Spurgeon and the Old, Old Story

From the Spurgeon sermon titled, "The Old, Old Story":

"There is a mysterious softening and melting power in the story of the sacrifice of Christ. I know a dear Christian woman who loved her little ones and sought their salvation. When she prayed for them, she thought it right to use the best means she could to arrest their attention and awaken their minds. I hope you all do likewise. The means, however, which she thought best calculated for her object was the terrors of the Lord. She used to read to her children chapter after chapter of Alleine's Alarm to the Unconverted. Oh, that book! how many dreams it gave her boy at night about the devouring flames and the everlasting burnings. But the boy's heart grew hardened, as if it were annealed rather than melted by the furnace of fear. The hammer welded the heart to sin, but did not break it. But even then, when the lad's heart was hard, when he heard of Jesus's love to his people, though he feared he was not one of them, still it used to make him weep to think Jesus should love anybody after such a sort. Even now that he has come to manhood, law and terrors make him dead and stolid, but thy blood, Jesus, thine agonies, in Gethsemane and on the tree, he cannot bear; they melt him; his soul flows through his eyes in tears; he weeps himself away from grateful love to thee for what thou hast done. Alas for those that deny the atonement! They take the very sting out of Christ's sufferings; and then, in taking out the sting, they take out the point with which sufferings of Christ pierce, and probe, and penetrate the heart. It is because Christ suffered for my sin, because he was condemned that I might to acquitted and not be damned as the result of my guilt: it is this that makes his sufferings such a cordial to my heart.

"See on the bloody tree,
The Illustrious sufferer hangs,
The torments due to thee,
He bore the dreadful pangs;
And cancelled there, the might sum,
Sins present, past, and sins to come."

Friday Psalm

Thank you for the cross, Lord
Thank you for the price you've paid
cancelled all the debt against me
nailed it to the cross

Thank you for the cross, Lord
Thank you for the blood you've shed
washed away transgressions
nailed upon the cross

Thank you for the cross, Lord
thank you for your flesh, giv'n for me
Bread of Life from Heaven
raised this dead man's life

Learning to Preach

I have only limited experience preaching. Moreover, what opportunities I have had to open God's Word publicly, good though they have been in so many respects, have served primarily to show how inadequate I am for the task. It is for this reason that I am thankful for a lecture series given by Bryan Chappell on "Christ-Centered Preaching" (available from Covenant Theological Seminary at http://www.worldwide-classroom.com/ or at the itunes store). Chappell, professor of Practical Theology and president of Covenant Theological Seminary, walks students step-by-step through the entire process of developing expository sermons. I've only listened to a couple of the lessons, but what I've heard has been very informative. I'm sure anyone, regardless of experience, could learn a thing or two from this man of God.

DMin or PhD?

This is a little older post, but I found it helpful in thinking through issues relative to future education:


http://canterbridge.org/2008/09/04/dmin-or-phd-that-is-the-question/

Let the Reader Understand

"The most glorious works of grace that ever took place, have been in answer to prayer, and it is in this way, we have the greatest reason to suppose, that the glorious outpouring of the Spirit which we expect at last [the author is referring to the advance of the Gospel throughout the world], will be bestowed."

-William Carey, quoted in Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of the Faith (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996) 244.

Sweet, sweet rest

There have been a few posts floating around the blogosphere lately on workaholism (see for instance: http://www.challies.com/writings/podcast/workaholism). These led me to recall the first verses of Psalm 127:

  "1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
   those who build it labor in vain.
   Unless the LORD watches over the city,
   the watchman stays awake in vain.
   2  It is in vain that you rise up early
   and go late to rest,
   eating the bread of anxious toil;
   for he gives to his beloved sleep."

Spurgeon gives us perhaps the healthy balance in his commentary on verse two:

"It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. Because the Lord is mainly to be rested in, all carking care is mere vanity and vexation of spirit. We are bound to be diligent, for this the Lord blesses; we ought not to be anxious, for that dishonours the Lord, and can never secure his favour. Some deny themselves needful rest; the morning sees them rise before they are rested, the evening sees them toiling long after the curfew has tolled the knell of parting day. They threaten to bring themselves into the sleep of death by neglect of the sleep which refreshes life. Nor is their sleeplessness the only index of their daily fret; they stint themselves in their meals, they eat the commonest food, and the smallest possible quantity of it, and what they do swallow is washed down with the salt tears of grief, for they fear that daily bread will fail them. Hard earned is their food, scantily rationed, and scarcely ever sweetened, but perpetually smeared with sorrow; and all because they have no faith in God, and find no joy except in hoarding up the gold which is their only trust. Not thus, not thus, would the Lord have his children live. He would have them, as princes of the blood, lead a happy and restful life. Let them take a fair measure of rest and a due portion of food, for it is for their health. Of course the true believer will never be lazy or extravagant; if he should be he will have to suffer for it; but he will not think it needful or right to be worried and miserly. Faith brings calm with it, and banishes the disturbers who both by day and by night murder peace." (From Spurgeon's Treasury of David)

Reading list from Reformed Theological Seminary

I find these lists very helpful and interesting:

http://www.rts.edu/Site/Resources/Brochures/ReadingList/Readinglist.aspx