4 JANUARY (PREACHED 5 JANUARY 1868)
Creation’s groans and the saints’ sighs
‘We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’ Romans 8:22–23
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 5:1–10
The other night, just before Christmas, two men who were working very late, were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, ‘Ah, there’s a poor Christmas day in store for me; my house is full of misery.’ He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift, and had not a penny to bless himself with, and his house had become a little hell; he was groaning at the thought of going home to such a scene of quarrelling and distress. Now, his fellow workman, who worked beside him, as it was getting very late, wished himself at home, and therefore groaned. A shopmate asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘Oh, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house; I do not like to be out of it.’ The other might have said, ‘Ah, you pretend to be a happy man, but here you are groaning.’ ‘Yes,’ he could say, ‘and a blessed thing it would be for you if you had the same thing to groan after that I have.’
So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed, eternal home, and groans to get to it; but there is more joy even in the groan of a Christian after heaven, than in all the mirth, merriment, dancing and lewdness of the ungodly when their mirth is at its greatest height. We are like the dove that flutters and is weary, but, thank God, we have an ark to go to. We are like Israel in the wilderness and are footsore, but, blessed be God, we are on the way to Canaan. We are like Jacob looking at the wagons and, the more we look at the wagons, the more we long to see Joseph’s face; but our groaning after Jesus is a blessed groan, for
‘’Tis heaven on earth, ’tis heaven above,
To see his face, and taste his love.’
FOR MEDITATION: The Christian groans in anticipation of a groan-free future in heaven, that totally groan-free zone (Revelation 21:3–4); the unbeliever ought to groan in expectation of a future full of groaning in the most user-unfriendly hell imaginable (Matthew 13:41–42, 49–50).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 3), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2005), 11.
Creation’s groans and the saints’ sighs
‘We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’ Romans 8:22–23
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 5:1–10
The other night, just before Christmas, two men who were working very late, were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, ‘Ah, there’s a poor Christmas day in store for me; my house is full of misery.’ He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift, and had not a penny to bless himself with, and his house had become a little hell; he was groaning at the thought of going home to such a scene of quarrelling and distress. Now, his fellow workman, who worked beside him, as it was getting very late, wished himself at home, and therefore groaned. A shopmate asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘Oh, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house; I do not like to be out of it.’ The other might have said, ‘Ah, you pretend to be a happy man, but here you are groaning.’ ‘Yes,’ he could say, ‘and a blessed thing it would be for you if you had the same thing to groan after that I have.’
So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed, eternal home, and groans to get to it; but there is more joy even in the groan of a Christian after heaven, than in all the mirth, merriment, dancing and lewdness of the ungodly when their mirth is at its greatest height. We are like the dove that flutters and is weary, but, thank God, we have an ark to go to. We are like Israel in the wilderness and are footsore, but, blessed be God, we are on the way to Canaan. We are like Jacob looking at the wagons and, the more we look at the wagons, the more we long to see Joseph’s face; but our groaning after Jesus is a blessed groan, for
‘’Tis heaven on earth, ’tis heaven above,
To see his face, and taste his love.’
FOR MEDITATION: The Christian groans in anticipation of a groan-free future in heaven, that totally groan-free zone (Revelation 21:3–4); the unbeliever ought to groan in expectation of a future full of groaning in the most user-unfriendly hell imaginable (Matthew 13:41–42, 49–50).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 3), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2005), 11.
4 JANUARY (PREACHED 5 JANUARY 1868)
Creation’s groans and the saints’ sighs
‘We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’ Romans 8:22–23
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 5:1–10
The other night, just before Christmas, two men who were working very late, were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, ‘Ah, there’s a poor Christmas day in store for me; my house is full of misery.’ He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift, and had not a penny to bless himself with, and his house had become a little hell; he was groaning at the thought of going home to such a scene of quarrelling and distress. Now, his fellow workman, who worked beside him, as it was getting very late, wished himself at home, and therefore groaned. A shopmate asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘Oh, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house; I do not like to be out of it.’ The other might have said, ‘Ah, you pretend to be a happy man, but here you are groaning.’ ‘Yes,’ he could say, ‘and a blessed thing it would be for you if you had the same thing to groan after that I have.’
So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed, eternal home, and groans to get to it; but there is more joy even in the groan of a Christian after heaven, than in all the mirth, merriment, dancing and lewdness of the ungodly when their mirth is at its greatest height. We are like the dove that flutters and is weary, but, thank God, we have an ark to go to. We are like Israel in the wilderness and are footsore, but, blessed be God, we are on the way to Canaan. We are like Jacob looking at the wagons and, the more we look at the wagons, the more we long to see Joseph’s face; but our groaning after Jesus is a blessed groan, for
‘’Tis heaven on earth, ’tis heaven above,
To see his face, and taste his love.’
FOR MEDITATION: The Christian groans in anticipation of a groan-free future in heaven, that totally groan-free zone (Revelation 21:3–4); the unbeliever ought to groan in expectation of a future full of groaning in the most user-unfriendly hell imaginable (Matthew 13:41–42, 49–50).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 3), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2005), 11.
0 Comments
0 Shares
123 Views
Arabic
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Deutsch
Turkish
Dutch
Italiano
Russian
Romaian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Greek