Out Of The Storm.
Life is replete with stories of people who could be known as “overcomers”. And church history provides us with countless examples of it.
I love to study the history of the church. Not so much doctrines, beliefs or practises. But I love to study the church lineage and see where our beginnings were. Kind of like a family tree for churches. Each church fellowship was born out of another church.
In 1735 two young brother preachers boarded a ship for the New World, now known as the United States of America – specifically to the State of Georgia, infact. The brothers were John Wesley and his hymn writing brother Charles Wesley. They were later to encounter another young preacher called George Whitfield. And all were filled with the zeal of taking the Gospel into a new and upcoming country.
But in truth John Wesley still had a lot of uncertainties regarding his life in God. Before the voyage he is attested to have written “My chief motive is the hope of saving my own soul. I hope to learn the true sense of the Gospel of Christ by preaching it to the heathen”.
It is well recorded that on the journey across The Atlantic Ocean there was a fierce storm and it frightened a lot of the travellers who were not used to such things. John was on the deck of the ship and he noticed a group of people kneeling and sitting in a circle and singing happy christian songs. What particulary caught his attention was that they were joyful and smiling in the midst of the storm.
He was uncertain of their language and afterwards went to speak with them. They were Christians from Moravia. Moravians. Moravians came from an area in Eastern Czech Republic along the river Morava. And there were 26 of them on this same ship as the Wesley Brothers.
After a conversation with their Pastor, a man named Spangenberg, John Wesley came to realise that his faith should be built on Christ alone. And not on the generalisation of universal salvation that his Anglican upbringing had taught him. His experiences and new found friendships with The Moravians caused him to later write… “The God of Grace had touched their hearts and created a void which nothing could fill but the knowledge of Christ in His person and finished work.”
The Wesley brothers experiences in Georgia were not succesful. Charles returned home after a few months. John stayed for a couple of years.
But God was not done with these men. Although John still preached at open-air services he was still not happy with his faith. But the seed had been planted. And it was to blossom in London, England a few years later.
You see, the brothers had kept in touch with their Moravian friends. And after speaking with another Moravian, Peter Boehler, John concluded that he lacked saving faith. Though he continued to try to be good, he remained frustrated. "I was indeed fighting continually, but not conquering. … I fell and rose, and fell again."
And the rest is a history which saw the founding and formation of The Methodist Church.
https://www.christianity.com
Life is filled with people who have failed in an attempt to do something only for them to bounce back with a renewed zeal and try again. And again. And again. In some of his motivational talks Denzel Washington is regularly heard to say “Fall down ten times, get up ten times.”
And we as Christians have the same opportunities. In spite of our mistakes and failures, second chances do come again. Almost all of the Bible characters were people who rebuilt their lives after succesive failures. For when it comes to our relationship with Christ we never run out of second chances. We only run out of time. Every single moment of our life with Him is a second chance.
Samson had a second chance to complete God’s work in destroying the Philistines.
Jonah had a second chance to go and preach at Nineva.
Peter had a second chance to tell Jesus he loved Him after denying Him three times.
Saul had a second chance after overseeing the stoning of Stephen.
Saul, now renamed as Paul, later wrote in his letter to the Church at Philippi…
Philippians ch1 (6)…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;Let’s not forget God’s promises to us given through the prophet Jeremiah…
Jeremiah ch29: (11)…”For I know the thoughts that I think toward you”, says the LORD, “Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (12)Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (13)And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart”.
So let us remember some advice from Corrie Ten Boom - "Let God’s promises shine on your problems.”
All my confusion He understood.
All I had to offer Him was brokeness and strife.
And He made something beautiful of my life.
Facebook - These Lively Oracles
Twitter(X) - @livelyoracles58
Email - TheseLivelyOracles@hotmail.com
Comments