07/18/2022 – Day 141 – Luke 5 – 6 // “… I believe that one reason why the Church of God at the present moment has so little influence over the world is because the the world has so much influence over the church.” Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)
The Spurgeon quote, in its entirety below, was a footnote in my my Evidence Bible from Verse 5:10. That verse reads: “.. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
The entire Spurgeon quote:
“We cannot be fishers of men if we remain among the men in the same element with them. Fish will not be fishers. The sinner will not convert the sinner. The ungodly man will not convert the ungodly man. What is more to the point, the worldly Christian will not convert the world. If you are dark and belong to the kingdom of darkness, you cannot remove the darkness. If you march with the armies of the wicked one, you cannot defeat them. I believe that one reason why the Church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.” Charles Spurgeon
- Other quick note possibly for our discussion: with regard to “Jesus Heals a Paralytic” , Jesus question to his detractors: “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? I would submit the former, for you can say it, but no one can attest to it’s validity but God. And that is why the paralyzed man was healed physically, for their faith.
- Timothy Keller, in his book: “Jesus the King” recounts this miracle by asking the reader to put themselves in the place of the paralytic. When Jesus pronounced to the paralytic: “Your sins are forgiven.”, wouldn’t our natural response be, “Err, excuse me, but that doesn’t fix my problem, my paralysis.” But Jesus was actually telling him that was in fact not his main issue, his sin.
- You may want to search back to our last “Day 141” using the search tool. It was on 10/05/2020 , and was titled: “Prayer, the Secret Weapon.”
Soli Deo Gloria!