'my cup overflows' .....further thoughts

John Wesley in his Thoughts upon Methodism (1786): "I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist. However, I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of a religion without the power. That will undoubtedly be the case unless they holdfast to the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they first set out."

We might have the 'doctrine', but what happened to the 'spirit' and 'discipline'?
I talked on Sunday about 'my cup overflows', Ps 23, and that we need to allow God to unblock the wells and release the flow of His Spirit once again in our lives, Church and society. This begins with allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal to us specific sins so that we may repent of them. (see link on right to my sermons)

These are the questions that you would be asked if you were in one of John Wesley’s Band groups:
What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?
What temptations have you met with?
How were you delivered?
What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?
Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?
(Reference: John Wesley’s Class Meetings: a Model for Making Disciples, by D. Michael Henderson, Evangel Publishing House, 1997, pp. 118-9)

also:

John Wesley’s “Questions for Self Examination”
1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression
that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a
hypocrite?
2. Do I confidentially pass on to others what has been said to
me in confidence?
3. Can I be trusted?
4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
6. Did the Bible live in me today?
7. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?
8. Am I enjoying prayer?
9. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?
[ conversation starter questions ]
10. Do I pray about the money I spend?
11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
12. Do I disobey God in anything?
13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience
is uneasy?
14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
16. How do I spend my spare time?
17. Am I proud?
18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as
the Pharisees who despised the publican?
19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a
resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about
it?
20. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
21. Is Christ real to me?

be sure your sins will find you out’

Roger Johnson writes:
We went last night to see J. B. Priestley’s excellent play, ‘An Inspector Calls’ at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. For those who haven’t seen this, the play revolves around the shameful acts of a family being exposed by a bogus police inspector. Bit by bit the sordid tale of their seedy private lives is revealed leaving the family in a state of shock and shame. There is, of course, a nasty sting in the story’s tail as well as a sober warning to us all. I bumped into some old friends after the performance and wistfully mused, ‘be sure your sins will find you out’.

Afterwards I couldn’t help but think of the present turmoil in the House of Commons as some MPs are facing a similar agony over the way they have handled, or mis-handled, their expense claims. Today we will be casting our votes and no doubt many will be voting in reaction to what the Daily Telegraph has been exposing over the last few weeks. I have heard some MPs suggesting that what they do in their private lives has no relevance to their work as an MP. It seems now that we can all revert to pantomime mode and say emphatically, ‘OH YES IT DOES!’

But, is it true? Do our sins always ‘find us out’? The psalmist starts off by thinking not in Psalm 73:1-14. He (or she) was bemoaning the fact that he (or she) had lived a righteous life in vain. In contrast, when we read 1 Samuel 12:1-15 we find a man of some stature, King David, exposed by the prophet Nathan with regard to his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. Indeed David did suffer the consequence of his sin but had it not been for an Old Testament equivalent of the Daily Telegraph (Nathan), he may well have got away with it.

I suppose the current MPs expenses scandal raises serious questions about whether the Daily Telegraph has done us a service or disservice, bearing in mind the damage done to the country’s political reputation, but that’s for the historians to reflect upon. My hope and prayer is that those MPs who have embarked upon a political career for the right reasons will recover from this mess and that our democracy will be purified and strengthened as a result.

By this time tomorrow morning the news will tell us what effect this sorry mess has had upon our political life. We could end up with MEPs who are completely unrepresentative of the mainstream views of the British people, simply because they have filled the moral vacuum left by the traditional parties.

So let’s leave the last, and sobering word to the psalmist – “For lo, those who are far from thee shall perish; thou dost put an end to those who are false to thee” (Psalm 73:27). I wonder how much the psalmist was adding his (or her) own emotional veneer to these words.