Ever growing, ever learning
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This man has become one of my favorite preachers of all time (I have few favorites, but that's for another post:-).
His work has been very encouraging - and convicting might I add - to me over the past year. The Lord has blessed me greatly in using one of His children's (Spurgeon) work to draw me closer to Him.
What I've come to really like about him is the rawness of his writings. Mr. Spurgeon get's down to the bone and that's what - at times - I really like or really don't like. Personally, I need that hard conviction of heart though.
Going back a few years, I really wasn't too familiar with this man; his work, OR the great impact he had ( and I believe his work is still blessing others) on the Christian world - even after 122 years Charles Spurgeon's work still seems to impact other brothers and sisters in Christ. Talk about leaving a lasting legacy!
Here is one of his morning devotionals that I read and have come to treasure.
"Thou art my hope in the day of evil." - Jeremiah 17:17
The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17); and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the "green pastures" by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The best of God's saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of His children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.
(You can read the full post here. If you want to read more about The Prince of Preachers, click here to visit his website. )
My thought after reading this was, "Oh the joy to suffer for His name!" Really. It is a joy to suffer for His name.
"Wherefore let the, that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." 1 Peter 4:19
I apologize if this seems to be all I ever blog about. I personally feel the Lord growing in me as well as working through me with these things; I feel like sharing them is a way of venting and healing for me - venting in a good way though. :-) I guess if that tells you anything about myself it tells you how premature I am in my faith - but aren't we all at some point? Are we ever masters of our faith? Do we ever "arrive at our prime"? I don't think so and is it not foolish to assume that? I think that we are always learning and always being taught.
It's like being married - yeah, I know I'm not married, but just hear me out, okay? I use this analogy where [I think that] marriage should be like tending a garden: You must always be working at it, must always be weeding/pruning if you want to keep it lovely. For when you stop caring and tending, what takes over? Weeds take over and the plants and or flowers are choked. The sun can't get to the plants if you don't cut off the dead branches. The roots do not become saturated with the cool, refreshing water if you don't pull out all of the weeds at the root of the flower. A gentle and patient hand will suffice. Is it not the same with our faith? Yes, I know that I am not married, nor am I in a relationship - this is just my own thoughts on things.
Kind of bunny-trailed there...sorry!
So yeah, take joy! For He is alive and He IS coming back! Also, remember "God never does anything to us that isn't for us." (Elisabeth Elliot)
Blessings,
Sarah
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