Love Made Manifest

“If you reject him, he answers you with tears; if you wound him, he bleeds out cleansing; if you kill him, he dies to redeem; if you bury him, he rises again to bring resurrection. Jesus is love made manifest.” 

     – C. H. Spurgeon

The Next One

The next Jonathan Edwards might be the man driving in front of you with the Darwin Fish bumper decal. The next Charles Wesley might be a misogynistic, profanity-spewing hip-hop artist right now. The next Charles Spurgeon might be managing an abortion clinic right now. The next Mother Teresa might be a heroin-addicted porn star right now. The next Augustine of Hippo might be a sexually promiscuous cult member right now, just like, come to think of it, the first Augustine of Hippo was.

 — Russell Moore (from, Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel)

HT: The Poached Egg

Marble and Sand

HT: Tim Challies

Nothing New Under the Sun

The Most Important Daily Habit

From Challies.com

No Offense

HT: Challies.com

Holy Expectancy

"Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence. Believing supplications are forecasts of the future, He who prayeth in faith is like the seer of old, he sees that which is to be: his holy expectancy, like a telescope, brings distant objects near to him."

             — Charles Spurgeon    "The Holy Spirit's Intercession"

HT: Of First Importance

Hasty Reading

From Challies.com

Satisfaction

From Challies.com

Full Cups Overflow

The Cup Has To Be Full To Overflow

"You will not be able to extemporize good thinking unless you have been in the habit of thinking and feeding your mind with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at every available moment. Store your minds very richly, and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having arranged your good things upon the shelves of your mind, you will be able to hand them down at any time without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, folding, and preparing… Take it as a rule without exception, that to be able to overflow spontaneously you must be full."

     -C. H. Spurgeon (to his ministerial students)

HT Vitamin Z and Trevin Wax

Worst Enemy

From Sermon Quotes

No Small Disturbance

Please God, Send Us No Small Disturbance! by Jared Wilson:

About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.– Acts 19:23

That is what we long for, deep down. That the Spirit of God would move afresh in our day with wonderful, healing disruptive force — that he would upend our self-regard and self-sovereignty, that he would come into our temples where we trade the currency of excuses for our sins and present such tidiness in our self-righteousness and turn over all the tables. That he would come with no little disturbance but with great wind and fire of holy love, shaking the nations, the churches, our homes.

Let’s share the powerful revival prayer of Charles Spurgeon:

“O God, send us the Holy Ghost! Give us both the breath of spiritual life and the fire of unconquerable zeal! O Thou who art our God, answer us both by wind and fire, and then we shall see Thee to be God indeed. The kingdom comes not, and the work is flagging. Oh, that Thou wouldst send the wind and the fire! Thou wilt do this when we are all of one accord, all believing, all expecting, all prepared by prayer. Lord, bring us to this waiting state! God, send us a season of glorious disorder. Oh, for a sweep of the wind that will set the seas in motion, and make our ironclad brethren, now lying so quietly at anchor, to roll from stem to stem. Oh, for the fire to fall again-fire which shall affect the most stolid! Oh, that such fire might first sit upon the disciples and then fall all around! O God, Thou art ready to work with us today even as Thou didst then. Stay not, we beseech Thee, but work at once. Break down every barrier that hinders the incoming of Thy might! Give us both hearts of flame and tongues of fire to preach Thy reconciling Word, for Jesus’ sake!”

The Road of Mercy

"Your Redeemer traverses the rugged path of suffering, along which He went with heaving heart and heavy footsteps, that He might pave a royal road of mercy for His enemies. "

— C. H. Spurgeon, The Power of the Cross of Christ  (Lynwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1995), 30

HT: Of First Importance

Melting Power

Oh, the power, the melting, conquering, transforming power of the dear Cross of Christ. My brothers, we have but to constantly tell ourselves the matchless story, and we may expect to see the most remarkable results. We need not despair of our hearts now that Christ has died for this sinner.

With such a hammer as the doctrine of the Cross, this most flinty heart will be broken and such a fire as the sweet love of Christ will melt this most mighty iceberg. I need never to despair of my inability or my bad habits if I can but find occasion to bring the doctrine of Christ crucified into contact with my nature. It will yet change me and Christ will be my King. 

                — Charles Spurgeon
HT: Of First Importance

His Goodness

"...Charles Spurgeon once wrote. 'When I thought that God was hard, I found it easy to sin. But when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could have rebelled against One who loved me so and sought my God.'"

    -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 194

Motives

"Rest assured, if motives fetched from the gospel will not kill sin, motives fetched from the law never will. "

— Charles Spurgeon    The Christian's Glorious Inventory: Sermons on 1 Corinthians

HT Of First Importance

Come!

“Come for repentance, if you cannot come repenting. Come for a broken heart, if you cannot come with a broken heart. Come to be melted, if you are not melted. Come to be wounded, if you are not wounded.”

           — Charles Spurgeon    "The Precious Blood of Christ"

HT: Of First Importance

Let the Lion Roar

"The word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let it loose & it will defend itself."

 - C.H. Spurgeon

Falling Apart?

Whom the Lord Loves.....

"It is never said, “whom the Lord loveth he enricheth,” but it is said, “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” "

           —C.H. Spurgeon

Hat Tip: Challies.com