In a short while I’ll be celebrating 30 years of following Jesus. On the 17th October, 1995, I recognised that Jesus was Lord and that he alone could save me, restore me and prepare me for eternal life in the presence of God.
30 years on, I am more convinced than I ever have been that the gospel is the hope for the nation, but if that’s too large a concept for us to really grasp, let me say I believe it’s the one true source of hope, freedom and life for everyone you’ve set eyes on today. On our world stage, and in our local community, people struggle on in despair. Maybe the ‘quiet despair’ is the worst kind, because it drags people under in ways that aren’t always detectable…and then it can be too late.
The gospel – the sharing of the gospel and the embedding of the gospel in the life of the church – is my life’s purpose. Everything I am involved in (as a rampant introvert) thrusts me into the presence of others because I believe the only authentic way to live as a follower of Jesus is to be in close proximity for those who need this message. As we walk through life, we’re called to disciple…to drop the teachings, values, and ways of Jesus’ Kingdom in every sphere of life in whatever way we can. We’re called to pray ‘your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. This ‘ora et labora‘ – prayer and work – is the first call of the follower of Jesus.
Our little band of believers here on Arran have prayed earnestly that the Lord will move in the hearts of people we can’t seem to reach. The solid response to that prayer has been people turning up seeking Jesus that we haven’t even had to go and evangelise. I have one such appointment tomorrow with yet another person who has just sought us out. This is wonderful, and we can take little credit for the moving of the Spirit. There are, however, many more people who are sinking.
I have no doubt people get tired of me saying the words ‘Salvation Army’, but one of the reasons the Army remains to close to my heart is not for the organisation itself (good as it is, even with its faults), but for the passion it taught me for souls of men and women. I learned gospel urgency, gospel visibility, gospel determination, gospel spiritual warfare, prayer for souls and community, and the need for the gospel to penetrate the heart, the demand of the holy life and complete consecration to the cause of Christ.. I’ve left the organisation, but I am still an officer in the Lord’s Army…a force of the loving God which still needs loving, passionate; and faithful recruits, that fight with love, mercy, compassion; the word of God and the power of the Spirit.
“No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:4). Your life changes the second you encounter Jesus. His call is a radical call upon your life. You die to yourself and you consider yourself alive in him for his purpose alone. Nothing else matters, really. We are so time-bound in our earthly existence we forget that eternity expands out in front of us without end. We’re not trying to get people to come to church – we are calling people to sit at the Master’s table in the New Creation, to take up a new eternal life there after death, mourning, pain and sorrow is no more.
Our next ‘strategy’ here on our beautiful island can’t be more ‘church as usual.’ There is a desperate need in the lives of men and women. We need to arm in prayer, be fortified with loving courage, and leave the comforts of our homely lives. I wish I could recount to you story after story from Salvation Army history of those the Lord called in those early days to abandon themselves to the mission of Jesus, and often at great cost to themselves. I feel like a pigmy goat by comparison.
The Lord hasn’t always used big armies. Gideon was left with very few but their victory could only be attributed to the Lord. That’s the dynamic – to God alone be the Glory. One life covenanted to him can yield much fruit. We all need to count the cost, though.
We need to rise up, friends.
Andrew S M Clark 