Wednesday, March 20, 2019

A Little More Light - Part 2

Thursday, March 21, 2019

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.  My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.  I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.  Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!  I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.  You satisfy me more than the richest feast.  I will praise you with songs of joy.  I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.  Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.  I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.  Psalm 63:1-8a

We are looking this week at the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, a term that helps us see a process of theological understanding…a way of thinking about God[1].  This process includes these four:  Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason.  Today we investigate Experience.
If you look closely at the “experiences” of the Psalmist with God, you have something of an understanding of what John Wesley meant when he added that word to his methodology of interpreting the Christian life.  The Psalmist begins with a soul-thirsting search to be close to God, and an encounter with worship and demonstration of God’s power.  He has tasted of God’s love and refuses any other life than one lived in God’s presence.  He has felt the security of strong, everlasting arms. 
Today we would simply use the word assurance to describe the relationship that has developed between the Psalmist and his Creator.  In the Christian “experience” it is the assurance of forgiveness of sin, and the enlightened, cleansed soul that produced Wesley’s strangely warmed heart.
Rev. David Watson quotes Albert Outler, who coined the term Quadrilateral:
Outler’s understanding of the role of experience in Wesley’s theology, then, is quite particular. It is not any experience that a person has, it is the distinctively Christian experience of assurance of the forgiveness of one’s sins. It is the experience of the witness of the Spirit. Wesley was quite fond of citing Romans 8:16 to illustrate this: “it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”[iii]
If we are going to think Methodist-wise with John Wesley then, the experience of new-birth is necessary.  Jesus said it rather plainly:   

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.  So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’  John 3:6-7

It is the Spirit of God Who gives us accurate understanding of the Scriptures.  Without the Spirit’s help we are without a clue as to understanding God’s ways or words. 
So, where Wesley and informed spiritual understanding are concerned, there is no such thing as experience born of having lived a certain number of years, or the knowledge gained from making mistakes, or having investigated this or that.  It also has nothing to do with having been in church all your life, or even attended seminary.  None of that is bad; but none of that counts…in the slightest…without God’s Spirit taking up residence in your soul.
That is a condition of spiritual blindness…you need a little more light!
For You Today
If you would like that light in your soul, it is as profoundly simple and life-changing as repenting of sin (telling God you’re sorry and meaning it) and inviting God to take over your life with a prayer that says just that.
A final word today from the beloved Apostle, John:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  1 John 1:9

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] I first heard this phrase (tied to the word “theology”) in seminary with Baptist Theologian Fischer Humphreys, who entitled his book thusly.


[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com
[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

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