Sheep in pasture

Sheep in pasture
Feed My Sheep, Feed My Lambs, Feed My Sheep

Monday, January 4, 2016

How Is It With Your Soul


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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