the nation was divided. He gave himself totally to the
task of reclaiming Judah, the southern Kingdom of Is-
rael, for God. He warned God's people of the catastrophe
that was to fall upon the nation because of their idola-
try and sin. He lived to see this prediction come true
with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian King Nebu-
chadnezzar and the exile to Babylonia of Judah's king
and many of the people. Between my first reading of
Jeremiah in 1979 and my last class at Trevecca Naza-
rene University in 2011, I spent four years in college,
two years preparing for the mission field and 12 years
in a fruitful ministry in China. While in China, I discov-
ered the truth of God's Word in Ezekiel 3:6-7: "Surely
if I had sent you to them (a people of an obscure lan-
guage), they would have listened to you. But the house
of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they
are not willing to listen to Me." It was easier for me to
speak God's Word to foreigners than to my own people.
complished in China, but to become as a little child and
to take the humble role of a learner! And who was to
be my teacher? None other than The Salvation Army!
ing about His will for our lives. A plan that, as He says in
Jeremiah 1:5, He had appointed us to before we were born.
cers Councils, I was tempted to speak superfi-
cially to avoid making myself vulnerable. Thanks to
the Lord's conviction, though, I knew that I needed
to share what God was really doing in my life.
and William Booth had both ministered in an urban
setting. Just as Jeremiah's society was going down
the proverbial drain, so was East London in the days
public places and pointed people to their Messiah; Wil-
liam Booth started out as an open-air evangelist. Jere-
miah told his people to stop sinning and start caring for
the widow and fatherless, and he spoke against slav-
ery (Jer. 34), drinking and drunkenness (Jer. 35). The
Salvation Army has helped the poor and rescued mul-
titudes from sexual trafficking and substance abuse.
"Trust not in lying words, saying: `The temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!' For
if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if
you thoroughly do justice between a man and his neigh-
bor, if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and
the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place,
neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I
cause you to dwell in this place ... forever" (Jer. 7:4�7).
You cannot simply talk the talk. You must walk the walk.
hearts. He is the Great Physician to those on sickbeds. He
preaches good news to the poor! In The Salvation Army
we have the privilege, freedom and framework to embody
the message of Christ by what we do in the community.
The Salvation Army in Hopkinsville, KY.