A few years ago I preached a sermon called, Lives in Covenant - Holiness of Heart and Mind. It kicked off a four week series centered around what it means to be a covenant people. It lead towards a Wesley covenant renewal service. One of the emphases from that week was that we live lives striving for Holiness and that Holiness is only achieved, not through artificial surface showey piety, or right knowledge (orthodoxy), or even right practice or right living (orthopraxis), but is rather achieved through an overflowing and outflowing of love, for God, for oneself (properly understood) and for those around us, both those we are in covenant with and more importantly those that we are not. It is that love for one another that marks us as Christian and it is this passionately intense love that drives us on to perfection. How are you in your walk toward holiness? Are you going on towards perfection? Do you fully expect to be perfected in this life? Is the perfect love of God driving out all fear in your life? Are you seeing Christ more and more converting every part of your life and even the desires and instincts of your heart? This is what we Methodists believe is part of the Christian covenant.
As we approach annual conference 2011, I am ever more convinced that we must live into the truth that we are a people that live in covenant. We are people of THE Covenant. We are to be a people of Holiness of Heart and Mind. As we gather this year may our hearts overflow and outflow with love for God, ourselves (healthily), the people called Methodists and for, particularly, those that are outside a covenant relationship with Christ. May God perfect us all in his great and rich love.
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