jumpingjersey

Life · Ministry · Faith

Tag: john wesley

Votes in the ensuing election . . .

October 25, 2016 /

John Wesley

Dear Friends,

In light of our being in the closing days of the presidential campaign I want to share with you words of wisdom penned before our country was even birthed. May they challenge us to be people of integrity in all we say and do in these days ahead.

From the journal of the Rev. John Wesley

Thursday, October 6, 1774

“I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election and advised them,

  1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy:
  2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And,
  3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.”

 

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

 

Source:

This quote has been making the rounds of the internet lately. I did look it up to verify its authenticity from the writings of John Wesley.

Wesley, John. “An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal from September 13, 1773, to January 2, 1776.” The Works of John Wesley, 3rd ed., vol. 4, Baker Books, 2007, p. 29.

Where are the coal piles?

September 1, 2015 /

Coal Minors

The industrial revolution was billowing out changes to all of society at a never before seen rate. Changes which cast people into a darkness of soul greater than the soot billowing from the industrial machine. As the world was driven into this new era the structures of society, founded on an agrarian community, were unable to accommodate the changes. The home, the church, labor, government, education, all buckled on the verge of collapse under the weight of change.

In the age of the industrial revolution, John Wesley saw the church’s patterns of the past no longer worked, but a solution for the future alluded him. Then a friend, George Whitefield, would call Wesley to leave the security of his pulpit to go into the fields to preach the good news of Jesus. The challenge to Wesley from Whitefield was for Wesley to go to where the people were at rather than waiting for to come. The truth is they were never going to come. In no time Wesley would find himself standing on a coal pile in the faint light of dawn preaching the good news of Jesus to minors as they entered the murderous bowels of the earth.

Once again the pulses of change are colliding against the structures of our life. The great empires built on industry are no more and we are in a world struggling to find a new normal without a pattern or guide to follow. The home, the church, labor, government and education are all buckling under the unrelenting weight of change.

Wesley would leave the comfort of his pulpit to go where the people were at because they were never going to come to him. What about us today? Where are the coal piles today?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below or on Facebook.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

God and Money

October 7, 2014 /

Money Stacks

Dear Friends,

While working on a recent sermon for Hope I was reading John Wesley’s sermon On Money. For all of JW’s skills he was terrible at writing sermon titles, the sermon is better than the title would make you believe. In the sermon JW gives some guidelines to help Christians evaluate their purchases and they way they handle their money.

  1. Is this expense in accordance to my character? Am I acting as a steward of God’s possessions or acting as though it is mine?
  2. Am I doing this in obedience to his Word?
  3. Can I offer this expense as a sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ?
  4. Have I reason to believe for this work I shall have a reward at the resurrection?

Could your next purchase stand-up to his criteria?

Pastor Stephen

© 2024 jumpingjersey

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑