It works two ways ...

In a recent post, I mentioned the visit by the Governor-General's Leadership Study Tour to Gospel Mission/The Lord's Rain earlier this month. This past Saturday, Amelia -- who co-chaired the BC portion of the tour -- told the gang at the Mission about something they may not have considered: the impact they had -- and will continue to have -- on the participants.

Jezebel's music

I don't believe in coincidences, so I know God is behind some of the things I've seen even among those I follow on Twitter. The latest is Rick Warren, tweeting Paul's exhortation, "Watch out for anyone who causes trouble and divides the church. Stay away from them!" (Rom. 16:17) Before that, David Pitman re-tweeted this quote: "judgmentalism is 1 of most subtle sins; often practiced under guise of zeal 4 right".

Now, read on.

Jezebel is a very sneaky spirit.

We read about Jezebel throughout 1 & 2 Kings: her murderous manipulation and control and determination to destroy the followers of the God of Israel. She is the only human capable of causing Elijah, the great man of God, to run and hide.

J herself was crushed to a pulp by a chariot and what was left of her was licked up by dogs in the street, but her name lives on in a spirit that is sent to try to destroy the church. Elijah had prophesied that, in fact ... and it came to pass.
Jezebel can be counted on to show up when a church is showing signs of "success", trying to sow seeds of discord. She generally arrives cloaked in a very righteous-appearing person, who then attempts to use the Word of God to undermine the works of the church.

(By "church", I mean any group dedicated to sharing, experiencing and spreading the Gospel -- it doesn't necessarily have to be an institution, but it could be a home group, ministry outreach or prayer circle.)

Let's just say I have some pretty extensive, first-hand experience with Jezebel, going back many years. When she was first exposed in someone I'd regarded as holy and righteous -- and who had spent a great deal of time trying to "put me in my place" or "call me on my s**t" -- it was a very rude and very welcome awakening. The awakening included a loud, clear message from the Holy Spirit: "you are not the Problem!"

Hold that particular theme. Anyway, Jezebel has been showing up at The Lord's Rain lately, in the form of a woman I've known since Rainbow Mission. Immediately, she took issue with the radio we were playing and lately, she has stepped up her "cautions" about allowing "that kind of music" into a house of the Lord. "How can you call it 'The Lord's Rain' if you're playing that music that comes straight from hell?"

Jezebel's definition of "straight from hell": secular.

"We have to separate ourselves from the world," she goes on, "and not scatter the sheep. I can't stand to go in."

"Well," I replied, "as Jesus says, the healthy have no need of a doctor; we're trying to reach out to the sick ones."

Then she went on about purity and holiness.

For the record, the radio we play isn't exactly death metal. It's JACK FM, with Larry and Willy -- a couple of the nicest guys on-air and off you'd ever want to meet. (I worked with Willy's dad, the legendary Don Percy, back in my radio days: he had moved to Vancouver from Edmonton and one day we were chatting in the parking lot and I pointed to the electric plugs sticking out of his car's grille -- connecting to the block heater, which is standard equipment for any car owned east and north of Chilliwack. I said, "you won't need those anymore." He said, "Drew ... you never know." Less than a year later, he had moved back to Winnipeg, his original stomping grounds.) -- or occasionally CHQM-FM with "soft rock favorites". (I like Bro Jake on Classic Rock 101 as a person, but his rather edgy on-air persona is not to my taste.)

The reality, of course, is that The Lord's Rain is what we refer to as "soft evangelism" -- reaching out to people who need to be reached but who still aren't comfortable in a "church environment". As we've seen over the years, many of the people who've come into The Lord's Rain have since started coming to the services upstairs at Gospel Mission; and for others, it's just a matter of time. Allowing a secular radio station to be played -- which we wouldn't do in the Mission -- helps contribute to that comfort level.

But to return to my Jezebel-walking friend, she doesn't know it, of course, but Jezebel's whole tactic here is to keep a church and its people off-balance, questioning their fitness to serve God. In dealing with that spirit, the best tactic is not to try to fight it on a worldly level -- trying to use words to counter -- but to stand on what you know: the fruits, the evidence of God's blessing, the innate knowledge that you are being led by the Spirit of God, regardless of what someone else says.

And walk away. Don't bother quarreling with the Jezebel spirit.

Interestingly, one of the people I follow on Twitter sent this quote today: "Freedom keeps us soaring, but quarreling destroys our ability to fly." (Victor Manuel Rivera). And in one of those coincidences that really isn't, my friend Bruce MacPherson blogged today on the difference between appearances and reality.

Mainly, I count it all joy, as Paul would say. The devil doesn't bother with those who don't threaten him, so a visit from Jezebel should be taken as affirmation. You prepare for it the way Patton prepared for Rommel and get on with the job at hand.

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Never pass up a chance to testify!

It's a rare blessing to be able to testify about God's provision and blessing on Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain on a national stage, but we were able to do so this past week.

The Governor-General's Leadership Conference is a cross-country initiative to help develop leaders. They come from all walks of life -- business, labor, the arts, native groups, immigrants, you name it. It's a huge group to begin with, separated into groups that go to different regions, British Columbia being one of them. The group that came to the Mission is also visiting Prince George, Terrace, Vancouver Island and the Fraser Valley (not in that order), studying aboriginal affairs, the Enbridge pipeline, and Vancouver's Downtown East Side.

Their visit to Gospel Mission was actually their first chance to meet the people who live in the area, even though they had gone to InSite the day before -- but there, they were only allowed to speak to the staff and not those who use the "safe injection" location. For us, it was a chance to brag on God a little bit, pointing out the way He has positioned the Mission through history -- keeping it just ahead of the curve of needs in society. (The Mission was founded just before the Great Depression hit; it moved to bigger digs just before the end of World War 2 brought a lot of disabled ex-servicemen into Skid Row; The Lord's Rain was commanded (for want of a better word) just before the Global Economic Crisis caused people to rein in their charitable giving: as I told the group, it's one thing to say, "here's a problem - come up with the solution", but in the case of the Mission, God tends to say, "here's the solution - now, stand by for the problem".)

It was also a chance -- albeit a short one -- for people who come into the Mission to talk to the tour participants. Kim, for example, got to talk to a few of them and share a bit about his own testimony. I think I've mentioned Kim before: a man who used to come into Rainbow Mission half-cut, often arriving just as the sermon was ending and the food was about to be served. Eventually, he came to Christ, beat down his addictions and assorted other demons, and is now a very valued part of our ministry. He's preached at the Mission on occasion and also runs the video camera. When I asked him, a couple of weeks ago, to go downstairs to The Lord's Rain and sit with a disabled woman so she could take part in the service by watching it on TV in The Lord's Rain, he got very philosophical. "What happened," he said, "that the guy who used to wait and slip into Rainbow Mission between the 'amen' and 'pass the food' is now being sent to do 'security' for someone at a Mission?" Of course, we both know the answer.

We only had half an hour and some of the visitors said they wished it could have been 90 minutes. But the early feedback is very positive:

• a man who, among other things, had worked on the judicial review in Rwanda, spoke with one disabled aboriginal man, finding out about the apartment where he lives, and the fact that he does feel safe and cared-for
• a prison warden from Kingston (medium-security, not the famous maximum-security pen), felt "overwhelmed" at the kindness and welcoming spirit of the people she met at The Lord's Rain
• an aboriginal leader who found someone with a mutual friend back home: she'll be taking back word that this person is alright
• the vice-president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto -- the teachers' union, who is also a Christian and said it was "wonderful" to see faith being acknowledged on this tour. This was the second day of the tour, and she told me there had already been a "lively discussion" about whether "religion [was] the cause of all the ills of the world." She also works with single parents through her church, a large West Indian church in TO.

In general, they came away with a view of the Downtown East Side that's decidedly different from the picture of crushing despair that is usually put forward, a picture that there is still hope and resiliency, regardless of the mistakes one has made and the ways one tries to patch them over. All of it was presented against the backdrop that, when all's said and done, God is present and in charge, blessing all with His indescribable Grace.

Vancouver and the homelessness "reality check"

It's funny, isn't it, what a difference a word makes.

In newscasting, for example, I've been caught out at least once because someone has inadvertently typed "not" instead of "now" -- as in "Police have not arrested a homicidal maniac ..."; there was also a time in the 1970s, when then Tory leader Joe Clark was visiting the Middle East, and in the process of reviewing some troops, stumbled and nearly cut his head on a soldier's bayonet: a wire-service copy writer inserted the word "off" after "cut his head", thereby making the incident seem a lot more serious -- and Clark a lot more clumsy -- than it or he really was.

And then there's the effect of subtly inserting a qualifier into a sentence or expression, thereby changing the whole meaning. This past week, CKWX Radio reported that the number of people living/sleeping on the street -- as opposed to in shelters in the city of Vancouver -- had doubled in the past year. Nevertheless, Mayor Gregor Robertson stated that he remained committed to ending street homelessness by 2015.

But let's rewind to 2008, when the mayor was newly elected. CBC News reported at the time that Robertson's top priority was to end "homelessness" by 2015. Not "street homelessness". And there's a difference. Ending homelessness means people are able to live in a place they can call their own, with a locking door and a lack of bedbugs and cockroaches. Ending street homelessness means people who are too poor to afford that are placed in shelters where they don't clutter up the streets and remind the good folk of the city how neglectful we can be of our fellow man.

Ending homelessness, as a former public health nurse writes in the Nanaimo Daily News, takes thoughtful planning, consultation about the needs of "street people" and finding a real solution to a problem that's a lot deeper than what we see on the surface.

Ending street homelessness is a numbers game that a politician can easily win by making "number of shelter beds" equal to "number of people without shelter beds". That one added word makes the difference between the promise of 2008 and the "commitment" of 2012.

But will that end the problem that leads people to be homeless in the first place? Will it get people off drugs? Will it get them jobs? Training? Treatment for their mental health issues? Deliverance from the demons they battle on an hourly basis? Do we force people into shelters, even though quite a few would rather be on the street?

I remember bristling when I first heard a politician say that people would rather be on the street than in a shelter. I forget who it was, but he was a cabinet minister in the then ruling Social Credit party in BC, and it was easy to write off the remark as a cop-out -- an abrogation of responsibility to the disadvantaged, promoted by an ally of Big Business and the "pick up your shovel" attitude towards welfare. But that was before I actually started hearing from people on the streets in Vancouver, who said they'd rather be outside than in a shelter, where they would be surrounded by people with mental issues and violent tendencies, as likely as not to have their belongings stolen while they slept. Outside, the air is fresh(er) and the street-wise person can find a place that's relatively secure.

Overarching all of this is the reality that we are not supposed to "end homelessness" as a part of society, any more than we can ever "end poverty now" (or at any time). God has given us a responsibility to reach out to troubled people and help them on an individual basis, but as an "institution", for want of a better word, poverty and homelessness are part of God's plan for our world.

So, though, is the desire to make things better for people. On the other hand, the desire to see it as an evil that must be eradicated is part of the enemy's plan to make God's plan look bad (you know: "how can a loving God allow ...?"); the desire to be seen as a "hero" or a "political champion" for making a commitment to eradicate it is a spin-off from the enemy's counter-plan.

This is why the homelessness count is a reality check, although not necessarily about the state of poverty in Vancouver: think of it as a reality check about grandiose political promises, which are later qualified, subtly, when the ongoing situation doesn't quite match the promise.