A few helpful words from Spurgeon on our idolatrous and atheistic hearts. The full sermon can be read here
Spurgeon on Idolatry
Pentecost, For Real
I hear people often say, “The church just needs to get back to the way things were in the church of Acts.†Energetic Christian leaders 
whip their followers into a frenzy over wanting another anointing, another experience, a fresh fire to fall, another revival, and many other trite terms for, “Uh, things ain’t going so hot around here.†[Read more…] about Pentecost, For Real
A Glad Gravitas
If Christ be not risen, life is miserable for a Christian. That about sums it up.
 If Jesus is not alive right now, then of all the people of the earth, Christians are the most to be pitied, and are living a miserable life. The Apostle Paul makes this same argument in 1 Corinthians 15, and how right he is. For the Christian, the resurrection of Jesus ought to be more than a reason to hide candy laden eggs for children. The resurrection is a line of demarcation that separates the grumpy from the glad. The resurrection is a reason to daily rejoice and celebrate like kids at the end of a school year.
True Joy is a Serious Thing
Horatius Bonar, the great Scottish preacher and hymnodist has some encouraging words for the Believer’s fight for joy. We are not called to glumness, but joy. However, we are not called to levity, but joy. Gloom and levity happen to be the cliffs on either side of the narrow way of joy. Enjoy these precious words of encouragement: [Read more…] about True Joy is a Serious Thing
The Government is not God
Yep, here I go, wading into the morass that is our modern governmental system. When I was just a newborn, still at the hospital, the 
nurses commented to my mother how “chattery†I was for a wee-babe. They concluded I was destined to be a politician; my mom, however, declared, “No, he’s going to be a preacher.†It would seem that my mom was more the prophet than the nurses; nevertheless, I have always had the itch to apply Gospel truth to culture in general, including the realm of politics. This generation is deceived, and only forceful, Gospel-centered appeals to our magistrates, presidents and rulers will be useful in the long run.
A Deathbed Hymn
William Cowper’s famous hymn, Sometimes a Light Surprises , is a powerful proclamation of choosing to praise God no matter what the circumstance or situation. This world promises joys and comforts, but leaves us dissatisfied and disillusioned. The Christian, however, is no longer thirsty, for they are given the very fountain head; we are free, but, like CS Lewis once said, “Free, as a man is free to drink while he is drinking. He is not free still to be dry.” Or, you could say, we are free to rejoice while we are enjoying the unfailing presence of Jesus; we are not free still to be glum.
We moan and complain life’s circumstances; yet, true faith holds steadfast to the promise of the Promiser. This hymn has come to be a precious reminder to me for two reasons. The first is obvious, it is a tremendous hymn of praise to the Lord. The second is because I recently read in M’Cheyne’s biography that this was the final song he heard, as he was dying of the fever, racked with pain, delirious with his illness. His sister read or sang–I don’t quite remember–this to him a few hours before his death.
What a statement to end one’s life with! Is your deathbed hymn one of glumness, sorrow, regret, or doubt? Or can you say with the final two lines: Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice, for while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice?
Is your hope in the temporal pleasures of earth, or have you found the fullness of the fountainhead? The Gospel truth of Christ abides ever faithful, ever available, and since He cannot fail, we cannot help but rejoice.
Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.
In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new.
Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.
It can bring with it nothing but He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing will clothe His people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens, no creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens will give His children bread.
Though vine nor fig tree neither their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.
The Old Standard of the Cross
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