Prayer, or the Lack Thereof

I have been looking at prayer in great detail over the last few days and I continue to come to the same conclusion that little or nothing is really going to change without it. In reading Galatians you find that after beginning with the Spirit, Paul gets after them and confront them with how they are you now trying to attain their goal in ministry by human effort?’’ (Galatians 3:3). Their service lay in fleshly outward performances. They did not understand that where the flesh is permitted to influence service to God, it soon results in open sin.

So he mentions as the work of the flesh not only grave sins such as adultery, murder, and drunkenness but also the more ordinary sins of daily life: anger, strife, and arguing. Then he exhorts: ‘‘Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. . . . Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit’’ (Galatians 5:16, 25). The Spirit must be honored not only as the author of a new life but also as the leader and director of our entire walk. Otherwise we are what the apostle calls ‘‘carnal’’ or fleshly.

The disciples asked the Lord Jesus: ‘‘Why could we not cast the devil out?’’ His answer was: ‘‘Because of your unbelief.’’ He added: ‘‘Howbeit, this kind goes out only by prayer and fasting.’’ If the life is not one of self-denial—of fasting (letting the world go) and of prayer (laying hold of heaven)—faith cannot be exercised. We have no power in our religious motions of prayer because we refuse to see our true sickness of living in the flesh. We really don’t believe the Bible because if we did we would surely obey it…or at least be in the battle as Paul obviously was over the flesh. In a life lived according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, we find the origin or sickness of the prayerlessness of which we complain.

The place of private prayer is the key, the strategic position, where decisive victory is obtained.The Wicked one uses all of his power to lead the believer, and most definitely me the preacher to neglect prayer for just about anything else…even the good necessary good things of study and Bible reading. Satan knows that however admirable the sermon may be, however attractive the service, however faithful the pastoral visitation, none of these things can damage him or his kingdom if prayer is neglected. 

When the church closes herself in to the power of prayer (in the Spirit!), and the soldiers of the Lord have received on their knees ‘‘power from on High,’’ then the powers of darkness will be shaken and souls will be delivered. In the church, on the mission field, with the preacher and his congregation, everything depends on the faithful exercise of prayer. It’s incredible how so many distractions come, wandering of my mind, and sometimes even plain unbelief in what I’m praying invades when I bow to pray. May we (I) hold fast with the weapon of prayer as I see my Lord do in the Garden. There is no doubt Satan was attacking with all the demons of hell and so Jesus prayed until blood began to spill out of his pores. Dear God teach us to have a great faith and hold fast to prayer!

Murray, Andrew. Living a Prayerful Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2002.

Give Me More of God

I have been unsatisfied as of late of my desire and attitude toward God. These "feelings" are hard to put into words but I think most of us have found ourselves there at certain times in our walk with Christ. For me, it's been an overwhelming sense of despair and that feeling I often got while serving in the military when I put my 120 pound rucksack on my back. Then realizing that I would be jumping out of a plane with it and humping it in the jungle for the next several days - Ugg!

After my study and messages on Romans yesterday, talking with my wife last night and then my devotions this morning, I realize that there has been some discipline(s) that I have not exercised as fervantly in the last few months as I have in the past. Specifically they are fasting and prayer. Yes I have been praying but my sense of urgency and desperateness has not been what it demands. In light of where I'm at in my walk and the sense of being overwhelmed by a myriad of circumstances my greatest need is more of God.

In reading Romans in these last weeks, chapter 13:11-14 have come out of the inspired pages of Scripture as a desperate prayer as we plow through this most influential letter to the Christians at Rome. The time is now to "wake up out of sleep!" The urgency of my sense of despair as well as our circumstances in the snowballing affects of secularization in America; not to mention what is going on in the world around us requires a series wake up call to action.

That action must start on our knees before the Creator God who is the only one who can give the grace to increase our faith to cause change (beginning with my heart) through the Gospel. The answer and solution is always by grace through faith in him.

The fasting part deals directly with our desires. My desires have been far to concerned with the things of this world and even my own despair and sense of being overwhelmed. And so my desire needs to change to being overwhelmed by the presence and glory of God. Piper puts it like this, "The fight for faith is a fight to feast on all that God is for us in Christ. What we hunger for most we worship" (A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer. pg 10). 

The above quote is also the book I'll be reading to assist in fasting biblically and in the right attitude. So through prayer may his grace let my will respond to my Lord, knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that his free love alone enable me to serve him. So here then is my empty heart, fill it with your grace!

Philippians 3:8-11 "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

"The Language of Amazement"

I was one of those people who didn’t grow up in the church. The only memory I have is going to a Presbyterian church every once in a great while. I don’t remember much of anything that was said, but I do remember two distinct things. First, there was the lighting of candles and there was a bunch of them. In lighting the candles there were supposed to be two people but one never showed and so one boy had to light what seemed to be hundreds of candles. The other thing I remember is the doxology. I used to love to hear the booming sound of the congregation singing those words. It was rightly and truly inspiring. Well, praise God the Lord saved me several years later as a 21 year old army man. I was saved in a Baptist church and they don’t sing the doxology and I often wonder why not?

Walter Brueggemann is known as one of America’s best theologians and one of the world’s foremost scholars on the Old Testament. In his book, Prophetic Imaginations he asserts … “I believe that, rightly embraced, no more subversive or prophetic idiom can be uttered than the practice of doxology, which sets us before the reality of God, of God right at the center of a scene from which we presumed he had fled” (Brueggemann 2001, 68).

Are you struggling about something today? Are you grief stricken about a wayward child, a physically ailing parent, or the loss of a loved one? Can I affirm to you today, by the uplifting presence and divine power of the person of the Holy Spirit that will enable you to rise up in the midst of whatever burden you bear and to SING with your whole heart and soul...

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below. 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

and 

"the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you" 

Bibliography                                                                                                                                  Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. 2nd Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.

What is Your Goal?

More specifically, what is your goal as a disciple of Jesus Christ? And if you can articulate your goal, do you know how your going to get there? In serving in the Army Special Forces, we often trained to fight and called it combatives. The combatives that I'm talking about here are not the ones we see in the video games and in the movie house per se. However, cabatives in the US Army and biblical are similar in that they are both fought for a honorable and principal cause.

When I joined the military and volunteered to be a Special Forces Green Beret, my motives we not exactly honorable. The motto within Special Forces is "De Opresso Liber" - To Free the Oppressed" and as time went on that motto took on a greater significance in what I was training and fighting for. In other words, I learned that I was fighting for something worthwhile and much bigger than I was or ever could be. I believe that part of the image of God (Imago De) of man is that we hunger for a noble fight.

I mentioned the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) above and in a nutshell that's what discipleship is - image. We were created in the image of the Father but sin messed that image up and were put in a position of desperation for renewal (Romans 5:12-21). Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and soon return gives us that renewal and ability to relate again to a holy God as well with one another (2 Cor. 3:18; Colossians 1:15, 3:10). He (Christ) is our example and the One we must look to and at as a disciple, which means we must look away from our sin and self (2 Corinthians 4:6). That's why our vision here at Mt Zion Baptist Church is to glorify God by igniting a passion for Christ, period. This vision and gospel knowledge of Christ keeps is on course so that we not only behold but our transformed into the image of Christ to the glory of God. We fight for many things and my fighting in the Army started out in selfish desires but as I beheld the the cause as honorable and principled it changes me. The same is with discipleship - true nobility and honor converge at the foot of the Cross with the Person and word of Christ. It is a true when one says we become what we behold.

I am the son of my Father and he has rubbed off on me in so many ways. The same is true with many others who invested and poured their life into me. The problem, however, is Genesis three. Yes, we're saved but saved sinners. We still have that old nature in us and unfortunately find ourselves sliding back into the broken image. That's why the gospel - the person and work of Christ is not just for our new birth but that same gospel calls us back to look at Jesus over and over again. It's an everyday thing! It was the gospel - the initial grace of God through the drawing of the Spirit (Jn 6:44) that opened our eyes to see Jesus for our new birth and justification. But it is that same gospel that must continue to empower us to continue to behold Jesus and change us into the image of his glory (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). How can this be? Remember when Jesus ascended to be at the right hand of the Father, he did not leave us comfortless. It's the person of God in the person of the Spirit that lives within a believer and a true disciple must rely on the Spirit to focus and draw our attention to Jesus. However, that's where the fighting comes in - amen? Are you still hooking and jabbing with the Spirit to be like Jesus? I would submit to you that it's a definite goal worth fighting for, even to give our very lives to it. When was the last time, like Moses, you said "Please show my your glory" (Exodus 33:18)? Oh that we would be willing to fight the noble fight to behold the face of Jesus in our lives.

So what's the goal of a disciple? First, there is going to be a fight (1 Timothy 6:12). The fight to believe the gospel - a real belief that shakes us out of our culturally comfortable Christianity that has created our own gospel. Disciples of Christ fight in knowing that Jesus' death and resurrection is ours as well. Dead to sin and alive to Christ (Romans 6:11; Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 3:18). We aren't fighting to be perfect as our perfection is already ours in Christ, but for BELIEF. Do we really believe it? If so we would be beholding Him more as revealed in Scripture and becoming more like Him every day. As we used to say in the Army, "let's gear up for the fight." Let's gear up for the fight and believe the gospel - it's a worthy and noble fight.

The Good of Good Friday - The Death, Burial, & Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ

The Cross of Christ – His death and resurrection is what the entire Bible points to. The Old Testament looks forward to the Cross of Christ and the New Testament gives the account and also continues, through the apostles and their preaching Christ and Him crucified. This historical event is the turning point for all of creation.

This is why we have a Good Friday, where we are to set time aside and worship Christ with all our heart, soul and might (Deut. 6:5-6; Matt. 22:37; Mk. 12:30; Lk 10:27) and what this event means in our new covenant relationship with the Father through Christ. 

I will be preaching on one of the sayings of Christ from the cross. However, some have asked what the other sayings were made by our Savior. Below are those sayings and I pray that we would think on these things not just during Easter but we might wright these in the cover of our Bibles and meditate on them throughout the year.

1.      “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

2.      “Verily [truly] I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

3.      “[Jesus] saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!” (John 19:26-27).

4.      “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)

5.      “I thirst.” (John 19:28)

6.      “It is finished:” (John 19:30).

7.      “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:” (Luke 23:46)

Bibliography:

Lutzer, Erwin W. Cries from the Cross: A Journey into the Heart of Jesus. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2002.

Pink, Arthur Walkington. The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005.

Pray, then Prayer, then finish up by Praying

Spurgeon says: "Of course the preacher is above all others distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians, else he were disqualified for the office he has undertaken. If you as ministers are not very prayerful, you are to be pitied. If you become lax in sacred devotion, not only will you need to be pitied but your people also, and the day cometh in which you shall be ashamed and confounded. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our closets. Our seasons of fasting and prayer at the Tabernacle have been high days indeed; never has heaven's gate stood wider; never have our hearts been nearer the central Glory."

Is prayer of primary concern for us who handle the Word of God? I'm finding that prayer must be entered into first and foremost and that the message is then refreshed by the breath of God. How we must labor in the Word but first we must begin in prayer, continue in prayer and to finish in prayer. 

Edward Payson was an American Congregational preacher in the early 19th century and said this in regards to prayer: "Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, pray."

I recently got together with some pastors and the conversation went to the Wednesday night prayer service. The question was asked "what do you do in your prayer service?" Of course, most there said they did all kinds of things but prayer was certainly not the emphasis and what was done most in those services. One minister said that he used it to pray. He followed that up with, however, you might as well know that you won't have a well attended service.

In my last church I was given the Wednesday night prayer service. However, I changed the name to the Mid-week service because the name certainly did not describe what we were doing at those service. Another one of my minister friends told me that they indeed pray and it's the highlight of the service. But he also told me that he struggled with the idea that his people would think that he was just coping out and too lazy to put together a sermon.

Wow. What does that say about our attitude towards prayer. What does that say about the reality that we really don't pray. We can talk the talk but when it comes down to the rubber hitting the road, we do very little work on bended knee.

For me, one of the hardest disciplines to do, is to pray. I believe it's difficult because Satan knows that it's the most needed discipline for you and I and, of course, the church. That is if we're going to be lead by the Father, and to have His mind, direction, and power in our lives.

We see all kinds of examples of this in Scripture. Jesus, the very Son of God, often got alone to be with God to pray.  "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35).  The Psalmist said: "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and and glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary" (Ps. 63:1-2).  

When was the last time you prayed? Have you prayed yet today? We are living in a dry and thirsty land and yet we forgo entering into his sanctuary - the New Jerusalem to see and spend time with our heavenly Father. To see his power and glory and to be empowered by his holiness. To be encouraged by his grace. To take a drink of the living water that only can quench our thirst and give us a greater thirst for him.

Let's pray.

My House Shall Be a House of Prayer

I have, as of late, been deeply convicted about prayer. Prayer not only for me and individuals but also for the church.  Jesus said himself, "My house shall be called a house of prayer" (Matt 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).  What exactly does that mean? 

In context we know that this was when Jesus came into the temple to cleanse it. His indignation was directed toward those who had changed the character of the temple from a place of prayer into a place of corrupt commercialism. The Temple was to be a place of worship, quiet meditation, contemplation, praise, and devotion, a place where God's people could draw close to Him in worship, sacrifice, offerings and could seek His will and blessing.

I don't think that has changed for us in the New Testament. Yet how often do we gather together and fail to worship our heavenly Father?  When was the last time you came to church and prayed without being lead by someone else?  When was the last time you came early or stayed late to pray and worship the King of kings?  When was the last time you bent your knee at an altar to pray for a lost loved one?  When was the last time you came to church and lifted up your hands in prayer and adoration to the Lord of lords?   When was the last time you came to church and you prayed for God to work in your heart and mind to see the holiness of God?  When was the last time you came and prayed that God through His Word and Spirit would speak to you? 

Most of us don't pray and we gather together, maybe not for commercialism but what about consumerism?  We come to see what we can "get" from the preacher.  Can he bless me?  Will he make me laugh, or cry or stroke my emotions?  Do they have the right kind of music?  What kind of ministries do they have for my kids?  Do they have a sports program?  How about a singing group for my little one? 

I believe with all my heart that we gather together for Him!  Our gathering together in worship is to give honor and praise to the One that is worthy of all our praise, honor and attention.  I would submit to that if we would come to worship service in an attitude of prayer and worship we would see Him and His holiness.  In seeing His holiness, we would see our sin and we would fall on our faces before Him.

The problem is we have not stood before "the throne high and lifted up" (Isa. 6:1) never "come unto Mt Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels" (Heb. 12:22).   

Nope. When we go to the Church, we are looking to get the most bang for our buck.  Prayer and praise is stifled; worship is dead.  And we'll stay for awhile or at least until we can find a better show or where we can get a little more for our money.  Oh yea, we really aren't doing that either. 

God help us to pray!  May we be known as a people on bended knee, coming frequently and reverently before our King, Master, and Lord.  

Oh, How we Need to Pray

This morning as I check my email, I find again it full of new church grown methods, plans to advance the church and enlarge our congregations. However, I never find in any of these methods, plans, and ideas the need for and dependance on the LORD. 

From my understanding of Scripture and in looking at the 1st century church, it's the LORD who advances and adds to the church.  Luke said, "...And the LORD added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47).  What I also find in this chapter is a model - a Scriptural model that should be followed as cloesely as possible in the 21st century. 

Within that model in Acts, I find that God used people.  The church today has tended to lose sight of the man God uses for His plan.  Preachers today are not so concerned about themselves as they are about what new method to adopt that will guarantee their success. 

However, E.M. Bounds states that "God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looing for better men" (Bounds, "Power Through Prayer).  God is looking throughout the whole earth to show himself strong, however these people are to have a heart for God and His glory and not their own (see 1 Chron. 16:9). 

This means that the man matters to God.  The character of the preacher matters to God.  Again, Bonds states in a very convincing and convicting matter, "It is not great talents nor great learning nor great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God - men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it" (Bonds, p12). "And every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3).

So how is our churces going to grow?  God is going to add to the church and he is going to do it through men who are active in the sanctification process, allowing the Holy Spirit of God to mold them into the image of his Son Jesus Christ.  That means I must be dependent upon Him and the best way to know if you or I are dependent upon God is how often we are on bended knee. 

Misemployment of time is injurious to the mind. In illness I have looked back with self-reproach on days spent in my study; I was wading through history and poetry and monthly journals, but I was in my study! Another man's trifling is notorious to all observers, but what am I doing? Nothing, perhaps, that has reference to the spiritual good of my congregation. Be much in retirement and prayer. Study the honor and glory of your Master."
                                       - Richard Cecil

Do You Understand God's Grace?

Romans 6:14-15 says, For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

The word "grace" is, no doubt, a most precious truth personified by God through Christ and the work on the Cross. We sing "Amazing Grace" by John Newton and is loved by both Christians and within the secular society. However, people within and without the church have little to no concept of grace as it is greatly misunderstood.

Many Christians believe it to mean that because of grace, they can live as they please without regard to God's law - specifically the moral will or commandments of God. Christian's take Paul's words to mean they can live as they please. This has sadly resulted in what is termed "easy believism" or "cheap grace."

Theologically this is termed antinomianism, which is the conviction that believers are freed from the demands of God’s law by depending upon God’s grace for their salvation. Of course, this is not a new concept and Jude addresses it when he states For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 4).

The difficulty as a pastor is to preach salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and to do so without merging toward antinomianism or, at the other end of the spectrum, and to add works. Both are heretical and to combat this is for us to have a clear understanding and biblical view of the grace of God. 

We often define grace as "God's unmerited favor." That's good, but only gives us half of the whole definition. Galatians 3:10 states that  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. We are all deserving the "curse" of God because we all have fallen short of the mark and have not obeyed the law. That's why Jesus came and He alone as the God-Man could and did obey the law completely and perfectly.

In Matthew 5:17 Jesus states, Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am cnot come to destroy, but to fulfill. And praise God, that is exactly what He did for you and me. Christ fulfilled the law in which we could not do.

Thus, a more complete definition is one given by Jerry Bridges where he defines it as "God's blessings through Christ to people who deserve His curse" (The Transforming Power of the Gospel p.1192). He goes on to say that a concept of grace that does not include our "ill-deservedness" and Christ's work for us will lead people down the wrong path of "easy believism" or "cheap grace." However, a concept that does include our "ill-deservedness" and Christ's work for us leads us to a place of gratitude for His gift of grace, which then leads to a loving obedience. 

As Christians we need to be just as dependent on the grace of God that we received at salvation in our daily walk with the Lord. It's that same grace that is needed in all we do in and for His kingdom.

We Must Pray!

There is a sweet spirit in our church as of late. However, it's presence is not without many burdens, struggles, strongholds, and outright sin. There is a war that is waging for the hearts and minds of so many people and I sense that we are having more casualties than victories.

This spiritual warfare has of late overwhelmed my soul and caused my mind to race with inability to focus and comprehend on all the specific individual needs and struggles within my congregation.  How am I to meet these needs.  How am I to help those whom I don't even know the battle that their facing.  How am I to help the person who doesn't even recognize their sin and coolness to the things of God? What can I do?

As these questions pounded in my mind, it was answered very distintly with one word - pray. What can I do? ...I can pray. The fact is, I can do nothing outside the power of the Spirit of God. Only He can open the eyes that are blinded. Only He can heal the broken hearted. Only He can reveal and convict people of their sin. Only He can give the power to overcome struggles and strongholds. Only He can give me the strength to carry the burdens.

It is not even the amount of words that I pray, but the atitude of prayer. I see in Scripture how the great men of prayer had few words that were put on the printed page, but their wrestling with God was long. They were successful with few words but victory came in patience and in most instances a long wait. They prayed to God with fastings and mighty cries both day and night. 

In reading E.M. Bounds "The Power of Prayer" I read this quote that really spoke to my heart and drove me to my knees, knowing what can and will make the difference.

"This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but a hurried half hour in morning to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer - almighty prayer, I am ready to say - and why not? for that it is almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and truth, O then, pray, pray, pray!"  
                                                                - William Wilberforce

Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Christ Crucified

I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to give our people a batch of philosophy every Sunday morning and evening, and neglect the truth of this Holy Book. I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to leave out the main cardinal doctrines of the Word of God, and preach a religion which is all a mist and a haze, without any definite truths whatever. I take it that a man does not preach Christ and him crucified, who can get through a sermon without mentioning Christ’s name once; nor does that man preach Christ and him crucified who leaves out the Holy Spirit’s work, who never says a word about the Holy Ghost, so that indeed the hearers might say, “We do not so much know whether there be a Holy Ghost.”

And I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering, love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that.

for meditation: To “know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) may sound very limited. In fact it is a vast and glorious subject upon which everything else should be based and for which God should be given all the glory (1 Corinthians 1:30,31).^[1]

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^[1] C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days With Spurgeon (Volume 1) (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1998), 49.