Major's Minute
I pray that this newsletter finds you well. It has been an extremely hot week, so please be sure take care of yourselves. To escape the heat, Gwyn and I went to the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was our first time to Fort Baker, Battery Rathbone-McIndoe, Battery Alexander, and Battery Mendell. We weren't prepared to walk to Point Bonita Lighthouse, but we will definitely plan that for another day.
It was eerie and fascinating at the same time. Have any of you watched the series Lost? That's what it felt like with the abandoned buildings and the overgrown foliage. I imagined what it would've been like with the military personnel manning their stations, their posts. Building bunkers, barriers, and offices in the hillside. Driving around with orders or tasks to complete. Analyzing coordinates. Testing and retesting equipment. Keeping ammunitions stocked. Plans on the ready. And then years later, dismantling everything.
As we celebrated the Fourth of July this week too, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the sacrifices of those who fought for and ensured that our country remain free.
The gospel message is the same. We have been given freedom in Christ. We have freedom from death caused by sin. Our freedom was secured at a great cost. God sent His only Son to die and shed His blood for us. The ultimate price of freedom was paid through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Although the cost was high, Jesus' death and resurrection purchased the freedom of anyone who trusts in Him. By faith, we become children of God and co-heirs with Christ. Through Him, we are made pure, holy, and blameless.
Still, with this freedom comes tremendous responsibility. The gift of freedom is no a license to do as you please. Rather, it is a calling to live unselfishly and righteously. Freedom rings when you chose not to indult all your desires, but chose to live a life honoring the Lord (Let Freedom Ring by Kelly McFadden).
"God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom." 1 Corinthians 1:30
I also want to thank those who helped in preparing for our Vacation Bible School. There is still a little more to do. Yes, the decorations add to the atmosphere and overall theme of the week. But the most important thing is that children know about God's love for them. As I write, we have 43 children registered so far - and there might be more overnight - that will be spending the week with us.
Pray for the families who do not have a church home that they will feel welcome and possibly decide to make this their spiritual family. Pray for the staff and volunteers too. We want to be sure that we are prepared, clearly communicate the Gospel messages, and have the stamina to keep up!
A sister in Christ,
AnnMarguerite Jones
Did Jesus Really Say That?
If you are like me and browse the internet for material related to Bible study and/or faith-based subjects, you will undoubtedly from time to time come across an article which says that it can “prove” that the Bible is “contradicting” itself and therefore Christianity cannot be “trusted”.
As you know, our faith is in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and not the Bible itself, but it is from the Bible (although not exclusively) that we know what we do about God’s plan for humanity. So we should be aware of, and test our knowledge and credibility of the scripture on which we rely.
An example I came across this week while doing some work for a website was the well-known saying of Jesus, “…it is more blessed to give than to receive…” Acts 20:35.
The problem the writer had with Paul’s quotation of Jesus, however, is that it appears nowhere in the gospel accounts, or indeed anywhere else in scripture except in this exhortation of Paul to the elders in Ephesus to do good found in Acts 20.
So, did Paul make a mistake? Did he misquote Jesus? What logical explanation can be given as to why these words are not recorded in the gospel accounts?
Well, there is nothing which points to Paul even possessing the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John during his ministry, nor would he need them in order to know what Jesus taught. In fact, they likely were written some years after Paul had already begun his missionary journeys, and probably after he reminded the Ephesus elders of Jesus’ statement about giving.
A little thought brings us to the conclusion that Paul did not rely upon the gospel accounts for his knowledge of Jesus. Rather, Paul received supernatural revelation directly from God. Jesus spoke directly to Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9; 22:8), “the Spirit of Jesus” kept him from preaching in Bithynia (Acts 16:7, ASV), and “the Lord spoke to Paul…by a vision” in Corinth (Acts 18:9).
The message that he preached came directly from God. To the churches of Galatia, he wrote: “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12, emphasis mine).
As important as those gospel accounts are for we Christians in the twenty-first century, Paul did not need to consult them in order to know if Jesus ever taught, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
It’s also good to note that not everything that Jesus said and did was recorded by the gospel writers. At the end of his gospel, John twice points out: “…truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book…. [T]here are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 20:30 and 21:25)
Each of the gospel writers gives us his own independent account of what Jesus did and said. What we do know from them is that Jesus was fond of expressing the “inverted logic” of the Kingdom. He loved to tweak the established religionists of his day by telling them, “the first shall be last”, “if you want to be the greatest you need to be the least”, “to find your life you have to lose it”, “happy are those who mourn”, “love your enemies”, and on and on. So, “it is more blessed to give than to receive” is exactly the sort of thing we can imagine Jesus saying and Paul tells us Jesus said it.
The old proverb says that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” and millions of Jesus-followers through twenty centuries have proved the truth of these words by putting them into action.
In our culture of getting and receiving let us prove once again the truth of Jesus’ words, because we can be sure that, yes! Jesus did say that!
Blessings on you and yours,
Jim Black
P.S. If you’d like to read previous ruminations of mine they can be found at https://www.salvationarmyconcordca.org/chronicle/?category=Bible%20Study
Why You Should Write Your Testimony
From the Caring Magazine
You'll remember, of course, over the past few weeks we've been focused on testimonies—from understanding why God calls us to share our stories to learning how to articulate them effectively.
So far, we've covered the what and the why and started getting into the how. We've defined a testimony as YOUR story within the FRAME of God's story. We looked at three examples of what Scripture tells us about the power of sharing our stories. We established the testimony TEST (that it should be true, encourage, strengthen and transformative). And we decided on an angle for this version of your testimony.
Now, let's outline. 📝
Try jotting down some notes—bullet points are fine—for your testimony using this three-part outlining framework:
1. "This happened..." (the “before” + how God acted)
2. "Which made me realize..." (how it brought you closer to God)
3. "That's the thing about..." (the “after”)
Remember, your stories aren't about YOU. They're about the meaning that connects you with others AND others to Jesus.
"That's the thing about" is a forcing function to do that. It's a prompt to help you increase the impact of your testimony because it originates in a more personal place: your perspective, your lived experience.
And it's that perspective that's powerful in making us care, as so beautifully said in this quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (French writer, aviator, and author the author of The Little Prince): "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
I know Jesus is writing a beautiful story in your life ... so let's testify to it!
With love,
Christin
P.S. If you want to work through your testimony in a workshop with me, you're in luck! We're about to release one virtually that's free to attend. Head to caringmagazine.org/testify to get inside.
The Salvation Army Concord Corps
Email: annmarguerite.jones@usw.salvationarmy.org
Website: https://www.SalvationArmyConcordCA.org
Location: 3950 Clayton Road, Concord, CA, USA
Phone: (925) 676-6180
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tsaconcord