Be the greatest ... be the least

The best man in the church! From Spurgeon, "Micah's Message for Today" Do not desire to be the principal man in the church. Be lowly. Be humble. The best man in the church is the man who is willing to be a doormat for all to wipe their boots on, the brother who does not mind what happens to him at all, so long as God is glorified.

Surrender to Christ and Be useful

Soldiers of the Cross! Spurgeon, "All at it" #2044. Acts 8:4, 5, 35.  Scarcely anything has been more injurious to the kingdom of Christ than the distinction between clergy and laity. No such distinction was ever laid down by the Spirit of God. "You are a royal priesthood." "He has made us unto our God kings and priests." In the Church of God there is no special priesthood because all are priests. We have made among ourselves a distinction between ministers and others. But you are all to minister! There are many ministries of one form and another; and though God gives to His Church apostles, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and the like, yet not by way of setting up a professional caste of men, who are to do the work for God while others sit still. All Christians are soldiers of the Cross and all on active duty! Every converted man is to teach what he knows. All those who have drunk of the Living Water are to become fountains out of which shall flow rivers of Living Water. All are to proclaim the Word and no one is exempted by another form of service. It is thought nowadays that a man must not try to proclaim the Gospel unless he has had a good education. But there is nothing whatever in the whole compass of Scripture to excuse any mouth from speaking for Jesus when the heart is really acquainted with His salvation. We are all called to make Jesus known if we know Him. We must come back to the pattern of the original church. Every Christian must be a herald of the Cross. If you do not tell the Gospel, you are leaving your fellow men to perish. Yonder is the wreck and you are not sending out a lifeboat! Yonder are souls starving and you give them no bread! If we felt that blessed amazement which we ought to feel when we think of Free Grace and dying love, silence would be impossible.

The Christian's Unchangeable God.

Home churches? - Spurgeon These first believers were in such a condition that their homes were holy places. I beg you to notice this, that they were breaking bread from house to house, and did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart. They did not think that religion was meant only for Sundays, and for what men now-a-days call the 'House of God'. Their own houses were houses of God, and their own meals were mixed and mingled with the Lord's Supper. They elevated their meals into diets for worship. They so consecrated everything with prayer and praise that all around them was holiness unto the Lord. I wish our houses were thus dedicated to the Lord, so that we worshipped God all the day long, and made our dwellings temples for the living God. Does God need a 'special house'?  He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crass ignorance is this! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does. There is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to his fear. To sacrifice home worship to public worship is a most evil course of action. Morning and evening devotion in a cottage is infinitely more pleasing in the sight of God than all the cathedral pomp which delights the carnal eye and ear. Every truly Christian household is a church, and as such it is competent for the discharge of any function of divine worship, whatever it may be. Are we not all priests? Why do we need to call in others to make devotion a performance? Let every man be a priest in his own house. Are you not all kings if you love the Lord? Then make your houses palaces of joy and temples of holiness. One reason why the early church had such a blessing was because her members had such homes. When we are like them we shall have "added to the church daily those being saved." (however --- Christians must gather for mutual edification wherever is convenient. - by the author of "Speaking Out")

Church entertainment.

Whatever means you use to get people into the church is precisely what you must use to keep them.

If you get them with a 'religious circus', then you
must keep the circus going--keep up the entertainment.
If you get them with biblical preaching and teaching, then
that will keep them and you will not need the entertainment.

-Ernest Reisinger

The A and the Z

Christ is the A and the Z of the Christian ministry. 

- by DeWitt Talmage

A sermon that has no Christ is a dead failure. The 
minister who devotes his pulpit to anything but Christ 
is an impostor. Whatever great themes we may discuss, 
Christ must be the beginning and Christ the end. 

A sermon given up to sentimental and flowery 
speech is as a straw flung to a drowning sailor. 

What the world needs is to be told in the most
direct way of Jesus Christ, who comes to save
men from eternal damnation.

Christ the Light,
Christ the Sacrifice,
Christ the Rock, 
Christ the Star, 
Christ the Balm, 
Christ the Guide. 

If a minister should live one thousand years, 
and preach ten sermons each day, these 
subjects would not be exhausted. 

Do you find men tempted? 
Tell them of Christ the Shield. 

Or troubled? Tell them of Christ the Comfort. 

Or guilty? Tell them of Christ the Pardon. 

Or dying? Tell them of Christ the Life. 

Scores of ministers, yielding to the demands 
of the age for elegant rhetoric, and soft speech, 
and flattering terms, have surrendered their pulpits to the devil.

May Christ be the subject of our talk; 
Christ the inspiration of our prayers; 
Christ the theme of our songs; 
Christ now, and Christ forever!

Philosophy is nothing; 
denominations nothing; 
conferences nothing; 
assemblies nothing; 
ourselves nothing,
but CHRIST EVERYTHING!

I have a question...

Why, in the American Church when blessings are being mentioned does it always come around to "being blessed financially".
Are we in America that preoccupied with money? Father in heaven help us to come out of there.

- Bless me spiritually Lord --- forget the trinkets.
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (James. 2:5).

- Is It God’s Will for All Christians to Be Wealthy?

Is it love for our Father that prompts us to ask Him for material blessings --- or is it base greed thus revealing our true character?

Christ said it was so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
And it is for the rich because they have so many material things that they lose their focus on their heavenly home.
While those who have little or nothing are better able to keep their vision clear of clutter.

And I must say this my beloved in Christ, many poverty stricken Christians in third world countries who are undergoing severe persecution have tremendously more faith than those in the western Church.

It is not a sin to have wealth, but it is a terrible insult to God to spend our lives thinking about and striving for it. Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If our heavenly Father chooses to give you much --- use it for His glory.
If He chooses to place you in a position of poverty --- use that place in life also for His glory.