Being a "Sovereign Gracer" and a "Tuliparian", I think Charles Haddon Spurgeon is the best thing since the Gutenberg Press.
I also like CCEL (Christian Classics Ethereal Library)
http://www.ccel.org/ because they have Morning and Evening. This means I don't have to type out a whole page of eloquential brilliance, as I am prone to coveting Spurgeon's vocabulary and grasp of intricate grammar.
Well the 8th day of November came and went, as did the 9th, 10th.....15th, 16th and today it is the 17th day in November.
[Oh a quick shout out to Corinna - Happy 30th Birthday! Although by the time I get this posted it will probably be the 18th...in which case it will be Andrea's 20th Birthday! Have a good one *hugs*]
Ok...so I'll dump my pride (or maybe just a bit). I'm basically 10 days behind in my posting but I would like to clarify that I am not in my reading...only missed this morning due to cooking Corinna a birthday breakfast :-D That, however, isn't a viable excuse before God so I will buck up and catch up.
My excuses are all done now. This is what I was going to write 10 days ago:
My favourite part was the last line and that is what I most wanted to share with you.
Copied and pasted from
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/morneve.d1108am.html
Penned by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning, November 8
“As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord.”
The life of faith is represented as receiving—an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours his salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us—a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that his life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him. All this is to receive Christ—to take him as God’s free gift; to realize him in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine.
Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received him, and appropriated him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him!
