I will fear no evil Psalm 23:4

• DAY 4 MORNING PSALM 19-21

• DAY 4 EVENING PSALM 22-23

After training as an Anglican clergyman and obtaining a Fellowship at Oxford, John Wesley set out on a mission, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Georgia in North America, to convert the native American Indians. ‘On the evening of Saturday, January 17, 1736, John and Charles Wesley were sitting with Colonel Oglethorpe and others in the state cabin a ship, called ‘The Simonds’ far out in the Atlantic. The sea had been rough, and the clouds had been thickening all day. Now the pitching of the ship became more alarming every minute. Suddenly a huge wave ‘burst into the cabin….with a noise and shock almost like that of a cannon.” A bureau had sheltered Wesley, but he was shocked to discover himself “afraid to die”. At midnight he added a note to his diary: “Stormy still, and afraid!” The Wesleys and their fellow passengers had been three months on board already, for ‘The Simonds’, held off the Isle of Wight by contrary winds, had only cleared the English Channel in the second week of December. Wesley as chaplain, had been much impressed by a group of 26 German emigrants on board. They were members of the Church of the United Brethren, colloquially known as the Moravian church… but had been revived by young Count Zinzendorf.

The Germans were always cheerful. They undertook servile tasks which English emigrants were too proud or lazy to consider, and when crewmen or passengers abused them, they turned the other cheek. At their services they sang hymns of great beauty. The Church of England’s metrical psalms sounded stilted in contrast. The Wesleys.. had pledged themselves to continue their introspective diaries and the rigorous Oxford Methodist system of prayers, readings, fasts and good works. The Moravians were not impressed, for they detected that Wesley’s tight routine was chiefly intended to acquire merit. They offered him on contrast, the great Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. They endeavoured to show him ‘a more excellent way.’ But he says that he understood it not at first. ‘I was too learned and too wise. So that it seemed foolishness to me. And I continued preaching and trusting in that righteousness whereby no flesh can be justified. During the days of the storm, Wesley tried to keep to his rigorous program but could not throw off his fear as the ship rocked and jarred, ‘with the utmost violence.’ The gale died down but another struck a few days later. Again a great wave knocked him over. He found he was unhurt yet ‘could but say to himself, ‘ How is it that thou hast no faith? Being still unwilling to die.’

• Thank you that through the cross and your resurrection from the dead we can be born again by the Spirit.. You did NOT give us a spirit that makes us a SLAVE AGAIN TO FEAR but a spirit of SONSHIP. Thank you Lord that even though we walk through the shadow of death we need fear no evil. Open our eyes, wake us up afresh to this truth, that he who believes in you, will not perish but have eternal life. We pray for a fresh revelation of this truth that ALL can be born again by the spirit of God to impact our land. Awaken our nation to new life in Christ ONCE AGAIN.

REFERENCES

Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart John Wesley: Evangelist,Cliff College Publishing, 53-54

Pollock, J. Wesley, The Preacher, Kingsway Publishing, 67-69