I’ve said before that one of my delights is exploring the vast reservoir of sermons by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I came across one called “The Mighty Arm.” In this portion of the message, which is about one fifth of the whole, he talks about the power of God available to us as Christians, which we are free to call upon.
“The devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
A.W. Tozer (1897–1963) has been one of the great influences on my life since I was a new believer, as a teenager. I fed on Tozer as a young Christian, and still today God speaks to me through his writing.
I have been rereading C. S. Lewis’s God in the Dock, a collection of his essays. Actually, I’ve been listening to the audio, sent to me by the wonderful folks at christianaudio.com. I love it. I am a big fan of audio.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached to perhaps ten million people in his lifetime, often speaking ten times a week at various locations, including congregations his own church had planted.
As a young Christian, forty years ago, I read David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade and Run, Baby, Run, written by Nicky Cruz, a New York City gang warlord who David had led to the Lord. Both books had a profound influence on me. After Wilkerson died in a car crash April 27, I listened to a seven-minute excerpt from his message "A Call to Anguish."
In my last blog, I wrote about one of my three pilgrimages to Oxford. (I also shared that I'll be attending and speaking at the C.S. Lewis Foundation's 2010 Southwest Regional Retreat & Writer's Workshop, October 28-31. See the PDF download for more information.) Each visit I’ve pondered what Lewis wrote: “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen…I gave in and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.”
Those who have read my books know that all of them have been touched in one way or another by C.S. Lewis, because ultimately the books we write are the overflow of the books we’ve read. I look forward to meeting Jack Lewis, and exploring the New Earth, where there will be time for us all to walk and talk, with new friends who are also old friends, in the joyful presence of King Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon preached to something like ten million people in his lifetime, sometimes speaking ten times a week at various locations. His sermons were transcribed as he spoke. In those days of telegraph, his messages became available across the Atlantic, in America, within days, and around the world within a week. Besides his amazing quantity of sermons, he wrote an autobiography, the massive The Treasury of David, 3 Volumes on the psalms, books on prayer, the classic devotional Morning and Evening, and produced a magazine, The Sword and the Trowel. Some argue that no author in history has more material in print than Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
One of my lifelong loves has been reading great books. I lament the decrease in the number of Christians who are avid readers. We seem to be more interested in television, movies, popular culture, and all kinds of trivia than in great books. And we are leading our children and grandchildren into functional illiteracy, shallowness, and superficiality. Most sadly of all, someone who isn’t a reader will never be a reader of God’s Word. What does this suggest about where church leaders, and therefore churches, will be tomorrow?
I loved the following, from my friend Tony Reinke, at ...
It is often difficult to confirm the accuracy of a story, including this one printed in the Christian Digest and cited in a collection of stories assembled by Paul Tan. It wouldn’t surprise me to find it is accurate, but in any case the point of the story is a valid one, and I have seen it illustrated in less dramatic ways in my own life and in the speaking ministries of others. I think it also applies to our attempts to share Christ with others. Sometimes we say just the wrong words and Christ uses them, other times ...
I'm the author of over 40 books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. I love Jesus, my wife Nanci, and our daughters, sons and five grandsons!
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