Tag: Charles Spurgeon

Christ is mine!

Charles Spurgeonby Charles Spurgeon

“Christ Is All”

Whatever trials you have, my dear brother, Christ is all in all to meet them.

Are you poor? He will make you rich in your poverty by His consoling presence.

Are you sick? He will make your bed in your sickness, and so will make your sick-bed better than the walks of health.

Are you persecuted? If it is for His sake, you may even leap for joy.

Are you oppressed? Remember how He also was oppressed and afflicted; and you will have fellowship with Him in his sufferings.

Amidst all the vicissitudes of this present life, Christ is all that the believer needs to bear him up, and bear him through. No wave can sink the man who clings to this life-buoy; he shall swim to glory on it!

Jesus is all I need! Jesus is . . . the living water to quench my thirst, the heavenly bread to satisfy my hunger, the snow-white robe to cover me, the sure refuge in times of trouble, the happy home of my soul, my food and my medicine, my solace and my song, my light and my delight.

The believer can say, “Christ is mine!” No emperor is half as rich as the beggar that has Christ! He who has Christ, being a pauper, has all things. And he who has not Christ, possessing a thousand worlds, possesses nothing for real happiness and joy!

Oh, the blessedness of the man who can say, “Christ is mine!

by Charles Spurgeon

You are chosen in the furnace of affliction!

George Whittenby George Whitten

Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

The great evangelist and teacher Charles Spurgeon had a plaque on his bedroom with the words written on it, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Spurgeon, writing about the trials and afflictions that the saints endure, said, “It is no mean thing to be chosen of God.” He continued, “God’s choice makes chosen men choice men … we are chosen, not in the palace, but in the furnace. In the furnace, beauty is marred, fashion is destroyed, strength is melted, glory is consumed; yet here eternal love reveals its secrets, and declares its choice.

In the midst of trials and tribulations comes the burning question: “Why do the righteous suffer?” Some answer with theology, others with platitudes; C.S. Lewis offers a rhetorical, “Why not? They’re the only ones who can take it!

One friend suggests, “Suffering was the personal choice of God at the beginning of creation. [Revelation 13:8] If I want to know Him personally and intimately how can I not embrace it?

Embrace your trial and the suffering involved, but only if you want a deeper relationship with your personal savior.

Your family in the Lord with much agape love

by George Whitten