Category Archives: Spurgeon

The Promise of God, a Reality

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We are reading a little book: According to Promise by C.H. Spurgeon after breakfast every morning because isn’t it exactly what we need as we start a new day? Don’t we all need to be reminded of His new mercies and never failing promises?

Today the words I read were mingled with grateful tears.

“Yes, the Lord means what He says. He never mocks men with barren words and empty sounds. Why should he deceive his creatures, and ask from them a barren confidence? The Lord may go beyond his word in giving more than it might be thought to mean; but he can never fall short of it. we may interpret his promises upon the most liberal scale. He never falls below the largest rendering which expectation can give to promise. Faith never yet outstripped the bounty of the Lord. Let us embrace the promise, and rejoice that it is substance and not shadow. Let us even now rejoice in it as being the reality of that which we are hoping.” (p.47)

Becky

Come Ye Children, a Book by C.H. Spurgeon (Mandatory Reading for Parents and Teachers)

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37/100 Days of Books
There are some books that I love to revisit once in a while. It is great to read my notes, and the parts I highlighted. Yesterday I pulled out from the shelves a little book that to my surprise I read in 2009 (I couldn’t believe it had been such a long time since then!), the book was written by C.H. Spurgeon and is entitled, Come Ye Children: Practical Help for Telling Children About Jesus. This is a book full of practical help based on biblical principles to encourage us (parents, teachers, and pastors)  to do well and with passion, the task we have before us of training our children in the Truth.

Here are some quotes that I am sure you will appreciate:

 

“As we sow we reap. Let us expect our children to know the Lord. Let us from the beginning mingle the name of Jesus with their ABC. Let them read their first lessons from the Bible. It is a remarkable thing that there is no book from which children learn to read so quickly as from the New Testament: there is a charm about that book which draws forth the infant mind. But let us never be guilty, as parents, of forgetting the religious training of our children; for if we do we may be guilty of the blood of their souls.”

 

“Believe me, your children need the Spirit of God to give them new hearts and right spirits, or else they will go astray as other children do. Remember that however young they are, there is a stone within the youngest breast; and that stone must be taken away, or be the ruin of the child. There is a tendency to evil even where as yet is not developed into act, and that tendency needs to be overcome by the divine power of the Holy Spirit causing the child to be born again.”

 

“Teaching is poor work when love is gone, it is like a smith working without fire, or a builder without mortar. A shepherd who does not love his sheep is a hireling and not a shepherd; he will flee in the time of danger, and leave his flock to the wolf. Where there is no love there will be no life; living lambs are not fed by dead men. We preach and teach love: our subject is the love of God in Christ Jesus. How can we teach this if we have no love ourselves?”

 

“There must be doctrine, solid, sound, gospel doctrine to constitute real feeding.”

 

“Lay much stress upon this; tell your children that the Word of the Lord is a pure Word, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Let their esteem for the Book of God be carried to the highest point.”

 

“This book is the Word of God, and if we teach it, we teach that which the Lord will accept and bless. O dear teachers -and I speak here to myself also- let our teaching be more and more Scriptural!” Fret not if our classes forget what we say, but pray them to remember what the Lord says. May Divine truths about sin, and righteousness, and judgement to come, be written on their hearts! May revealed truths concerning the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Ghost, never be forgotten by them!  May they know the virtue and necessity of the atoning blood of our Lord, the power of His resurrection, and the glory of His second coming! May the doctrines of grace be graven as with pen of iron upon their minds, and written as with the point of a diamond upon their hearts, never to be erased! If we can secure this we have not lived in vain. The generation now ruling seems bent on departing from the eternal truth of God: but we shall not despair if the gospel be impressed upon the memory of the rising race.”

 

“God blessing your efforts, dear friends, your children may know all of Scripture that is necessary to their salvation.”

 

“We cannot advance a step by doubt; our only progress is by faith… Believe God and and thou hast made progress. So let us pray for our children, that constantly they may know and believe more and more; for the Scripture is able to make them wise unto salvation, but only through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Faith is the result to aim at; faith in the appointed, anointed and exalted Saviour. This is the anchorage to which we would bring these little ships, for here they will abide in perfect safety.”

 

“Sound Instruction in Holy Scripture, when quickened by a living faith, creates a solid character.”

 

“Children need the gospel, the whole gospel, the unadulterated gospel; they ought to have it, and if they are taught of the Spirit of God they are capable of receiving it as persons of ripe years… Be encouraged; the God who has saved so many of your children is going to save many more of them, and we shall have a great joy as we see hundreds brought to Christ.”

 

“It is not your instruction that can save the souls of your children; it is the blessing of God the Holy Spirit accompanying your labors. May God bless and crown your efforts with abundant success! He will surely do so if you are instant in prayer, constant in supplication.”

“I beseech you, never treat child-piety with suspicion. It is a tender plant; do not brush it to hard.”

 

“Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple.”

 

“Your business is not merely to teach children to read the Bible, not barely to inculcate the duties of morality, nor even to instruct them in the mere letter of the gospel, but your high calling is to be the means, in the hand of God, of bringing life from heaven to dead souls.”

Let us not grow weary, friends, let us preach the Word of God to our children from the moment they open their eyes to the moment we kiss them good-night.

In God we hope.

Becky

Sunday Psalm, a Psalm to Sing -Psalm 46-

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Covenant blessings are not meant to be looked at only, but to be appropriated. Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use. Believer, thou dost not make use of Christ as thou oughtest to do.

When thou art in trouble, why dost thou not tell Him all thy grief? Has He not a sympathizing heart, and can He not comfort and relieve thee? No, thou art going about to all thy friends, save thy best Friend, and telling thy tale everywhere except into the bosom of thy Lord.

Art thou burdened with this day’s sins? Here is a fountain filled with blood: use it, saint, use it.

Has a sense of guilt returned upon thee? The pardoning grace of Jesus may be proved again and again. Come to Him at once for cleansing.

Dost thou deplore thy weakness? He is thy strength: why not lean upon Him?

Dost thou feel naked? Come hither, soul; put on the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. Stand not looking at it, but wear it. Strip off thine own righteousness, and thine own fears too: put on the fair white linen, for it was meant to wear.

Dost thou feel thyself sick? Pull the night-bell of prayer, and call up the Beloved Physician! He will give the cordial that will revive thee. Thou art poor, but then thou hast “a kinsman, a mighty man of wealth.” What! wilt thou not go to Him, and ask Him to give thee of His abundance, when He has given thee this promise, that thou shalt be joint heir with Him, and has made over all that He is and all that He has to be thine?

There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for His people to make a show-thing of Him, and not to use Him. He loves to be employed by us. The more burdens we put on His shoulders, the more precious will He be to us.

“Let us be simple with Him, then,
Not backward, stiff, or cold,
As though our Bethlehem could be
What Sinai was of old.”

C.H. Spurgeon

Becky

On Words Like Contemplation, Meditation, Thanksgiving, Religion and a Few More

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One of the many reasons I have decided to sail into the Vast Ocean of Words is that I would love it if we could be free again (like the Puritans, for example) to use words like contemplation, meditation, thanksgiving, religion, experience, emotion, hearing, silence, without being accused of promoting a false religion. I know, I know, context reigns, but let’s be sincere here. Many today have come to the point that the moment they see such words, they stop reading and just label the author as a terrible mystic (and there you have it,  another forbidden word: mystic)

So yes, I will be brave and I will take the risk (today and in the near future) and will use those words to say, for example:

I am a religious person who loves to contemplate God’s creation, and meditate on His Word in silence. (and no, I am not a Pantheist)I love it when I can hear God’s voice speaking to me in His Word. The whisperings of the Holy Spirit through the day reminding me of a Bible verse,  a person to pray for, or a hymn to sing.

I love to give thanks, one thousand times to my God when I see the gay colors in nature, the rainbow across the sky, my husband and children. I love that God made sex for His glory and I love the marriage bed. I am amazed that God used the allegory of marriage as his favorite to describe our union with Christ.

The experiences I have lived are real, and so are the emotions. I don’t ignore either of them, I face them, I deal with them. I bring them subject to the Word of God; I crucify those that oppose themselves against God’s Word and at the same time I cherish those that have helped me grow more in the faith.

I am not ready to give up the use of these words. They are rich and God-given to us; and maybe it is time for us to redeem them instead of censuring them by locking them up in a dark dungeon. Instead of excommunicating them from our vocabulary, we could start using them, I am sure many times those are just the right words we are looking for.

And to follow the advice of the experts in the craft of writing, let us look at some etymological definitions:

Meditation c.1200, “contemplation; devout preoccupation; devotions, prayer,” from L. meditationem (nom. meditatio), from pp. stem of meditari “to meditate, to think over, consider.”

 

Contemplation c.1200, “religious musing,” from O.Fr. contemplation or directly from L. contemplationem (nom. contemplatio) “act of looking at,” from contemplat-, pp. stem of contemplari “to gaze attentively, observe,” originally “to mark out a space for observation”

 

Thanksgiving 1530s, “the giving of thanks,” from thanks (n.) + giving. The noun thanks is attested from mid-14c., from the verb thank. In the specific sense of “public celebration acknowledging divine favors”

 

Religion c.1200 “conduct indicating a belief in a divine power,” from L. religionem (nom. religio) “respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods,” in L.L. “monastic life” (5c.); according to Cicero, derived from relegere “go through again, read again,” from re- “again” + legere “read” (see lecture). However, popular etymology among the later ancients (and many modern writers) connects it with religare “to bind fast” (see rely), via notion of “place an obligation on,” or “bond between humans and gods.” Another possible origin is religiens “careful,” opposite of negligens. Meaning “particular system of faith” is recorded from c.1300.

Zinsser recommends in his book, On Writing Well, that one of the best ways to end a piece of writing is with a good quote, so my friends,  because I want to be a diligent student and this is my workbook, I’ll close with a few words of Spurgeon,

“There is something exceedingly improving to the mind
in a contemplation of the Divinity–
It is a subject so vast,
that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity;
so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity.

Other subjects we can compass and grapple with–
in them we feel a kind of self-content,
and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.”

But when we come to this master-science,
finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth,
and that our eagle eye cannot see its height,
we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be
wise, but he is like a wild donkey’s colt; and with the
solemn exclamation–
“I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.”

No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the
mind, than thoughts of God.”

Grace upon grace,

Becky

 

Please, take the time to read an excellent follow up to this conversation at Tried by Fire: Disarming the Gut Reaction

Trisha also wrote some wise words about “those dirty words” here.

 

Update: Diane at Theology for Girls has another great  post that goes hand in hand with all these: Isn’t it Time that We Stop  Devouring One Another?

Painting by J.M.W Turner, The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1839

You still have time to enter the giveaway of Douglas Wilson’s book, Wordsmithy here.

Remember How God has Filled Your Empty Baskets -and Give Thanks-

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©Shiloh Photography

 

“Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?” Matthew 16:8-10 (Go to Matthew 15: 32-39, to read the second time Jesus multiplies the bread and fish to feed a hungry crowd)

C.H. Spurgeon says about this passage:

“Our Lord as as says to them, ‘Why begin raising questions as to what can be done under this small difficulty? Have I not your own personal wants been richly supplied? Has your store been exhausted even when all your thoughts have gone out towards the multitude, and all your store of bread and fish has been given up to them? What occasion can there be for anxiety in my presence, when I have always supplied your wants?

How foolish they were, but how like we are to them! We seem to learn nothing. After years of experience, our Lord has to say, ‘Do you not yet understand, neither remember?’ … How are our minds dwells on the bread which we are wanting, and how readily it forgets former times when all such wants were abundantly supplied! The many baskets which so amply filled by former providences were the disciples’ own share and store, and therefore they ought not to have forgotten the miraculous festivals. Even the empty baskets should have refreshed their memories, and reminded them of how they had  twice been filled. If it were not for our wretched little faith, and our reasoning among ourselves, the memory of our former deliverances would lift us up beyond all tendency mistrust our God.”

I do not want to forget how my Heavenly Father has filled my empty baskets in the past (and no, I am not necessarily talking about physical provision only) on the contrary, I want to remember and give thanks. And as I remember,  as I read the pages of my gratitude journal, I clearly see how my faith is strengthen and renewed. He has always been faithful, no matter where I have been.

Today I remember and give thanks…

#1465- 1474

How He had mercy on me while I was lost seeking my own glory and not His.

I remember the day when our oldest son was very young and had a high fever seizure, and couldn’t come to his senses for several minutes. The doctors feared some brain damage. Our son has none. God delivered us that day, and I still remember and give thanks when I see him doing so well in College.

I remember how God had mercy on my mom and healed her from a terminable cancer when I was a young girl. My children can enjoy today her embrace and her wonderful food.

I remember how God brought my husband and I together. I still love to wake up by his side every morning.

I remember how God has been so good to us in giving us four children.  Each one of them is a miracle.

I remember today how my sister and I,  in our teen years, had nothing in common, nothing; and I am so grateful to see how much we share now in common. That is a gift from God, and I am grateful.

I remember when my basket was full of discontentment; I am grateful to see how the Lord has filled it, little by little with contentment.

I remember how many times people have said that in this life you can hardly friends, but as I look around I see how God has blessed us with so many friends in Christ. We are blessed indeed!

I remember how I battled to have a disciplined spiritual life. Today by God’s grace alone, He has helped me to seek Him early and abide in His Word.

I remember how difficult it was to lose her, but I also remember how the Lord gave us words to sustain us, hope not to faint, and prayers from friends that embraced us. I need to remember this over and over again.

As I remember I am drawn to give thanks to God for filling my baskets with His Providence so many times!

What do you remember today that makes you give thanks?

Becky