© 05 Colin Melbourne
I feared thee, because thou art an austere man…
Lk. 19:21a Holy Bible, KJV
An inspirational true story for those who are less than gifted orators, or struggle to master their mother tongue.
God is still able to use you for His Glory when you let Him rule your heart
Theologians and Missionaries in Hell
I know theologians who remain in their sins. Expert in Hebrew, and Greek, who can recite great chunks of God’s word by heart: But they are unsaved and Hell-bound.
Many ministers and missionaries will be found out at the Judgment.
Remember, both John and Charles Wesley were ordained ministers serving on the mission field, but unsaved, and without a clue how to become a Christian.
They imagined they were already Christian because they had done their best to please God; they were ‘Christened’, raised as Anglicans, went to Church, prayed daily, read the Bible diligently, and claimed to believe in Christ sincerely.
Perhaps you know people like that.
Tragic isn’t it?
Nominal Christians Doomed
It wasn’t until their mid-30’s, when they met some real Christians, that they repented and believed on Christ, were born of God, and began to proclaim the message of Christ instead of religion.
Each was a graduate of Oxford University with a head full of knowledge, but were led to Christ by a humble cabbage-crunching foreigner who’d read the Bible and rightly believed it.
Thank God for Peter Böhler and the Moravians!
Böhler took John Wesley aside and told the missionary how to be saved the Bible way:
Believe, and you will be saved.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, and nothing will be impossible for you!
This faith, like the salvation that it brings, is the free gift of God. Seek and you will find.
That took courage. Peter hit the nail on the head, and churned preacher Wesley up no end.
I imagine John fumed inside at first,
“Bloomin’ cheek! A German telling a renowned Oxford divinity graduate and missionary he needs to get saved!”
However Peter Böhler was right, and Wesley soon came under deep conviction, quickly humbled himself, and experienced the New Birth.
In turmoil back in London, at a small Aldersgate Street meeting, his troubled ‘heart was strangely warmed’; the failed missionary finally got saved.
Like everyone who gets the real deal Wesley could hardly wait to tell his brother of the new joy and peace he had found in Christ.
John Wesley DVD biographies: Classic and modern recreations of the life and work of the co-founder of the Methodist movement around the world.
His younger brother, Charles Wesley, was also worked on by the Holy Ghost through Böhler whilst Charles taught him English.
The brilliant ‘Methodist’ fell seriously ill, and close to death was visited by his German pupil.
Peter Böhler asked him if he was sure of Heaven.
Wesley replied that he was because he’d “done his best to please God.”
He certainly had, but Böhler knew better, and shook his head silently.
This gentle gesture crushed the dying man’s spirit, but awoke him to his need of genuine salvation through Christ alone.
A humble brazier called John Bray, took pity on the learned invalid, and nursed him in his own simple lodgings.
There Charles Wesley leafed through a copy of Luther’s, ‘On Galatians’. A landmark Reformation treatise which I urge all to consume.
Reading Luther on faith and free grace, the penny dropped, and Charles got saved, discarding the filthy rags of his own efforts, to rely solely on the finished work of Christ for him.
It was two days later that John Wesley came straight from Aldersgate, bursting into the Brazier’s house to declare a triumphant, ‘I Believe!‘.
Don’t miss this.
The Brazier spent his time lighting coal and coke fires around London.
It was a menial, laborious, and dirty job.
What could braziers teach Oxford graduates?
Bray and his wife were new Christians, and I’m certain he asked the Lord to use him on his fire-lighting rounds. I’m guessing he prayed,
‘Lord, use me to bring your Holy Fire to England.”
The Lord answered by using him to lead Charles and John Wesley to Christ.
Once they repented and were born again, the LORD used them to set their world on fire for Jesus.
Remember it was the sooty Brazier who lit the fuse.
You can do that too.
The devout and religious Wesleys had brilliant heads, packed with knowledge: The simple Christians, believing hearts, full of Christ.
Charles Wesley DVD: Documentary narrating the life of the most anointed English Hymn writer God ever created.
The People God Uses
For another wonderful example read Charles Spurgeon‘s own account of the person God used to lead the superbly eloquent ‘Prince of Preachers’ to Jesus.
Spurgeon said,
“Personally, I have to thank God for many Christian authors, but my gratitude most of all is not for books, but for the preached word addressed to me by a poor, uneducated man, a man who had never received any training for the ministry, and probably will never be heard of in this life, a man engaged in business, no doubt of a humble kind, during the week, but who had just enough of grace to say on the Sabbath,
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
The books were good, but the man was better.”
A simple Essex believer exhausted his preaching of Christ in ten minutes flat. He had no more to say, but it was sufficient to lead the great Spurgeon to salvation.
How many sinners were saved under Spurgeon’s ministry?
The people God uses!
It is a heart that God is looking for, a believing heart; any old turnip will do for a head.
The Oyster Catcher
Modern Methodism has fallen into shocking apostasy, Charles and John would rail at the United Methodist Church today, but two hundred years ago Methodists were hot stuff.
They blazed a trail through backslidden England and recruited many uneducated lay-preachers for their local circuits. Some of them were distinctly dodgy on doctrine and many marginal in spoken English.
One such yokel was given the chance to preach in the presence of John, choosing as his text, Lk. 19:21a KJV;
I feared thee, because thou art an austere man…
Read that out loud with a Cornish or Geordie accent, it will help you to enjoy the following.
It is plain our dear brother (bless his heart) had no idea what the word austere meant, because he began to tell how this portrays Christ as an Oysterman.
You can imagine the more educated in the room glancing at Wesley in embarrassment. Certainly nudging one another in self-restrained amusement.
The blessed bloke pressed onward describing this as a metaphor of how Christ forsook His place in the Glory of Heaven to dive down into the dark fathoms of a sinful world. Clutching from their sin wracked depths the sharp edged Oyster shells He valued so much.
Then rising to the surface with them in His shredded Blood stained Palms to bring them into the Light and warmth of the sun. Counting the effort, the pain, and price to be worth the prize.
The meeting concluded and John Wesley was buttonholed by some-such headshaker sighing with pursed lips.
“How can Methodism flourish if we allow these uneducated preachers to represent us?’
John replied wisely, ‘Never mind, the Lord got a dozen oysters tonight.’
He understood, from his own experience, the value of heart faith over head knowledge, as did twelve precious souls saved by The Oyster Man through the message of a simple believer.
The people God uses. Ones like me and you.
Fancy an Oyster? Go get ’em!
© 05 Colin Melbourne
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