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Bishop Kwang with the Eight Mile Plains MC Local Conference members.
Bishop’s Exhortation To John Wesley, a true Christian is marked by two inseparable qualities: happiness and holiness. Wesley defined holiness not as achieving sinless perfection but as having one’s heart fully fixed on God, setting aside all other affections – “perfect love” or “Christian perfection”. Hence, John Wesley taught on the experiential assurance of salvation (which he extended to include sanctification), and he re-emphasised the Puritan insistence on minute examination of the conscience coupled with sanctified action in all spheres of life. This is our biblical understanding of being perfected in love in Christ. This emphasis on sanctification became the hallmark of the Methodist movement. Therefore, the mission of Methodism is to “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.” Wesley taught that true Christianity fulfilled all of a person’s deepest, truest desires, making the Christian a happier, more productive person. When pressed to define “The character of a Methodist”, Wesley, in his 1742 tract, wrote: “God is the joy of the Methodist’s heart … He is therefore happy in God, yea, always happy, as having in him ‘a well of water springing up into everlasting life’, and ‘overflowing his soul with peace and joy.’” John Wesley himself had an experience in 1738 at a meeting on Aldersgate Street, where he felt his “heart strangely warmed”. And so, to Wesley, we as Christians are to truly practise a religion of joy. The best way to proclaim the truth of the gospel we preach is to feel the joy deep down within our Christian soul, for that is the expression of our lively faith. We express the joy of a new, inner spiritual freedom in our conversion testimonies and spiritual lives. We as true Christians should always be telling the Good News and testifying to its reality in our hearts. For Wesley, the impact of true Christianity never was to stop within the body of believers; from his Holy Club days at Oxford through to the end of his life, he insisted on the importance of works of mercy, apart from the works of piety. He and his fellow Oxford Methodists gave significant portions of their income to give succour to the poor, and spent much time ministering to condemned prisoners (after a lifetime of lavish giving, Wesley died a relatively poor man). My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, as heirs of the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, let us as contemporary Methodist Christians learn from him, to give lavishly to bless others, and to live a joyful and holy life. We too can learn from Nehemiah who was ridiculed and faced strong opposition in carrying out what God had entrusted to him to do i.e. to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem; yet he could say, “…the joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10b). Let us live as Scriptural Christians to spread scriptural holiness throughout the land! If we remain faithful to our calling, we can and will reform the church, and thus transform the community we live in. Servant of the Lord, Bishop James Kwang 1
Page 4 and 5: “Whoever serves me must follow me
Page 6 and 7: how to be abased and how to abound.
Page 8 and 9: spiritual lives, we need to eat spi
Page 10 and 11: God intention is to give all human
Page 12 and 13: 。Children MORLEY PREACHING CENTRE
Page 14 and 15: CITY LIGHT METHODIST CHURCH...A BRI
Page 16 and 17: you swoop [or pounce] on the spoils
Page 18 and 19: PASTORS’ FORUM, METHODIST HOUSE 2
Page 20 and 21: BISHOP’S SCHEDULE ⇒ 03/03/2017
Page 24: Contact List for Chinese Methodist

232e

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