We Need Another John Wesley

Few men change history in a significant sense; still fewer change it for good.  However, John Wesley was one of those rare individuals who truly impacted the world and his nation for good in a significant way that few men ever have.

Was their society that much different from our own, and are we going through a similar historical phase and sense of confusion, dislocation, despair, and decadence that was so common in Wesley’s day?

Wesley alone is said to have ridden more than 250,000 miles on horseback while preaching the message of God’s love, righteousness, and forgiveness over a fifty-year period in over 40,000 sermons, many of which were outdoors.

Wesley’s writings are vast, but he was not usually overtly political.  Rather, his thought and preaching could be represented as being about Christian faith or salvation and the righteous life of holy temperaments that accompany the Christian spiritual rebirth.  It is from this general Christian awakening of individuals to what is truly of value in life that we subsequently see the effects on social and political institutions, entertainment, education, and so forth.   

The Spirit of God tends to bring a practical clarity of thought or wisdom generally, as well as a practical appreciation of the present and a motivation to do what is truly right, which is simply not present without Godly Consideration. In many ways the eighteenth century would eventually prove to be, perhaps the greatest of centuries, but it certainly did not start out that way!   

We today, as in the early days of that century, lack a sense of value, direction, purpose, reason, commitment, proportion, and true fulfillment, and we are easily swayed or taken in by foolishness in our age of moral relativity and personal decadence, where crime, greed, drunkenness, materialism, hedonism, absurdism, and political compromise is almost commonplace.  Our situation is not unlike that of a “preawakened” decadent England of centuries past.  One must almost wonder if it is too late for a Christian awakening in our age and if laughter does not reverberate down the corridors of hell with the words: “Too late”?   

Still, Britain and America were brought to Gospel Spiritual life before when things looked almost this bad by reestablishing their Christian foundations and returning to holy and healthy family lives, and there is no reason why it cannot happen again in this great life drama called history.

--Frank N. Mitchell

From "The Writings of John Wesley" 1997

Christ The Hiding Place

When troubles come; or days are long.

When illness strikes; or things go wrong.

When problems press; or foes I face.
 I turn to Christ, my hiding place.

 For He can ease the troubled heart

 Or brighten days; make ills depart.

He rights the wrongs and helps erase

Our problems at the hiding place.

For Christ, the Rock, is there for all,

He listens to the sinner's call.

And He will save those, by His grace,

Who seek Him at the hiding place.

-Esther Tank

Never Shrink Back from Loving Christ

If you love Christ, never be ashamed to let others see it and know it. Speak for Him. Witness for Him. Live for Him. Work for Him. If He has loved you and washed you from your sins in His own blood, you never need shrink from letting others know that you feel it, and love Him in return.

~ J.C. Ryle






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Receive correction when it comes to you

The Spirit of God often sends home the reproofs of Scripture to our hearts; while we are reading the word we feel that it searches us and rebukes us. So also the Lord will employ his ministers to chide us. Little is that ministry worth which never chides you. If God never uses his minister as a rod, depend upon it he will never use him as a pot of manna, for the rod of Aaron and the pot of manna always go together, and he who is God’s true servant will be both to your soul.

The Lord will also chide you through your own conscience, causing you to judge and condemn yourself. The Spirit of God will quicken your understanding, and then it will be said of you as of David, “David’s heart smote him.” It is hard hitting when the heart smites, for it comes to such close quarters, but blessed is that man who can thus be corrected: it is a sad sign when conscience is too dead to be of any service in this direction.

-Spurgeon

http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com

The fullness of God in Jesus Christ

Brethren, I am going to say nothing but what you all know, and I do not mean to garnish it with finery of words. The truth is that there are many who are barely Christians, and have scarcely enough grace to float them into heaven, the keel of their vessel grating on the gravel all the way; my prayer is that we may reach deep waters, and have so much grace that we may sail like a gallant bark on the broad ocean with a glorious cargo on board and all colors flying, so that there may be administered unto us an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this everything is provided. Christ has not merely placed enough bread on the table to keep us from starving, his oxen and fatlings are killed, he has spread a royal festival. He has not provided a scanty garment which may barely hide your nakedness, but he has brought forth the best robe, and has procured earrings for your ears jewels for your necks, and a crown royal for your heads; for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell for all his saints. If you have not these riches the fault lies with yourself. It is there, you might have it if you had but faith to take it.

Too often we sit down like beggars on the dunghill, and groan and cry because of the poverty of our nature when we ought to be rejoicing in the Lord. I thank God that we can groan, for that is something; but there is a more excellent way, a better gift to be earnestly coveted. In Christ ye are rich to the fullness of riches; get ye up, I pray you, to the high places, and realize for yourselves the fullness of Go

-Spurgeon

http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com

The Lord Knoweth...

God's all-knowledge is a doctrine of great comfort to believers.

How it is that God can—and does—know all things is a mystery to me. Some believe that God knows all things because He decrees and orders all things. That seems too simple an explanation. Freedom of choice and personal responsibility are taught throughout the Scriptures, and the doctrine of decrees reduces or eliminates man's free choice. Also, the doctrine that God decrees—and therefore knows everything—appears to make God the author of sin, a position difficult to harmonize with the whole of Bible teaching.

That God knows all things is part of the mystery of the Infinite —just as are His untarnishable holiness and His self-existent life. This knowledge of God's all-knowledge is "too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."

God knows His own purposes and providences. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Yes, God lets me in on some of His ways since He counts me as His friend. But His ways are higher than mine, so I often have to trust Him to do what I cannot understand. God is working according to His own plan; He knows what He is doing and what the glorious result will be.

God knows me, my large possibilities and my limiting weaknesses. "He knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." He treats me with discipline and firmness that I may rise to all He expects of me, and with mildness and patience that I may not become discouraged over my infirmities.

God knows what a cunning and powerful tempter assails us. In the days of His flesh, Jesus "suffered, being tempted." Sin was not a force that Jesus casually met and, with ease, defeated. He alone knows how treacherous enticement to evil can be, so He promises that I shall never "be tempted above that [I am] able.

God knows "how to deliver the godly out of temptations." Some teach that I am quite at the mercy of these strong temptations, and should I consider my own strength alone, I know that I would be doomed to helpless struggle against many inevitable defeats. But God has promised to "deliver me from every evil work, and . . . preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom."

God knows that I love Him and want to serve Him. What unspeakable comfort this is to me! "The Lord knoweth them that are His," and inwardly His Spirit bears witness with mine that I am His.

"Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."

--George E Failing

God's voice is not to be ignored....

The law of God is not given to us to be laid by upon the shelf to be obeyed at some future period of life, and the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not so intended for the eleventh hour as to be lightly trifled with during the first ten. Wherever the Holy Ghost exhorts, he speaks in the present tense, and bids us now repent, or now believe, or now seek the Lord.

-Spurgeon

http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com

Christ Our Sanctification

Christ is made of God unto us sanctification. Holiness is the very nature of God, and that alone is holy which God takes possession of and fills with Himself. God’s answer to the question, “How could sinful man become holy?” is, “Christ, the Holy One of God.” In Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, God’s holiness was revealed incarnate and brought within reach of man. “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). There is no other way of our becoming holy but by becoming partakers of the holiness of Christ. And there is no other way of this taking place than by our personal spiritual union with Him, so that through His Holy Spirit, His holy life flows into us. “Of [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us... sanctification.” Abiding by faith in Christ our sanctification is the simple secret of a holy life. The measure of sanctification will depend on the measure of abiding in Him; as the soul learns wholly to abide in Christ, the promise is increasingly fulfilled: “the very God of peace sanctify you wholly” (1 Thess. 5:23).

Andrew Murray on Prayer

The Great Shepherd Will Guide You

Let us remember this as we look forward to the days yet to come: We know not what our days may be - bright or dark, many or few - but we know that we are in the hands of Him who does all things well. He will not err in any of His dealings with us. He will take away and give - He will move and He will settle - with perfect wisdom, at the right time, in the right way.



The great Shepherd of the sheep makes no mistakes. He leads every lamb of His flock by the right way to the city of habitation.

-J. C. Ryle

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Monday Morning Chuckles - Batisms

Christopher Coleman Story - All Things Are Possible

A General Desire For Revival

In the Christian church at this moment there is a very general desire for a revival of religion. You may go where you may among Christian people, and you will find that they are mourning over the present, state of things, and saying the one to the other, “When will a greater blessing come? How can we obtain it? When shall we make some impression upon the masses of the ungodly? When shall our houses of prayer be filled with attentive hearers? When will the Lord’s kingdom come, and his right arm be made bare in the eyes of all the people?“

I am delighted to hear the inquiry; my soul magnifies the Lord as I discern tokens of growing anxiety about the cause and kingdom of Jesus and the perishing sons of men. This is an omen of better times. "As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." Searchings of heart, anguish, groanings which cannot be uttered, and abounding intercession, are the heralds of blessing; they are that sound in the tops of the mulberry trees which calls upon believers to bestir themselves in hope of victory.



--Spurgeon

The Bruised Reed

“A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Isaiah 42:3
 
When a human soul is bruised and mutilated by sin, He casts it not away. He repairs it for its place in the heavenly instrument, and makes it once more to show forth His praise. Look at David, the Psalmist of Israel. Who more a “bruised reed” than he? God had inspired his soul—made it a many-stringed instrument in discoursing His praise; but now it lay a broken mutilated thing, with the stain of crimson guilt upon it, tuneless and mute. “I kept silence,” says he; “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”

Does Jehovah desert him?—does He cast the reed away and seek to replace the void by another, worthier and better? Does He mock the cry of penitential sorrow as through anguished tears that stricken one thus implored forgiveness—”Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions”? No. Hear him detail his own experience—”I acknowledged my sin to You, and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” And then he takes up the re-tuned instrument, and sings for the encouragement of others—”Let everyone who is godly pray to You while You may be found.” In the case of some aromatic plants, it is when bruised they give forth the sweetest fragrance; so it is often the soul crushed with a sense of guilt which sends forth the sweetest aroma of humility, gratitude, and love. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

–John MacDuff

On every side we want MORE AUTHENTICITY

What do I mean when I use the word “authentic.” I mean that which is genuine, and sincere, and honest, and thorough. I mean that which is not inferior, and hollow, and formal, and false, and counterfeit, and sham, and nominal. “Authentic” religion is not mere show, and pretense, and skin-deep feeling, and temporary profession, and works only on the outside. It is something inward, solid, substantial, intrinsic, living, lasting. We know the difference between counterfeit and authentic money–between solid gold and tinsel–between plated metal and silver–between authentic stone and plaster imitation. Let us think of these things as we consider the subject of this paper. What is the character of our religion? Is it authentic? It may be weak, and feeble, and mingled with many defects. That is not the point before us today. Is our religion authentic? Is it true? The times in which we live demand attention to this subject. A want of authenticity is a striking feature of a vast amount of religion in the present day. Poets have sometimes told us that the world has passed through four different states or conditions. We have had a golden age, and a silver age, a brass age, and an iron age. How far this is true, I do not stop to inquire. But I fear there is little doubt as to the character of the age in which we live. It is universally an age of cheap metal and alloy. If we measure the religion of the age by its apparent quantity, there is much of  of it.   But if we measure it by its quality, there is indeed very little. On every side we want MORE AUTHENTICITY.

–J.C. Ryle

Free From Sin

With many people this phrase "tree from sin" is a fearsome expression. Sad as it may seem, some are more afraid of being "free from sin" than they are of "con¬tinuing in sin."

"But the expression is Biblical (Rom. 6: 7, 18, 22) and did not alarm Paul.

As a matter of fact, all souls are free — either free from sin or free from righteousness (Rom. 6: 18, 20). Which freedom is yours, mine?

The believer is freed from sin's condemnation. Paul proves this in Romans 4 and 5 and magnifies the justifying grace of the Lord Jesus.

The believer is also freed from sin's mastery, sin's dominion. Jesus first announced the great principle, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8: 34). One committed sin, one act of obedience to Satan makes us servants of sin. No man, therefore, is free because no man can honestly say that he has not sinned (Rom. 3: 19, 23).

The crucial question is: When the sinner is justified, does God then break sin's dominion over him? Emphatically Paul answers in the affirmative. "Shall we continue in sin? . . . God forbid."

Paul then proceeds to state why the born-again believer is freed from the mastery of sin. First of all, in conversion the believing sinner was baptized into Christ's death. Now Christ's death was not just a death to mortality; it was primarily a death to sin. And when Christ died to sin, He reached a point where He was out of the reach of sin's power. The proof of His victory lay in His glorious resurrection. Following that resurrection He walked in "newness of life." Sin no more dogged Him; in fact, sin no more touched or tempted Him. Sin became only a memory of past conflicts. He died once for all to sin, and forever lives unto God free from sin.

Now the believer is not yet freed from death, nor freed from the presence of sin about him. Sin impreg¬nates the atmosphere of this world. Satan is the prince of this world, and the heavenly places are infested with multiplied myriads of evil spirits (Eph. 6: 12). The believer has to live in a body subject to death and in a world saturated with evil.

Yet, the believer is "free from sin." When vain tradition suggests an act of wrong, or when Satan tempts him to yield to the mastery of the temporal ("lust of the flesh"), to popular acceptance ("lust of the eye"), to self-assertion and self-display ("pride of life"), the believer may resist successfully. For "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (I John 4: 4).

This is good news. Fellow believers, this is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. No justified believer need live under the mastery of sin. We are "freed from sin" and therefore free to serve Christ!

The believer falls heir to this freedom, but he must exercise this freedom if he would enjoy its benefits. Paul gives us two necessary rules. First, "Let not sin reign . . . neither yield ye your members as instruments of un¬righteousness unto sin." Deny your body, your time, your goods to Satan. Tell him that he has no longer any right to you, that only Jesus has the right to your "soul, life, all." Then maintain this resistance against sin even "unto blood" (Heb. 12: 4) if need be, making even the sacrifice of life, before you allow sin any dominion.

The second rule is equally important. “Recon ye also yourselves to be alive (Greek, “living”) unto God … yield yourselves … and your members … from Satan’s serfdom, and take your place among those saints serving the Lord God of hosts. After you take your stand among God’s freemen, then actively engage in the service of Christ. Security is linked to activity. He who does not fight with the forces of freedom will soon desert their ranks.

This new life, “free from sin,” is the beginning of fruitfulness. “Ye have your fruit unto holiness.” How sweet and precious are those fruits, and how desirable is that holiness.

What about the destination of such a life? “The end [is] everlasting life.” Slavery to sin is not true living, and man could not wish it to be eternal—through it will be unless stopped by the grace of God. But slavery to Christ—“freedom from sin”—is true living; it is a life worthy of lasting forever, and every believer holds that as his highest and most precious hope.

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free,
Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be.

My heart is weak and poor until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure—it varies with the wind.

It cannot freely more till thou, has wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.

--George E. Failing

Not that I have already obtained all of this...

Any notion of our own attainments which could lead us for a moment to speak of what we are with any degree of complacency is only rubbish. For my own part, I desire constantly to stand at the foot of the cross, with no other testimony concerning myself than this-

“I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me.” 

Personal holiness is to be sought for with all our hearts, and it can only be obtained by faith in Jesus Christ — by simple faith in him. He gives us power to overcome sin through his precious blood; but, depend upon it, the moment we conclude that we have overcome, and can say what Paul could not say — that he had attained and was already perfect — we are in an evil case. Our pride has overpowered our judgment, and we are fools.

-Spurgeon

"When God doesn't make sense anymore."

Recently I was watching a TV program that portrayed a military chaplain overwhelmed by the horrific events of war. At first I thought, "Here we go, Hollywood taking another shot at Christianity," but as I continued to watch, I realized that it was a respectful attempt to address a "crisis of faith," under very plausible conditions.

Think about it, every day we are being bombarded with scenes of a fallen world tumbling out of control; hunger, starvation, human destruction, cataclysmic events ripping lives apart. All being acted out before a benevolent and loving God.

All around us people are leaving the churches in droves because God is no longer making sense to them in the midst of such violent devastation. What are we to do? How can we relieve such a "crisis of faith," spreading like an epidemic in our Churches?

I am reminded of Paul's command to God's people of his day who were also dealing we very similar issues of faith.

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." (Rom 12:3)

There will always be events and circumstances that can easily overwhelm the sturdiest of souls. In times of trials all God asks of us, "Is to do the best with what He has given us and trust the rest to Him."

Overwhelmed & Amazed by God's Grace!