John Wesley - All You Can

“All You Can” is one of the great themes from the life and ministry of John Wesley. It has been great fun for me, a Presbyterian, to be training the youth to join the Methodist church. I am coming to appreciate a theology that I never knew much about, the theology of John Wesley. One of his famous quotes is:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

I also read Wesley's Sermon 50 on The Use of Money in which he encourages everyone to:

Earn all you can,
Save all you can, and
Give all you can.

Let me add that when he says “save all you can” he does not mean that one should accumulate wealth. What he means by “saving” is that one should be extremely prudent in one’s spending, “saving pennies, cutting corners wherever possible.”

Wesley believed that each one was capable of doing so much more for the Lord if only s/he would. In Christ, he believed, we can do more. Anyone can.

Redeem the world?
Yes, in Christ, we can.
Can we fix it?
As Bob the Builder would say, “Yes we can.”

Try it for the summer, living an “All You Can” life. If Wesley is right, you will receive blessings beyond measure.