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Snippets of Spurgeon

Evening, September 20

“In the evening withhold not thy hand.”

Ecclesiastes 11:6

In the evening of the day opportunities are plentiful: men return from their labour, and the zealous soul-winner finds time to tell abroad the love of Jesus. Have I no evening work for Jesus? If I have not, let me no longer withhold my hand from a service which requires abundant labour. Sinners are perishing for lack of knowledge; he who loiters may find his skirts crimson with the blood of souls. Jesus gave both his hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from his blessed work? Night and day he toiled and prayed for me, how can I give a single hour to the pampering of my flesh with luxurious ease? Up, idle heart; stretch out thy hand to work, or uplift it to pray; heaven and hell are in earnest, let me be so, and this evening sow good seed for the Lord my God.

The evening of life has also its calls. Life is so short that a morning of manhood’s vigour, and an evening of decay, make the whole of it. To some it seems long, but a four-pence is a great sum of money to a poor man. Life is so brief that no man can afford to lose a day. It has been well said that if a great king should bring us a great heap of gold, and bid us take as much as we could count in a day, we should make a long day of it; we should begin early in the morning, and in the evening we should not withhold our hand; but to win souls is far nobler work, how is it that we so soon withdraw from it? Some are spared to a long evening of green old age; if such be my case, let me use such talents as I still retain, and to the last hour serve my blessed and faithful Lord. By his grace I will die in harness, and lay down my charge only when I lay down my body. Age may instruct the young, cheer the faint, and encourage the desponding; if eventide has less of vigorous heat, it should have more of calm wisdom, therefore in the evening I will not withhold my hand.

To read this and more visit ccel.

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, 
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.


Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.


Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.


Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters Heav’n with prayer.


Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, “Behold, he prays!”


The saints in prayer appear as one
In word, in deed, and mind,
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.


No prayer is made by man alone
The Holy Spirit pleads,
And Jesus, on th’eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.


O Thou by Whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray.


James Montgomery (1771-1854)

Sentence Flow Diagram Matthew 28:18-20

18

Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία

- ἐν οὐρανῷ
καὶ
- ἐπὶ [τῆς] γῆς

19

                            - πορευθέντες οὖν

μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη

                            - βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς

                                          - εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ 

                                             καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος,

20

                             - διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς

                                        - τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν·

καὶ ἰδοὺ

ἐγὼ μεθ᾿ ὑμῶν εἰμι

                             - πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας

                                        - ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.

Key:

Red – primary verbs

Light blue – secondary verbs

Orange – participles

Green – infinitives

Blue – prepositions

Pink – 'all' words

Purple – objects which qualify the main verb

Early New Testament Church Lesson 3

Recommended reading: Blomberg pp.35-54

1. If Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit at the Jordan is paralleled by the church's experience at Pentecost, can the same be said of his baptism by fire?
There seems to be a partial parallel. I think we need to be careful we don't take away from the importance of Jesus' suffering. My concern with this theory is that it has the potential to encourage more man-centredness, which I think we would all agree is out of control in large areas of Christendom. Having said that, any theory can be skewed and used inappropriately.

2. What is the significance of the gift of tongues at Pentecost?

I noticed two things.

One significance was as an outward sign to the unbelieving Jews that it was God. The “rushing wind” was a symbol of God’s presence in the Old Testament

Another was the idea of reconciliation and unity. From Babel there had been a distance and separation which was instigated by God for His purposes. At Pentecost God made a sign of the beginning of His reconciliation which is that “in Christ” all are united.

3. Was there more than one Pentecost in Acts? If so, where?

I suppose there is an inference that at each stage of the spread of the gospel, there was a “pentecost” of sorts to each of the people groups mentioned in Acts 1:8. The Samaritans experienced one when the Apostles visited and it could be said there was one at the residence of Cornelius. My preference is for extensions rather than more “pentecosts” as I’ve mentioned in my answer to the next question.

4. Would it be accurate to say that there were several Pentecosts in Acts? Once the gospel leaves Jerusalem would it better to speak of repetitions of Pentecost or extensions of Pentecost?

I prefer extensions because it essentially comes down to people getting the Holy Spirit who weren’t at Pentecost; the Holy Spirit had already come to men and was now indwelling each believer as God saved them. It’s not as if He was coming again. The Holy Spirit had already made His grand entrance and was hard at work. If Pentecost continued to happen it would be as though He continued to be sent from heaven again, and again, and again. This isn’t consistent with the picture Jesus gives us in John 16.

5. How do you understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people today?
His indwelling is simultaneous with faith in the Lord Jesus and repentance of sin, to sanctify us into the image of God’s Son (John 16:4b-15, Romans 8:14-17). Believers in the New Testament and transitional era experienced forms of subsequence unique for the fledgling church, we now experience salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit together.

Fudgy Choc Chip Cookies

Dear Readers,

I thought I would share this recipe with you as thanks for your support and friendship. I have been working on this recipe and I think I've nearly got it right! This is my own recipe and one that only my new family members have been blessed to enjoy. Tomorrow it is my turn to make morning tea for everyone at church so I think a cinnamon teacake and these cookies will go down well.  I hope you will get as much satisfaction out of it as my husband has in the past few days.

Fudgy Choc Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 180C (356F) if you like fudgy OR 210C (410F) if you like harder cookies. Alternatively you can extend the cooking time to 15mins instead of raising the heat. My oven is permanently fan-forced and these are the temperatures I use.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Serves: Makes about 16 largish or 32 smallish

Ingredients
1/2cup   Self-raising flour
1cup      Plain flour (All purpose)
1/2cup   Rich cocoa powder
1/2cup   White sugar
1/2cup   Brown sugar (firmly packed into the cup measure)
1            Egg lightly whisked
150g      Butter - diced (room temperature or slightly softened)
1splash  Vanilla Essence
1cup      Choc chips of your choice (I use 1/3cup dark, 1/3cup milk and 1/3 cup white)

Directions

1. Put flour, cocoa and sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk
2. Add egg, butter and vanilla and mush with hands until blended
3. Add choc chips and continue mushing
4. Dampen hands and roll portions of mixture, place on a baking tray with paper, and flatten slightly
5. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven but leave on tray to cool. (Note: they might not get a chance to cool!) They will seem very soft and under cooked but they do firm up.

Oxygen Conference

We spent from Saturday till Thursday in Sydney with 3 other guys from church. Our main reason was to attend the Oxygen conference where John Piper and John Lennox were the main speakers. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during the day 2000+ people met in Redfern at Technology Park for talks and electives. On Wednesday night 10,000 people gathered at the entertainment centre for the "One Night".

I don't have any pictures yet. I forgot my camera and my phone isn't fancy enough to do decent photos. I have done a bit of googling to find pictures of the places we went.

We were billeted by some of the ministry team at St Pauls, Chatswood. Follow this link to find Sunday's sermon (It is not up yet but it should be any day now). I highly recommend it, but a word of warning: it stings!

Technology Park

It's hard to know where to start. The last week has been full of amazing lessons and by 11.59pm Wednesday I though my brain would explode. Steve Jeffrey's sermon on Sunday was something I've needed to hear for a while. Judgementalism in one's heart just continues to grow like a malignant cancer, and even when you try to deal with it, very little seems to change. I'm starting to realise how pervasive it is and how much it affects one's attitude. To manifest and grow, judgementalism relies on selfish ambition and vanity. I have come to realise the judgemental thoughts I have about people only serve to temporarily make me feel better about myself. It comes with a cost: if I don't deal with judgemental thoughts when they come, my attitude towards the person/people gets effected, sometimes to the point where it's almost impossible to think well of the person. From there flows gossip and slander. Right now I'm at the point where I can see I really need to change but I feel as though I'm too far gone. My short term goal is take it one day at a time with God's grace.

The main sentence I took away from Piper's talks was "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him".

Something Lennox emphasised was if we truly believe the next world is as real as it is, we'd be preparing for it.

I feel very challenged to not waste my life and to desire God more.