Pilgrim Soldier

New blog

Graeme Smith — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 08:00:23 +0000

Well as promised I’ve started a new blog. If you follow this link then you’ll arrive at the newly launched site!

Coming soon…

Graeme Smith — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:03:46 +0000

I’m getting ready to start blogging again but the site will be changing. Watch this space for more news in the near future!

Signing Off!

Graeme Smith — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:49:31 +0000

Well, for those of you who have followed my blogging you’ll no doubt realise that I’ve lost interest! Maybe there was a reason for me starting but I’ve decided that this will be my last post and other than this post I’ll be closing the commenting facility. It’s been nice sharing my thoughts and ramblings with people but its time to move on!

God bless,

Graeme

Shockwave

Graeme Smith — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:36:16 +0000

End of an era

Graeme Smith — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:49:05 +0000

The packing is done! Pickfords have taken all our possession away in a van! The flat is clean! An inspection has been passed! The end of an era is upon us!

Today is the last full day we will spend at William Booth College and tomorrow we leave to start the adventure that God has put in front of us in Dartford. I’ve got to be honest that seeing everyone in empty flats and packing cars makes the reality of the move all the more real, and then some have even moved away this evening. I’m feeling quite sad in many ways at seeing friends leave, but soon it’ll be us and then the adventure starts.

The Prayer Warriors are dispersing into the ministry that God called us to, and whilst there is sadness over the departures, I pray that each one of us will find joy in God’s service as we seek to bring people to a place in their lives where they encounter the presence and power of the living God for themselves.

The end of an era at college but the start of a new phase of our discipleship walk!

Home straight

Graeme Smith — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:26:34 +0000

Earlier this morning the final essay of my time at college was handed in and now we’re onto the home straight as far as these two years are concerned. Whilst there is still a lot to do the main academic side of things is finished and we can start to think more about packing, cleaning and, of course, moving to our new home.

Remarkable at it may seem to some, I’m really going to miss this place, but know that the future is going to be a great adventure. So how much will I continue to blog over the coming months, I’m not sure but it might yet happen!

Hell of an essay

Graeme Smith — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:57:41 +0000

The last couple of evening have seen me writing an essay on the existence of hell and in my reading there was one thing that particularly resonated with me. The quote was found in the writings of Croatian theologian, Miroslav Volf, and he wrote this:

“But how patient should God be? The day of reckoning must come, not because God is too eager to pull the trigger, but because every day of patience in a world of violence means more violence and every postponement of vindication means letting insult accompany injury. [...] Waiting for the evildoers to reform means letting suffering continue” (Exclusion and Embrace, pg 299)

This is a man who lived through the utter violence of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and yet is willing to seek the peaceful way because of his total trust in God’s judgement. Powerful stuff! Maybe it’s only when we are faced with such brutality that the church can put aside Universalist theology, and accept that for God to be truly just, hell must exist in some form or other!

Linkage

Graeme Smith — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:32:25 +0000

For the more observant of you who still bother to read this blog, you may have noticed that typing in www.pilgrimsoldier.net now brings you to this new site. If it doesn’t then hopefully at some point in the next 24 hours or so it will due to the wonders of the internet! Not the most exciting post, I know, but a post nevertheless!

Welcome to the new blog

Graeme Smith — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:45:11 +0000

If you’ve followed the link on the old blog then you’ve arrived at the new blog! I’m not sure how much I’ll be updating it before we physically move, but the best idea is to click on the RSS feed and add it to whatever feed reader you use so that any new posts arrive when I’ve written them!

Waiting for tomorrow

Graeme Smith — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:14:37 +0000

It’s been ages since I last wrote and I doubt that anyone will actually read this given that fact! However, I need to write something tonight as tomorrow Zoe & I will receive our first appointment.

These last few months have been a real journey for me as I seek to allow the Holy Spirit to ready me for service as a Salvation Army Officer. Tomorrow is not the culmination of our training but it is the first of 3 important days over the next 4 months! And so I find myself this evening with lots of thoughts going through my mind but first amongst those is the wish to be free from thinking about my own wants and desires.

This theme has been a significant one for me over the last few months and then on Monday night someone read the following taken from an ordination address in 1869:

“Go wherever God may send you. Go without wishing to have everything arranged for your own tastes and your own comfort; without wishing to have everything in accordance even with your own religious desires. Go in the spirit of perfect self-surrender, of thorough self devotion, simply for Christ. There should be no limit. Christ gives you your commission, and to Christ you must give it back.”

This sums up what I want my officership to be about! I want to give up my own self-focussed wishes and instead go and do what God requires of me so that the community of believers is built wherever He chooses to send us.

So I’m waiting for tomorrow and everything that that will bring!