Honouring the Sabbath

Honouring the Sabbath

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Today we continue our series on the Ten Commandments and we look at honouring the Sabbath.

In Exodus 20 (where the Ten Commandments are recorded for us… but you find them  in Deuteronomy 5 as well) God gives more words, more explanation, to this commandment than He does to any other commandment. In my translation 90 out of 256 words are spent on this command. That is 35%!

More than 1/3 of God's time is taken up by one of the Ten Commandments. That makes this commandment significant, and yet, I would suggest that it is probably the least understood and the least kept of all the commandments.

When asked what the fourth commandment is, many would probably say something along the lines of: ‘Don’t work on the Sabbath’… ‘Rest on the Sabbath’

But the command is: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 

That hopefully begs the question: What must we remember? 

Well first of all, let there be a day of the week, the 7^th day, when you actually make a conscious effort to remember throughout the day that… Today is the Sabbath. Kind of like when we have a birthday… that whole day we keep it in our minds… today is my birthday. Let’s have a day a week where throughout the day, we remember, we remind ourselves, today is Sabbath.

There’s a bit more we can remember though. Did you notice that God remembers something… He says: ‘In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas and everything in them, but on the 7^th day I rested.’

That’s what God remembers as He gives us this command… I created the whole universe in 6 days and then I rested from my creative work. So… God remembers and celebrates creation in this command. One of the ways we can remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy is by remembering our God as Creator and we can do this by just looking out and even finding ways to enjoy and celebrate creation. There are many ways to do this:

    Some folk make an effort on the Sabbath to make time to just look at the stars;                                                 others may go to the zoo; perhaps drive in the country;

 a walk through a park etc, etc, etc. 

All the time remembering: ‘Today is the day that God, Creator God, rested from making all this.’ Can you see how this can bring obedience to this commandment to life in you?

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy… to keep holy (you might remember a few weeks back) means to set apart for God. Something or someone is holy if it is separated or set apart from other things for God.

When the 10 Commandments are recorded in Deuteronomy God says this: ‘Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that I, the Lord your God, rescued you by my great power and strength. That is why I command you to remember the Sabbath.’

So here is another way to remember the Sabbath: Remember that once you were slaves, but now you are free. I don’t think we as Christians remind ourselves enough that the truth is: WE ARE FREE…. FREE from bondage to sin, even while we still struggle against it and with it… don’t let Satan say to you: ‘You’re mine, look at your behavior, you’re as bad as you ever were… you’re mine’

 No!!!!! In Christ, I am free, my freedom has been won… I am no longer your captive, even though it might look like I am, I’m not! In Christ, I am free!!

And if one day a week we would set time apart to remember this TRUTH, we would live out that freedom more successfully than we currently do.

The Sabbath is another one of God’s means of grace for us. Just as He blesses us through the other means of grace, like prayer, Scripture reading, the Sacrament, fellowship and fasting...... so too He conveys grace and blessing to us when we remember the Sabbath and set it apart for Him, especially in the 2 ways we've mentioned: remember and celebrate creation, 

                 remember and celebrate your freedom in Christ.

Now, for another way..... REST. Our reading from Hebrews reminds us that God's desire for us is… REST. I don’t have to ask how many people here are TIRED. One of the freedoms that Christ has won for us is… REST.

Come to me, all you who are tired and I will give you… REST.

Rest is incredibly important to God. He wants us to rest. He COMMANDS us to… rest.

When we remember creation we remember that:

God created… on day one.

God created… on day two.

God created… on day three.

God created… on day four.

God created… on day five.

God created… on day six. On day six He made all animals – must have taken up most of the day. At the end, last of all, He creates humans. What’s the first thing these humans do… well..... it’s the end of the day, so they probably… go to sleep, they rest!

Then they wake up to their first full day in this creation, day seven, and God says to them… REST… it’s Sabbath. So what did they do, well, they no doubt found ways to enjoy the creation and each other… WOW – look what God has made.

Rest is so important in God’s plan for us, that it is the first thing that He gives His created beings to do. 

So here is another way to ‘Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy’ – don’t do the things on this day that keep you busy the other six days of the week. Set this day apart as special… as different… as holy to the Lord.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Here is a final way to do this, and it comes from our reading from Mark’s gospel. Jesus reminds us, so we ought to remember, that the Sabbath is made for us, we were not made for the Sabbath. 

Sabbath fits into you, it is made for you.

You and I don’t fit into Sabbath. 

Can you see how Sabbath thus sets free, it doesn’t confine. [I explained this in my introduction to this series – laws set us free, they don’t confine us. Before we are born again we hate laws and rebel against them, but when we are born again – laws set us free. You and I are not confined by the law that says ‘drive on the left side of the road…’ we are set free by that law!] 

We don’t fit into the Sabbath, Sabbath fits into us and sets us free to celebrate creation, to remember our freedom, and to rest.

Therefore: Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. 

Honouring the Sabbath: Study notes

Honouring the Sabbath

And Jesus concluded, "The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27

Exo 20:8-11  "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work---neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. In six days I, the LORD, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the LORD, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.

Deu 5:12-15  " 'Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, as I, the LORD your God, have commanded you. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work---neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. Your slaves must rest just as you do.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that I, the LORD your God, rescued you by my great power and strength. That is why I command you to remember the Sabbath.

Heb 4:1-11  Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest. For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith. We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised. It is just as he said, "I was angry and made a solemn promise: 'They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!' " He said this even though his work had been finished from the time he created the world. For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: "God rested on the seventh day from all his work." This same matter is spoken of again: "They will never enter that land where I would have given them rest." Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are, then, others who are allowed to receive it. This is shown by the fact that God sets another day, which is called "Today." Many years later he spoke of it through David in the scripture already quoted: "If you hear God's voice today, do not be stubborn."

If Joshua had given the people the rest that God had promised, God would not have spoken later about another day. As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day. For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith.

Good News Bible Translation

Prayer to Welcome the Sabbath

Lord of Creation, create in us a new rhythm of life

composed of hours that sustain, rather than stress,

of days that deliver rather than destroy, of time that tickles rather than tackles.

Lord of liberation, by the rhythm of Your truth, set us free

from the bondage and baggage that breaks us,

from the Pharaohs and fellows who break fail us,

from the plans and pursuits that prey upon us.

Lord of Resurrection, may we be raised into the rhythm of Your new life,

dead to deceitful calendars, dead to fleeting friend requests,

dead to the empty peace of our accomplishments.

To our packed-full planners, we bid, “Peace!”

To our over-caffeinated consciences, we say, “Cease!”

To our suffocating selves, Lord, grant release.

Drowning in a sea of deadlines and death chimes, we rest in You, our lifeline.

By Your ever-restful grace, allow us to enter Your Sabbath rest

as Your Sabbath rest enters into us.

In the name of our Creator, our Liberator, our Resurrection and Life, we pray.

Amen.

From “Common Prayer” by Shane Claiborne, et al.

For reflection

Why do you think God spends more time on this command than any other?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                     

What are some of the ways (5) we can “Remember the Sabbath”?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

What does it mean to “keep it holy”?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

How is the Sabbath a means of grace?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The week following my "Strange Heartwarming"

Friday, May 26. My soul continued in peace, but yet in heaviness, because of manifold temptations. I asked Mr. Töltschig the Moravian what to do. He said, You must not fight with them as you did before, but flee from them the moment they appear, and take shelter in the wounds of Jesus. The same I learned also from the afternoon anthem, which was, ‘My soul truly waiteth still upon God; for of him cometh my salvation. He verily is my strength and my salvation; he is my defence, so that I shall not greatly fall. [. . .] O put your trust in him always, ye people; pour out your hearts before him, for God is our hope.’

Sat. 27. Believing one reason of my want of joy was want of time for prayer, I resolved to do no business till I went to church in the morning, but to continue pouring out my heart before him. And this day my spirit was enlarged; so that though I was now also assaulted by many temptations, I was more than conqueror, gaining more power thereby to trust and to rejoice in God my Saviour.

Sun. 28. I waked in peace, but not in joy. In the same even quiet state I was till the evening, when I was roughly attacked in a large company as an enthusiast, a seducer, and a setter-forth of new doctrines. By the blessing of God I was not moved to anger, but after a calm and short reply went away, though not with so tender a concern as was due to those who were seeking death in the error of their life.

This day I preached in the morning at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, on ‘This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith’, and in the afternoon at the chapel in Long Acre, on God’s justifying the ungodly—the last time (I understand) I am to preach at either. ‘Not as I will, but as thou wilt’!

Mon. 29. I set out for Dummer with Mr. Wolf, one of the first-fruits of Peter Böhler’s ministry in England. I was much strengthened by the grace of God in him: yet was his state so far above mine that I was often tempted to doubt whether we had one faith. But, without much reasoning about it, I held here: ‘Though his be strong and mine weak, yet that God hath given some degree of faith even to me I know by its fruits. For I have constant peace, not one uneasy thought. And I have freedom from sin, not one unholy desire.’

Yet on Wednesday did I grieve the Spirit of God, not only by not ‘watching unto prayer’, but likewise by speaking with sharpness instead of tender love, of one that was not sound in the faith. Immediately God hid his face and I was troubled; and in this heaviness I continued till the next morning, June 1, when it pleased God, while I was exhorting another, to give comfort to my soul, and (after I had spent some time in prayer) to direct me to those gracious words, ‘Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.[. . .] Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for he is faithful that promised), and let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works.’

The Days following my "Strange heartwarming" 1

Thursday, May 25. The moment I awaked, ‘Jesus, Master,’ was in my heart and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed upon him, and my soul waiting on him continually. Being again in St. Paul’s in the afternoon, I could taste the good word of God in the anthem, which began, ‘My song shall be always of the loving-kindness of the Lord: with my mouth will I ever be showing forth thy truth from one generation to another.’ Yet the enemy injected a fear, ‘If thou dost believe, why is there not a more sensible change?’ I answered (yet not I), ‘That I know not. But this I know, I have now peace with God, and I sin not today, and Jesus my Master has forbid me to take thought for the morrow.’

‘But is not any sort of fear’, continued the tempter, ‘a proof that thou dost not believe?’ I desired my Master to answer for me, and opened his book upon those words of St. Paul, ‘Without were fightings, within were fears.’Then inferred I, well may fears be within me; but I must go on, and tread them under my feet.

Caitlin's 1st Birthday Party

How wonderful to have a Grandchild

 Yummy frothocinno

In Grampa's shadow

 All my girls

 Hello Mr Donkey

Ten Commandments: Intro and First Two

Ten Commandments

Introduction:  Recognize and Worship One God

Today we begin a preaching series on The Ten Commandments. This is the introduction and it also looks at the first two:

You shall have other gods before me; You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

The 2 commands can be expressed positively in the following way:

        Recognize one true God  and

        Worship only God.

The letter of the law is often negative, but the spirit of the law is always positive. The Pharisees, the teachers of the law and the Sadducees at the time Jesus focused only on the letter of the Law, on the negative, on the ‘You must not’ ‘You may not’ ‘You should not’ and in so doing, they made the Law, in Jesus words, a burden which loaded people down.

So, for example, they would look at the story of Adam and Eve and say ‘You must not eat from the tree’ whereas the spirit behind the first command given in Scripture was ‘You may eat from that tree and that one, and that one, and that one and that one, and that one…’...... do you get the message?

The letter of the Law brings darkness, heaviness and judgement, the spirit of the Law brings light, lightness, and freedom.

The same law can bring 2 opposite emotions and these emotions determine how we respond to that law.

For example: The law says: 120km/h. I either respond with: ‘Yay, I’m free to go up to 120km/h’ or ‘Dammit… I cannot go over 120km/h’.

The one response is gracious, the other is legalistic.

The one sets free, the other imprisons.

‘Be back by midnight’… “Yay I can stay out till midnight” or “Aaaarg – I must be back by midnight”

So how do you respond to laws, to rules, to regulations – do you feel set free by them or imprisoned by them. (Perhaps I should stress we are talking about just laws. Unjust laws, for example, “If your skin is this colour you may only go to that school or live in that area”......unjust laws set no one free and imprison everybody.)

So how do you respond to just/fair rules, laws, regulations – graciously or legalistically.

Now, our focus is the Ten Commandments. Let’s see what it means to see them positively.

Perhaps we can start by calling them:

Ten Ways to Live An Abundant Life

1.      Recognize one true God called the LORD

2.      Only worship this God

3.      Honour His name

4.      Honour His Sabbath

5.      Honour your parents

6.      Honour human life

7.      Honour marriage

8.      Respect personal property

9.      Speak the truth

10.   Control your desires

Friends, live this way and you will be free. Live this way and you will experience abundant life. Live this way and you will find yourself saying things like: ‘Wow, my cup runneth over’.

The law was never given as a way of salvation for either Jews or Gentiles. As you can see from the cover of your leaflet, no one is ever put right with God by keeping laws. We are not saved by keeping commands.

We are saved by faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus.

The law reveals Gods righteousness.

The law demands righteousness.

But the law can’t give righteousness.

Keeping laws doesn’t make us righteous. FAITH makes us righteous.

The law is a mirror that reveals where we are dirty, but we can’t wash our face in the mirror. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from sin.

Am I saying we don’t have to keep the laws of God. God forbid – Jesus said not one little dot or comma of the law is done away with until heaven and earth disappear.

Just don’t believe that you can earn any brownie points with God by keeping His laws. His law is not to be followed so that individuals can show their worth before God, and certainly not so that we can earn or secure our salvation. No… the law is to be followed so that Gods people can show the world the kind of God we worship.

The first commandment is God inviting us to trust Him rather than anything else or anyone else.

The second is saying that when we trust in something or someone else more than we trust in God, then we have an idol. If you trust in your spouse or parent of your minister to care for you more than you trust in your God to care for you, then you have an idol.

God might certainly reveal that His agent for protecting you or providing for you is your spouse, or parent, or care giver, but the one you look to and ultimately put your faith in, must only be God.

If you don’t sleep well at night unless you have a gun next to you, or a panic button, you have an idol. Sleep well because you have a God who watches over you.

God says in that command, I am a jealous God and if anything or anyone gets more attention or trust in your life than me… ooooh…. just don’t go down that road…. For your good, not because I am unreasonable and demanding, not because I have a whole lot of laws and rules to keep you in check, but rather because I have a whole lot of laws and rules which set you free.

And as Paul will say +- 1400 years after the law was given on Sinai, if God the Spirit sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Are you free?

Feel free to leave this place recognizing the one true God called the Lord.

Feel free to leave this place and to trust in Him, before anything or anyone else.

Be Free!

Ten Commandments Study Notes

Ten Commandments Series

6 May 2012

Introduction and the first two commandments

	For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law  does is to make us know that we have sinned. Rom 3:20

 

‘I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.’ Phil 3:9

	If you love others, you will never do  them wrong; to love, then, is to obey  the whole Law. Rom 13:10
			"Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the  prophets. Mat 7:12

 

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"Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true. Remember that as long as heaven and earth last, not the least point nor the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with---not until the end of all things. Mat 5:17-18

	Those of you who try to be put right with God  by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off  from Christ. You are outside God's grace. Gal 5:4

 

‘For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews

and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace.’ Eph 2:14-15

Study Notes

Can you turn each of The Ten Commandments into a positive and liberating command?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the difference between a gracious and a legalistic response to a rule, law or regulation?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you gracious or legalistic? ___________________________________________

For Reflection

·       Our gracious God has given us hundreds of laws and He commands obedience.

o   The law demands righteousness

o   The law cannot give righteousness

o   The law reveals Gods righteousness

·       Do I have any idols?

·       Am I free?

John Wesley and May 1738 (3)

Thur. 4. Peter Böhler left London in order to embark for Carolina. O what a work hath God begun since his coming into England! Such an one as shall never come to an end till heaven and earth pass away.

Friday and Saturday I was at Blendon. They now ‘believed our report’. O may ‘the arm of the Lord’ be speedily ‘revealed’ unto them!

John Wesley and May 1738 (2)

Wed. 3. My brother had a long and particular conversation with Peter Böhler. And it now pleased God to open his eyes, so that he also saw clearly what was the nature of that one, true, living faith, whereby alone ‘through grace we are saved’.

John Wesley and May 1738 (1)

Monday, May 1. The return of my brother’s illness obliged me again to hasten to London. In the evening I found him at James Hutton’s, better as to his health than I expected, but strongly averse from what he called ‘the new faith’.

This evening our little society began, which afterwards met in Fetter Lane. Our fundamental rules were as follows:

In obedience to the command of God by St. James, and by the advice of Peter Böhler, it was agreed by us—

1. That we will meet together once a week to ‘confess our faults one to another, and pray for one another that we may be healed’.

2. That the persons so meeting be divided into several ‘bands’, or little companies, none of them consisting of fewer than five or more than ten persons.

3. That everyone in order speak as freely, plainly, and concisely as he can, the real state of his heart, with his several temptations and deliverances, since the last time of meeting.

4. That all the bands have a conference at eight every Wednesday evening, begun and ended with singing and prayer.

5. That any who desire to be admitted into this society be asked, What are your reasons for desiring this? Will you be entirely open, using no kind of reserve? Have you any objection to any of our orders? (which may then be read).

6. That when any new member is proposed everyone present speak clearly and freely whatever objection he has to him.

7. That those against whom no reasonable objection appears be, in order for their trial, formed into one or more distinct bands, and some person agreed on to assist them.

8. That after two months’ trial, if no objection then appear, they be admitted into the society.

9. That every fourth Saturday be observed as a day of general intercession.

10. That on the Sunday sennight following be a general love-feast, from seven till ten in the evening.

11. That no particular member be allowed to act in anything contrary to any order of the society; and that if any persons, after being thrice admonished, do not conform thereto, they be not any longer esteemed as members.

Holey, Wholly, Holy on Sabbatical

John Wesley's Blog, John Wesley Journal on Facebook, Cedric Poole on Facebook and Holey, Wholly, Holy will be on sabbatical until further notice. Cedric Poole, the person behind the JohnWesleyProject.com, is completing a Master's degree at the University of Witwatersrand Medical Faculty in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have completed my course work in Medical Ethics and South African Health Law and now have to work on my thesis. I will return to these pages once my thesis is complete. I covet your prayers during this period. Until we meet again, pursue holiness, grow in holiness and be holy, just as our God is holy.

Great Hall at Wits (my alma mater) imposed on Nelson Mandela Bridge

Should Methodist Preachers Preach Extempore, as Wesley did?

The preaching of my sermon on Sunday and then the reading of it in my post reminded me of just how differently a sermon 'reads' and 'preaches'. John Wesley is a good example of this 'phenomenon'. According to Albert Outler(1), JW learnt to preach extempore [on the spur of the moment; offhand; without notes(2)] at Oxford. After 1739 he became even more convinced that extempore preaching should be the norm(1). This obviously made sense bearing in mind the growth of field-preaching and the necessity, both for him and the growing number of Methodist preachers, to preach wherever and whenever opportunity arose. Ward and Heitzenrater(3) quote William Myles, who in 1800 wrote that "extempore preaching is now universally practised by all the Methodist Preachers". It is interesting that today, certainly in South Africa, Methodist preachers are taught to preach from notes AND to stick to those notes.I personally, since preaching my first sermon in 1983 while still a dental student, have never been encouraged or taught to preach extempore. I notice that a renowned Methodist preacher in the US, Adam Hamilton, seems to encourage a reversion to cultivating the ability to preach free of notes(4).

Outler suggests that for JW, oral preaching was the norm and for it to be effective it had to be an interpersonal encounter between the preacher and the hearers and extempore preaching encourages this. As I will point out a little later, extempore preaching does not mean preaching without intense preparation, and certainly does not relieve one of background research and good notes. It does mean however, that at any time and any place, a Methodist preacher should be able to preach a good sermon, whether or not there are any notes to hand. I am not sure how many of us can do this. One of the dangers of extempore preaching is that of wondering from the point, of which it seems, even JW was occasionally guilty. The following is just one illustration: "In one of Wesley's visits to Dunbar, when preaching in the open air and rambling, a young man in the crowd cried, “Stick to your text.” Wesley was so much confounded as if a thunderbolt had fallen at his feet, struck dumb with astonishment, and had not a word to say. After a little, he went on with his discourse in a much less confident tone than formerly."(6)

So why written sermons at all? Albert Outler again: "Written sermons could only be regarded as either preparatory for more effective oral utterance or else distillates of it: the written word as substitute for personal presence. However, he [JW] saw an important difference between the principal aims of an oral and written sermon: the former is chiefly for proclamation and invitation; the latter is chiefly for nurture and reflection."(5)

I think it is here that we see why JW's sermons "don't preach", as anyone who has ever tried to preach them just by reading them (with contemporary language use) will have discovered. They simply cannot be listened to without becoming boring and difficult to follow. But sit down and read them as an exercise of study and reflection, and one is nurtured and even enjoys the experience.

All this helps me to understand why my Sunday 7th sermon really doesn't read well, but when I preached it, it was much more fun and made more sense.

Well, at least it seemed that way to me. Next year my preaching is to be recorded and made available for audio download, as well as being available for reading and it will be interesting (for me at least) to compare my preached word with my written word. My wife Chris, who sometimes sits through the same sermon three times on a Sunday, often says that each one is quite unique and I think that's the benefit of extempore preaching, it almost becomes applicable/contextual/alive at the very moment of delivery.

1.Albert Outler in The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Volume 1, page 14

2.www.Dictionary.com

3.Ward and Heitzenrater in The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Volume23, page 3

4.Adam Hamilton in Leading Beyond The Walls, pages 76-103, but 95 in particular

5.Albert Outler in The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Volume 1, page 14

6.The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Volume 1, page 97

John Wesley's Blog on Sabbatical

John Wesley's Blog, John Wesley Journal on Facebook and Holey, Wholly, Holy will be on sabbatical until further notice. Cedric Poole, the person behind the JohnWesleyProject.com, is on sabbatical, completing a Master's degree at the University of Witwatersrand Medical Faculty in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have completed my course work in Medical Ethics and South African Health Law and now have to work on my thesis. I will return to these pages once my thesis is complete. I covet your prayers during this period. Until we meet again, pursue holiness, grow in holiness and be holy, just as our God is holy.

Great Hall at Wits (my alma mater) imposed on Nelson Mandela Bridge

Back home from America

Sun 29 Jan 1738: We saw English land once more, which about noon appeared to be the Lizard Point. We ran by it with a fair wind, and at noon the next day made the west end of the Isle of Wight.

Here the wind turned against us, and in the evening blew fresh, so that we expected (the tide being likewise strong against us) to be driven some leagues backward in the night; but in the morning, to our great surprise, we saw Beachy Head just before us, and found we had gone forwards near forty miles.

Toward evening was a calm; but in the night a strong north wind brought us safe into the Downs. The day before Mr. Whitefield had sailed out, neither of us then knowing anything of the other. 

Nearly Home

Sat 28 Jan 1738: Was another cloudy day; but about ten in the morning (the wind continuing southerly) the clouds began to fly just contrary to the wind, and to the surprise of us all sunk down under the sun, so that at noon we had an exact observation; and by this we found we were as well as we could desire, about eleven leagues south of Scilly.

PARAPROSDOKIAN OF THE WEEK

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car

Once again doubt and deep reflection (Part 3)

But in a storm I think, ‘What if the gospel be not true?’ Then thou art of all men most foolish. For what hast thou given thy goods, thy ease, thy friends, thy reputation, thy country, thy life? For what art thou wandering over the face of the earth? A dream, ‘a cunningly devised fable’? O who will deliver me from this fear of death! What shall I do? Where shall I fly from it? Should I fight against it by thinking, or by not thinking of it? A wise man advised me some time since, ‘Be still and go on.’ Perhaps this is best, to look upon it as my cross; when it comes, to let it humble me, and quicken all my good resolutions, especially that of praying without ceasing; and at other times to take no thought about it, but quietly to go on ‘in the work of the Lord’.

We went on with a small, fair wind, till Thursday in the afternoon, and then sounding, found a whitish sand at seventy-five fathom. But having had no observation for several days, the Captain began to be uneasy, fearing we might either get unawares into the Bristol Channel, or strike in the night on the rocks of Scilly.