Spurgeons on God's Love

You Decorated My Life!



Today I was listening to this song by Kenny Rogers and a sense of sorrowful joy came over me. Not an oxymoron again!

"All my life was a paper, once plain pure and white.
Till you move with your pen, changing moods now and then, till the balance was right.
Then you added some music, every note was in place.
And anybody could see all the changes in me by the look on my face.

And you decorated my life, created a world, where dreams are apart.
And you decorated my life, by painting your love all over my heart.
You decorated my life".

Immediately, the lyrics brought to mind what my two daughters have been doing in my life. They filled the so many blanks in my life with so much of their laughters. Their tiny voices of concern and "bear hugs" never failed to melt my ailing heart. They have so captured my heart.  And my love for them sometimes so overwhelmed me that I can almost hear my heart breaking.

This is what I meant by sorrowful joy.

Then came the thought of God's love.

If I can love my girls like that, He loves Jesus much more. Imagine I have to send my girls to die, oh how that would shatter my heart to pieces and crush it to powder! And yet God sent Jesus to die. It is like a loving spouse saying the following to the better half:





For whom? For me who did not even give a damn about Him!

"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? [Psalms 8:4]


And yes.  It does sound like a cliche. But when it sinks in.......man...it really sinks in!

At this point, I really don't want to know how much God really loves me. Because I don't think my heart can ever take in all that kind of love.

They say hymns are to create a sense of His love in us that we may genuinely worship Him. For the many times that I have not been moved by the hymns, this song had done it for me.

Father, I just wanna say.......Thank You.

Who Is R A Torrey?

Torrey was one of America's best-known evangelists and Bible teachers. He was educated at Yale and also at various German universities. During his early years he went through a time of extreme skepticism, but emerged as a staunch preacher of the faith.

In 1889, while in the pastorate, D. L. Moody invited him to become become the superintendent of his new school in Chicago (now the Moody Bible Institute.) He also served as pastor to the Chicago Avenue Church, now the Moody Church. He and Charles Alexander conducted evangelistic meetings together in many parts of the world. From the years 1912-19 R A Torrey served as dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. He also served from 1914 as pastor of the Church of the Open Door. From 1924 to his death, he ministered in conferences and taught at the Moody Bible Institute
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How to obtain fulness of power in Christian Life and Service - R. A. Torrey - dated 1

How to obtain fulness of power in Christian Life and Service - R. A. Torrey - Ch 2

Who Is Charles Haddon Spurgeon?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the new Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Charles H Spurgeon - Obtaining Promises

Charles H Spurgeon - The Holy Spirit Glorifying Christ

Charles H Spurgeon - Flesh and Spirit A Riddle

Charles H Spurgeon - The Spirit's Work In Salvation

Who Is A W Tozer?

A W Tozer was called a" 20th-century prophet".

He was the pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago for 31 years. During that time, he was also editor of Alliance Life, a responsibility he fulfilled until his death in 1963.

In his lifetime, A W Tozer wrote a total of 30 books. These have been considered his greatest legacy to the Christian world.

Because A.W. Tozer lived in the presence of God he saw clearly and he spoke as a prophet to the church. He sought God's honor with the zeal of Elijah and mourned with Jeremiah at the apostasy of God's people. But he was not a prophet of despair. His writings are messages of concern. They expose the weaknesses of the church and denounce compromise. They warn and exhort. But they are messages of hope as well, for God is always there, ever faithful to restore and to fulfill His Word to those who hear and obey.

More of his sermons here.

A W Tozer - God's Great Promise To The Church

A W Tozer - The Holy Spirit: Let Him Come In

A W Tozer - Path To Power and Usefulness

A W Tozer - Signs of Pentecost Today

A W Tozer- What Difference Does The Holy Spirit Make?

A W Tozer - Who is the Holy Spirit and How Can We Know Him?

Where Is The Ark of Covenant


Where-in the World is the Ark of the Covenant

Name Codes

Spurgeon on Reading The Bible in 2D

Recently, I stumbled upon a FREE Bible Wheel ebook at http://biblewheel.com/Book/eBook.asp, downloadable for FREE!

I have just started reading it and have since been so excited about it that I can't help but share.

The following are extracted from the site with author's blanket permission to share:

A Unified View from a Higher Dimension


On May 12, 1995, I completed the first draft of the Bible Wheel shown below. I placed the Hebrew Letters on the outer rim so there would be room to write their names and listed the numerical position of each Book below its name for easy reference.





The structure consists of a circular matrix of sixty-six Cells on a Wheel of twenty-two Spokes. The sixty-six Cells form three wheels within the Wheel called Cycles. Each Cycle spans a continuous sequence of twenty-two books as follows:





With the completion of the Bible Wheel, we now have a fully unified view of the whole Bible as a symmetrical, mathematically structured two-dimensional object. The increase from the traditional one-dimensional list of books to the two-dimensional Bible Wheel immediately reveals a host of unanticipated correlations between the three books on each spoke with each other and the corresponding Hebrew Letter.


The Meanings of Aleph Tav

We have yet to exhaust the manifold meaning of Aleph and Tav. As mentioned above, they combine to form other words that relate to the structure of the Wheel. The most common, et, is a derivative of ot that functions as a grammatical sign to mark the direct object of a verb. It first appears at the exact center of the seven words of Genesis 1:1 where it marks heaven as the direct object of God's first creative act:




As a grammatical marker, et is peculiar to Hebrew and so is not translated. It appears again as the sixth word to mark the earth as the other direct object of God's creative act. There it is prefixed with the Sixth Letter (Vav) which is how the conjunctive "and" is written in Hebrew (pg 197). A closely related meaning of et is to mark out words for special emphasis with the implication that the essence or totality of the thing is in view. This is common knowledge amongst both Christian and Jewish commentators, as noted by Adam Clarke in his commentary on Genesis 1:1 (1826 AD):

The word eth, which is generally considered as a particle is often understood by the rabbins in a much more extensive sense. "The particle," says Aben Ezra, "signifies the substance of the thing." The like definition is given by Kimchi in his Book of Roots. "This particle," says Mr. Ainsworth, "having the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in it, is supposed to comprise the sum and substance of all things."

This rabbinic tradition interprets Genesis 1:1 as "In the beginning God created et – Aleph Tav, the Essence of Everything – that is, the heaven and the earth." This further coheres with its etymology, as Ernest Klein explained in his Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language where he traced it back to the ultimate root meaning of ot as "a noun in the sense of 'being, essence, existence'." This means that the Seal of God's Word carries the idea of essential existence. The closing passage of the story of creation exemplifies this meaning:

And God saw everything (et-kol) that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished (kalah), and all the host of them.

Genesis 1:31-2:1

The phrase et-kol is formed by combining et with (kol), the standard Hebrew word meaning the whole or all. It is spelt with the same consonants (vowel points were not added until the 10th century) as ot-kol, the sign of everything, which coheres, of course, with the precise topic of the passage. This then reveals the true essence of the alphabetic core of God's Word. Following the arrow from the center of the figure eight, we pass through the Letters Aleph Tav Kaph Lamed, and see that et-kol is formed by symmetrically interweaving these two diametrically opposed words on the Alphabetic Circle. This means that the Sign of Everything is symmetrically spelt out in the defining alphabetic core of the Bible Wheel, which amplifies yet again its power as a symbol of the all-encompassing Word of God. This is the never-ending wonder of the Theological Art that God has so skillfully engraved in His Capstone.

Spurgeon on Giving With a Cheerful and Grateful Heart

How can I give with a cheerful and grateful heart?

Would a paradigm shift in mindset be required?

What? A pair of dimes?

No. Paradigm. It is like brushing your teeth with your left hand when you have been doing so with your right all this while.

It sounds awkward!

No. It is awfully uncomfortable! And it takes getting used to. How this always reminds me of repentance: changing the way I think. And how it always makes me wonder if this is what is meant by working out my salvation with fear and trembling. That is, doing things I am not accustomed to doing or in a way so out of line with my habits.

Anyway, as it is with the brushing analogy, so it is with giving.

You know I have always been a giver, albeit selectively. Those who failed to take advantage of me have labeled me mercilessly. But what the heck, I do not owe them a living and neither them, me.

But my giving had thus far been rooted in the pride of having done a good deed; giving something that is of mine out of sympathy for the less fortunate. It does sound like filthy rags as described by our big brother Jesus, doesn’t it?

But is it not that what giving is all about?

If that is true, I can understand the cheerful part because nobody forced me to give. And it makes me happy. But what about the grateful part? Why should I feel grateful for giving? Should it not be the job of the ones receiving?

Well, you should be grateful you have more than enough to give?

That could be one reason. But a thought came to my mind yesterday.

Suppose I have a windfall of $4 million and God asked me to give $1 million to someone in need. Would you struggle with that?

Of course lah! One cool million you know? Not peanuts leh! No way am I going to do that!

But suppose God says that He wants to bless someone with a million dollars through my hands. And He says for doing that for Him, He is giving me $3 million. How does that sound to you? Deal or no deal?

Deal! And what a bloody good deal! How I wish God would ask me to do that all the time!

So that would cause you to give with a cheerful and grateful heart?

I will paint the town red man!

Can you see how a difference in perception can do? The first instance is one of giving what I perceived is mine. The latter is one of being blessed for doing what God wants done.

Hey, I think you are going nuts these days. And I do not really care how I perceive it so long as I get my freaking $3 million!

Then what about the tithing part? Should not we give 10% of the$3 million to God?

Err, God is so rich. He would not need your lousy $300k one lah. Anyway, why not place it in fixed deposit and then tithe 10% of the interest earned?

But did not God say we should not rob Him by not tithing? And did He not say when we tithe He would open the windows of heaven and pour out so many blessings that we would not have enough room to receive them?

Well, with the $3 million, I think I can last quite a while. When I need the blessings then I tithe lah!

And suppose God had given us this money for us to practice tithing, would it not be the same as Him blessing us with $2.7 million for doing what He wants done? Would it not be a bloody good deal too?

But I can do a lot of things with $300k you know? Anyway, this is just hypothetical. We talk about it when it is a reality lah.

Hmm, is this how we can give with a cheerful and grateful heart? I wonder.