Spurgeon Wrestlings on Reformation


Everybody admires Luther! Yes, yes; but you do not want any one else to do the same today.When you go to the Zoological Gardens you all admire the bear; but how would you like a bear at home, or a bear wandering loose about the street? You tell me that it would be unbearable and no doubt you are right. So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago; the past ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron cage for him; but narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one.Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and their composers had said, ‘The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.’ Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on. Note what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe our fathers. It is today as it was in the Reformers’ days.Decision is needed.Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it. The faith I hold bears upon it marks of the blood of my ancestors. Shall I deny their faith, for which they left their native land to sojourn here? Shall we cast away the treasure which was handed to us through the bars of prisons, or came to us charred with the flames of Smithfield?….An ancestry of lovers of the faith ought to be a great plea with us to abide by the Lord God of our fathers, and the faith in which they lived.


As for me, I must hold the old gospel: I can do no other.... It is today as it was in the Reformers’ days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it…. Look you, sirs, there are ages to come. If the lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to his truth today. We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to his Word. I charge you, not only by your ancestry, but by your posterity, that you seek to win the commendation of your Master, that though you dwell where Satan’s seat is, you yet hold fast his name, and do not deny his faith.God grant us faithfulness, for the sake of the souls around us! How is the world to be saved if the church is false to her Lord? How are we to lift the masses if our fulcrum is removed? If our gospel is uncertain, what remains but increasing misery and despair? Stand fast, my beloved, in the name of God! I, your brother in Christ, entreat You to abide in the truth. Quit yourselves like men, be strong. The Lord sustain you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”

C.H. Spurgeon

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A Life Time


There are several things that characterize my friendship with Nate mainly longevity. We have been friends for the past 20 years. He is the one friend i have shared my entire life with. This past summer we took a road trip together half way cross country and had the time of our lives. We are not perfect friends but we are faithful to each other. Looking back on the Godwilling first half of our lives i see that the Lord planted us together to weather the storms of life. Driving on the open road vacates the mind at times and allows you to see more clearly things of your past. As we drove through the Desert to Texass that is what happend in our souls last summer. Our friendship was deepened if that is possible. The problem we have had our entire lives has been our sexes...the fact that my chromosomes consist of XX and Nate's Xy has been the alleged flaw of our friendship. We actually do not see our diversity as a "problem;" consequently, they are awed and say they have never encountered such a novalty such as Nate and myself. Our "true feelings" have always been tested by both friend and foe. My girl friends always question the "emotional" wisehood, although, Nate's girl friends have always had a different problem...just me. This perceived problem (our gender), always re-awakens itself when we encounter new peoples. Consequently, when Nate and I went to Texas we were oddly shocked to have no negative reactions from the cowboy christians. Their reaction to us was thorougly loving and we loved them. Quite frankly Nate and i had more run-ins with each other than we did others...






(We narrowed it down to all the time we spent pent up in BAM ,Nate's car, together.) The commonly known saying, The Blind leading the Blind, "has often been attributed to the combined reasoning of Nate and Meagan (which we have so often relied on while compasing on our lives). Yet, we are still alive...which is good; though there will always be those categorized wouls that are ruffled by Nate and I being best friends...but at some point they will just die and be over it.























Summer was one adventure after another...we never really had a sure plan and we embraced "flying by the seat of our pants" to the fullest and thanked God for every take off. However, at the end of our adventure, i did come to the sad realization that this would probably be the last great adventure of Nate and Meagan. We are both beginning very new and very BIG chapters of our lives. I'm graduating from college in a few short months and have severals ideas of where i might be in the world, and Nate will be moving to the other side of things (east coast). But, i am writing this mainly to establish the fact that the Lord has graced me with Nate. Trusting God with a soul that you love almost as much as your own has been a constant prod to the gospel over my entire life. God has taught me to wait on him to answer prayer...to love even when i'm not love...and to believe that Love truly does conquor all. That last phrase may itch the cheezy chin of many...but it has been so real in our frienship. Nate is the one friend that i never had to ask God for and the one i have prayed for the most. The precious thing is that Nate and i have both layed down our lives for each other... We will be friends for all of eternity, we may not always live in the same state or country and an era is probably ending, but we have been so blessed by God through each other for a life time...
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