Holiness & The Life of Brengle

Brengle: He taught us Holiness    I Peter 1:13-16                                        Capt. Kelly Durant

2.You have heard of Prengles, right? Well, at the CFOT in Chicago we had Brengles! (show can) Ha! Actually, most of us remember by association and this helps, right? Well, you do need to consume holiness teachings! And then apply them!

It has only been a few years years since a talented Major (Col.) Eddie Hobgood did a reenactment at a commissioning on the life of Samuel Logan Brengle. I was reflecting on that and realized some of you who were not there may not have a clue who this man was that the Salvation Army honors for his teachings. I told everyone I was going away to the Brengle Institute in Chicago and everyone is like, well okay have a good time, not knowing anything about the contributions of this holy man and his writings on holiness. These past 2 weeks were like a refresher course, a refilling of the Holy Ghost, a resting and a calling to live my life in holiness; to live full of the Holy Spirit! Do you want a life full of God’s spirit as well?

3.Brengle lived in the time that the Salvation Army was at its beginnings in the late 1800’s. He had gone to the University in Indiana and was so well educated that he enjoyed showing off to his colleagues. He was a circuit preacher for the Methodists here in the U.S. and learned about holiness in Boston studying with them. He wrote in those days of his holiness experiences of how the Holy Spirit would touch him praying and he would end up just crying for joy over God’s love and he just wanted to love the world!

He came to the Salvation Army in an open air in Boston and decided to join the Salvation but by traveling to meet General William Booth himself in London.  And as all godly men would do, General Booth evaluated well how to use the young willful Samuel Brengle. Instead of placing him in authority for his university education as Brengle had pridefully expected, he asked him to first be in charge of shining the shoes of the Cadets that would go out daily to preach in the streets .In other words he had an idea that he was a cut above the rest. Have you ever met people like that?

4.First, consider what kind of mud and gunk there was in the streets of London at that time? Most people threw away their bedpans in the streets, horse and carriages passed by leaving their business behind, and the smell and appearance of the mud on the shoes was not pleasant at all!

Samuel Brengle was told he could have the job of shining the approximate one hundred shoes every day, day after day. While he would shine them, he would ask himself, what is God showing me? Why can’t others see my value to use me in a better way? How long will I have to do this ridiculous and humiliating job? Shouldn’t I just quit the Salvation Army? Is it worth it? But God showed him that if Jesus washed the disciples feet, he could also do his job with joy. He made the right choice and persisted and God did use him in a way he did not expect!

5.The next life event that happened to him brought Him close to God for sure. He was sent back to Boston after training and while out in the streets coming from on top of a building someone threw a brick right on top of his head! It was such a serious injury that he needed one year and a half before he was fully recuperated.

That was a horrible attack and injury from Satan, right? Imagine, this man was already givng his all to God, and now this? Well, it was in that year and a half that God came to him in a marvelous way because he became more and more connected to the Holy Spirit because day after day he was taking time for prayer and the study of God’s word and a transformation of holiness occurred.

6.He experienced a new level of a connection with God that he never knew, holiness and purity beyond the usual and he felt like he wanted to love everybody, even the dogs in the street! After spending time with God, colors were brighter, things were unexplainable beautiful and different!

In the end, by reaching a higher level of victory against sin, or what we define as living the holy life, he became inspired, being empowered to his maximum potential and he wrote more than 10 books of the subject of holiness. He researched Wesley’s original contributions and practiced staying pure and his writings and contributions have continued to be a great guide for every Christian who has the duty to go deeper with God in their Christian walk.

Some people never in this life experience the bliss of gaining the blessings of the great joy and peace the Lord wants to give! Any Christian can have joy no matter what is happening in their lives. I heard the life testimony of over 72 Officers and you would be surprised how many have dealt with recent deaths in the family, cancer and long term sickness, horrible broken-ness from substance abuse, abandonment, or sexual abuse when they were children, or some were opposite having grown up protected and blessed in a Salvation Army home and dedicating their lives to Jesus at age 14. Each story was fascinating and each person was dedicating their life to Jesus as a calling with heavenly rewards disregarding the earthly sacrifice.

7.How many of you want more of Jesus so much so that the Holy Spirit fills you moment by moment to experience God’s love as never before? It makes you happy inside, full of love, and so thrilled about life that you it will just overflow from your heart onto others in pure love!

I will be preaching several times in the future on how to gain more holiness because you and I have an immense need for it, but for today, I will just give you a few illustrations to make it more understandable.

God is holy and he commands that we be holy. (see verses of sermon) What does that mean? It means that we must obey and we must work at renewing ourselves with the Holy Ghost and deepening our relationship with him day by day. Think of all the muddy shoes, they are ugly and undesirable and they had to get cleaned from day to day, but afterwards they shined as new, as if they had never been dirty! You and the Lord need each other otherwise you just remain dirty full of your own self and undesirable.

8.Think of your faith as a glass of water. You were dry and empty but when you invited Jesus to come into your life, you were full and felt satisfied. But left alone without refilling, the water evaporates; this means you must refill it with your connection to God by worship (not just on Sunday but daily), reading and absorbing His word, and by obeying his commands to love Him with all your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. Let’s review doctrine 9 and 10.

We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9.-           Creemos que el continuar en estado de salvación depende del ejercicio constante de la fe y obediencia a Cristo.  10.-  Creemos que es privilegio de todos los creyentes ser santificados "por completo" y que su ser entero, "espíritu, alma y cuerpo", puede ser guardado "irreprensible para la venida de nuestro Señor Jesucristo".

9.How many of you are saved and have Jesus in your lives? (hands) Great! There was given to you a prevenient grace, you could think of it as a special gift of illumination in your heart and mind from God, a Holy Spirit pull on your heart, and you accepted it and had an experience that made you feel a warmth or peace.

When a person accepts Jesus, they gain a small measure of holiness (which is like a touch of the breath of God), like getting a seed planted, the first getting to know Him meeting has taken place and the spirit provoked in you or in the person a will to want to be clean, to not sin anymore, and know more about God and become like this pure loving being Jesus, God’s Son, to save you from your sins or destructive habits that separated you from God.

Then over time what happens? Well, as you know with the parable of the seed that Jesus told, the seed can either grow up partially, fully, or just die. You are the one who decides. If you water it with God’s word and pray to obey and grow in faith, the product of holiness takes root in the love relationship that grows.

You then have passed on to the phase of having a prevalent grace,  a continuing grace, a Holy Spirit power that helps you in the process of growing even closer to God, of helping you to be like Jesus himself! It is a second measure of God’s spirit!

10.Imagine yourself right now as being a pure holy person, a person full of love and Jesus’ love, a person that has lost all desire to sin because you are free from sin, a person who lives every moment guided by God’s spirit. Imagine now a happiness and joy which is more than anything you have ever experienced!

I know some of you have experienced the Holy Spirit, and felt so wonderful you thought you could fly off to heaven! The infilling of the Holy Spirit which occurs when your heart and mind are clean for the Lord is an amazing experience but it is one that lasts only while you keep the connection alive. Renewing it every day will be faithful until the end!

Holiness and purity are possible with God and everyone should pray for it, accept it, and allow the lead of the Holy Spirit, and then live moment by moment hearing from the Lord!

The fullness of God comes from abiding in Jesus, God’s word, as the vine in John 15. Imagine every person is comparable to a plant, or the vine that grows, but some give fruit and some don’t. The scripture says, the ones without fruit are thrown away to be burned, but the other ones that stay connected to Jesus absorb all the nutrients and over time mature to grow many grapes. Some of you here have little green grapes, and some of you have large grapes, all of you are in different phases of growth.

11. What does the fruit imply? We know from Gal. 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

If you mature in pureness and holiness you will have these qualities for your continued working at being close to God.  And holiness just keeps on progressing and you feel much less temptation to sin, and you are holy because you have been passing time with the one that is holy! But if not you become lukewarm and neither hot nor cold for God and useless.

You are commanded to be holy by the scripture we read today. Do you think you are prideful and need to improve? Well, just tell God you’re sorry and repent and start right now with a new dedication to Him! Pray for a lifestyle change so you have time for God daily. Pray for a change in character too! I know you and some of you do not yet have the fruits mentioned here in Galatians. 

12. Ask yourself, could I pass the test of shining shoes all day for Jesus? God wants to use many of  you but you are not cleaned up in holiness as much as God would like. Pray Psa 51:10-12 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.   Remember it is a command to be holy as He is holy! Obey it and discover a joy you have never known!

The Damocles Sword: What Dangers Do You Live Under?

The Damocles Sword: What Dangers Do You Live Under?  By Captain Kelly Durant   6-9-13

 (2 Corinthians 11:24-26),   2 Corinthians 1:3-11

2.The Sword of Damocles is an anecdote (but probably a real story) of Dionysius II of Syracuse,  a 4th century BC tyrant of Syracuse, Sicily. Damocles exclaimed to his king, Dionysius, that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence, how blessed and fortunate he truly was. Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles, so that Damocles could taste that position with privilege firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the handle only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the tyrant Dionysius to let him get up from the throne, because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate!

Dionysius had successfully illustrated the sense of the constant fear in which the great ruler lived, as he was always in danger of death by treason. Dionysius made it clear that there can be nothing pleasant for the person over whom some fear always looms! Over each one of us is a danger that could harm or kill at any moment!

3. In life, most every one of us while on the earth is threatened by a continuous danger. These dangers could be present as a medical problem, risks involved in work, even Miami traffic! Some of these dangers could be from violent family members or by thugs in the neighborhood. Some dangers come from geographical phenomena like tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes, and yet other dangers are from spiritual attacks playing on our fears; voices from our spiritual warfare of good vs. evil, of the devil and his demons attacking you & I with a Christ-like mind.

I was here for hurricane Andrew in 1992! That upset our lives for almost a year! Some people, as seen in the Bible, believe destructions are permitted by God to purge people from their sins, so in their weakness they repent and look to God. God may reveal to you or may not reveal to you His purpose in these things. Either way, our mission is to serve suffering humanity!

 I was thinking about my past, places where I have lived and the different dangers that I faced and the ones each of us face from day to day. I grew up in Oklahoma with tornadoes and the danger of losing everything, even my life; it was a real danger during certain times of the year.

Some people crack easily under pressure (usually the faithless) while others just keep on going. How strong are you? Want to be stronger in the face of danger? Just be right with God, you could be called at any time! I thought I was going home with that 2^nd tornado last Friday in OKC!

4. People respond to life threatening dangers in different ways:  One by irrational actions due to their fear, or by living in denial that the threats are real. Another way is by becoming obsessed by their fears and to their own harm inappropriately get sick and worried. But then there is God’s way of conquering danger and fear: by having faith and trust in Him!

We all have seen some people have a faith crisis over intimidating outside forces not in their control. Some people not knowledgeable of God’s Word might conclude that God must be cruel to allow suffering. They get angry. (This is Satan’s means of getting people to misjudge and blame God so they do not worship and honor Him), But if any one of us does not honor God as the creator, we are by default honoring ourselves as God (we are not gods, and the obvious is we control almost nothing!) Our adversary Satan, steals worship by this influence.

Others might deduct that God must not be there to stop nature’s fury, or man’s wars, or resolve their personal problems, since He must made the universe like a wind-up toy and abandoned it (The Deist view). And there are others that conclude God is not in total control and therefore He is imperfect. He is a lesser God from a higher God. (The Gnostic view.)

5. It is true, God does allow suffering and death at times but there is a greater purpose for it beyond our understanding!  One day in heaven God will reveal to us all things and we will know and understand why, but for the moment, too many factors are present that we are unaware of to understand his final purpose. It is like trying to solve a complicated math problem when you only know values for X,Y, & Z, but no values are known for A,B, & C.

I met many people after having lost all still had their faith. Would you keep it if you lost all? Let’s look at a man that went through a lot and did not let his faith be shaken, the apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians 11:24-26  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

Paul had experienced it all and he lived through all the pain caused by evil men and by nature.

I can’t even imagine the horrendous pain of a lashing! Or of floating in cold dark waters shipwrecked! Possibly many of you have lived through dangers. You might even still live in fear of the next danger that might assault you. In Miami we so have the Damocles sword over our heads from the threat of hurricanes. Each place has a distinct threat, each life different dangers.

6. The question today is: What fears do you have? What threat do you have over your head?

I contemplated sharing some of the dangers I have been in and how I have had to grow my faith in God consoling myself even speaking out-loud to myself the scriptures while walking down the street! Most of you like myself have lived with the dangers I will discuss here, and again I ask you, how are you dealing with your fears right now?

In Brazil I was always worried about getting attacked by thieves in the street and 3 times I was chased and forced to be running away from young men escaping by catching moving buses. I was also fearful of being deported, and when our resident visas were denied, we had 8 days to leave.  It is hard but we must accept God’s will over our will for our desires. He controls all.

In Bolivia I arrived in 1977 right after a Military Coups and some snipers had shot about 200 people from the tops of the downtown buildings. During my stay I lived mostly under Marshall Law and saw democracies and dictatorships come and go by the half dozen. I often breathed tear gas as protesters were dispersed. The threat of imprisonment was always present. What I loved though was I could preach the gospel with freedom almost anywhere!

In Chile, in 1981, jail time and disappearances were common under Pinochet’s dictatorship. I made the mistake of having home Bible studies which was a gathering of people prohibited by law, and some of the youth from the universities I had over I later discovered were Communist sympathizers. At 5:00am on morning 6 police with machine guns raided our home only to discover that we only had Bibles as our propaganda. Our phone later was tapped and we were watched so feeling too uncomfortable we decided to return to Bolivia.  The fact that I had nightmares of being killed by the police did not help either!

In Colombia the Guerrillas were not too far away from where we lived just outside of Bogota. The people in the local markets would tell us about it. As you know the FARC or others would always kill a few innocent farmers in order to scare people to be able to take over an area. Kidnapping was common as well and I heard a few dozen stories of this happening amongst my friends and students. A gringo was always a target and several times for no reason Soldiers showed up to our doors just to see what we had in our house. I was told later they were not Soldiers but guerrillas.  Thank God we were just poor missionaries and were not worth kidnapping for ransom!

In Venezuela I had friends that told me stories of their experiences of gangs of thieves showing up at their homes to rob and rape their wives. God stopped us from getting residence there as well as the visas were approved and sent to Bogota but the Consulate wanted money under the table we did not have, so we ended up getting resident visas in Colombia instead!

7. When you think about it: Dangers are always present and we could become a victim of anything at anytime! But God’s protection is ever present as well, so we have peace in the midst of the storm!

Here in the U.S. many dangers prevail but the risk depends on the area you live in. In the Metro cities, theft and crime is a way of life:  in Chicago dozens get shoot monthly if not weekly. Forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods are just a few of the threats we all live with in this nation, not to mention extortionists, mafia, the sex trade drugs, and even the abusers in our families cause great harm. It is a miracle that day to day we are protected!

So what can stop our worries and calm our fears? Only the word of God! I use to repeat several verses to myself to overcome these fears and take note of them so you too can to gain strength when you need it!

Philippians 4:6, 7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. (made me alive)

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

8. And when we see others suffering as I did the past 2 weeks in Oklahoma, here is a verse that come to mind of what our mission is:

2 Corinthians 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Our task as a true Holy Ghost filled Christians is to console our own spirits from the worries, threats, and fears we face daily! And after that, you are to console others who are going through trials that have left them disoriented and weak.

I don’t think God is unfair to allow us to live in a fallen, imperfect world where nature or people can ruin us in an instant. We are in a school to prepare us for eternity where everything will be perfect. Maybe one lesson is you need to be ready to trust God and also be ready to leave it all behind (even your life) at any time!

I think God knows that without danger all of humanity would forget Him and go the way of the Satanic self-centered, prideful, perverted, and narcissistic people. The reminder of danger remains: you and I have a sword over our head!

What is the sword over your head? What do you most fear? Bad health? A hurricane?  A violent relative? An armed thief? Have you learned to live with it but placing it in God’s hands? Let’s pray for peace of mind! Le’ts pray that we learn to trust God no matter what happens!

My Experiences in OKC, May 2013 by Capt. Kelly Durant

My Experiences in OKC, May 2013

by Capt. Kelly Durant

There was only 16 minutes to be ready for the tornado. What could you do with so little time?

Here are some thought provoking stories shared: Ask yourself, are you so thoughtful of others to do the same as some of these people in OKC?

I lost count of how many people told stories of how they offered to take their neighbors into their very small storm shelters and that is what saved their lives. Imagine about 9 or 10 people in a 6 by  8 foot space. The noise and vibration was as strong as being a few feet away from a freight train. Without concerned neighbors, how many more would not have made it through these horrific minutes?

Those that came out of the shelters came out quite a few minutes thereafter discovering that every thing was churned and mixed into a shredded rubble with only one or no wall of their house standing. Cars were wrapped around trees, or upside down, refrigerators were blown blocks away; few times in history has such wind destruction been witnessed by the EF5, 200+ winds. Most told me that their only thought was, thank God I am alive! With life there is hope of a better tomorrow.

Many people survived by staying in the inner most parts of the home, in the bathrooms, and in the house interior only to walk out and see that everything else had been blown away except the room they were in!

One family down a gravel farm road near El Reno had their mobile home totally blown away across a huge field. I felt pity for them as they had no insurance and 3 kids. My coworker and I searched in the field for a safe the owner claimed had some money in it that had blown away. We did not find it but coworker, Capt. Val Cantu, found one of the kids piggy banks. That made their day and brought a big smile to their faces as we returned it to them.

How does God protect? Here are some stories shared while serving  or doing interviews either counseling or signing up the people for help. 

I heard at least 3 stories of people getting their kids out of the Moore school early for some reason, like to go to the doctor. 

There were a few people who said their older teenagers were on their own home alone and they hid in the bathrooms with mattresses on top of them and they survived. 

There were even those that survived even after getting sucked out of the house by the tornado. One women described how the house was blow away, and she felt the wind suck the clothes off of her body and she was naked but survived. 

One woman  described how she was in the bathroom tub and the house blew way and the tub flew in the air and landed upon a fallen tree. She came down from the tree only needing 15 stitches on her head. 

One woman was sucked out of the house and she pointed out the dint in the jeep where she had hit. She lost her false teeth but did not get any broken bones.

One woman who was trying to get refuge in the Moore IMAC movie theater was outside just one minute before it hit and she felt herself being lifted in the air while running there. Her kids were ahead of her and she yelled to them to run inside anyway and she and them made it in before it hit!

One family wanted to run to the shelter out in the yard outside but it was raining so hard they decided to stay in the bathroom of the house and the tornado blew away the house but they were spared. They went to see about the shelter to find that it was totally full of water, so if they had gone there they would have drown or been forced out to the open and taken away.

Consider this reaction, would you do this?

Many people even with their homes in rubble did not worry for their personal items but immediately started looking for their neighbors and they pulled them out of the rubble. This immediate action got many to the hospitals on time and their lives were saved.

The next day in the rain:

Neighbors a few blocks over not affected by the destruction ran to help others move their rubble into piles so people could save any good items. People and volunteers just came from everywhere in particular from churches and helped everyone sort through items. So many people were out helping that the traffic was crazy for a week!

In the farm areas it was amazing how neighbors came together to help each other and to remove debris.  Those with tractors were pulling trees, young men with chain saws were cutting logs. some people with cow and horse feed were out caring for the animals. Everyone was getting muddy, but no one cared about that, everyone just wanted to see things cleaned up so it would be encouraging g to look at. 

In the end, many people displayed resilience with all the support of family and strangers. 

I was able to serve with the emotion and spiritual care aspect while either out in a van or truck serving food and drinks to those in the affected areas, by distributing food and household goods in the warehouse, or while signing up people to get monetary and clothing assistance. I worked in the neighborhoods and went from house to house on the farms. I served in Moore, Shawnee, Carney, El Reno, and in OKC areas where there was no electricity. Most people were very thankful just for our presence, that we were showing up there to serve them and help. Many people we're anxious to tell us how they survived, but some were quiet. Several people cried telling their stories and we hugged many who welcomed it. I personally was able to pray with about 300 people during my 14 day deployment and my team coworkers prayed with many more making the prayers add up to the thousands! The Salvation Army offering love and prayer was a unique and refreshing ministry considering the fact that the other agencies and insurance companies were only there doing what they do in the business mode. 

What does it feel like to be close to a tornado?

Possibly The Lord wanted all of us who were serving to know the feeling!

A second wave of tornadoes hit Friday and thankfully we had made it back to the hotel. Everyone in the hotel was told to sit in the hallway and wait for the tornado to blow over. On the TV everyone could hear the news of it is getting closer coming east so they said for those in cars to go south, but then it split and made a C shape and those south were going to be hit too. The cloud was coming and our street by I-40 was mentioned as being next. It had not hit the ground in full force but was branching down into 3 separate tornadoes. A few people like myself watched the dark green cloud from the hotel doors until we heard the deep rumble. After the power was cut,  all that could be done was prayer! The thoughts raced in my mind that I needed to tell my family that I loved them before I would get crushed by the hotel rubble the tornado would create. I thanked God that I had had a good life and that I could die serving Him. I looked at the dozens around me nearby, some frozen in fear, some ignorant of the seriousness just chatting away. I was disappointed that I did not see anyone praying out loud, maybe they were inside. This was very real near death experience. I was trying in my mind accept it and just let it be even though my heart was beating harder. 

Experiences like these really make you seek God!