George Whitefield Resources

Steve McCoy has a new "George Whitefield Resource Page" - Excellent!

Ways & Means

From a great article by Tim Keller on Revival Ways and Means:

The primary means-of-revival that everyone agrees upon is extraordinary prayer. That’s the clearest of all and so I won’t spend time on it. The second means is a recovery of the grace-gospel. One of the main vehicles sparking the first awakening in Northampton, Massachusetts was Edwards’ two sermons on Romans 4:5, “Justification by Faith Alone,” in November, 1734. For both John Wesley and George Whitefield, the main leaders of the British Great Awakening, it was an understanding of salvation by grace rather than moral effort that touched off personal renewal and made them agents of revival. Lloyd-Jones taught that the gospel of justification could be lost at two levels. A church might simply become heterodox and lose the very belief in justification by faith alone. But just as deadly, it might keep the doctrine “on the shelf” as it were and not preach it publicly in such a way that connects to people’s hearts and lives.

The third factor I would mention is renewed individuals. Sprague points out how certain church leaders can be characterized by the infectious marks of spiritual revival – a joyful, affectionate seriousness, and “unction” – a sense of God’s presence. In addition, often several visible, dramatic life-turnarounds (“surprising conversions”) may cause others to do deep self-examination and create a sense of spiritual longing and expectation in the community. The personal revivals going on in these individuals spread informally to others through conversation and relationship. More and more people begin to look at themselves and seek God.

A fourth factor I will call the use of the gospel on the heart in counseling. Sprague and John Newton in his letters do a good job of showing how the gospel must be used on both seekers, new believers, and non-growing Christians. The gospel must cut away both the moralism and the licentiousness that destroys real spiritual life and power. There must be venues and meetings and settings in which this is done, both one-on-one and in groups. See William Williams, The Experience Meeting, a leaders’ manual for revival-promoting small group meetings in Wales during the first great awakening

 Read the whole think at the link. I agree with what he says about Charles Finney. And BTW - Have I mentioned lately that I really like Tim Keller's stuff?!!!

Homo Unius Libri

"I want to know one thing--the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way. . . . He hath written it down in a book! O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God!

I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. . . . I sit down alone: only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book; for this end, to find the way to heaven. . . . I meditate thereon, with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable."

--John Wesley, 'Preface,' in The Works of John Wesley (London: Thomas Cordeux, 1811), 7:4-5 ('homo unius libri' = 'a man of one book')

Hat Tip: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: O Give Me That Book!:

Book Worm for Jesus?

“It cannot be that the people should grow in grace unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people. ”   
        ― John Wesley

“Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.”
        ― John Wesley

Wesley was a good preacher for balance!    "...'knowledge' puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Cor. 8:1)

How to Read a Spiritual Book

Excerpt from How to Read a Spiritual Book  at "The Scriptorium Daily"

...So here are tips on devotional reading, inspired by a 15th-century classic, composed by an anonymous 17th-century commentator, and edited by John Wesley in the 18th century; posted on a 21st-century blog.

Why? Because this is classic advice on exactly how you do it: Schedule time for spiritual reading, read for a changed heart and ask God to make it happen, read “leisurely, seriously, and with great attention,” get into the attitude of the work you’re reading, finish books, look for action points, and pray for God to do what only God can do.

Much more at the link.

“I Am No Longer My Own . . . “

John Wesley's "Covenant Prayer." :

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will

put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for you or laid aside by you.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

you are mine, and I am yours. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

From Jim Martin at A Place For The God-Hungry