Faith and Provision

"After gaining his degree, James applied to the China Inland Mission. Everything about this society answered a chord in his heart. For one thing they never asked anyone for money, nor even seemed to mention it. No collections, no appeals, no needs advertised, yet within forty years they supported over a thousand members! The general director and the newest recruit had equal allowances. All their needs had been supplied. 'God means just what he says,' Hudson Taylor said, 'and He will do all that He has promised.'"

p10, Mountain Rain, The Biography of James O. Fraser

A Definition of Sin

"Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself."

Susanna Wesley (John & Charles Wesley's mother)

Richard Foster on Fasting

"Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason; and others have utterly disregarded it."
John Wesley

"Perhaps in our affluent society fasting involves a far larger sacrifice than the giving of money."
Celebration Of Discipline, Richard Foster, p66

"More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that controls us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes, 'I humbled my soul with fasting' (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear — if they are within us, they will surface during fasting."
Celebration Of Discipline, Richard Foster, p67

"Fasting helps us keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them ... Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in proper channels. 'I pommel my body and subdue it,' says Paul (1 Cor. 9:27)."
Celebration Of Discipline, Richard Foster, p68

Richard Foster On The Importance of Prayer

Quotes from Celebration Of Discipline by Richard Foster

"Prayer catapults us on to the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communication with the Father."
p42

"To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives."
p42

"All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives."
p43

"John Wesley says, 'God does nothing but in answer to prayer'".
p43

"For those explorers in the frontiers of faith, prayer was no little habit tacked on to the periphery of their lives; it was their lives. It was the most serious work of their most productive years."
p43

"For these, an all those who have braved the depths of the interior life, to breathe was to pray."
p44

"Certain things will happen in history if we pray rightly. We are to change the world by prayer. What more motivation do we need to learn this loftiest human exercise?"
p45

The Holy Spirit and John Wesley

"James Harvey, the friend of Wesley at Oxford, described the change in Welsey through his anointing by the Spirit: 'His preaching was once like the firing of an arrow, all the speed and force depending on the strength of his arm in bending the bow. Thereafter it was like the firing of a rifle ball, the whole force depending on the powder and needing only a finger touch to let it off".

Great Revivals, Colin Whittaker, p47

The Pursuit of Holiness

Looking back at John Wesley in the English Revival of the 18th century, his pursuit of holiness was absolutely remarkable. And yet the foundation of his faith was the free and undeserved gift of salvation.

God's grace propels us into the pursuit of holiness. It doesn't score us extra points with God, yet you can't underestimate its importance. The pursuit of holiness is really the pursuit of unbroken communion with God.

Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can.

John Wesley

The thing that makes this quote really punch out is that it has the weight of his whole life behind it. He believed it and live it. It wasn't just a throw-away comment.

I really like this quote. It's incredibly challenging, and it's awesome because when you put your money where your mouth is, it's a sign that you truly believe.

I guess my immediate reaction is one of reservation to the first point, 'earn all you can'. As a freelance designer, all the dangers spring to mind: 1. the temptation to over-charge clients. 2. working long hours, neglecting your wife 3. a lot of my design work is service to various churches. And in that you're starving one hand to feed the other.

Brilliant quote though.

Nothing lasts forever, except you and me.

Biffy Clyro

We're all heading in the same direction: we're all going in the ground. I've just finished reading the biography of John Wesley (John Wesley: A Biography by Stephen Tomkins). As you read his bio, it's like you're burning through years of his life as you turn each page. And the obvious conclusion is death.

It took me about a week to read that book, to read his life's story. You leave with the distinct impression that life is short, even though he lived to almost 90. It's like you blink, and you're 10 years older. Blink again and I'll be old. When life is gone, we may realise that much of our lives was a waste of time.

The thing that blew me away about John Wesley was his incredible day-to-day diligence. He sustained it throughout his entire life and achieved a phenomenal amount. Has to be said that the way he treated his wife was inexcusable, and quite shocking (if the bio paints him fairly). Thank God for grace. But then it's nice to know Wesley was human. Must have sucked for Molly though!