A few years ago, I became so disillusioned with how the word faith gets misused today that I wanted to propose we simply drop the word altogether, and perhaps use trust instead. But as I’ve aged, I’ve realized more and more just how wrong I was.

In reading Charles Spurgeon, one thing I’m constantly challenged by is his great, unembarrassed emphasis on faith. He even wrote a book called Chequebook of the Bank of Faith which is a devotional work based on the promises of God, and very worth the read.

For Spurgeon, faith lies at the very heart of the Christian life, and is not just something that we exercise at the beginning of our walk in order to become a Christian. For him, it is the very r…

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One of several helpful discussions in the speaker panel at the recent Desiring God Conference for Pastors dealt with implications from Kent Hughes’s pastor-saving message on “Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome.” Two possible errors were discussed — taking our identity from how outwardly “successful” our ministries may appear, or never really trying our best for God in his work (but only passively waiting for him to act).

One conclusion of that conversation was that while our faithfulness is the big category for which God is concerned, we are meant to pursue fruitfulness as well — to faithfully pursue fruitfulness. It is, of course, true that God gives the growth, but Paul does pl…

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I must confess to having slightly overstated my point in the title of this post. I rejoice in the recent resurgence of interest in the Puritans, who have so much to teach us. Perhaps a better way to capture the thought propelling this post would be “Use Spurgeon to Create a Bridge to the World of the Puritans.” But that would make too long a title!

Spurgeon died just over 120 years ago and was one of the most influential figures in the Victorian era (1837–1901). Although those days may seem a world away from today, they were a time of relatively rapid technological innovation and globalization. They are much more similar to our days than the Puritan era (16th and 17th centuries). 

Many a…

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