The Ministry of Reconciliation

Wesley's Rules for Band-Societies (Home Churches or Covenant Groups)

     Drawn up December 25, 1738.

The design of our meeting is, to obey that command of God, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”

To this end, we intend:

1. To meet once a week, at the least.

2. To come punctually at the hour appointed, without some extraordinary reason.

3. To begin (those of us who are present) exactly at the hour, with singing or prayer.

The King's Favor 

ShilohBraham1

Uploaded on Dec 19, 2010

A meditation regarding Psalms chapter 41.
Be steadfast in the King of Kings. Work hard for Him and delight in it. Show true love for one another as the King has done for all creation. Do the appointed work.

The adversary will attempt to stop the children of God as God blesses them. Do not give in but maintain righteousness and work diligently for the Almighty King of Kings. It is blessed work and a blessed bond with Him for His Light shines within those who truly love and seek Him. It is pleasing to Him that His children do His will as He has apportioned out accordingly.

Contemplate His Love and know no limitation but endless righteousness, and peace, and all things Holy. This is the gift of His Excellency, it is His Love. The King's favor cannot be interrupted or prevented by anyone or anything, He Is the King and there is no other like Him. Seek Him in Truth and Love. Repent and submit to Him. We are one in Christ. God Is One.

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Music


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4. To speak each of us in order, freely and plainly, the true state of our souls, with the faults we have committed in thought, word, or deed, and the temptations we have felt, since our last meeting.

5a. To desire some person among us to speak his own state first...

Psalms 41, 52, 44

Deuteronomy 11:13-19

2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2

Luke 17:1-10

Deuteronomy (the Second Law) is the last sermon of Moses. Before his death, Moses is deeply concerned with persuading Israel what to do, how to do it, and why it should be done -- even, and perhaps especially when Moses is gone and the people have settled in the Land.

Even so, the book communicates differently to various audiences: from the second generation of those who left Egypt, to those in Josiah’s time, to the exiles, to the present. The fact that so much of what follows in Scripture – not to mention our own lives – seems to follow Deuteronomy’s standards show just how effective the book was and how important it remains.

Moses repeats the call to heed God’s commands, to serve the Lord with all your heart and soul, and to heed God’s Word by hiding it in one’s heart, and teaching it to one’s children. Creating perfection by separating oneself from idolatry and binding oneself to the Creator.

Moses reminds us our essential nature binds us in shared responsibility for one another.  Because of our sins the entire community can become defeated and face dissolution. In the face of disaster, the community’s only option is to ask God to bring us back into relationship, to bring salvation.

According to John Wesley’s understanding of Christian Perfection or “entire sanctification” remains a binding thread throughout Scripture. Complete purity of heart does not entail a perfection of knowledge. Even the entirely sanctified must continue to study.

Christian Perfection does not mean freedom from infirmities, slowness of understanding, confusion or mistakes in judgment. There is no place in Christian Perfection for one to experience freedom from sin or temptation. There is no state of grace so lofty that one cannot fall from it and be lost.

A pure heart must continue to increase in love and grace, and must increasingly grow in the love of God. This purity calls us to a ministry of reconciliation. For only God can turn one’s weakness to wholeness and integrity. God alone knows the secrets of the heart and can redeem us for the sake of His steadfast love.

We must be transparent and open to scrutiny when we share the Good News of the life death and resurrection of Christ. For it is in our living and our dying to self, that we become a part of the ministry of God who, through Christ, is reconciling the world to himself.

God’s mission becomes our mission when we forgive. “We cannot keep this Good News to ourselves,” says John Wesley,  “but must become ambassadors for Christ to the whole world. God making his appeal through us.” We must live transparently in good times and bad that others might accept the grace of God. We are transparent when we recognize our own sins and ask others for forgiveness so the message of reconciliation can be visible even more than heard.

Paul and Luke both admonish us to avoid causing others to stumble. Luke encourages us to avoid offending and off-ending one another in ways that could damage other’s faith. We must be on guard for other’s faith.

At the same time, we should be on guard for our own faith by forgiving those who sin but truly and openly repent. No matter how many times someone sins against us, if they repent we must forgive. We must remember that God forgives us daily, 

In the Lord’s Prayer as written in Luke 11, we are to ask God to daily “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everything indebted to us.” John Wesley notes that we all need forgiveness – “not once, but continually.”

Wesley was convinced living truthfully is a mark of God’s grace in our lives. God is actively moving in and through the messiness of things, illuminating our lives and prompting our desire to see what is really going on.

Because we are created in God’s image and our destiny is to be restored through Christ to the fullness of that image, we must discern our responsibility in refusing and failing to live to God’s good purposes. God’s prevenient (preventing) grace insists that we be honest with God, others, and ourselves.

5b. and then to ask the rest, in order, as many and as searching questions as may be, concerning their state, sins, and temptations.

• How do you go about hiding God’s Word your heart? To whom and how did you teach God's Word this past week?
• "A pure heart must continue to increase in love and grace, and must increasingly grow in the love of God." How have you worked toward "Christian Perfection" this past week?
• Who have you forgiven this week? How have you acted as an "ambassador for Christ?"
• Of whom have you asked for forgiveness this week? Of whom have you asked for reconciliation?

6. To end every meeting with prayer suited to the state of each person present.

Heavenly Father, whose son suffered denial and betrayal of trust from those who shared his bread, raise us up and prevent us in the time of trial from falling away from you. 

Faithful God, full of mercy, nourish your people in a world of violence; through prayer and the scriptures give us the life-giving water of truth and the rich goodness of your presence.

Arise, O Lord, and behold the suffering of your people. Reveal your power, that being made like Christ in his death, we may attain to renewed relationship with you and with one another.

Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Turkey.

I ask you to pray for me as I struggle with infirmity and pain as an excuse for not living relationally and for not continuing to strive toward Christian Perfection. Pray that I could live more transparently.

How can we pray for you? (Leave a note in the comments below or email me at jorja.davis@gmail.com)