RantandRave

Yo le alabaré Señor
O, It’s amazing what praising can do, Amen?
But are we praising Him enough to be worthy of such love

It’s amazing to read the Psalms and realize the way that David praises God.

David in almost every chapter is praising the God of heaven of earth in a way that I think we should learn from.

Be confident and praise your God.

Psalm 9:1-2 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

Psalm 146:2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Psalm 34:1 I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.

Psalm 52:9 I will praise you forever for what you have done;
in your name I will hope, for your name is good.
I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

Psalm 63:4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

Psalm 69:30 I will praise God's name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.

But praise should be continually be on our lips to the God that has supplied all of our needs. We are all here for a purpose, We need to stay postive, and continually keep the negative things away from us.

Psalm 71:8 (Everyone) My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long. Psalm 71:8

I pray that when things get hard, that you remember this verse

Krystal Meyers

Dear God
Its me again down here,
Don't want to sound insincere,
I'm lost, some times are so unclear,
What can you do, I'm feeling so far from you,
Frustrated irritated disconnected from it all,
The wieght of the world, has push me to the wall,
I surrender2x

To you I'm giving in, come take me, save me,
I want to start again, I'll open my broken heart,
Cause I'll reach the end, and you are the way to begin...
I've seen a million smiles living in denial,
I don't want to live like that,
Where nothings real, I hate how its to feel,
Frustrated irritated disconnected from it all,
I'm brakin', I'm achin', for something beautiful,
Surrender2x

To you I give in, come take me, save me,
I want to start ahain,
I'll open my broken heart,
Cause I'll reach the end,
And you are the way to begin,

All the riches in this world,
Couldn't fill this great big hole
It takes so much more,
Only you can take me, you can make me,
Home....

It's not the end this is the beginnig,
surrender2x

To you I give in,
Come take me, save me,
I want to start again, I'll open my broken heart,
Cause I'll reach the end, and you are the way to begin,
Surrender2x

Its not the end this is the beginning,
Surrender2x
its not the end this is the beginning,
Surrender2x
its not the end this is the beginning,
Surrender2x
Its not the end this is the beginning,

For your plans
For your purpose
For your goodness

Use me, Lord
Use me, Lord
May I be your instrument

"Many do not recognize the fact as they ought, that Satan has got men fast asleep in sin and that it is his great device to keep them so. He does not care what we do if he can do that. We may sing songs about the sweet by and by, preach sermons and say prayers until doomsday, and he will never concern himself about us, if we don't wake anybody up. But if we awake the sleeping sinner he will gnash on us with his teeth. This is our work - to wake people up."
-Catherine Booth "Mother of The Salvation Army"

Are we waking them up?

I'm afraid that sometimes the opposite might be happening. I believe that we are getting so caught up in the busyness of the work-that we are causing people to sleep. This is my opinion, but I know personally that I am not doing all that I should to reach the people of this world.

We need to do whatever we can to reach the sleeping and WAKE them up!!

We need to wake up to better and more persistent ways to wake them up!!!

This work is hard and busy but there is much more than everything we think it is. We need to get out of the office and be progressive in reaching people for His sake.

We need to lead a revolution. Get our people to think outside the church. There are people sleeping on our doorsteps and yet we open the door and walk by them. Wake them up and show them Jesus. There are people sleeping in the houses next to our corps, go to their house and wake them up! There are people coming into our corps sleeping, shake them and wake them, let them know about Jesus.

There are people all around us and we need to wake them up to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We need a revival in The Salvation Army. Pray for a revival of the Holy Spirt upon this church.

"'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world."
-William Booth "Founder of The Salvation Army"

Do we deserve the "things" we have? Do we "need" them? How ironic?

It is very ironic to think of all the things that we have and yet they do not completely change what we want. You see there is always more to get and more to want. But are we focusing all of our energies on them.

I write this, speaking to myself.

We need to be content with God has given us. If you look in Philippians Paul is saying the same thing in chapter 4:11-12 (NCV), “I am not telling you this because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens, when I have enough to eat or when I go hungry, when I have more than I need and when I do not have enough.” Now this is the important part of what Paul says, in verse 13 “I can do all things THROUGH Christ, because He gives me strength.”

There was a time in my life where my mother didn’t eat because she had to feed her kids. I know what it is not to have the things you need, notice I didn’t say want.

I know what is like to get kicked out of your house because your family can not pay the rent. I know what it is like to look into your mother face and see her try and explain to you why there is no Christmas for you this year.

You see we want things to better ourselves. God wants to better His Kingdom using us. God has brought me from that poverty to a richness I can not believe. And that is not a material richness but a spiritual richness. I have much more than I could have ever believed.

And that is because as Paul puts it, “I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens” and the key to that secret for me is constantly relying on Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Christ, because He gives me strength.”

God has provided this place and all that goes with it, for the glory of him, not the comfort of us. Let us learn the secret of contentment, and let the Glory of God be seen through our actions and our words. Let it be an attitude of the heart and may you be content with God’s blessing.

And this is a lesson that I constantly need to be learning everyday.

BE CONTENT

Let me be holy, holy
Let me be holy, holy
To be righteous in your sight

Holy is what I want to be
To be holy in your sight
To be led by your light

Let me be holy, holy
Let me be holy, holy
Holy is truly what I want

1 Peter 1:15 (New Living Translation)
But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God--who chose you to be his children--is holy.

As millennial Salvationists, we do not by any means have the attacks and complete degradation that the early Salvationists faced. The early Salvationist had to face a barrage of different attacks, not only by the common folk but also through the local magistrates and sheriffs. But think of it, with all of these attacks, the army still managed to grow and expound beyond anything that William Booth could have hoped.

Early Salvationist had to fight against the very thing that put in place to protect them and give the right to freedom. In various shires around England, the actors participated in the persecution of Salvationists were no convicted or the charges were thrown out. Even to the fact of violence against women Salvationists, these attackers were let off with nominal fines and slaps on the wrist. Such as the case with three men who disturbed a Salvation Army meeting because the leader of that meeting was “a female minister.” These three men were let off with a nominal fine, a slap on the wrist. Not only were the attackers not being prosecuted, but Salvationists were being charged and sentenced.
Salvationists were actually being charged with crimes in the early years of the Army. One particular instance is a Captain Lock who was sentenced because she knelt to pray in a large open area. She and four others were jailed for a period of three days and as a result of this jailing, Captain Lock subsequently died eighteen months later.
Many early Salvationist were fined or jailed for such things as conducting an open-air, preaching in an open area, and playing an instrument. Not all these violations happen in England, but as Ireland and Scotland, such cases were arising.
In May of 1885, William Booth announced that no fewer than 600 Salvationist were placed in prison. These Salvationist were in defense of their right to preach salvation to all people.

In the early days of The Salvation Army, there was heavy opposition to their cause. There were organized mobs that had banded to together for the soul purpose to defeat the Army and their mission. One such organized mob was commonly named “The Skeleton Army”
“The Skeleton Army” was certainly organized to carry out their destruction. This mob was organized to very core with a flag, gazettes, and a motto, “Be just and fear not”. They met together and learned the music of the songs that the Army were singing, but fashioned their own words to fit their cause.
The Army did not fight with fists, but fought with their prayers. Their prayers won, Charles Jefferies, second in command of “The Skeleton Army” was saved. He was saved, due in large part to the watchnight service that was led all night. The next morning Jefferies, was saved. As a result, that evening thirty of his compatriots were led to the Lord that night.
Skeleton armies began to spread throughout the country of England. But without fail, the police force chose to ignore the happenings of these armies.

The Salvation Army in those early years was tough. But the Army pressed on, and continued to fight for men’s souls, especially those trying to persecute them. May we have the same vigor as those early Salvationists for men’s souls and may we have more success without the persecution.

What does it mean to be holy?
Is there an actual concept of design?
Many may say that it is the acts of goodness
in which we are holy.
But I often question the acts of goodness.
Are they for personal gain, to reflect the light
of goodness upon yourself?

Who am I to question the state of anyone's
personal holiness?
I can barely hold together the gathering of my own.
It amazes me to look at a group of people and know that
there should be some state of holiness among them, yet
when the nitty-gritty comes, when pressure is put to them,
the very nature of humanness crawls
out at it's most vilious state.

I often ponder on what God must be thinking of us
here on his greatest creation of Earth.
Is there any sense of approvalness on His part?
Does he look upon us with favor?

God is all-knowing and that scares me more than anything else.
Truly think about it for one second.
God knows all your thoughts, all your desires,
and all your so hidden secrets.

And you know that if any of these thoughts, desires, and hidden
secrets were to escape your mind and be put to light. You would be
casted from the society that you have worked so hard to be apart.

BUT, with everything that God knows about you. And believe me
He knows everything.

He still wants you.
He still cares for you.
He still watches you.
And most importantly,
He still LOVES you.

Oh happy day
Oh happy day
Oh happy happy day;
Oh happy day
When Jesus washed
Oh when he washed
When Jesus washed
He washed my sins away!