Virtue: Diligence
Resolution: I choose to work as unto the Lord in all areas of my life.

Human Story: John Wesley (1703-1791)

On March 1, 1791, a day before his death, John Wesley lay in bed surrounded by his friends. He told his nurse, Eliza Ritchie, that he wished to write. However, when she gave him a pen, he found he didn’t have the strength. She asked what he wished to write, and he replied, “Nothing, but that God is with us.”

John Wesley was born June 17, 1703 in Epsworth, England. Wesley was raised in a very religious home, his father being a clergyman in the Church. When it was time for college, John entered Oxford University. While there, he and his brother Charles started a group that became known as the “Holy Club” because the members took vows to lead holy lives, take Communion once a week, pray daily, and visit prisons regularly. In addition, they spent three hours every afternoon studying the Bible and other devotional material.

After college, John went to the British colonies in America where he spent a couple of years in Georgia serving as a parish priest. After this brief and disappointing position, he returned to England where he had a life changing experience during a church gathering at Aldersgate street in London. While Martin Luther’s thoughts on the book of Romans were read aloud, the reader came to the passage in the book of Romans concerning faith in Christ. John felt his heart being warmed in that moment and he knew that he did trust in Christ alone for his salvation. After this experience he joined with a college friend George Whitefield and began preaching anywhere that people would listen. He encouraged people to work diligently to bring about personal and societal holiness. Some of the pillars of John Wesley’s preaching were taking care of the poor, fighting against the evils of slavery, and founding small groups for accountability. Eventually his movement split from the Church of England; the Methodist church was born.

After six decades of preaching over 40,000 sermons, traveling 4,000 miles each year, and giving away £30,000 of his income, John Wesley could leave this world with the knowledge that he had diligently served God with his whole heart. He knew that “the best of all is, God is with us.”

References:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/denominationalfounders/john-wesley.html http://www.mymethodisthistory.org.uk/page/eliza_ritchie_wesleys_nurse

Lesson: Deuteronomy 6:4-8 (NIV)

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

What does it mean to love someone? Think of your best friend, spouse, child, or perhaps a parent. Think of all that goes into the relationship. Loving someone involves multiple factors. It is certainly not just a feeling. It involves thinking about the person, learning about them, talking to them, spending time with them, sharing experiences together, and at times putting your desires aside to make them happy. We’ve been taught that loving God is having a quiet time, going to a Bible study, or going to church and listening to an informative sermon. Or perhaps we think loving God involves serving others, but in reality, we really don’t always practice what we have learned. The constant, daily posture of love to God and neighbor remains absent in our lives. Diligence in our spiritual lives is often nowhere to be found.

Historically, Deuteronomy was written after the Israelites had endured 40 years in the wilderness. Moses is talking to the next generation of Israelites that were on the verge of entering the land God was providing. Unfaithfulness had already been evident in their short history, and God, through his spokesperson Moses, was giving his people instructions for avoiding future unfaithfulness. Moses retells their history (Deut. 1-3) and implores them to be more faithful than their parents were (Deut. 4-11).

Preceding the daily rhythms that Moses suggests is what is known as the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5). The Shema is considered the most essential Jewish prayer and is repeated twice daily by devout Jews. We can learn from our faith ancestors by adopting similar rhythms. God calls His people to a particular way of life, the instructions of which are to be on our “hearts,” meaning our thoughts, feelings, and desires. It is worth noting during this season of Epiphany, that God has always called His people to a different way of life for the sake of others. The Israelites were to be a kingdom of priests on behalf of all nations (Exo 19:5-6). God’s heart has never exclusively been for a select few, but for calling some for the sake of all peoples. Therefore, our devotion to God through the practice of daily rhythms shapes us into a particular kind of people not for our holiness alone, but also for the sake of others. Our love for others, flowing from God’s love for the nations, should lead us to diligence as individuals and as a community of believers.

Remembrance: “A Sonnet for Epiphany” by Malcolm Guite

It might have been just someone else’s story,
Some chosen people get a special king.
We leave them to their own peculiar glory,
We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing.
But when these three arrive they bring us with them,
Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours;
A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,
A pilgrim’s eye that sees beyond the stars.
They did not know his name but still they sought him,
They came from otherwhere but still they found;
In temples they found those who sold and bought him,
But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.
Their courage gives our questing hearts a voice
To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.

Challenge

Establish a new, healthy rhythm (or renew/bolster an old one) in your home aimed at nurturing your spiritual health. Consider adding a spiritual discipline of study, meditation, prayer, remembrance, or celebration to your daily routine.

Reflection

As a believer considering the life of John Wesley and meditating on Deuteronomy chapter 6, what does God’s call to live differently mean to you?

Further Growth: 1st Sunday of Epiphany

2022: 1st Sunday of Epiphany

Old Testament: Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm: Psalm 89:1-29
New Testament: Acts 10:34-38
Gospel: Luke 3:15-22

2021: 1st Sunday of Epiphany

Old Testament: Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm: Psalm 89:1-29
New Testament: Acts 10:34-38
Gospel: Mark 1:7-11

2020: 1st Sunday of Epiphany

Old Testament: Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm: Psalm 89:1-29
New Testament: Acts 10:34-38
Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17