Take Note: Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon was a 19th century British Baptist pastor whose fervor for the Risen Jesus is something by which believers are still inspired and challenged.

The following is an excerpt from a sermon he delivered on August 1, 1875.  The sermon was entitled "The Choice of a Leader."

"We must be all conscious that we imitate those whom we admire. Love has a strange influence over our nature, to mould it into the form beloved. A true disciple is like clay on the wheel, and his Master fashions him after his own image. We may be scarcely conscious of it, but we are most surely being conformed to the likeness of those to whose influence we submit ourselves.

"Whoever then your Master may be, dear friend, you are changing into his image: if you choose to be led by the votary of pleasure, you will become more and more frivolous; if you admire the slave of avarice, you will become avaricious, if you feel the sway of the minion of vice, you will grow vicious yourself. If a man who despises the word of God becomes your hero, you will ere long despise it too: while men are gazing upon him with admiration, a kind of photography is going on, and you, like a sensitive plate, receive his image. I charge you, therefore, to be careful who becomes your guide."

I need to preach this to myself daily.  Every influence I submit myself to should be intentional, so as to refine my character and labor for Christ's fame.  Though I deem the influence to which I submit myself is mostly aware of sin and worshipful of Jesus, I need to constantly check myself.  Am I actually worshipping Jesus?  Or am I worshipping someone(s) who love Him?


I am extremely apt to people please and therefore need to ensure that I am aiming to please and give glory to the Giver of Life, not another person.


Jesus is my treasure, my hope, and my rock.  He died for me; He took my place--no one else did that.  Submitting to church authority and seeking wise council is a part of submitting to God, but I need to remind myself that Jesus pursued me before anyone else did.  I need to study Him before I can study another's thoughts.


He is the perfect example of fulfilling the law; no other person has done or will ever do this.


My life is hid with Him; I will give an account to Him and Him alone.

Take Note: Tim Keller

My pastor often refers to Dr. Keller as “Yoda”. I wouldn’t disagree.

Tim’s points:

- All religions cannot be equally right–Christianity is either false and irrelvant or true.

- All religions cannot be equally wrong–there is a single truth.  Stating that no religion has all the “parts” of “truth” is a claim of truth in and of itself.

“A fact isn’t narrow…it’s a fact that you’re going to wither and die if you don’t eat.  It’s not narrow, it’s just a fact.  And if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, your soul will shrivel without Him, and you’ll die.  And that’s not narrow, it’s just a fact.”

“What you really need in this world is people who’ve got an exclusive truth that humbles them.”

Yoda, I tell ya.

Have I Gotten Over It?

Hank Murphy, a worship pastor at my church, The Summit, opened a night of worship and fellowship for college students a month ago, professing that we are fallen and in need of a Savior, and that Jesus’ sacrificial work is our only hope for a redeeming relationship with the Father.  He then said, “I don’t know about you, but we’ve never really gotten over that.”  

Have I gotten over that?  Have I “moved on” from the sweetness that I deserve death and I am given life?  Have I "matured" enough to move past the fact that in response to this abundant justice and grace that I have received, that I should do everything I can to spread it? 

Praise Jesus that in His obedience to the Father assures us once and for all that the justice of God does not reign over me because it is satisfied in Jesus’ atoning death.  And He proved this by the Resurrection.  We do not live for now—we live in light of eternity. 

The pastor at my church, J.D. Greear, preached on 1 Peter 4:1-11 tonight, and in light of the commands in the passage, encouraged us to live as though we were looking back on our lives in 100 years.  What would you wish you had done to leverage your life, your relationships, your family, and your work, all for the fame of the work of Jesus on and after the Cross?  Would you wish you would have spent your extra money on something eternal?  Would you wish you would have explained the Gospel to that one person that you were too scared to talk to about Jesus?  Would you wish you would have done everything you could to make sure that your family knew the risen King?  Would you wish you would have loved Christ enough to love people enough to profess the Truth?

For what do we live?  For what do I live?  Do people wonder how though I suffer I bless the name of Christ?  Do people wonder why I won’t shut up about Jesus?  Are people attracted to the hope and peace that I have—that surpasses ALL understanding?  Do people see how humble my heart is at the sight of my unworthiness before the Lord, though He loves me?  Do people know that my faith in myself is stripped?  Are people repulsed at the fact that I do not indulge in worldly, fleshly things?  Do I constantly confess my sin to others—believers and unbelievers?  Do I constantly profess that JESUS is my hope and full abundant joy, and NEVER my circumstance?  Do I suffer for the name of Christ my Lord?

More importantly, do people see that I aim to do these things, that they would see my life and turn to and glorify the King of Kings, the great and glorious God, the One who lived the life I could not live and died the death that I deserved—Jesus?

“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

- Romans 10:14-15

May our churches, may our families, may our friendships, may our courtships, may our marriages, may our hearts be obsessed with the fact that we deserve death and are given eternal life because of the Cross.

Our lives show what we believe to be true.  Our decisions about in what to invest our time, our money, and our relationships reveal what we believe to be important.  Do I believe that I am important?  Do I believe that my success, that my reputation, that my comfort, that my happiness is important?  Or do I believe that the only thing that matters in this life is that I reach as many people as possible, in God’s time and by His power, to profess the Truth and imminent love of the risen Lord?  

May we be obsessed with Jesus.  May we never get over the reality of the Gospel.