Author: Wick

I knew a man in Iowa named Charles. He was a humble guy, and would totally yell at me for blogging about him, but he’s old and probably won’t ever know. So shhhh.

We played dominos together some Tuesday mornings. We mall walked many, many miles together during my two years in Iowa.

I love that man. Charles lived out a holiness that I hope someday I can be involved in somehow. He mowed the church lawn on a big green John Deere tractor. He visited the elderly from our church. He helped fix things for people. He handled home situations I can’t go into, with an amazing sense of love and commitment. He followed all the commandments, and then some. He did not believe food belonged in the Lord’s House.

That final sentence may surprise you. You may think to yourself, “Chadwick is talking about works-based-Holiness, I want nothing to do with this man.” To that I would quote the Godfather of soul – “shut yo’ mouth” 🙂

You see, Charles did not believe “potlucks”, or even casual meals should take place in God’s Holy house. So he did not eat them. But he didn’t simply stay at home, or walk around the church picketing. Charles baked something, brought it to the church, and gave it to someone else to bring to the table for him. Sometimes, he would bring McDonalds to the church, call me to come outside, and send me back in with a burger.

We were reminded Wednesday of Wesley’s emphasis on HOLINESS AS SELF-GIVING LOVE.

All other loves are mere “pseudo-loves”, from which sin flows. Things that we are tempted to view as love, but are not involved in restoring the image we’ve been created in. It seems like such a simple thing, but somehow ends up translated into pages and pages of doctrinal debates.

Not that I’m against pages and pages that are truly seeking to expand on the character of God. I’ve read some. They’ve been great. But man…..let’s see more people like Charles, and hear more calling by our preachers to be people of Self-Giving love.

I wanted to say more on this Love as expelling sin….but maybe at a later date…

Learning big words has never been a priority of mine. Using them in everyday english has also never been something I’ve tried to do on purpose, except when in jest (ie. “boy, that was a 10 point word, eh?”). But I have been pretty good at noticing big words, and appreciating just how smart someone would have to be to have made them up, or to use them on a daily basis.

The word? Supralapsarianism. What does it mean? Well, within the Calvinist theology, it supposes that God, contemplating man as yet unfallen, chose some to receive eternal life and rejected all others. Basically that even without the fall, some were chosen for eternal life, and others for separation from God.

That would be opposed to “Infralapsarianism”, which says God’s decree to permit the fall logically preceded His decree of election. Meaning, God allowed the fall, and then in response to the fall – chose some to save and some not to.

Calvinists feel free to call me out on those. I’m definitely no expert.

Besides that interesting note, today was great. Plenty of reading full of the wisdom of John Wesley, as well as studying the great movements in theology since 400 AD that informed his own. I especially enjoy the renewed sense of sanctification as “perfecting love”, or “perfect love” lately. I would confess, I have a hard time loving some people sometimes, and with that knowledge, I seek that God would continue to work on my heart towards His Kingdom.

Looking forward to the days ahead, while still missing the ability to hold Addie before bed, to dance with Sophie in the kitchen, to kiss my wife just because. Looking forward to returning home for God to perfect my love there….

This week will be a bit different/ableit similar concepts as last week. Last week was focused on the Minor Prophets, and the calling of “living/ministering/preaching prophetically” in the world. This week will focus on a more recent prophet, John Wesley, and what his journey with God has revealed to those of us who follow; as well as the prophetic calling he praught to those who would come after.

I remember growing up in my Wesle-Bapti-Non-denom-Metho-Nazarene days. I grew up in a church-going home, so obviously heard of such things as “salvation” (i.e. Jesus coming into my heart, etc.). Even in my teenage years, when I recognized a call on my life to ministry, I continued to learn more about the character/nature of God and His creation.

But I’ll confess that it wasn’t until college, when I heard much of anything (that I paid attention to – sorry to those ministers who shouted sanctification over my head) about this “2nd work of Grace”. Even then, with professors both whole-heartedly for a word-for-word definition, and some who were shaky on what it even meant, or what words to use; I saw this bit of theology as something to investigate, appreciate as a continuing transformation of God (how bad could God doing MORE work be? even if painful. ).

It’s been an exciting journey, one that has found me appreciating it anew within the context of my new Free Methodist family. Here I have found a grace, and yet an intensely purifying fire, wrapped up in discussion/preaching of sanctification; that before was simply a phrase or a sentence used to prove that one had even heard of it all.

All that to say, even after finishing the reading for this week (whew), I’m looking forward to how God works on my wife (haha, yes Mrs. A, I meant “life” here…oops), and reveals Himself in the days to come. Feel free to ignore my blog until next Monday, when I’ll probably post more about hockey or other “fun” stuffs. 🙂 Until then, it’ll just be updates on all this Wesley-Holiness-Sanctification hullabaloo most likely.

Oh, and missing my wife and daughters. 🙂