Author: Charles Spurgeon

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Remember our dear country. Bless the rulers and governors. Remember all those that lead our legislature.

Be gracious to all ranks and conditions of men. Have mercy upon all that are poor and needy, all that are sick and sorrowing, and that are tossed upon the sea. Remember the prisoners and those who have no helper. Be gracious to those who are in the article of death; and, finally, let the day come when the Sun shall shine forth in all his brightness, even Christ Jesus shall be manifested, to be admired by those who believe, and to make glad the whole creation. Make no tarrying, o sun of righteousness, but come forth speedily. We ask it for your name’s sake.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.” (Psalm 2:9)

The Lord has given to his Anointed a rod of iron with which he shall break rebellious nations in pieces, and, despite their imperial strength, they shall be but as potters’ vessels, easily dashed into shivers, when the rod of iron is in the hand of the omnipotent Son of God. Those who will not bend must break. Potters’ vessels are not to be restored if dashed in pieces, and the ruin of sinners will be hopeless if Jesus shall smite them.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Christmas Gift Idea for a Teen: Help them Know Their Faith

Teenagers today are living in a really difficult environment. If a teen wants to follow Christ today, he is surrounded every day with a seemingly endless list of objections to the gospel. From evolution to LGBT issues; from racism to God’s sovereignty over suffering, it can be hard to follow Christ in the midst of a hostile world (or a hostile high school!)

A great resource for teens to help them know, understand, and defend their faith is 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin. This book is tackles ten really pressing, important topics with Bible-saturated reasoning and Christ-centered hope.

We should never discourage our teens from asking questions about God or his world — but we should always help them find solid, true, biblical answers to their questions.

10 Questions is a great resource to help your teen follow Christ, and it’s a great Christ-centered Christmas gift. I hope you’ll grab a few copies for teens that you love (in your family or your church).

Buy 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback edition)

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PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (BY SPURGEON)

Be pleased to visit your church with the Holy Spirit. Renew the day of Pentecost in our midst, and in the midst of all gatherings of your people may there come the downfall of the holy fire, the uprising of the heavenly wind.

May matters that are now slow and dead become quick and full of life, and may the Lord Jesus Christ be exalted in the midst of his church which is his fullness, “the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way” (Ephesians 1:23). May multitudes be converted; may they come flocking to Christ with holy eagerness to find in him a refuge as the doves fly to their nests.

Amen.

GET A FREE SEMINARY COURSE

Thanks to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College for sponsoring the Weekend Edition. This month, Midwestern is giving away their New Testament II class (covering Paul’s Letters) for FREE.

This class is taught by Patrick Schreiner and will help you ready, study, and apply Paul’s Epistles with confidence.

Get this class for free right here.

WEEKEND LONG READ (SERMON BY SPURGEON)

The First Christmas Carol

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14)

May God give you peace with yourselves; may he give you good will towards all your friends, your enemies, and your neighbors; and may he give you grace to give glory to God in the highest. I will say no more, except at the close of this sermon to wish every one of you, when the day shall come, the happiest Christmas you ever had in your lives.

Read the full sermon from the Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary.

A FREE RESOURCE FROM MIDWESTERN

9 Biblical Methods for Encouraging One Another

Your marriage, family, and church all need encouragement. In the middle of struggle, sin, and suffering, we can bring the hope-filled voice of encouragement. In the mire of apathy, fear, and discouragement we can light the fire with the matches of encouragement. It is a great tool to serve others. A great gift we can give.

Read the full article on For the Church

PREPARE FOR MINISTRY AT MIDWESTERN

What Jesus purchased is precious. We’ve made it our purpose. Midwestern Seminary exists for the Church, and we serve the church by biblically educating God-called men and women to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ. If you’re called to serve the church, train with us, for the Church.

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O God, send us better days than these, we pray. We thank you for all the light there is, but send us more light. We thank you for what life there is among Christians, but send more of it. Bind the churches together in unity, and then give them such speed, such force, such power that they shall break into the ranks of the adversary, and Christ and his people shall have the victory.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:8)

It was a custom among great kings to give to favored ones whatever they might ask. So Jesus just has to ask and he has. Here he declares that his very enemies are his inheritance. To their face he declares this decree, and “Lo! here,” cries the Anointed One, as he holds aloft in that once pierced hand the scepter of his power, “He hath given me this, not only the right to be a king, but the power to conquer.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Christmas Gift Idea for the Littlest Kiddos

Wherever You Go, I Want You To Know is an incredible children’s book by Melissa Kruger. The book is really fun (with great illustrations and rhymes) with an eternal message: No matter what direction their life takes, no matter what kind of work they do, our biggest dream for our children is that they follow Christ.

If you’re buying any Christmas presents for families with young kids, you definitely need to grab a copy of Wherever You Go I Want You to Know.

My family loves this book — I need to buy it again because my family has completely worn through our copy (we’ve read it so many times that it’s falling off the spine). I hope it will be a blessing to your family!

Buy Wherever You Go, I Want You To Know:

• Amazon (Hardback edition)
• ChristianBook.com (Hardback edition)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Remember all your church throughout the whole world. Prosper missionary operations. Be with any ministers or missionaries that are depressed for lack of success. Be with any that are rejoicing because of success. May each heart be kept in a right state, so that you might use your servants to the utmost of possibility.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“I will declare the LORD’s decree. He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’” (Psalm 2:7)

This Psalm wears something of a dramatic form, for now another person is introduced as speaking. We have looked into the counsel-chamber of the wicked, and to the throne of God, and now we behold the Anointed declaring his rights of sovereignty, and warning the traitors of their doom.

God has laughed at the counsel and ravings of the wicked, and now Christ the Anointed himself comes forward, as the Risen Redeemer, “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Celebrate Christmas with Confidence

In this wonderful season, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. But, how do we know that Jesus was really born at all? Can we really believe that the Son of God was born in a manger… to a virgin, no less?!

Friends, YES, we CAN really believe that! And there are good reasons to believe it, as well!

If you want to increase your confidence in the Christmas story this week, check out Is Christmas Unbelievable? by apologist Rebecca McLaughlin. This book asks and answers four tough questions about the Christmas story.

This book is super short (just 64 pages), so you can read it this week and be equipped to better defend your faith this month to non-Christian friends and family members.

Grab a copy of Is Christmas Unbelievable? and celebrate with confidence this Christmas. (You can also grab a copy for a non-Christian you know!)

Buy Is Christmas Unbelievable?:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback edition)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Our desire is that we may be quickened in our progress toward the celestial life. Visit us with your salvation. Lord, let us not only have life, but let us have it more abundantly. May every one of us quicken his pace, and may we run more earnestly than ever toward the mark that is set before us.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” (Psalm 2:6)

Is not that a grand exclamation! He has already done that which the enemy seeks to prevent. While they are proposing, he has disposed the matter. the Lord’s will is done, and man’s will frets and raves in vain. God’s Anointed is appointed, and shall not be disappointed.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Glorify God this Christmas.

Every year, it seems harder than ever to focus on Christ at Christmas. As the world is screaming about gifts and Santa and holiday travels, it’s easy to lose sight of the meaning behind it all — the baby in the manger who was Savior and Lord.

I put together a book, Spurgeon on Christmas — a collection of Christmas sermons from Charles Spurgeon. These sermons are rich and I know that they will help you focus on Christ this Christmas.
(Plus, buying a copy of this book will help support this ministry, so I can continue sending this daily email!)

I hope you’ll buy a copy of Spurgeon on Christmas and be encouraged throughout this Advent and Christmas season.

Buy Spurgeon on Christmas now on Amazon (Paperback or Kindle edition)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We praise you for many who are striving to walk as Christ walked, and who are also trying to bring others to Christ. O Lord help us in this struggle after holiness and usefulness; and as you have given to many the desire of their hearts in this respect up to a certain measure; now enlarge their hearts, and give them more both of holiness and usefulness.

Oh, give us to be like trees planted by the rivers of water, that we ourselves may be vigorous, and then help us to bring forth abundant fruit according to our season, to the praise and glory of God.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Then he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath…” (Psalm 2:5)

After he has laughed he shall speak; he needs not smite; the breath of his lips is enough. At the moment when their power is at its height, and their fury most violent, then shall his Word go forth against them.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Men, pay attention to your wife

A lot of men have no idea what challenges, burdens, and worries their wives experience every day. They aren’t serving their wives well, because they have no idea what’s going on in their wives’ lives beyond a surface level.

That’s why I created The God Centered Husband One-Year Journal, a simple, hands-on resource to help men pursue God and their wives.

The core of the journal is 52 weekly page templates to take inventory of your marriage each week. These prompts will encourage you to consider your wife, her burdens, and how you can serve her.

If you want to grow as a husband in the new year, I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy The God Centered Husband One-Year Journal on Amazon (Paperback edition)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (BY SPURGEON)

We ask especially for this Lord’s Day, that we may be in the Spirit, and know the fulness of his quickening power. May we do nothing after the dead manner of formality. May there be no dead hymn, nor dead prayer. Lord, give the preacher life. Oh, give the hearers life. Oh may this be living worship this morning, the bowing not of heads alone, but of hearts, and the closing not alone of the eyes to things that can be seen, but the closing of the eyelids of the thought to everything worldly.

Amen.

GET A FREE SEMINARY COURSE

Thanks to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College for sponsoring the Weekend Edition. This month, Midwestern is giving away their New Testament II class (covering Paul’s Letters) for FREE.

This class is taught by Patrick Schreiner and will help you ready, study, and apply Paul’s Epistles with confidence.

Get this class for free right here.

WEEKEND LONG READ (SERMON BY SPURGEON)

Good Cheer for Christmas

WE have nearly arrived at the great merry-making season of the year. On Christmas-day we shall find all the world in England enjoying themselves with all the good cheer which they can afford. Servants of God, you who have the largest share in the person of him who was born at Bethlehem, I invite you to the best of all Christmas fare—to nobler food than makes the table groan—bread from heaven, food for your spirit. Behold, how rich and how abundant are the provisions which God has made for the high festival which he would have his servants keep, not now and then, but all the days of their lives!

Read the full sermon from the Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary.

A FREE RESOURCE FROM MIDWESTERN

The Great De-Churching

We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in US history. It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined… but in the opposite direction.

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson chats with Jim Davis and Michael Graham, co-authors of the new book The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?, about the eye-opening and challenging findings of the first-ever large-scale sociological research study of the American de-churching phenomenon. 

PREPARE FOR MINISTRY AT MIDWESTERN

What Jesus purchased is precious. We’ve made it our purpose. Midwestern Seminary exists for the Church, and we serve the church by biblically educating God-called men and women to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ. If you’re called to serve the church, train with us, for the Church.

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We beg you to look down upon your children, and cheer us. Lord, lift us up. Come, Holy Spirit, like a fresh, bracing wind, and let our spirit, through your Spirit, rise upward toward God.

May the Lord pour out his Spirit upon us that every chamber of our nature may be sweetened and perfumed with the indwelling of God, until our imagination shall only delight in things chaste and pure; until our memory shall cast out the vile stuff from the dark chambers; until we shall expect and long for heavenly things, and our treasure shall all be in heaven and our heart be there. Take our highest manhood, Lord, and saturate it in your love, till like Gideon’s fleece it is filled with dew, very lock and every single fleck of it, not a single portion of it left unmoistened by the dew from heaven.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them.” (Psalm 2:4)

What will the King do unto the men who reject his only-begotten Son, the heir of all things?

Mark the quiet dignity of the omnipotent one, and the contempt which he pours upon the princes and their raging people. He has not taken the trouble to rise up and do battle with them—he despises them, he knows how absurd, how irrational, how futile are their attempts against him—he therefore laughs at them.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Celebrate Christmas with Spurgeon’s best sermons.

Reading Spurgeon’s classic Christmas and Christmas Eve sermons has become one of my favorite family Christmas traditions. These sermons are so rich and help us all remember the wonderful gift of God’s Son that came down at Christmas.

If you want to read Spurgeon’s Christmas sermons, please buy a copy of my new book, Spurgeon on Christmas. This book is a compilation of 14 classic Spurgeon sermons on Christmas, the incarnation, and the birth of our Lord. I hope you will order and read this book before Christmas!

Buy Spurgeon on Christmas today on Amazon.