Aldersgate 2014

John Wesley is famously known as the founder of Methodism. A powerful preacher and a passionate discipler, he is a significant figure in social enterprise in the 18th Century. The Aldersgate experience is best summed up by his journal entry on May 24th, 1738.

"Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I had continual sorrow and heaviness in my heart.

Wednesday, May 24.—I think it was about five this morning that I opened my Testament on those words, “There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that ye should be partakers of the divine nature” [II Peter 1:4]. Just as I went out, I opened it again on those words, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” [Mark 12:34]. In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul’s. The anthem was, “Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Oh, let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? For there is mercy with Thee; therefore shalt Thou be feared. O Israel, trust in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his sins.”

“I Felt My Heart Strangely Warmed” In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. 

I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart. But it was not long before the enemy suggested, “This cannot be faith; for where is thy joy?” Then was I taught that peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in the Captain of our salvation; but that, as to the transports of joy that usually attend the beginning of it, especially in those who have mourned deeply, God sometimes giveth, sometimes withholdeth, them according to the counsels of His own will. 

After my return home, I was much buffeted with temptations, but I cried out, and they fled away. They returned again and again. I as often lifted up my eyes, and He “sent me help from his holy place.” And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well as under grace. But then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now, I was always conqueror." (Journal of John Wesley, link)

May we all have our personal Aldersgate experience soon.

conrade

Faith is Risk Taking

Eli Stanley Jones (1884-1973)

The great 20th Century Methodist missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) is one of my favourite persons I love to quote from. When serving in India, he was one of the key Christian influences on Mahatma Gandhi. He worked with the lowest of the lowest, in particular the Dalits. He wrote with a conviction to wake up the sleepy church. He spoke with passion to rebuke the naysayers. He even influenced major figures like Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who went on to famously start the non-violent human rights movement.

Rebuking the Risk-Averse Believers

The article below is a particularly moving one, and speaks to the modern church that is fearful of taking risks. It rebukes the 'negative' spirit among many Christians, and exhorts all to adopt a 'positive' way to live. I learned that taking risks is not an option. It is a must if anyone of us wants to be a disciple. Maybe, 'must' is a strong word. Perhaps, at least, if any of us are NOT willing to take risks, let us then NOT deter, distract, or discourage others with our own risk-averse or negativity. Let us learn to focus on Christ, and take Him at His Word, His promise to be with us, especially when we take risks for gospel sake. Some of the precious gems I learned are:

• We are our biggest prisoners.
• The biggest mistake is the 'fear of making mistakes.'
• Don't build our spiritual lives around negatives.
• Don't be focused so much on the small things, that we miss out the big picture.
• That we can often behave like the Pharisees, who sees 'criticisms' when Jesus sees 'conversions,' and who 'pick flaws' over 'followers.'

Below is a reproduction of Eli Stanley Jones's article printed on a newspaper in Texas. I have highlighted my favourite parts in bold blue. Take my word. The article is worth your time.

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LIFE TRULY LIVED IS A RISKY BUSINESS

(Published: "The Evening Journal," 23 June 1954)
By: E. Stanley Jones

A dentist who was successful as a dentist – he filled cavities with positive remedies – was a failure as a moral being, for he said to himself: “I am a man who thinks all around a subject, but I never make up my mind and act.” Everything for him was 'sickfilled over by the pale cast of thought.' The thought never took legs and began to walk; It remained a thought. Many are so afraid of making a mistake that they don’t make anything else. They have so much tact that they have no contact.

'Any life truly lived is a risky business, and if one puts up too many fences against the risks, one ends in shutting out life itself.’ Many are prisoners of their own fears of making mistakes. There are many who are afraid to speak to others about Christ, for they are afraid of making mistakes. But the biggest mistake is not to do it. If a man doesn’t make mistakes, he doesn’t make anything else. The biggest mistake is the fear of making mistakes. It leaves on negative, and that is a mistake.

There are some who build their whole lives around negatives. Note: “Now the Pharisees gathered to meet him, with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of his disciples ate their food with common (that is unwashed) hands (Mark 7:1-2, Moffatt). They came all the way from Jerusalem to meet Him, and their life attitudes were so negative and faultfinding that all they saw was unwashed hands. They couldn’t see the greatest movement of redemption that had ever touched our planet – a movement that was cleansing the minds and souls and bodies of men. All they saw was a ritualistic infringement. Their eyes were open wide to the little and marginal and blind to the big. So history forgets them, the negative – forgets them except as a background for this impact of the positive Christ. They left a criticism; he left a conversion. They picked flaws, He picked followers.

There is only one way to live – the positive way. There is only one way to die – the negative way.

O Christ, I thank Thee for Thy awakening, stimulating impact upon my spirit. Thou dost produce life at every touch. Amen.

AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am not afraid to make mistakes, for I’m out to make something bigger than the “I's.”

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Wow. When we are too focused on the I, me, myself, how pathetically small and limited our world is. When our eyes are focused on Christ, our world expands beyond ourselves. Faith is taking risks by living beyond ourselves, for Christ. We are not called to build a kingdom of 'I.' We are called to build and to be a part of the kingdom of God.

conrade

Aldersgate Sunday (May 24th)

For Methodists all over the world, this Sunday is Aldersgate Sunday. Celebrated every May 24th, it is a time to remember the conversion experience of the founder of the Methodist movement. John Wesley, on the eve of May 24th, 1738. This is also famously known as the ‘Aldersgate Experience’ where Wesley wrote the words:

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Describing this as a turning point in his spiritual life, Wesley became a converted man. He has been brought up under a solid Christian environment; his father being a Puritan pastor, while his mother Susanna is a dedicated Christian woman. Trained in theology, he even embarked on mission trips across the sea to another land. Yet, he remains unfulfilled in many ways. His encounter with the Moravian believers stirred within him a wanting for a similar deep spiritual experience with God. Whilst on a ship traversing deep stormy waters, he was amazed at the calmness of the Moravians. Upon his return to England, he continued to grapple with these memories, his frustrations about the Christian life and his dissatisfaction with his lack of inner experience. Despite these, he continued in his regular sessions of listening and reading Scripture. On that Aldersgate Sunday, May 24th 1738, he received his inner experience which not only changed his life, which not only created a new spiritual movement, it spawned a new social movement which arguably, saved England from impending social disaster.

Below is a selection of one of his contributions to the Christian people all over the world. It is a great way to do spiritual reading.

From the preface of John Wesley’s abridgement of Thomas Kempis’s Imitation of Christ, 1735
(Frank Whaling, ed., John and Charles Wesley: selected prayers, hymns, journal notes, sermons, letters and treatises, NY: Paulist Press, 1981, pp88-89.)

First: Assign some stated time every day for this employment; and observe it, so far as you possibly can, inviolably. But if necessary business, which you could not foresee or defer, should sometimes rob you of your hour of retirement, take the next to it; or, if you cannot have that, at least the nearest you can.

Secondly: Prepare yourself for reading, by purity of intention, singly aiming at the good of your soul, and by fervent prayer to God, that he would enable you to see his will, and give you a firm resolution to perform it. An excellent form of prayer for this very purpose you have in the second or third book of this treatise.

Thirdly: Be sure to read, not cursorily or hastily, but leisurely, seriously, and with great attention; with proper pauses and intervals, and that you may allow time for the enlightening of the divine grace. To this end, recollect, every now and then, what you have read, and consider how to reduce it to practice. Further, let your reading be continued and regular, not rambling and desultory. To taste of many things, without fixing upon any, shows a vitiated palate, and feeds the disease which makes it pleasing. Whatsoever book you begin, read, therefore, through in order; Not but that it will be of great service to read those passages over and over that more nearly concern yourself, and more closely affect your inclinations or practice; especially if you press them home to your soul, by adding a particular examination of yourself upon each head.

Fourthly: Labor to work yourself up into a temper correspondent with what you read; for that reading is useless which only enlightens the understanding, without warming the affections. And therefore intersperse, here and there, earnest aspirations to God, for his heat as well as his light. Select also any remarkable sayings or advices, and treasure them up in your memory; and these you may either draw forth in time of need, as arrows from a quiver, against temptation (more especially against the solicitations to that sin which most easily besets you) or make use of as incitements to any virtue, to humility, patience, or the love of God.

Conclude all with a short prayer to God, that he, without whom "neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that water-eth," would so bless the good seed sown in your heart, that it may bring forth fruit unto life eternal.

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MY SUMMARY
Let me try to summarize the above with the acronym SPEND.

S - Set aside a specific time everyday. The key is consistency.
P - Prepare your heart. There is no point to be physically present but your mind is elsewhere.
E - Engage with the passage. Don't let go of it but learn to enjoy the parts you understand, but also keep a sense of wonder on those areas that mystify you.
N - Note particular passages by either writing them down or memorizing them.
D - Dedicate your reading back to God, asking him to bless and keep you with peace.

May this help you in your own personal spiritual reading. This year, May 24th 2009 falls on a Sunday, which makes Aldersgate week particularly special. Enjoy it, and may Christians all over the world give thanks to God for such a man of God, and pray that God will raise up more servants like him.

ks