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Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Methodism 101: John Wesley’s Sermons, Commentary, & Journal

Portrait by George Romney (1789)

John Wesley’s Commentaries --Wesley's Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament provided his followers with tools for interpreting the Bible. These notes contained both Wesley's own ideas as well as insights borrowed from other interpreters and commentaries. See this link for more information.  

John Wesley's sermons -- A prolific writer, he printed several volumes of his sermons during his lifetime. The published sermons either were rewritten from ones that he had preached or were written specifically for print. Wesley's sermons contain his basic understanding of the Christian faith and his thinking about how we are to live out this faith both personally and corporately. His written sermons were intended to teach the basic beliefs of the faith as well as nurture and encourage his followers in their discipleship. (umc.org/what-we-believe/foundational-documents). Read more of Wesley's sermons at this link.

John Wesley's Journal --When John Wesley prepared his Journal for publication he prefaced it with the following account of its origin: “It was in pursuance of an advice given by Bishop Taylor, in his Rules for Holy Living and Dying, that, about fifteen years ago, I began to take a more exact account than I had done before, of the manner wherein I spent my time, writing down how I had employed every hour. “This I continued to do, wherever I was, till the time of my leaving England for Georgia. The variety of scenes which I then passed through induced me to transcribe, from time to time, the more material parts of my diary, adding here and there such little reflections as occurred to my mind. “Of this Journal thus occasionally compiled, the following is a short extract: it not being my design to relate all those particulars which I wrote for my own use only, and which would answer no valuable end to others, however important they were to me.”  Read more at this link.

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