Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "If the Holy Spirit does not renew the heart of the hearer, we cannot do it... we might as well speak in the ear of a corpse".

Hello Wednesday readers, I welcome you to today's edition, not so much hot off the presses, but, more like weary from traveling electronically all over the world, even doing so on today, April 8, 2026.  I do not mention the 'world' without meaning. My insignificantly small blog started back in the summer of 2007, well, it's closing in on 1 million views and over half of those come from outside the United States. I know, and I agree that many of those landed on my blog looking for something else. I've told this story many times, and, I've written about it more than once in previous blogs, but, I think it shows how God is as it work even when we aren't thinking about it. A number of years ago, the fellowship of believers we were a member of was in the midst of a series of services promoted as Revival Services. I say that because calling something revival and seeing revival is quite different. You knew that already. Right? Anyway, one evening during this series of meetings, the fiery evangelist was doing his job of sharing the Gospel message. There were some boys sitting in the very back chatting up some of the teen-aged girls, daughters of some of our members. We happened to be close to the back and we could see them carrying on. They were not paying much attention to the preacher. However, and, for this story, that's a biggie However, they obviously heard enough because when the invitation to come forward for counseling about giving your heart and life to Christ, wowie-zowie, just like that, these would be suitors became crying kids running to the front to give themselves to the Lord. They did. They really did. I may be nearly 80 years old but I can say this about that, it takes a powerful influence to totally change a young man's purpose especially when it comes to girls, and that powerful influence was this: The truth was shared and the Spirit of God moved in these boys' hearts. We saw it. It was like the wonderful 2005 song by the Southern Gospel group the Booth Brothers where that one line in their song says this, "Ask the blind man, he saw it all." I often see a particular acronym slang written by a lot of folks on social media. Okay. I am a slow learner but I did find out what it means, therefore, here it is and I will leave you to figure how it relates to that song line: IYKYK. Got it? Good! And, Amen.

 

I said all of that to say this: Perhaps someone in that over 1/2 million views outside the US read some of my mangled prose, heard the Gospel, and gave their heart and life to Christ. I pray that to be the case because when it is all said and done, that really is all that matters for both time and eternity. I spoke about the Book of Job yesterday. Most scholars agree that Job is an ancient text most likely preceding the patriarch Abraham.  I've read Job, start to finish, several times. I've also taught through it, verse by verse, more than once. In some ways I understand how people tend to be hesitant to wade through this lengthy book. And, we, especially in the American culture, we do want happy happy to be the story line. Don't go to Job's experiences preserved for our learning to see happy happy in every verse. The truth of this life in this fallen world is not a tip toe through the tulips, but, rather, it can be one of dealing with lots of difficult and seemingly incomprehensible challenges. That's what happened in Job's life. God in his Sovereignty allowed this testing in the life of His beloved child, Job. Those three friends were not so friendly to Job as they peppered him with sanctimonious and false piety. The thing God knew but perhaps Job didn't was how resilient Job's faith would be in its foundational strength. Yeah. Job said some pretty accusatory things to God Himself, but, God knew Job better than Job knew Job. A younger fellow shows up to call them all to account, the three unfriendly friends, and Job too. He was beside himself in hearing Almighty God's standing being questioned and defamed. In the end, God by the way knows the end from the beginning, but, in the end Job shows his true heart when he prayed for these sore friends. God then restored Job and he stands as an example of God's purpose in the human family whose number includes us all, yep, me, and you, that purpose is, as Jesus put it, "Jesus said unto him, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'" (Matthew 22:37-39, from the King James KJV version of the Scriptures.) There's much to be learned from Job's experiences as preserved in this great inspired text. I commend us all to study it and see what God will say to each of us, individually. That's how He speaks. He does. He really does. Amen.

 

Footnote on the Book of Job: One of the amazing things I've noticed in my time spent in Job has to do with God's revelation of Himself even in those ancient times. All those in that text knew much about God and His working. Sure, the so-called friends were wrong about a lot of what they thought, but, I am knocked down at the knowledge of God and how He chose to reveal Himself to the people of that time. Fast forward to today. We have His Word, the Holy Spirit, and God's heart in His not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. (2nd Peter 3:9) Simply amazing!