Tag: aldersgate

A Heart Strangely Warm

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1, NIV)



On May 24, 1738, John Wesley reluctantly attended a prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. Though he was a priest, missionary, and disciplined Christian, he still struggled to experience the assurance of God’s grace personally.


That evening, while listening to the preacher reading from Martin Luther’s introduction to the Book of Romans, Wesley experienced God. He wrote in his journal,
“I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation…”

Aldersgate reminds us that Christianity is more than religion. It is a living relationship with Jesus Christ.


Many people have head knowledge about God but still carry fear, uncertainty, or spiritual emptiness. Wesley discovered that salvation is not earned by good works or religious effort. It is received by faith in Jesus Christ.

Aldersgate is not only a historical event.
It reminds us that God still transforms lives through grace today.

The same grace that touched Wesley is also given to us today.


Today, God is inviting you not merely just to be an intellectual Christian who know Him in our heart, but to trust Him personally and deeply and be transformed by His grace.

Questions for Reflection
(1) Have I experienced the assurance of God’s grace personally?
(2) What burdens, fears, or doubts am I carrying today?

Prayer
Gracious God,
Thank You for Your amazing grace that reaches us even when we are weary, doubtful, and broken. As You warmed the heart of John Wesley, warm our hearts anew today. Fill us with the assurance of Your love and salvation through Jesus Christ. Renew our faith, deepen our holiness, and send us out to share Your grace with the world.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

“My Heart Is Strangely Warm”

Aldersgate Sunday is important to us as Methodists because it symbolizes the heart of Methodism: our faith is not just intellectual or ritualistic but our faith is deeply personal and transformative. It transforms us from within because of God’s grace.

On May 24, 1738, John Wesley (the man who started the Methodist movement) reluctantly attended a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. While the preacher was reading Martin Luther’s preface to the Book of Romans, Wesley recalled:

“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.”

This moment was the turning point in his life.

Before this experience at the Aldersgate, John Wesley was a dedicated Anglican priest. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1728 after graduating from his studies at Oxford. He was deeply committed, and passionate about his ministry as an Anglican priest. He never left the Anglican church although he started the Methodist movement.

John Wesley was passionate about his ministry but he actually had doubts and was uncertainty about his own salvation. He knew God with his mind. He had knowledge about God in His mind. But he did not know God with his heart. It was only at Aldersgate, that John Wesley experienced a deep, personal assurance of God’s love and grace.

Before the Aldersgate experience, John Wesley only knew God in his head. Only from this experience, he truly understands the love that comes from God. His ministry was transformed from this point on.

John Wesley changed from a formal, works-based approach to a faith-centered and evangelical approach. This Aldersgate event reignited Wesley’s ministry and as a result, it launched the Methodist revival—a movement focused on transformation, grace, and active discipleship.

Soon after Aldersgate, he began preaching outdoors to reach people who were not attending church. He rode on horseback to preach anywhere he could: in the marketplace, town squares, open field, rural areas. This approach brought the Gospel to thousands, especially among the working class and the poor.

In his lifetime, he travelled around 400,000km on horseback throughout Britain and Ireland, preached more than 40,000 sermons and wrote about 200 books. He also wrote journals.

The impact of the Revival in Britain was immeasurable. It changed the lives of thousands of working class families and the society was slowly transformed for the better. Many historians believed that if not had been for the Methodist revival, Britain might have had a blood revolution like similar to the French Revolution in 1789.

From England, the revival spread to Wales, Scotland and Ireland and later to the United Sates. Today, we have Methodist churches around the world.  

John Wesley said, “the world is my parish”. This means, he would preach anywhere, not confined to a church or to a specific group of people.  He believed that every person, regardless of class, status, or location, deserved to hear the message of salvation. And that God’s love is for all peoples.

Today, we have been deeply blessed by his teachings and his missionary effort to rescue as many souls as he could. I personally am greatly encouraged and blessed as I continue to study his theology as a pastor of the Methodist Church.