Last Tuesday I pointed to Ken Carter's commentary on The Prayer of Jabez. Afterwards I read this little book and also reviewed the Disciple Covenant Service he mentions. While Ken's comments regarding the covenant Wesley established are absolutely right, I believe he has overlooked the focus on serving God that is also present in Jabez' prayer. Jabez' request to God to "enlarge my borders" appears to have less to do with self-fulfillment, or the aggregation of wealth, than it does with a desire to be given new opportunities to share God's love with others. It is not a cry for significance (which would be at odds with Wesley's notion of Christian service), but a cry to be useful to God.
11:38:57 PM
One human problem with temptation is that we deny our susceptability to it. We play around with a temptation, working away at the edges, trying to split hairs in defining the difference between something that is "OK" and something that crosses the line and becomes "sin". The problem for us is that as soon as we begin toying with the idea, we tend to get trapped and then cross the line into sin. I bring this up only because a Seattle conference appears to be splitting hairs on a similar issue - the appointment of gay pastors. Have Methodists decided that the text of the bible does not always mean what it says? Are Paul's outlined requirements in I Timothy 3 for church leadership being redefined by the Methodist Book of Discipline?
