John 10:1

Just thought I'd share this with you.

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Exodus 12:22

"Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning."

John 10:7

"Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate [door] for the sheep."

Matthew 26:28

"This [wine] is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

John 19:28 & 29

"Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips."

John 14:16

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Matthew 7:7 & 8

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

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He can't get much more thorough than that people. We might want to start acknowledging his presence sometime soon. If we don't, things could get messy around here.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a home. A man comes to the home and wishing to enter, knocks on the door. When the door opens, the man's companion, a theif, sees the riches within and, wanting them for his own, he trys to tear down the wall of the home. Seeing this the homeowner goes out to the man and offers him the keys to the door. Feeling shame, the thief refuses and the homeowner goes back inside, locks the door and is never seen again. So it is with Christ."

-The Transparent Man-

Affecting Eternity

“…[William Booth] knew intuitively that alleviating the suffering of the poor would prevent society from falling into chaos. This was not his primary motivation for preaching the gospel but an outcome of that preaching. Booth was primarily an evangelist and a revivalist pressing the hope that spiritual regeneration would manifest itself in social stability.”

–Dr. Roger J. Green-

William Booth firmly believed that true regeneration started on the inside and worked its way out. He knew that if regeneration was to manifest itself physically it must first happen spiritually. Christ worked this way and William Booth followed his example. His physical ministries were simply a manifestation of the spiritual ministries which preceded them.

In today’s Army our approach is much different. We seek to minister to the physical needs of mankind in hopes opportunities to minister spiritually will present themselves. Our success is nowhere near that of William Booth’s because there is a serious flaw in our logic. While our doctrine and theology claim to recognize the complex areas of a person as being fundamentally interconnected our actions address them as if they were separate. Instead of leading the lost to Christ when we minister to physical needs as separate we are actually enabling them to remain in sin.

A person with both physical and spiritual needs must be ministered to both physically and spiritually. When their needs are met physically alone they learn that the dimension for having their needs met is physical. Totally depraved, people will seek to have their needs met anywhere other than Christ. This means that spiritual needs seek fulfillment on a physical level. While satisfaction is impossible to achieve this way, it is more than possible for those needs to be supressed to a level at where they can be ignored. When we minister to physical needs alone we facilitate this type of superficial healing and ignore the root of the problem. Physical needs must be met physically and spiritual needs must be met spiritually.

Salvation of the eternal soul is not a physical matter. The things of this world will soon pass away. It is the spiritual dynamic of a person which has eternal consequence. On Judgment Day it will not matter whether a person is hungry or not. A feast is already prepared. It will not matter whether a person was homeless. They will be given a home in glory. All that will matter come Judgment Day is whether or not the blood of the Lamb is painted over the doorpost of their heart.

My friends, if our goal as an Army is to affect the kingdoms of this world than we need only continue what we are doing. But if we hope to affect the kingdoms of eternity we must focus on those kingdoms. If we make his name known He will make ours known. Long after this world is dead, gone and forgotten.

“Not every man who asks for a drink thirsts for water.”

–The Transparent Man-