The Saints 100 Years Ago, We Need You Again!

The Saints 100 Years Ago, We Need You Again!      Kelly Durant    10-6-19

1 Peter 2:5

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

2. You may have heard that the farmer was doing a fund raiser and the chicken and the pig wanted to help. The chicken piped up, “We can sell a breakfast!” What a good idea all agreed.

The chicken then said, “We can do ham and eggs!” There was silence. The pig said, “Well, for you that only requires one day of work, but for me it is a total sacrifice!” How much do you sacrifice for God? 

Some of you may have a good imagination, but I want you to try to imagine what it was like 100 years ago when this Corps was founded. What did the first couple go through? How did they arrive? What conditions existed? What was life like, was it hard or easy? 

I can tell you this, they did not arrive to a nice house and a church as we did, they were sent here to open up not just a church and their own living quarters, they also needed to raise funds to create a shelter and social work to serve suffering humanity. What an example of being dedicated to God! They needed a great faith and God blessed them.

3. Let’s explore three aspects of what was happening back then, what was happening in the world, what was happening in the Salvation Army, and what was happening to these first set of Officers in Winchester, VA. In all honesty we owe them our deepest respect as they gave of themselves as a total sacrifice for God. What amazing dedication! Where are young people valiant and dedicated as they were today? 

How hard life was back then! Most people in the United States lived on small farms, raising pigs and chickens and they had no electricity, few cars existed, and washing clothes, preparing food, and doing daily chores including transporting one’s self around town by foot was laborious and time consuming. Life was rustic almost like living as in the time of Jesus!

Just trying to make a living was hard back then and everyone in the family chipped in. Read history, the usual story was that the young sons starting working at age 10 or 12 to help support the family. Many went off to fight in the war at age 16 and like my own uncles, they sent most all of their checks home to their mothers so they would have enough food, wood for the fires, and clothing to survive.

4. The world was a horrible mess back then! Satan is always trying to destroy people with mega death in wars, disease, and starvation. He drums up hate and division, greed and a lust for power to the point leaders become obsessed with killing their foes. World War 1 had just ended in November of 1918 and the Corps was opened just one year after that so there were many homeless Soldiers returning needing jobs in the cities plus a place to live.  Soup kitchens were needed to provide a bowl of soup from day to day for them, and for the widows and children.

The Spanish flu pandemic had hit and 500 million died worldwide! Mega death continued around the world as the Bolsheviks took over Russia in their 1917 Communist Revolution. Despite almost every family having lost a relative in the war, there was optimism that everyone had a chance to prosper as new machines, a railroad system, and a faith in God offered hope for a good future. 17 million in the U.S. alone died from being in that war which was about 1 in every 5 people! What horrible suffering, right? What dark times only 100 years ago!

The good news is most everyone went to church back then and read their Bibles and prayed at home. I recall my grandmothers thick old Bible with many notes in it. Before many public records were kept only on the death, marriage, and birth pages of the family Bible! 

5. The Salvation Army began in London in 1865, precisely during the time of the Civil War in the United States. It did not take long for the popularity of the street preaching, and Army marching bands to prosper and expand into many countries worldwide. In 1878 Eliza Shirley at age 17 started the first work in Philadelphia and in just a few decades the work opened up in many dozens of cities with thousands of new converts nationwide with just a few hundred Officers to start it all up. Imagine arriving with nothing but a suitcase, a uniform, and faith in God!

One reason the Salvation Army expanded so quickly was due to the persecution in England in the 1880s as Officers became so numerous that many of the drunken sailors and jealous dead established church leaders wanted them gone. Their Biblical preaching of holiness begging the sinner to repent was too much for the sinful crowds who overindulged in the prostitution of 12 year old girls, unrepentant thievery of all kinds, and massive drunkenness in all the pubs. 

The conditions of the world were very violent, abusive, and exploitive and to confront this evil The Salvation Army decried war on it all! These pioneers fought for the truth and for the salvation of souls and in reality we can observe the world still remains violent, abusive, and exploitive. Each generation has its own mission to do to fight for the healing of the suffering ones. There is always a new breed of weeds growing amongst the wheat and no young person can delay in obeying the call of God to be preaching love, righteousness, and salvation.  John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  

6. Now, put yourselves in the shoes of the arriving Officers in Winchester in 1919. These are people on fire for God sent to open a work with no money, no horse and buggy, no home, and no idea of what will happen. Will the people receive them, or will they run them out of town? What faith they had! What obedience and conviction they displayed!

Obviously it went well for them as within a few months churches and good people supported them to open a house where they could live, conduct church services, serve soup to the public, provide a room for a men’s shelter, and even be able to resell donated items. No other churches did social work back then, and it seems they got good support as other churches got convicted they should be doing what we were doing to feed the multitudes and help the needy as Jesus described it in Matthew 25. Obedience will bring on the blessings of God!  

Would you do all these ministries from your rented home? Only in America are we so comfortable to not do them. Around the world many Officers still work as these ones did 100 years ago. They do all ministries from their own homes, even running schools and I can testify this is what I have seen in Jamaica, Mexico, and even in small poor American cities here. 

7. We must live with the same conviction they have and as others had in the past! For evil to prosper in the world all that is needed is that good people do nothing! If you have a comfortable job, a roof over your head, a car, and food on your table every day, we must remember we are a part of the world’s top 10% of the wealthy. You and I are so blessed we must share the blessings to bless others with the good news of Jesus!

In Cuba the Officers ride bicycles, and in most all the world few own their own vehicles. We can observe that despite millions dying of hunger in dozens of countries, I have never seen Officers forsaken with nothing, God supplies! Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.

Jesus sent the disciples out with nothing and God provided! Matthew 10: 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, 10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food. 11 “Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. 12 And when you go into a household, greet it. 13 If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

8. When my wife and I were first married 41 years ago we travelled around the south of Brazil, in Rio Grande Del Sur, as described here, with no money. I had my guitar and 20 Portuguese songs and Bible verses memorized and we sang in rest homes, jails, and orphan homes, took pictures, and then requested donations from hotels, restaurants, and banks. God provided! 

It was one of the most exciting times of our lives! We prayed with thousands the “sinner’s prayer” and we felt the Holy Spirit’s joy in a manner I think few ever feel! We were living in the clouds! I will compare our experience to this episode where the disciples were so happy the people thought they were drunk. Acts 2: 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day (9 am). 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

There is an unexplained euphoria that happens when you preach Jesus to strangers and Jesus comes into their lives! When a person accepts Jesus and cries out loud with tears asking God for forgiveness, there is an overwhelming happiness that soon takes over and it is the Holy Spirit’s fire! And this is our logo for salvation: Jesus blood, and the Holy Spirit’s fire! 

9. All a person needs to do is to open their mouth about Jesus and the Lord will fill it with the right words at the right time, and even in another language when necessary! It does not matter the time period, whether a person lived 2,000 years ago, 100 years ago or 100 minutes ago, the Holy Spirit is ready to do a great work through you! Are you letting God use you as He wants to? Probably not as too few put their selves at God’s service not caring about the material comforts, or not worrying about how big a sacrifice they will have to make.  

I am sure the first Officers here in Winchester felt many things! They felt the euphoria of winning souls on the street corners, and they felt the love of others as they shared with them their homes and goods and a way to start up the first Corps. But they also felt the fear of the unknown, and the sadness of getting to know people who had lost loved ones in all the world’s battles and tragedies. 

Before it seemed that it was outside enemies that destroyed lives, but today we see an increase in dark forces inside destroying those in our community. We observe lives destroyed by debauchery, by illicit sexual activity, by the addiction of drugs and alcohol, by the poverty augmented by absent fathers, and by the cruelty of exploitations and abuse in the home.

10. Don’t think that just because the Salvation Army fought the good fight of faith in the past that we can ride on our past accomplishments and be comfortable now! Every generation has a new calling to obey God and every generation has new evils and the evil today of Satanic cults is on the rise! Almost no music or movie is produced anymore without the illuminati symbols being present! Thousands give testimony that the elites are involved in Satanic rituals! And when a Satanic human sacrificing slave owning person gets exposed as being connected to all the corrupt leaders of the world, they suicide him! (as in the recent case of Jeffrey Epstein!) 

We should be appalled at how sin is flaunted before our innocent children’s eyes on TV, in parades, and in public libraries! How is it that anyone can google millions of pages of Satanic perverted porn while at the same time these high tech elites censor the name of Jesus as offensive? Our rights and constitution are being replaced by technocratic supremacies who are spoiled millionaires mocking God and censoring His people!

Are our current youth programmed and brainwashed as the youth of Hitler were being conditioned to hate certain people and groups while praising others that only contribute to the divisiveness and hate in society?  Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  

A great judgment is coming! Another cycle of evil is returning soon as history proves but this time it appears Satan is ready to take over everything for world dominion! In the end the Bible is true and all of Revelation will come to pass. For the New World Order to dominate we see the technology is already existent, many dictatorships are in place, and all that is needed is to eliminate the ones who expose it and give it resistance. Jesus’ truth is the resistance! Stand with Him and you will win battles and free souls until your time is up! You are Jesus’ priesthood! Stand with Jesus and gain rewards in heaven for all your sacrifice and labor of building His house! See what it cost our forefathers and show yourself to God to be as dedicated as the past ones were so that you are counted with those honorable faithful few!