May 10, 2008 9:00am

Invitation to Confess Christ

Editors Choice: Must Read!
Lord Of All – Or Lord Not At All by Russ Pruitt

"For what ever reason when the more conservative element went  underground they lost the freedom to lead at a national level. Until the current leadership retires, steps down, or moves on it will be difficult to be on the same level -- after all we are second class citizens. No matter  what, we cannot give up and we must continue to become more and more vocal...." – Edd Denton [PNWAC pastor]

The People Called Methodist

"I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America.  But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.   And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out." –John Wesley

PRAYER FROM THE KANSAS SENATE LEGISLATURE
November 30, 1998
by minister Joe Wright

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe on those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that:

• We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.

• We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.

• We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
• We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
• We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
• We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice.
• We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
• We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
• We have abused power and called it political savvy.
• We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
• We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
• We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will.  I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Vol. 6, SERMON LXXV, "ON SCHISM", pp. 452-453

"That there might be no schism in the body." 1 Corinthians 12:25.

I know God has committed to me a dispensation of the gospel; yea, and my own salvation depends upon preaching it: “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” If then I could not remain in the Church without; omitting this, without desisting from preaching the gospel I should be under a necessity of separating from it, or losing my own soul. In like manner, if I could not continue united to any smaller society, Church, or body of Christians, without committing sin, without lying and hypocrisy, without preaching to others doctrines which I did not myself believe, I should be under an absolute necessity of separating from that society. And in all these cases the sin of separations with all the evils consequent upon it, would not lie upon me, but upon those who constrained me to make that separation, by requiring of me such terms of communion as I could not in conscience comply with.

But, setting aside this case, suppose the Church or society to which I am now united does not require me to do anything which the Scripture forbids, or to omit anything which the Scripture enjoins, it is then my indispensable duty to continue therein. And if I separate from it without any such necessity, I am justly chargeable (whether I foresaw them or not) with all the evils consequent upon that separation.

-- John Wesley

The Methodists must take heed to their doctrine, their experience, their practice, and their discipline.

If they attend to their doctrines only, they will make the people antinomians; if to the experimental part of religion only, they will make them enthusiasts; if to the practical part only, they will make them Pharisees; and if they do not attend to their discipline, they will be like persons who bestow much pains in cultivating their garden, and put no fence round it, to save it from the wild boar of the forest.

- John Wesley, 1783