Thank you for Charles Spurgeon

I've been going through a rough time lately. Very rough. I go through these bouts of depression and anxiety every now and again, and sometimes they're blacker than others. This recent trough as been particularly bleak.

Then I 'happened' to read today's 'Morning' entry on my PC (its in my startup folder and I've posted it below). And there's Charles Spurgeon, pointing me back to the One who can cover my sins and make me whole. His love of and confidence in Christ is contagious. I've been struggling with the sin of unbelief, and CHS's words have reminded me that the answer to this sin as well as my struggles in general is Christ. My default position is self-reliance. How foolish I am.

Thank you, Lord, for your patience, for your Word, and for saints like Charles Spurgeon who point the way to you - even 100 years after they're gone.


MORNING
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
- Romans 8:37
We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Take your sins to Christ’s cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration-you want to overcome an angry temper, how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way? It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, “Lord, I trust thee to deliver me from it.” This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell him, “Lord, I have trusted thee, and thy name is Jesus, for thou dost save thy people from their sins; Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!” Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears-the whole of them put together-are worth nothing apart from him. “None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;” or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane.

My Friend Jim

My friend Jim passed away this morning at 6am.

When we started going to WRBC, Jim latched onto us and made us feel welcome, like we could be the messed up people we are and still be accepted. Jim went out of his way to get me to go to Promise Keepers and then offered to disciple me. For a margin-dweller like me, Jim was just what the doctor ordered. I took him up on his offer, and it started a process that changed my life.

Me being me and Jim being Jim, we had many a heated debate. Through it I saw a man who was very much like me: a prideful guy who liked to hear himself talk. But I could also see the Lord at work in him, pushing and empowering him to fight his natural tendencies, and it gave me hope that Christ could do the same thing in me. Jim helped me identify some serious sin in my life and connected me with some other guys with similar struggles. He was also very frank about mistakes he had made as a husband and father. I truly believe God used Jim to heal my marriage and family.

Jim certainly wasn't perfect. He was stubborn, prideful, gossipy, and was an expert at button pushing. But he is one of the most generous, gregarious, and friendly people I’ve ever met. I already miss him.