as we understand and recognize it today. If this is so, how can it also be inspired of God? Karlfried Froehlich, writing from a Lutheran perspective, explains that, “the Christian notion of Biblical inspiration suggests indeed that, in one sense or another, God is the auctor of Scripture. . . The suggestion is not that God must be claimed as a literary author, a writer. Auctor. . . means first of all originator, founder, beginner. . . God is the primary author, the biblical writers the secondary authors.[7]”

While the Bible is fundamentally written by humans, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is “the fruit of a living relationship between God and his people in particular historical contexts[8].” It is important to remember that “the Bible is a gift of God, not a human achievement.[9]” While the Bible does display its human authorship, “an investigation into the message and claims of the Bible shows them to exceed conventional human wisdom, logic and goodness.[10]”

Salvationists “accept the authority of the Bible as the ultimate deciding factor on issues of true Christian belief and discipleship” and is therefore seen as “the major authority for Christians[11].” However, Salvationists stem from Wesleyan tradition and view the Bible as authority along with tradition, reason and experience. The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine states that, “the Bible is not safely read without reference to the general understanding of the Christian community throughout history, any more than it is understood without the help of the Spirit.[12]“ It is important to remember that, while the study of Christian history and the guiding of the Holy Spirit are important, “we must not forget that Christians ultimately look to God alone as their source of religious authority.[13]”

Many within the church are falling away from the views of their doctrines that relate to the Bible. Don Thorsen states that, “there is the ongoing concern for . . . the dilution of the Bible’s good news of Jesus Christ and the present-day work of the Holy Spirit for the Kingdom of God.[14]“

There is good news in all of this. Despite the discussion about the Bible being distorted or forgotten about in today’s post-modern society, it is still seen to be a story important enough to be taught to children in Sunday school, shared on national TV every Easter season and studied in world-class universities. The crutch is that they are stories given through the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They are “stories-with-a-purpose[15].” The Bible is a story first and foremost, and as long as the story continues to be told there will be those who will listen and truly believe in the God that divinely inspired this beautiful book.

Essay written by Cadet Laura Van Schick. Laura and her husband Stefan are cadets in training at CFOT.  Laura wrote this essay having been asked (along with her session) to explore the meaning of the 1st doctrine and include within their writing their personal journey with the bible, why they feel the bible is a human creation and inspired by God, and why they feel the doctrine is important for The Salvation Army. 

View Bibliography & Endnotes by selecting the link.

“Jesus never told any of his disciples, “Great is your faith.” And yet they had left everything for his sake. He had said it to only one other person, and that was another minor figure without a name, the centurion from Capernaum (Matt. 8:5).

What, then, had this woman done to make Jesus praise her faith like that? Only this: she came to Jesus and stretched out her hands to him.

There are people enough today that cannot make their peace with this or that “dogma”. They are pulled to and fro by their doubts. They ought to open their ears and hear about that “great faith.” For that faith does not consist in “believing something is true” or in some sort of special antenna for religious questions. It consists in a struggle, a conversation with God.”

Our willingness to come, with empty hands outstretched toward the God who created and redeemed us…this is where faith begins.

Posted by Major Keith Pike.

 Keith is appointed to CFOT as the Director of Field Education.  He also teaches classes in Organizational Leadership and Field Education.

“Father, Into Thy hands I commend my spirit”

“Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

Do you remember your childhood and praying those words before you went to sleep?

Hebrew children were taught a different prayer. Each evening, as mother helped her child prepare for bed, she taught him to pray “into Thy hands I commend my sprit.” No doubt Mary taught it to her children so we should not be surprised that Jesus reverts to the prayer of His childhood as He takes His last breath.

The final prayer speaks of a presence and personal and relationship. Jesus approached death as he had done throughout His life….acknowledging His “Father”. In the four Gospels taken together Jesus refers to God as “Father” 184 times! Luke, who reported Jesus’ last word, also recorded his first. In the Temple at the age of twelve Jesus told his parents, “I must be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49). At the start of the Gospel and now at the conclusion Jesus was acknowledging the personal relationship he had with His Father. They enjoyed each other’s company. Jesus began in his Father’s house and ended in his Father’s hands.

The final prayer speaks of a protection He knew he could trust. When He prayed “into thy hands”, He understood the security within the Father’s hands. The Hebrew child prayed this when in danger. (Psalm 31:5) Those were the final words from Augustine; the final words of the Protestant reformer, John Hus, as he was being burned at the stake; the last words of Christopher Columbus before he died.

Commend is a banking term and means “to deposit,” or “commit” in confidence to another that which is precious. Jesus was acknowledging the absolute confidence he had in His Father and so committed the safety of His spirit into the Almighty’s trustworthy hands.

With that, in the simplest and most blessed, loving act of all, He was able to submit and yield to His Father.  Jesus died the way He lived… with total submission, ever conscious of His Father’s presence and incredibly confident in His Father’s protection.

I recall my Mom teaching me that early prayer and somehow even as a child it was meant to assure me that I could trust God….and it did! I no longer pray the words my mother taught me. However, I hear this final prayer from the Cross and somehow it too is meant to assure me that I can trust God – and it does!

Major Sandra Rice

“It Is Finished”

In his now famous speech, “Yes We Can” Senator (now President) Barach Obama spoke these words…”We are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again.” In November 2008 that hunger for change and desire to believe in something greater saw the United States of America elect its first African American president. Three simple words, Yes We Can changed the course of the election, and the direction of a nation.

Words are powerful, three small words, like David’s five smooth stones (1 Samuel 17:40) can fell the largest giant, and conquer the strongest foe. It is not surprising Jesus chose three simple words to conclude his life and ministry on earth. The last phrase that Jesus spoke before he died was “It Is Finished”. “Tetelestai” (pronounced tuh-tell-uh-sty) is a Greek word meaning “it is finished or paid in full.

This simple phrase “Tetelestai” was not a sigh of defeat but statement of completion. It was a common phrase used in everyday transactions.

For the employee – When the job was completed, the employee would say to the boss, TETELESTAI – meaning I have completed the job you gave me to do.

For the Priest – The people of God would bring their sacrifice to be offered – after the high priest examined and accepted it – He would say – TETELESTAI – meaning it is perfect, it is accepted!

For the shop keeper – When a purchase was made, the merchant would take your money and hand you a receipt – TETELESTAI – The debt had been fully paid or paid in full.

For the artist – When an Artist would complete his work, he would step back, admire his work, and say TETELESTAI – It is finished. The picture is completed

Jesus life and ministry served to complete the Old Testament picture of the Christ to come. God has finished what only God could finish. Christ’s sacrifice, a gift that surpasses every expectation, exceeds every debt, and places the final stroke to God’s masterpiece of redemption. Our sins have been consumed, making it possible to live lives that reflect God’s love and glow with the beauty of His Spirit.

What wonderful news: “It is finished”‘… But it is not over. It is not over because God made us, the church, to be His witnesses of grace and reconciliation to the world, a world with no time for a crucified God. Our salvation is complete in Him and we set our hearts and minds to the work of living in peace with one another in God’s kingdom.

Major Keith Pike

John 19:28-29 (NRSV)

Surely the execrable suffering that Jesus experienced from the Garden of Gethsemane to the cross would explain his thirst.  Why then would Jesus refuse an earlier offer for something to drink (Mark 15:23, Mt. 27:34) only to declare “I am thirsty” and accept a drink of wine vinegar from a hyssop branch moments before his death?

While the physical reality and excess of Jesus’ suffering would explain an obvious rationale for this, the reader of John might note each time the word ‘thirst’ is used throughout the book it refers to a spiritual thirst.  Is this verse any different?

In the words of Jesus fifth statement from the cross, is it possible that Jesus himself was experiencing a deep, spiritual longing for God?  It was after all, on the cross, that God had turned his back on his own Son.  Not because God didn’t care or love Jesus, but because he could not look upon the sin of the world which Jesus took upon himself.  In the midst of being forsaken by his Father (Mark 15:34) and being separated from intimate fellowship with God, did Jesus acknowledged his own spiritual thirst and desire?  In one sweeping motion he takes every sin ever committed in the past, present and future, and in the utter darkness of that moment finds himself alienated from God.

While we can never understand what Jesus must have experience, and because of that we never will, many do know the feeling of hopelessness and abandonment.  During difficult and painful times in our life it is common to feel lonely and abandoned.  We long for something, someone to come and be with us.  Jesus came to be with us (John 1:14) and having removed the sting of death from us invites us to experience refreshment through Him, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)

Captain Deana Zelinsky

In Matthew 27:45-46 we read “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, have You forsaken me?”

Despair had set in.  Jesus, who had been with God for eternity, was now alone.  Every Scriptural account of the events of the crucifixion confirm Jesus’ full acceptance of His fate and purpose. He withstood beatings and was mocked.  He endured insults and the pain of nails piercing his wrists. He accepted what was coming (Hebrews 12:2).  The Bible makes no mention of any reaction on His part to this suffering.  The physical pain was immense but when God turned His head, that was more than he could handle.  “My God, my God!” he cried. “Why did You abandon me?”

Jesus’ response to this feeling of loneliness and separation from God moved him to do what he had done throughout his earthly ministry – to turn to Scripture.  Although unable to finish verbalizing his prayer, he cries the words of Psalm 22, often referred to as the Psalm of the Cross which begins with “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

In those awful moments, Jesus was expressing His feelings of abandonment as God placed the sins of the world on Him – and because of that had to “turn away” from Jesus. As Jesus was feeling that weight of sin, He was experiencing separation from God for the only time in all of eternity. It was at this time that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus became sin for us, feeling the loneliness and abandonment that sin always produces, except that in this case, it was not his sin – it was ours.  He loved us so deeply that he was willing to endure that abandonment.

As I reflect on that feeling of abandonment Christ felt while he was on the cross and his prayer of despair, I am drawn to a paragraph in Max Lucado’s book, “No Wonder They Call Him the Savior”…

“I keep thinking of all the people who cast despairing eyes toward the dark heavens and cry “Why”?  And I imagine him.  I imagine him listening.  I picture his eyes misting and a pierced hand brushing away a tear.  And although he may offer no answer although he may solve no dilemma, although the question may freeze painfully in mid-air, he who also was once alone, understands.”

Mj. Shona Pike

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”  From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”

Jesus is dying, hanging on a cross.  His mother stands watching.  We can scarcely imagine this.   Mothers want to protect their sons.   The relationship between mothers and sons is often complex and multi-layered.   It is no different for Jesus and his mother.  In John’s gospel, the mother of Jesus appears twice – at the very beginning of his ministry and then as she stands at the foot of the cross.  In the first instance, in John 2, his mother is at a wedding celebration and informs Jesus that “They have no more wine.”   Jesus’ response seems abrupt and impersonal – “Dear woman, why do you involve me?   My time has not yet come.”   Not to be completely put off, his mother instructs the servants to do whatever he tells them.   She anticipates that he will do something.   And he does.  Water becomes wine.   This was the first of Jesus’ miraculous signs.

By chapter 19 a lot has changed.   Jesus’ time has come.  His work is almost completed when he speaks these words from the cross.   Soon he will declare, “It is finished.”   But first he reaches out to his mother and the Beloved Disciple.   In keeping with John’s Gospel, these words are multi-layered.   Jesus is doing more than making provision for his mother.  In fact, his words are first addressed to his mother:  “Dear woman, here is your son.”   He gives her a new maternal role before he entrusts her to John’s care.
At this crucial hour of his passion, he institutes a new family to be formed around the nucleus of his mother and one of his disciples.  This community would move beyond flesh and blood to include all who believe in his name – “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1: 12, 13)

So in these final words of Jesus, seemingly personal words to his mother and to his disciple, there is much more going on. While Jesus is dying on the cross, he draws attention to new relationships: the formation of a new community, the Church of Jesus Christ.  All is now completed.  It is for us to live out this vision of God’s new community, made possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Major Cathie Harris

Paradise!

I’m not sure what kind of images are evoked by this word for you, but the biblical world helps us. Genesis sets humanity in a garden, and John of Patmos refers to it as “the paradise of God” (Rev 2:7). And when Isaiah portrays the return of Israel from exile, the prophet says God “will make her wilderness like paradise” (Isa 51:3). It’s a place of joy, gladness, and the voice of song.

Yet this is not the only place noted in Luke’s story of the crucifixion. “When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals…” (Luke 23:33). In contrast to Mark and Matthew, Luke names the place of crucifixion, The Skull. It would seem that somehow the topography resembled the shape of a human skull, thus its name.

The Skull!

Two places. One typified by cruel violence; the other characterized by beauty and life. And what strikes me is that somehow in his moment of agony, our Lord has the capacity to look beyond the place of violence and name the place of life. Whatever his own view of The Skull he could also view Paradise. Not as an escape, but as an invitation to be “with him.”

A few weeks ago, our College experienced a remarkable moment of grace. Eighteen refugee children came to our place and joined us for a concert of brass, timbrel, and didgeridoo! The children came from three nations in Africa; they came from violent situations as refugees to Canada. And their music teacher in a Transitional School sought an opportunity to introduce them to some of the music of Canada…and Australia! The joy on their faces, the rhythm in their bodies, and the expressiveness of their voices transformed our chapel.

I have little idea of their journey to this land. I can barely comprehend the violence these young lives may have experienced. But somewhere along the way my hunch is that a request was made: “Remember me…” And somewhere along the way somebody had the vision and resources to name another place.

In our ministry we seldom know the suffering that has helped to form the people we meet. As we approach this Easter my prayer is that we would have the capacity to see not only The Skull but Paradise. Not only the violence, but the possible beauty. And to hear in this an invitation to be “with him.”

Major Ray Harris