Set apart Psalm 4:3

Matthew Henry says concerning the Psalms' There is no one book of scripture that is more helpful to the devotions of the saints than this, and it has been so in all ages of the church.' Over the next 30 days this blog will encourage daily reading of a few psalms morning and evening, accompanied by a devotional inspired by John Wesley's life,encouraging prayer for a national awakening ONCE AGAIN,in England.

•DAY 1 MORNING PSALM 1-5

•DAY 1 EVENING PSALM 6 - 8

‘With a shrewd flash inside John Wesley once said “If I were to write my own life I should begin it before I was born.” That was his typically realistic way of paying tribute to the past. Ancestry has its effect on personality and we cannot easily set aside Wesley’s family tree. His preparation for the work of evangelism, to which God had destined him, began long before he came into the world. Like the prophet Jeremiah, he was aware that the divine purpose stretched back to influence his antecedents. 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'(Jeremiah 1:5) Referring to Wesley’s untiring ministry throughout the land, “What thrust him out on these ceaseless journeyings?” In a strict sense, “one could say ‘it was in his blood’". John Wesley’s father Samuel was an Anglican. John grew up in a rectory at Epworth. John Wesley’s mother Suzanna ‘was probably the dominant personality in the Epworth household. Samuel married her in 1688 and she brought with her a unique endowment. As the daughter of Doctor Annesley she inherited a rich tradition. She had grown up in a Puritan household where demanding educational standards accompanied disciplined devotional and moral teaching.’

‘Her carefully ordered timetable, her regular times SET APART for meditation and self-examination before God, her keeping of a spiritual journal or day-book, her observance of the strict Puritan Sabbath were all part of her ‘method’ of life to use the Puritan key-word which was current long before John Wesley began his work.” It is not too much to say, therefore that Wesley “absorbed Puritan influences with his mother’s milk. The Effect of this mingled Anglican and Puritan inheritance on John Wesley was marked. He remained a Church of England man to his dying day, with a strong sense of discipline and a desire to bring about reform within. His overriding concern was for the good of souls, and where existing church order stood in his way, he did not hesitate to lay it aside. The rebel under the skin would keep bursting through.

• In the foreword to John Mulinde’s ‘Set apart for God’ Charlie Cleverly, vicar of St Aldates, Oxford writes‘ I believe we need to see in the West every Christian an intercessor, in every home a prayer altar, every church become a house of prayer and in every town a city-wide prayer centre, but before all these we need people SET APART. Today we pray with the psalmist, Psalm 4:3 ‘the Lord has set apart the godly for himself’ Lord, you set John Wesley apart to be your vessel to see a national awakening unto revival in the eighteenth century, do it again Lord…. set your people apart for a national awakening today. Prepare me Lord.. SET ME APART LORD, I am here to do your will.

REFERENCES

Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart John Wesley: Evangelist,Cliff College Publishing,19
Mulinde,J. Set Apart for God, Foreword,10

ONCE AGAIN

In October a group of Christians from a number of churches in Cambridge will be gathering to pray regularly on Thursday nights from 7.30-9.30pm. This group is seeking the Lord to build a house of prayer for the nations in Cambridge with a focus on night and day prayer. In October we will be praying through the 150 psalms, using this 30 day devotional and praying in particular for a national awakening in our land once again, particularly mindful that it was in Oxford that the Lord moved powerfully over 250 years ago in raising up John Wesley, some biographers suggest in direct answer to the prayers of Latimer and Ridley in 1555.

John Foxe in his ‘Book of Martyrs’, records Ridley’s words to Latimer as they were being burnt at the stake, on 16th October 1555 as ‘ Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’ Foxe also records Latimer’s prayers in the Tower of London, shortly before this, while he awaited execution. He prayed, ‘that God of his mercy would restore His Gospel to England once again; and these words ‘once again, once again he did so beat into the ears of the Lord God, as though he had seen God before him, and spoken to Him face to face.’ Just under two centuries later, John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed at a quarter to nine at Aldersgate on 24th May in 1738, when he heard Luther’s Preface to Romans being read aloud. Latimer’s prayers were being answered.

Wesley’s evangelistic zeal led him to travel on horseback a quarter of a million miles, and the Gospel was preached in England, once again . This 30 devotional is aimed to remind us of how the Lord answered Latimer’s prayer through the life of John Wesley, when his heart was strangely warmed at Aldersgate. Skevington –Wood in his classic biography of Wesley says ‘The kindling was to be felt throughout the land as a consequence. It was indeed a strange warmth, as Wesley so accurately analysed it, for he was not a man given to emotional impressions. That this should happen to him of all people was sufficient to attest it as a work of supernatural grace’ As a boy John Wesley had nearly died in a fire at his father’s rectory in Epworth. He referred to himself in the words of scripture as “a brand plucked out of the fire.” Zechariah 3:2.

‘The symbolism of fire links the upper room in Aldersgate Street with the blazing parsonage at Epworth. The brand plucked from the burning had now found his destiny. Henceforth the flame within would carry him throughout the land to ignite the tinder of revival. “Guarding the holy fire; that was what he was doing” writes Prof Bonamy Dobree. He was himself a flame going up and down the land, lighting such candles as by God’s grace would never be put out; and as one reads (Wesley’s) colossal journal one gets the impression of this flame, never waning, never smoky, darting from point to point, lighting up the whole kingdom, till in due course it burnt out the body it inhabited.”

•We remind you Lord of the prayer of Latimer in the Tower of London. In your mercy, restore your Gospel to England once again. Latimer and Ridley followed you to a martyrs death. Stir yourself to act Lord. Remember Latimer and Ridley, Lord…. and ‘Let the candle of your Gospel burn brightly across this land once again. Pour out your spirit again! And as the House of Prayer in Cambridge begins this season of prayer we pray particularly for Oxford that you would pour out your spirit on that city ONCE AGAIN. Raise up evangelists like Wesley, in Oxford to ignite the tinder of revival…once again, Lord!