Strangely Warmed Hearts Day

John Wesley

It’s John and Charles Wesley Day in the CofE—Aldersgate Day for the Methodists. It was on this day in 1738 at about 845pm when a thoroughly discouraged and depressed Anglican Priest, John Wesley, reluctantly attended a meeting in Aldersgate, London, and heard someone reading from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans whereupon, as he described it:

while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

That strangely Holy Spirit warmed heart propelled him on to great doings for The LORD and not a little criticism and opposition. For example, one Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, forbade Wesley from preaching in his diocese saying,

Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing — a very horrid thing.

I say more warmed hearts are what we need, and that right strange! The horrider, the better.

Gene+