Books...

I love books!

To those who know me personally, aren't surprised by this 'confession' or realization.  I have grown with the assumption that most preachers love books.  I would venture to say that for a minister or even a public speaker to hate reading, books, or thinking - are, in a real sense, committing occupational suicide. 

At last count, I had atleast 5,000 books in my library.  Many of my books are autobiographies/biographies; some are textbooks from Dallas Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary; there are quite a few sets of commentaries (I don't subscribe to the belief that commentaries are hazardous or poisonous); much of my library are books dealing with the languages, lexicography, morphology, textual criticism, figures of speech, interlinear works, etc.; then many of my books are from Christian thinkers and theologians.  Admittedly, some of my books are secular and many are from various leaders who don't frequent any given church.  However, their writings have been invaluable to me through the years.  I credit many preachers, namely my Father, and also Dr. R.L. Sanders (who pastored for years the Pleasant Mt. Gilead of Forth Worth, TX) for their cultivation in my of my love for older writers and old books. 

The writers I cherish most (among the writers of old) are:
- Vance Havner
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
- Robert G. Lee
- M.R. Dehaan
- Grechem Machen
- W.W. Melton
- Hershcel Hobbs
- George W. Truett
- Bernard Ramm
- W. Herschel Ford
- Samuel Shoemakker
- John Calvin
- Robert Lenski
- H.P. Liddon
- John R. Bisagno
- A.W. Pink
- C.H. Spurgeon
- Alexander MacLaren
- G. Campbell Morgan

Of course, while these writers are so rewarding and enriching, the writings of Calvin Miller, Charles R. Swindoll, John F. MacArthur, John R.W. Stott, Watchman Nee and Andy Stanley are also quite rewarding. 

As I write this blog, I have no real understanding where I intended for this blog to go; just simply communicating in writing one of my favorite pastimes - BOOKS!

C.H. Spurgeon & Prayer

Recently, I've begun reading the first volume of C.H. Spurgeon's Autobiography.  This 561 page monster is, no doubt, a mammoth exploit; but it has also served as a rewarding outpouring of  spiritual insight into the life of a preaching giant.  This 19th Century 'prince of preachers' had the ability to preach in a way that would literally impact the world of Christendom for years that would follow.  Furthermore, he was in his late teens and early twenties when a congregation of 500 grew to an astonishing number of 10,000 plus.  This fact alone is remarkable, in and of itself, when reading his messages.  While the content of his messages were full of pure exposition, honest reflection, unique illustrations and life-related applications - his sermons were all but watered down!  Something is to be said of any one messenger who can attract a crowd of over 10,000 people without utilizing superficial or material ploys that appeal to human senses and emotions.  I would have loved to have sat in once to hear this great preacher at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.  It is my hope to one day visit London, specifically to see the place where Spurgeon once preached, lived and the place of his conversion. 

In my reading and studying the life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, I have seen a common thread woven through the fabric of this great preacher's life, preaching, pastorate and testimony - PRAYER.  It is said that, while Spurgeon preached to the huge crowds in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at it's construction, the Tabernacle was designed to have beneath the pulpit, in the basement a prayer room.  To some, it has been said that Spurgeon affectionately referred to this basement room where 200 people would gather to pray as he preached as 'The Fire Room'.  How appropriate is this.  Prayer is FIRE!  Prayer is the believer's arsenal and ammunition.  Prayer, according to the late C.A.W. Clark is '...when the saints of God declare kinship with the sky'.  Spurgeon is noted to have said that '...God will not shut his storehouse until we shut our mouths'.  And it was the late Dr. Ernest Kinsley Bailey who said, 'nothing of eternal signifance can happen without prayer'. 

Honest moment - sometimes prayer can easily take backstage to many of the other deeming 'important matters' in our human world.  But....if we can ever expect divine, other-wordly intervention to show up in the human affairs of our little world (it's little to God), we must pray.  How can we as aliens and foreigners of this world win the battle if we aren't communicating with headquarters?  It becomes frivolous, impossible and difficult. 

I love singing.  But I have discovered that singing will do what singing will do.  God knows I love preaching.  But preaching will do what preaching will do.  Here is a wonderful reality...PRAYER will do what GOD can do! 

Spurgeon was an avid reader.  But one of his favorite books was 'Pilgrim's Progress'.  In fact, when courting his future wife, Sussanah, he asked if she would read this John Bunyan classic.  I like what John Bunyan says regarding prayer:

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

 

 

I Thessalonians 5:17 informs us to 'prayer without ceasing'.  God tells us in Jeremiah 33:3 to '...call upon me; and I will hear you and answer you'.  Christ says in Matthew 7:7-8, 'Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.'

Let us never forget the power of prayer!