A few days ago while reading a devotional from Oswald Chambers, I saw the name Spurgeon written in the margin. The devotional came from Isaiah 45:22 which reads from the King James Version, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." As a fifteen year old boy, Charles Spurgeon was walking to worship one Sunday morning when a snowstorm caused him to choose a nearby Primitive Methodist Church. The preacher did not show up so a "very thin looking man, a shoemaker or tailor ofrsomething of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now it is well that preachers should be instructed, but this man was really stupid. The text was Isaiah 45:22..." (The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon) It was a sermon that changed a young man's life.
History has written volumes about the ministry of this 19th century English preacher who is always mentioned in anyone's short list of powerful preachers. The number of people who came to Christ through Spurgeon's preaching is unknowable, but surely, there are still some people walking in faith today because their ancestors carried within them the influence of the stream of spirituality set forth by the Holy Spirit through Spurgeon's ministry. Actually, what is also true is that the same should be said about this unknown and uneducated layman who dared to stand and preach one day because there was no one else to do it.
Many of us are blessed to stand within a stream of spirituality which soaked our parents, grandparents, or maybe even family members of so long ago that names are no longer known. We sometimes track our family genealogy, but imagine what it might reveal to us if we could track back through the years the way faith was kindled and then passed on through the generations to us. And, equally as exciting to consider is the reality that our own faith might have the same kind of rippling affect on those who are walking the road behind us.
History has written volumes about the ministry of this 19th century English preacher who is always mentioned in anyone's short list of powerful preachers. The number of people who came to Christ through Spurgeon's preaching is unknowable, but surely, there are still some people walking in faith today because their ancestors carried within them the influence of the stream of spirituality set forth by the Holy Spirit through Spurgeon's ministry. Actually, what is also true is that the same should be said about this unknown and uneducated layman who dared to stand and preach one day because there was no one else to do it.
Many of us are blessed to stand within a stream of spirituality which soaked our parents, grandparents, or maybe even family members of so long ago that names are no longer known. We sometimes track our family genealogy, but imagine what it might reveal to us if we could track back through the years the way faith was kindled and then passed on through the generations to us. And, equally as exciting to consider is the reality that our own faith might have the same kind of rippling affect on those who are walking the road behind us.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment