{"id":29756,"date":"2022-03-22T10:42:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=29756"},"modified":"2022-08-06T15:32:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T19:32:30","slug":"pastors-ponderings-look-at-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=29756","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Ponderings: Look at Yourself!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Jim submitted the following thoughts on 3\/19\/22…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Greetings Friends:
\n\u00a0
\nPLEASE READ: 1 Peter 5:6-9<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God\u2019s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around\u00a0 like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPLEASE READ: Luke 22:31<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus said, \u201cSimon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0
\nLiving a holy life requires God’s people to be in the habit of self examination. his self-examination has been part of the Methodist tradition since its beginning. This is the ultimate goal of the season of Lent. Christians are called to take time during \"\"<\/a>this holy season to reflect on God’s holiness and humanities need for the Savior. A benefit, or blessing from this, is that we will have spiritual growth and reflect Christ in every area of our life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This self examination comes about with the assistance of daily prayer, daily Bible reading, worship, times of self reflection, and service through the church. This is why the “founder” of Methodism, John Wesley, echoed the Scriptures in reminding Christians to be on guard, praying in all situations, and be intentional to not allow any known sin to be present in our lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notice especially the second paragraph below.\u00a0\u00a0These two quotes are from John Wesley’s sermon preached in 1777, “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection”:<\/p>\n

\nJohn Wesley advises,\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

“In the greatest temptations, a single look at Christ, even barely saying his name, does the job of overcoming the wicked one, just as long as you say his name with confidence and calmness of spirit.”<\/span><\/p>\n

John Wesley<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWesley then adds,<\/p>\n

\n

“As dangerous winds enter at little openings, so the devil enters most dangerously by little, unobserved incidents.\u00a0 Those incidents seem nothing, yet unknowingly they open hearts to great temptation.\u00a0 Therefore, renew yourself from time to time, closely examining the state of your soul.\u00a0 Do it as if you never did it before.\u00a0 Nothing encourages the full assurance of faith more than keeping yourself by this means of humility, and by the exercise of all the good works you do” <\/span><\/p>\n

John Wesley, 1777
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Shalom,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pastor Jim<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

+\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +<\/span><\/p>\n

For more “Pastor’s Ponderings”, click this button:\u00a0\u00a0 Pastor’s Ponderings<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living a life of holiness means that we have to keep examining ourselves: “How is it with your soul?” Even as we cast all of our anxieties on God, we need to be willing to be molded into the people God wants us to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[169,95],"class_list":["post-29756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pastors-ponderings","tag-godscharacter","tag-obey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29756"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29781,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756\/revisions\/29781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}