The center of Wesley’s theology is the grace of God, which is the redeeming activity of divine love. , Wesley called the study of grace “practical theology,” or living out our Christian beliefs in our daily lives. Practical theology is not only the study of a particular faith. A non-Christian can be a theologian, and some of them are. But practical theology is what every Christian should practice: to understand how God has saved us through Jesus Christ, and to live out our new life in love and service to God and others. Grace Grace is central to the Christian life. Grace arises from the love of God, if God…

This morning in Mark Batterson’s In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day I read this: “Here is a novel thought; What if actually did what they did in the Bible? [Ten days together in the upper room, then the coming of Pentecost.] What if we fasted and prayed for ten days? What if we sought God with some ancient intensity instead of spending all our energy trying to eliminate His surprises? Maybe then we’d experience some ancient miracles.” I don’t know if I could fast ten days, but I sure as heck can fast for a day. I cannot take more time off work to do it, but…

Forgiveness is not in our fallen human nature. We are attacked, we defend ourselves; someone treats us unjustly and we want justice done to them; someone is mean to us and we want to hit back. Even as the event recedes into the past we keep it alive with fantasies of revenge. God Is Really Clear on This Yet Jesus was extremely clear – extremely clear – that we need to forgive! “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25) Note that here, Jesus doesn’t say anything about if a person really…