FAD | heaven

heav⋅en [hev-uhn]
-noun
1. The dwelling of God, the angels, and the souls of those who are granted salvation.
2. An eternal state of communion with God; everlasting bliss.
3. A place of supreme happiness.

It was very bright at first, translucent.  As if waking from a dream to stare into the sun but with light not yellow but white.  Light that forces pupils to vanish.  Objects were passing through these beams but were not clearly distinguished, as I saw them, safely. The night before, I went to sleep wondering what it will be like when Jesus comes to bring His believers into Heaven.  “In a blink of an eye” - about a fifth of a second - is all the time it will take.  Before I drifted, I remembered many things then recalled one specific instance, a conversation I had as a child with a friend about the differences between heaven and hell.  At eight years old, we decided one night at summer camp that we could either have infinity’s worth of marshmallows or infinity’s worth of screaming explosions.

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FAD | worship - part 1

wor⋅ship [wur-ship]
-noun
1.  A feeling of profound love and admiration.

-verb
1.  Love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess.
2.  Show devotion to God.
3.  Attend religious services.

Recently I prayed that Jesus would show Himself to me.  Soon I had a strange vision in which He did… I saw what I thought was a dark green forest of trees.  When my sight became clear I realized that it wasn’t a forest at all but a wall of waving palm branches.  A large crowd of people were praising and holding their palm branches as Jesus rode before them, on a donkey, through the city.  It was Palm Sunday.

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FAD | Raise the glorious standard 2

Raising the standard for officers | part II

of⋅fi⋅cer [aw-fuh-ser]
-noun
1.  A Christian minister of The Salvation Army, having been trained and commissioned to service and leadership and given a quasi-military rank.

I‘m glad that many of you added your voices to the discussion about raising the standards for officership. Critical thinking and self-assessment are very clear indicators of a healthy mission. We should not be afraid of this kind of wrestling, thinking and discussion.  We should also not be quick to jump to conclusions or assume that our culture’s stance on the issue of education was canonized by William Booth until the end of time.

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FAD | Raise the glorious standard

Raising the standard for officers | part I

of⋅fi⋅cer [aw-fuh-ser]
-noun
1.  A Christian minister of The Salvation Army, having been trained and commissioned to service and leadership and given a quasi-military rank.

It was surreal.  I was walking around with a small group of friends.  We were part of a larger Salvation Army group that was spending the day at the local amusement park during a week long Bible camp.  It was the height of summer.

A teenage girl tapped me on the shoulder while I walked.  “Hi Eric,” she grinned.  I did not know her but I could tell she was a part of the group that came from camp (she had on a plastic bracelet).  I said “Hello” and smiled back at her on my way to buy junk food.  “I’m going to Training,” she concluded.  Perhaps I was dehydrated or was disoriented by all my favorite Looney Toon characters, which were surrounding me in the park.  I started to stutter: “Oh, uh, really?  Huh?  Well, how, how, how-how-old-are-you?”  She beamed, “Seventeen!”

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FAD | the mercy seat

mer⋅cy seat [mur-see seet]
–noun
1. The gold covering on the Ark of the Covenant, regarded as the resting place of God.
2. The Mercy Seat or ‘Penitent Form’ is a bench provided as a place where people can kneel to pray, seek salvation or sanctification, or make a special consecration to God’s will and service.

The Mercy Seat is a place where souls are won, commitments are made, new life is claimed and mission is fueled. It can be manifested in many ways; as an altar in a church or a drum in a park.  Its purpose is always the same.  It is there to remind us and give us a place to respond to God’s reconciling and redeeming presence.

As a child growing up at my corps I thought it was quite natural to kneel at the Mercy Seat and talk with God.  I can remember the excitement I felt when I prayed at the altar (another name for the Mercy Seat).  My heart raced; I could hardly catch my breath as I walked back to my seat after praying at that sacred place.  I can’t remember what I prayed in those early memories but I know that afterwards I felt good.  I felt better.

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FAD | the uniform

Part 1 by our newest blogger Eric Himes

u·ni·form [yoo-nuh-fawrm]
– adjective
1. Always the same, as in character or degree; unvarying.
2. Conforming to one principle, standard, or rule; consistent.
–noun
1. A distinctive outfit intended to identify those who wear it as members of a specific group.

I’ve been struggling with this for a while. Like that time in the summer of 2004 when I stood in full uniform, playing in a brass quintet at an Open Air in Bielefeld, Germany.  The suspicious looks of the townspeople should have first tipped us off but we kept playing and smiling and absorbing their scowls because the DC was on his way and we wanted to give him a good show.

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