Sanctify!

W.B Godbey, a Kentucky Methodist pastor in the 1800s gives us this advice as to steps we take to be sanctified:

Throw away everything that is wrong or doubtful [that is, not of any clear value to the disciple]

Lay yourself with all your possessions, plans and aspirations, unreservedly on God's altar.

Believe "the altar sanctifies the gift." You are the gift, so it sanctifies you. If you have faith to be sanctified, you are sanctified. Just now trust Jesus to save you from all sin and trust Him to keep you pure.

Godbey, "On Christian Perfection."

This is reckless abandon! This is full trust and reliance--"trust Jesus to save you from all sin and keep you pure."

Not you, not your work, but just Jesus! He must do all! And it is by faith!

See how simple this faith in sanctification is: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in HIm shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." (John 3:16-17)

God's quarrel is not with us, His creation, but sin in us. If we are to be saved through Jesus, not condemned, then He has come not simply to forgive past sin, and to look over "new" sin. Rather, He has come to forgive past sin and deal decisively with sin's power in our lives.

"For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are _being_ saved, it is the power of God" (1 Cor 1:18). Amen!

Wesley on The Sermon on the Mount

Over the foreseeable Wednesdays, I intend to post from Wesley's sermons on Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5-7, in brief form. Part of the design is to build to chapter 7, especially the teaching on "Judge not, lest ye be judged," as it seems to me that very few people understand it. Christians especially use it to avoid being called to account for sin.

Who are the meek?

From Sermon 22 in the 52 Standard Sermons (which, by the way, form our doctrine...):

The meek are not those who have no reaction to suffering or evil, because they are ignorant of it.

Nor is meekness being without zeal.

Wesley says meekness is "resignation," by which he means, "a calm acquiescence in whatever is [God's] will for us."

Meekness actually has a long philosophical tradition; where we take it to mean being a doormat-- and be careful of anyone who exhorts you as a Christian to that kind of meekness! He is fixing to rob you blind!-- the philosophical tradition saw meekness as "balance," someone who did not react manically to whatever stimulus comes along.

The meek will inherit the earth because they are the ones being saved. Or perhaps I should say that meekness comes along in the process of sanctification. The meek are those who accept God's will for them, and do it. They spend, and are spent in the service of God.

Robert Strawbridge, Irish Preacher in America

Methodism's first "church" in America was the "Log Meetinghouse" in Frederick County, Maryland, a meeting started by Robert Strawbridge.

Strawbridge had been licensed to preach in Ireland. Some time after that, he emigrated to America and began preaching. As soon as he built his cabin on the frontier, he left to preach. This was to be his pattern: set his family up, and then he went to the Lord's work.

Strawbridge was always a layman, but saw preaching and organizing converts into societies as his main task. He was described as a heavy man, stout, "built for service," as one man remembered.

The records of those days are thin. The Methodist preachers on the frontiers did not leave many records. They were looking for the last cabin on the trail, taking the Gospel to every place they could. One thing we do know is that because Strawbridge was a layman, he could not serve the sacraments.

While the Annual Conference of Methodists did not allow lay preachers to serve the sacrament, BIshop Asbury made an exception in Strawbridge's case, because of his singular effectiveness.

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I am just a few posts into this blog, and the reading and re-familiarizing I am doing with some of the early figures in methodism is revealing something. It's not profound, it's nothing that you wouldn't expect, but I feel like it has crept up on me: the early Methodist preachers saw their main task as winning people to faith in Jesus Christ. Evangelism, pure and simple.

Wesley advised his preachers that they had "nothing to do but save souls;" they were to "spend and be spent;" they were to "speak and spare none." And it is stating the obvious to say that if they had not done that work, there would be no Methodist church today.

So... why did we stop doing such work? Why is it that it generally cannot be said of Methodists that we have nothing to do but save souls? Why are we so halting in our presentation of the Gospel, if, indeed, it be preached? At what point does an organization say, "OK, we used to do THAT, but now we're about THIS...?" And when, exactly, did the Gospel change so that it demands THIS rather than THAT?

I guess I wonder why I have this sense that we would be offended if John Nelson were our pastor?

Christian Perfection

"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:46-48)

When I was a new Christian and I read these words, I was really happy. Some folks have tried to beat this joy out of me, interpreting these words away into nonsense--"Well, Jesus did not really mean be perfect;" or, "The Greek text really means...;" or "He was just setting the bar high so we would strive for something. We can't reach it, but we try."

Naively, I would ask (still do): did He mean we should only sort of forgive people? He only sort of came to save sinners? Maybe He's not really love, but more like a strong affinity?

The run-up to the verses on perfection are hard, but sublime: "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (5:44).

Maybe he only said that to raise the bar high...

No, He means it. He means we are to be perfect. Not by our own strength or through our own power, but by Him who calls, justifies, and sanctifies.

He means for us to be perfect by the love of God that flows into us, so that we will know what love is, and then will in return love God and love neighbor.

If I love God, I will have no other gods before Him; will not take His name in vain; will not make any idols to worship; will keep the Sabbath day holy.

If I love my neighbor, I surely won't murder him! If I love my neighbor, I won't commit adultery.

It is the love of God and neighbor, coming to us through the power of the Holy Spirit that allows us to fulfill the Law, and be, well, perfect.

Not flawless, not driven by our own performance and skill. But perfect in intention, flowing from love.

Ordination

When a United Methodist pastor is ordained, he or she is examined on these topics:

Have you faith in Christ?

Are you going on to perfection?

Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?

Are you earnestly striving after it?

Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and His work?

Do you know the General Rules of our Church?

Will you keep them?

Have you studied the doctrines of the United Methodist Church?

After full examination, do you believe that our doctrines are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures?

Will you preach and maintain them?

Have you studied our form of church discipline and polity?

Do you approve of our church government and polity?

Will you support and maintain them?

WIll you diligently instruct the children in every place?

Will you visit from house to house?

Will you recommend fasting or abstinence, both by precept and example?

Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of God?

Are you in debt so as to embarrass yourself in your work?

Will you observe the following directions?

a. Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary.

b. Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them, not for wrath, but conscience' sake.

Peter Jaco, Methodist Preacher

Jaco was born in Cornwall, in 1729.

In 1746, he began to hear Methodist preaching, from the traveling preachers who roamed all over England. He had not come to faith, but he was close. He wanted to know more, had respect for the preachers, but was not willing to surrender all. In his papers, he reminds Wesley of an incident in Cornwall. Here is John Welsey's account:

"I rode to Newlyn [Jaco's hometown], a little town on the south sea, about a mile from Penzance. At five I walked to a rising ground, near the seashore, where was a smooth white sand to stand on. An immense multitude of people was gathered together; but their voice was as the roaring of the sea. I began to speak, and the noise died away: But before I had ended my prayer, some poor wretches of Penzance began cursing and swearing, and thrusting the people off the bank. In two minutes I was thrown into the midst of them; when one of Newlyn, a bitter opposer till then, turned about and swore, “None shall meddle with the man: I will lose my life first.” Many others were of his mind: So I walked an hundred yards forward, and finished my sermon without any interruption."

Peter Jaco was one of the young men who threatened the mob if they did not let Wesley preach.

One day on his way to church, Jaco seemed to hear the Lord say, "Jesus Christ died for the vilest sinner." And Jaco replied, "Then I am the wretch for whom He died!"

Jaco was called to preach, but doubted his ability. He thought he would be an occasional helper, but John and Charles Wesley wanted to see him as a full-time traveling preacher.

Here is Jaco's account of his ministry:

"I had many difficulties to struggle with. In some places the work was to begin, and in most places being in its infancy, we had hardly the necessities of life; so that after preaching three or four times a day and riding thirty or forty miles, I have often been thankful a little clean straw with a canvas sheet to lie on. Very frequently we also had violent opposition. At Warrington I was struck so violently with a brick on the breast that the blood gushed out through my mouth, nose, and ears. At Grampound, I was pressed for a soldier [essentially kidnapped and forced into the army--normally reserved for vagrants and petty criminals]...though I was honorably acquitted... it cost me a pretty large sum of money as well as much trouble

"For many years I was exposed to various other difficulties and dangers. But having obtained help from God, I continue to this day in His service. At present, I find my mind as much devoted to Him as I ever did. I see and feel the necessity of a greater conformity to Christ. May I never be satisfied till I awake up after His likeness!"

Jaco died in 1781.

Welcome

Hello! Welcome to another blog from me! I promise it's not that I am ADD and have to keep doing something new!

I have been thinking, praying, and fasting about starting this blog for a while...

My goals here are pretty simple: I want to post about three times a week, shooting for posting on the same "subject" on the same days each week.

First, I want to share biographies of the great Methodist "saints," the men and women who, by their lives and work, expanded the work and the Gospel.

Second, I want to include excerpts from John Wesley's writings, because I think perhaps those of us who are among the people called Methodists have forgotten or ignored where we come from.

Third, I want to bring together materials on the Methodist teaching about Christian Perfection.

And maybe if we're really lucky, we can get some deep Methodists to guest post here...