Just after I became a Christian as
a graduation gift from my brother-in-law I received a box full of books – just
a box full of books, no fancy graduation wrapping or anything – just a box of
books. As an 18-year-old kid this was, well to be honest, it was a little
underwhelming. The names on the spines of the books read, “Spurgeon,” and it
was a name I was hardly familiar with.
There were three sets of books some
brown ones, green ones, and some that looked like they’d been printed in the
sixties because of the cheesy cover art on the front. But there was something
that kept drawing my mind and eye to these books among all the other gifts.
Little did I know that my world and
view of the Christian tradition was about to be moved and transformed in such a
way so as to never be the same and never to want look back. John Piper talks of
Lewis as coming over the horizon of his life, and this is how I speak of
Spurgeon, he walked over the horizon of my life and brought me into many green
pastures of growth, guided me in long walks among quiet rivers and taught me
the meaning of silence, prayer, words, and true eloquence. This under-shepherd
of the true Shepherd herded my life along even though it was more than one
hundred years after his final breath.
A shift happened for me here, I
began to wonder about all these other names I’d heard about and the depth of
insight they too might offer to a kid wanting to be a pastor. Names like
Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Lewis, Stott, Packer, Augustine and many others became
my teachers in those early days. And all of them echoed the glorious truth of
the authority, inerrancy, and infallibility of Scripture – that it is, “Divine
Writ.”
Spurgeon taught me what it is to be
a pastor, more than any other man I’ve worked for or with he has taught me what
it is to be a man in the Word. Discipleing me to follow God and no other, to
let the times change and the Scripture remain unassailably the same; to preach
incessantly and unapologetically the gospel; to speak with heart-burning
conviction; to not let up, or back off, or give in until Christ himself
welcomes me with, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
Therefore the title of the blog,
“Aspiring Spurgeon,” might be simple to decode now. By the mercy and grace of
God almighty I hope that words I write will someday impact the heart of one
person in such a way that Spurgeon has impacted me. It’s a tall order to be
sure, to desire to impact someone’s life for all eternity, but God has used men
throughout all of history to impact and grow other men – that’s why we’re
called ‘ambassadors’ – so I believe he can use the wretch that I am to impact
one other person.
