John Wesley's Accountability Questions

As an Elder's group at Plains we have entered into a mutual accountability framework, where hold each other accountable for our walk with the Lord. We have been running it for a few months now and I think we are feeling the benefit of it personally and corporately. It seems there is a long history of holding oneself accountable in an objective way. I came across these accountability questions of John Wesley's at Jehovah Shammah - The Lord who is Present

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?
4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work , or habits?
5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
6. Did the Bible live in me today?
7. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
8. Am I enjoying prayer?
9. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
10. Do I pray about the money I spend?
11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
12. Do I disobey God in anything?
13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
16. How do I spend my spare time?
17. Am I proud?
18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?
19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I going to do about it?
20. Do I grumble and complain constantly?
21. Is Christ real to me?

These are questions which cut to the heart of who we are as Christian believers. It seems the issues were just the same in the 18th Century as they are today.

Chris Moyles on the Church

Did you hear Chris Moyles speaking about the church on his radio show last month? I picked it up from Paul Rees at Gospel Growth . It is really interesting to hear the perceptions of the Radio 1 DJ on what he saw one Sunday morning on his television screen.

‘GOMA’ shows Scotland the Truth about itself!

The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Glasgow is exhibiting an installation which features a video of a woman defacing a bible. She rips pages out of it and eats them; she stuffs pages from God’s precious word down her underwear. Next to this video installation is a bible, a box of pens and a notice which says, “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible please write your way back into it.” People who visit this exhibition have been writing all sorts of offensive comments and many of them shaking their literary fists at what they call a ‘fascist God’.

I hate this installation with a passion. It makes me sick to think of the God of the entire universe who gave his own son to die for sinners being mocked and profaned in such an unbridled manner. It breaks my heart to think that the nation I was born and raised in and which I love is so hard hearted and hostile to God. And yet, despicable though this installation is, I can’t help but feel that it holds a mirror up to Scottish society and tells us some truths about ourselves.

As a society we began rejecting God’s Word decades before this disgusting installation. Divorce is endemic and children are being brought up in broken homes all over Scotland because we have ripped out what the bible has to say about marriage and family. Alcoholism and drug addiction touches every community in Scotland, not least the city of Glasgow, because we have torn up the good news of the gospel of salvation and replaced it with a materialistic philosophy which says you live, you make the best of it, you die and that’s it. People are crying out for hope, but we have erased that too. Teenage pregnancies are the highest in Western Europe because we have ripped up what the bible has to say about sex. Abortions are taking place in their thousands because we’ve flushed away what the bible says about life.

However, before we start decrying a ‘godless’ unbelieving world, as a church in Scotland we need to take some responsibility for the sick state we find ourselves in. After all, it was ministers of the church who, decades ago, decided to rip all traces of inerrancy from their bibles. It was so called church leaders who told us to tear out the supernatural bits from our bibles; and theologians told us that this precious book is no longer God’s Word, just a place where we might seek a word from God, no longer authoritative just a place where we might find some good advice.

Is there really a difference between theologians mutilating the Word of God to suit a liberal secularist agenda and punters at GOMA writing down their own take on the bible? I don’t think so. Is there really a difference between thousands of individuals all over Scotland saying ‘stuff the bible, I’ll do it my way’ and these art buffs having ‘fun’ with their godless mockery? I think not. God have mercy on Glasgow! God help this nation of Scotland.

Glasgow used to have a city motto. It read, “Let Glasgow Flourish by the preaching of His Word and the praising of His name”. It has been ripped up as well. It now reads, simply, ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’. But that’s the problem; Glasgow never will flourish unless it returns to the preaching of His Word and the praising of His name.

The mutilation of the Word of God so nauseously portrayed at GOMA is perhaps the most incisive, if unwitting, diagnosis of the problem with Scotland today. As a nation we need to get back to God’s Word; as individuals and families we need to get back to God’s Word. This is the only way we will ever flourish. God have mercy on us.