December 27, 2015
Stetson Memorial UMC
Last Sunday of The Year 2015
A Soul In Retrospect
Joel 2:28-29
Matthew 3:11
Isaiah 44:3
(All Scripture is taken from the NIV Bible)
“How Is It With Your Soul…?”
Prayer for the
Spirit’s leading…
Read
the Scriptures…
Here we are at the end of another year. We have
almost finished the race of 2015 and the next race is looking at us from just
beyond the horizon. We tend to look back in retrospect at what has happened
over the year.There has been both good and bad. There have been victories and
struggles. But we have made it almost to the end.
As we end I would like to throw in a question that
you might not hear too much in the world in which we live. How is it with your
soul? Have you ever wondered about that? How is it with your soul? This
question is one that John Wesley would ask all who were part of the movement
that he was ushering in. He expected that everyone would be part of “classes”
as he called it. They were accountability groups that prayed for each other and
studied the scriptures together. How is
it with your soul?
I think that we as Christians may have gotten away
from caring for the soul…others and our own. We are so busy with everyday life
that we don’t have time to tend the garden of the soul. We have forgotten that
sin is waiting right around the corner just waiting for us to put our guard
down. As soon as that happens, sin just slowly creeps in until it can take of
all that we do and say. How is it with
your soul?
We have just traveled to the manger another way and
we thought about…we talked about…things that go on in the world around us and
how through the eyes of God we can still see God working. But how can we see
Him working if we are not taking time to be with him each day as He whispers
His promises to our hearts? How is it
with your soul?
This morning…I am going to ask us some of these
Wesleyan questions…yup I am including
myself with these questions. The questions have their origin in the
spiritual accountability group started by Wesley when he was a student at
Oxford — a group that detractors called "The Holy Club." The first
list appeared about 1729 or 1730 in the preface to Wesley's second Oxford
Diary. OK…here we go…now these are just
some of them. I didn’t want to scare us off…
Ask
Questions…
We are beginning to get ready for a new year. My
prayer is that as we venture into the New Year, we will continue to ask these
questions of ourselves. As we venture out in God’s name may we go out knowing
the One who has sent us. We are His hands and feet. Go forth in the Strength of
God, the Hope of Jesus Christ and the Wisdom of the Spirit.
Amen
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