Greater Exploits - 15 - Perfect Relationship - 24 Tools for Building Bridges to Harmony and Taking

By Charles H. Spurgeon, Tim F. Lahaye and Ambassador Monday O Ogbe

Greater Exploits 15 is a continuation of Greater Exploits 1 to 14 with more details, Featuring - Charles Spurgeon; Tim Lahaye; Guy Greenfield; Dr. James B. Richards and Ambassador Monday O. Ogbe on Perfect Relationship - 24 Tools for Building Bridges to Har

• Language: English
• Publisher: Midas Touch GEMS
• Release date: Jun 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088215968

Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), nació en Inglaterra, y fue un predicador bautista que se mantuvo muy influyente entre cristianos de diferentes denominaciones, los cuales todavía lo conocen como «El príncipe de los predicadores». El predicó su primer sermón en 1851 a los dieciséis años y paso a ser pastor de la iglesia en Waterbeach en 1852. Publicó más de 1.900 sermones y predicó a 10.000,000 de personas durante su vida. Además, Spurgeon fue autor prolífico de una variedad de obras, incluyendo una autobiografía, un comentario bíblico, libros acerca de la oración, un devocional, una revista, poesía, himnos y más. Muchos de sus sermones fueron escritos mientras él los predicaba y luego fueron traducidos a varios idiomas. Sin duda, ningún otro autor, cristiano o de otra clase, tiene más material impreso que C.H. Spurgeon.

Book preview

Greater Exploits – 15

About the book

Greater Exploits 15 is a continuation of Greater Exploits 1 to 14 with more details, Featuring – Charles Spurgeon; Tim Lahaye; Guy Greenfield;   Dr. James B. Richards and Ambassador Monday O. Ogbe on Perfect Relationship – 24 Tools for Building Bridges to Harmony and Taking Down Walls of Conflicts in our Relationships for Greater Exploits! This is an equipping series with Audio and video links

In Greater Exploits 15, You will find out the Greater Exploits – 15 Perfect Relationship – 24 Tools for Building Bridges to Harmony and Taking Down Walls of Conflicts in our Relationships for Greater Exploits!

Writings from the Best of the Best on Relationships in the body of Christ for your equipping!

Greater Exploits 15 and other series of the same book are for you delivered on diamond platter if you say yes to any of the following questions:

-  Are you sick and tired of Helplessness, Hopelessness and Worthlessness without any remedy at sight in your relationships?

-  Are you physically, emotionally and spiritually downcast concerning the matters of relationships?

-  Are you up today and down tomorrow emotionally, psychologically and physiologically like a yoyo in your relationships?

-  Are you or anyone within your circle physically or emotionally sick, harassed, exploited and dispossessed of what rightfully belong to you or people within your circle as a result of relationship storms?

-  Are you unable to connect with your spouse, children, family members and any other person for the matter

Then come along with me with seven (7) critical conditions as follows:

-  Be AVAILABLE (spirit, soul and body) to partner with God.

-  Be BOLD to lay claim to all He has died to give you.

-  Be COMPASSIONATE enough to sit where people are hurting.

-  Be DETERMINED to keep going and never, ever give up until the word of God becomes truth and life in your circumstances and situation.

-  Be EARNESTLY in LOVE with God and people with no restraint.

-  Be FIERY in ANGER with Satan for stealing from you and others.

-  Be in GREAT HUNGER to pursue God until you RECOVER ALL and manifest Him to yourself and others.

So, let’s dive into Greater Exploits 15 – Greater Exploits – 15

Featuring – Charles Spurgeon; Tim Lahaye; Guy Greenfield;  Dr. James B. Richards and Ambassador Monday O. Ogbe on Perfect Relationship – 24 Tools for Building Bridges to Harmony and Taking Down Walls of Conflicts in our Relationships for Greater Exploits!  You are Born for This – Healing, Deliverance and Restoration – Equipping Series to launch you into the present and the future in greater exploits for our God in all  relationship realms in Jesus name. True life stories and testimonies to re-enforce your learning and application.

Greater Exploits – 15

Series - About the Author

AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST, Monday O. Ogbe is a marketplace ambassador of Christ with a heart for unity in the body of Christ. His face-to-face encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on Saturday, 22nd of April 2006 at 5 AM in the morning changed the trajectory of His life forever.

Ambassador Monday O. Ogbe is an ordained minister of God at God's Eagle Ministries Inc –

https://www.otakada.org

As an ICT expert, he uses His skill to reach online seekers and equip the body of believers to the work of ministry via his ministry site otakada.org – A Minister at God’s Eagle Ministries, a church without walls, borders and denomination where we are seeding the nations with God’s word and God is transforming Lives through over 2 million Christian focused content which are now hosted and distributed to a worldwide audience of both seekers and Christians.

Otakada.org content reaches over half a million-online audience monthly and growing!

Ambassador Monday is host to "Enough is Enough to Captivity of Satan and welcome to freedom in Christ in healing, deliverance, and restoration equipping series where he teaches and equips the saints to minister healing, deliverance, and restoration of self and others within and outside their circles – Healing is the children’s bread and a sign to unbelievers to authenticate God’s endorsement of the hope of our calling. We have seen remarkable healing, deliverance and restoration taking place for God's glory!

He has written several books namely:

1)  Greater Exploits - 1 – You are born for this – Healing, Deliverance and Restoration;

2)  Greater Exploits – 2 –You are born for this – Healing, Deliverance and Restoration

3)  Greater Exploits – 3 – You are born for this – Healing, Deliverance and Restoration

4)  Greater Exploits - 4 – You are born for this – Healing, Deliverance and Restoration

5)  Greater Exploits - 5 – You are born for this – Healing, Deliverance and Restoration

6)  Greater Exploits 6 -

7)  Greater Exploits 7 -

8)  Greater Exploits 8 –

9)  Perfect WORDS, Perfect WORKS, and Perfect WONDERS: True Story of Thirty (30) Years SPIRITUAL TRAVEL Diary into the Spirit World with STRONG Biblical WORLDVIEW : Perfection Series 2 –

10) True Story of Pastor Jude Jones who FAINTED during a 50,000 - member Strong Church Service and His Encounter in the Courtroom of Heaven: Perfect Church ... Ministry Jesus WAY - Perfection Series

11) The Practical School of the Holy Spirit in 8 Sub titles;

12) 2020 Prophetic Breaking News Part 1 of 4; 2 of 4; 3 of 4;

13) Sex in God’s Temple – 15 Easy Ways to Understand, Identify and Overcome Sexual Immorality and Emotional Traps in Your Life;

14) Borderless – Envisioning and experiencing one church community of believers without walls, borders, and denomination;

15) Escape to a world of understanding – antidote to hatred against Muslims Christians and people everywhere;

16) Clueless: – Go Make Disciples, a practical how to make disciples book;

17) Win Life’s Battle Daily – a daily declaration of scripture geared to winning life daily;

18) Engaging the Supernatural God – God is eager to speak are we hungry to hear and respond;

19) Break free revival prayers of 12 series from January to December – Praying for revival in our life’s in the church community around us and a host of other titles translated into several languages. Of 12 copies. A copy for Each Month

And other new titles - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ambassador-Monday-O.-Ogbe/author/B07MSBPFNX

He publishes a weekly blog that reaches audience on social media, Satellite broadcast and on his publishing website otakada.org.

Blog link:

https://www.otakada.org/category/blog/

SEARCH FOR ABOVE TITLES on Otakada.org shopping site: https://www.shop.otakada.org

HE IS MARRIED TO COMFORT and has four children namely Diana Odjo, Joseph – Ojima, David – Ojonugwa and Isaac – Unekwu

Author Contributors – Charles Spurgeon – Biography

Charles Haddon Spurgeon 

(19 June 1834 [1]  – 31 January 1892) was an English  Particular Baptist   preacher .

Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, to some of whom he is known as the Prince of Preachers. He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.

Spurgeon was pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years.[2] He was part of several controversies with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and later he left the denomination over doctrinal convictions.[3]

While at the Metropolitan Tabernacle he built an Almshouse and the Stockwell Orphanage. He encouraged his congregation to engage actively with the poor of Victorian London. He also founded Spurgeon's College, which was named after him posthumously.

Spurgeon authored sermons, an autobiography, commentaries, books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry, and hymns.[4][5] Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. He is said to have produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His oratory skills are said to have held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.[6]

Biography[edit]

Early life

Born in  Kelvedon , Essex, he moved to Colchester at 10 months old. [7]  Spurgeon's conversion from nominal  Congregationalism  came on 6 January 1850, at age 15. On his way to a scheduled appointment, a snowstorm forced him to cut short his intended journey and to turn into a  Primitive Methodist  chapel in Artillery Street, Newtown,  Colchester , where he believed God opened his heart to the salvation message. [8]  The text that moved him was Isaiah 45:22 (Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else). Later that year, on 4 April, he was admitted to the church at Newmarket. His baptism followed on 3 May in the  river Lark , at  Isleham . Later that same year he moved to Cambridge, where he later became a Sunday school teacher. Spurgeon preached his first sermon in the winter of 1850–51 in a cottage at  Teversham  while filling in for a friend. From the beginning of Spurgeon's ministry, his style and ability were considered to be far above average. In the same year, he was installed as pastor of the small  Baptist  church at  Waterbeach , Cambridgeshire, where he published his first literary work, a  Gospel tract  written in 1853.

New Park Street Chapel

SPURGEON AT AGE 23.

In April 1854, after preaching three months on probation and just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 19 years old, was called to the pastorate of London's famed New Park Street Chapel in Southwark (formerly pastored by the Particular Baptists Benjamin Keach, and theologian John Gill). This was the largest Baptist congregation in London at the time, although it had dwindled in numbers for several years. Spurgeon found friends in London among his fellow pastors, such as William Garrett Lewis of Westballs Grove Church, an older man who along with Spurgeon went on to found the London Baptist Association.

STAFFORDSHIRE FIGURINE, c. 1860

Within a few months of Spurgeon's arrival at Park Street, his ability as a preacher made him famous. The following year the first of his sermons in the New Park Street Pulpit was published. Spurgeon's sermons were published in printed form every week and had a high circulation. By the time of his death in 1892, he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations and devotions.

Immediately following his fame was criticism. The first attack in the press appeared in the Earthen Vessel in January 1855. His preaching, although not revolutionary in substance, was a plain-spoken and direct appeal to the people, using the Bible to provoke them to consider the teachings of Jesus Christ. Critical attacks from the media persisted throughout his life. The congregation quickly outgrew their building, and moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. At 22, Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day.[9]

On 8 January 1856, Spurgeon married Susannah, daughter of Robert Thompson of Falcon Square, London, by whom he had twin sons, Charles and Thomas born on September 20, 1856. At the end of that year, tragedy struck on 19 October 1856, as Spurgeon was preaching at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall for the first time. Someone in the crowd yelled, FIRE The ensuing panic and stampede left several dead. Spurgeon was emotionally impacted by the event and it had a sobering influence on his life. For many years he spoke of being moved to tears for no reason known to himself.

SPURGEON LATER IN LIFE.

Walter Thornbury later wrote in Old and New London (1898) describing a subsequent meeting at Surrey:

a congregation consisting of 10,000 souls, streaming into the hall, mounting the galleries, humming, buzzing, and swarming – a mighty hive of bees – eager to secure at first the best places, and, at last, any place at all. After waiting for more than half an hour – for if you wish to have a seat you must be there at least that space of time in advance... Mr. Spurgeon ascended his tribune. To the hum, rush, and trampling of men, succeeded a low, concentrated thrill and murmur of devotion, which seemed to run at once, like an electric current, through the breast of everyone present, and by this magnetic chain the preacher held us fast bound for about two hours. It is not my purpose to give a summary of his discourse. It is enough to say of his voice, that its power and volume are sufficient to reach everyone in that vast assembly; of his language that it is neither high-flown nor homely; of his style, that it is at times familiar, at times declamatory, but always happy, and often eloquent; of his doctrine, that neither the 'Calvinist' nor the 'Baptist' appears in the forefront of the battle which is waged by Mr. Spurgeon with relentless animosity, and with Gospel weapons, against irreligion, cant, hypocrisy, pride, and those secret bosom-sins which so easily beset a man in daily life; and to sum up all in a word, it is enough to say, of the man himself, that he impresses you with a perfect conviction of his sincerity.

PASTORS COLLEGE 1888

Spurgeon's work went on. A Pastors' College was founded in 1856 by Spurgeon and was renamed Spurgeon's College in 1923, when it moved to its present building in South Norwood Hill, London.[10] At the Fast Day, 7 October 1857, he preached to the largest crowd ever – 23,654 people – at The Crystal Palace in London. Spurgeon noted:

In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God. Years after, he told this story to one who visited him on his death-bed.

Metropolitan Tabernacle

See also:  Religious views on smoking §   Christianity

SPURGEON PREACHING at the Surrey Music Hall circa 1858.

On 18 March 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed purpose-built Metropolitan Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle, Southwark, seating 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was the largest church edifice of its day. Spurgeon continued to preach there several times per week until his death 31 years later. He never gave altar calls at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended the invitation that if anyone was moved to seek an interest in Christ by his preaching on a Sunday, they could meet with him at his vestry on Monday morning. Without fail, there was always someone at his door the next day.

He wrote his sermons out fully before he preached, but what he carried up to the pulpit was a note card with an outline sketch. Stenographers would take down the sermon as it was delivered and Spurgeon would then have opportunity to make revisions to the transcripts the following day for immediate publication. His weekly sermons, which sold for a penny each, were widely circulated and still remain one of the all-time best selling series of writings published in history.[11]

MISSIONARY PREACHING in China using The Wordless Book

I would propose that the subject of the ministry of this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist, although I claim to be rather a Calvinist according to Calvin, than after the modern debased fashion. I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist. You have there (pointing to the baptistry) substantial evidence that I am not ashamed of that ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ; but if I am asked to say what is my creed, I think I must reply: It is Jesus Christ. My venerable predecessor, Dr. Gill, has left a body of divinity admirable and excellent in its way; but the body of divinity to which I would pin and bind myself for ever, God helping me, is not his system of divinity or any other human treatise, but Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the gospel; who is in himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life. — The kernel of Spurgeon's first sermon at the Tabernacle[12]

Besides sermons, Spurgeon also wrote several hymns and published a new collection of worship songs in 1866 called Our Own Hymn Book. It was mostly a compilation of Isaac Watts's Psalms and Hymns that had been originally selected by John Rippon, a Baptist predecessor to Spurgeon. Singing in the congregation was exclusively a cappella under his pastorate. Thousands heard the preaching and were led in the singing without any amplification of sound that exists today. Hymns were a subject that he took seriously. While Spurgeon was still preaching at New Park Street, he entered the Rivulet controversy over a hymn book. He found its theology largely deistic. At the end of his review, he warned:

We shall soon have to handle truth, not with kid gloves, but with gauntlets, – the gauntlets of holy courage and integrity. Go on, ye warriors of the cross, for the King is at the head of you.

On 5 June 1862, Spurgeon challenged the Church of England when he preached against baptismal regeneration.[13] However, Spurgeon taught across denominational lines as well: for example, in 1877 he was the preacher at the opening of a new Free Church of Scotland church building in Dingwall. It was during this period at the new Tabernacle that Spurgeon found a friend in James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the inter-denominational China Inland Mission. Spurgeon supported the work of the mission financially and directed many missionary candidates to apply for service with Taylor. He also aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting The Wordless Book, a teaching tool that he described in a message given on 11 January 1866, regarding Psalm 51:7: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. The book has been and is still used to teach people without reading skills and people of other cultures and languages – young and old – around the globe about the Gospel message.[14][15]

On the death of missionary David Livingstone in 1873, a discolored and much-used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons, Accidents, Not Punishments,[16] was found among his few possessions much later, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page: Very good, D.L. He had carried it with him throughout his travels in Africa. It was sent to Spurgeon and treasured by him.[17]

Metropolitan Tabernacle Societies and Institutions

In 1876, 22 years after becoming pastor, Spurgeon published The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work. [18]  His intention stated in the preface is to give a 'printed history of the Tabernacle'.The book has 15 chapters and of these 5 are given over to what he called 'Societies and Institutions'.

METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE Almshouse

The Five Chapters are:

xi. The Almshouses. Explaining how the New Park Street Chapel site was sold to allow the Tabernacle to build an Almshouse and school.

STOCKWELL_ORPHANAGE_1876

xiii. The Stockwell Orphanage. This opened for 240 boys in 1867 (and later for girls in 1879). These orphanages continued in London until they were bombed in the Second World War. The inspiration for starting an orphanage came from a visit with George Müller.[19][20][21] The orphanage changed its name to Spurgeon's Child Care in 1937,[22] and again in 2005 to Spurgeons.[22][23] Spurgeon was linked more with the Stockwell orphanage than any other Metropolitan Tabernacle endeavour. There are probably four reasons for this:

1. It was a large set of buildings in London occupying four acres. 2. There was an annual fundraiser at which Spurgeon chose to celebrate his birthday,[24] and often the laying of a foundation stone.[25] The event was called ‘one of the largest bazaars and fancy fairs ever held in South London’[26] – in one day 1,000 was raised[27] – a lot considering entry was sixpence.[28] Spurgeon accepted money gifts for his birthday, which all went to the orphanage.[29] 3. The Orphanage choir and bell ringers performed concerts to fundraise[30] 4. It had such a large operating budget compared with other Tabernacle activities.

xiv. The Colportage Association. Colporters were employed to take Bibles, good books and periodicals for sale, from house to house. They also were involved in visiting the sick and holding meetings.

xv. Other Institutions Connected with the Tabernacle. Here Spurgeon describes 21 other 'Institutions'. Two examples are: The Ordinance Poor Fund which distributed money amongst poor members of the church of about £800 annually, and the Ladies' Benevolent Society. This group made clothing for the poor and 'relieved' them, with an income of £105.

Eight years later at Spurgeon's fiftieth birthday celebration an updated list of 'Societies and Institutions' was read out.[31] With Spurgeon's strong encouragement and support the 24 groups listed in 'The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work', had become 69. Before they are read out Spurgeon says: I think everybody should know what the church has been moved to do, and I beg to say that there are other societies besides those which will be mentioned, but you will be tired before you get to the end of them. and finishes after the list by saying: We have need to praise God that he enables the church to carry on all these institutions.

Spurgeon's encouragement for members of the Tabernacle to be involved in these ministries was very strong. Spurgeon's own regular contributions to them meant that he left his wife only 2,000 pounds, when he died, despite having earned millions from his published sermons and books.[32]

He encouraged others to give with comments like these:

On the Green Walk Mission: Here a good hall must be built. If some generous friend would build a place for this mission, the money would be well laid out,

On colporters: Mr Charlesworth’s two Bible classes have generously agreed to support a brother with a Bible Carriage in the streets of London. Would not some other communities of young people do well to have their own man at work in the regions where they dwell? THINK OF IT,

On the almshouses: WE GREATLY NEED AT LEAST £5000 TO ENDOW THE ALMHOUSES, AND PLACE THE INSTITUTION UPON A PROPER FOOTING. Already C. H. Spurgeon, Thomas Olney, and Thomas Greenwood have contributed £200 each towards the fund, and we earnestly trust that either by donations or legacies the rest of the £5000 will be forthcoming.[33]

Spurgeon had one Infirmary built, at the Stockwell Orphanage. However, he also recognised that the poor had limited access to health care and so was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund. He left us this quote:[34]

THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE Infirmary

We must have more hospitals. I do not know whether we shall not be obliged to make the Government spend something in this direction. I don’t believe in the Government doing anything well. I generally feel sorry when anything has to be left to the Government. I don’t mean this Government in particular, but any Government which may be in office for the time being. It is six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. I have a very small opinion of the whole lot. There are some things which we should try ourselves to do as long as ever we can; but if we are driven up a corner, it may come to what I fear. Bones must be set, and the sick must be cared for; the poor must not be left to die, in order not to have to go to the Government for help. So let us all try to give what we can. It is your duty to give, not merely as Christians, but as men. I like the Hospital Sunday movement, for all Christian people can meet, as we are met here to-night, on one platform.

Downgrade controversy

SWORD AND TROWEL ORIGINAL cover page

A controversy among the Baptists flared in 1887 with Spurgeon's first Down-grade article, published in The Sword & the Trowel.[35] In the ensuing Downgrade Controversy, the Metropolitan Tabernacle disaffiliated from the Baptist Union, effectuating Spurgeon's congregation as the world's largest self-standing church. Spurgeon framed the controversy in this way:

Believers in Christ's atonement are now in declared union with those who make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who deny plenary inspiration; those who hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the fall a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after death... It is our solemn conviction that there should be no pretence of fellowship. Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin.[36]

The Controversy took its name from Spurgeon's use of the term Downgrade to describe certain other Baptists' outlook toward the Bible (i.e., they had downgraded the Bible and the principle of sola scriptura).[37] Spurgeon alleged that an incremental creeping of the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and other concepts were weakening the Baptist Union.[38][39][40] Spurgeon emphatically decried the doctrine that resulted:

Assuredly the New Theology can do no good towards God or man; it, has no adaptation for it. If it were preached for a thousand years by all the most earnest men of the school, it would never renew a soul, nor overcome pride in a single human heart.[41]

The standoff caused division amongst the Baptists and other non-conformists, and is regarded by many as an important paradigm.[a][38][42][43]

Opposition to slavery

PHOTOGRAPH OF SPURGEON c.1870

Spurgeon strongly opposed the owning of slaves.[44] He lost support from the Southern Baptists, sales of his sermons dropped, and he received scores of threatening and insulting letters as a consequence.[45]

Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery; but when was it utterly abolished? It was when (William) Wilberforce roused the church of God, and when the church of God addressed herself to the conflict, then she tore the evil thing to pieces. I have been amused with what Wilberforce said the day after they passed the Act of Emancipation. He merrily said to a friend when it was all done, Is there not something else we can abolish? That was said playfully, but it shows the spirit of the church of God. She lives in conflict and victory; her mission is to destroy everything that is bad in the land. The Best Warcry, March 4, 1883.[44]

In a letter[46] to the Christian Watchman and Reflector[47] (Boston), Spurgeon declared:

I do from my inmost soul detest slavery... and although I commune at the Lord's table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind. Whenever [a slave-holder] has called upon me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness, and I would as soon think of receiving a murderer into my church... as a man stealer.[48][49]

Restorationism

Like other Baptists of his time, despite opposing  Dispensationalism , [50] [51]  Spurgeon anticipated the  restoration of the Jews to inhabit the Promised Land . [52]

We look forward, then, for these two things. I am not going to theorize upon which of them will come first – whether they shall be restored first, and converted afterwards – or converted first and then restored. They are to be restored and they are to be converted, too. The Restoration And Conversion of the Jews. Ezekiel 37.1–10, June 16th, 1864[52]

Final years and death

Spurgeon's funeral cortege

TOMB OF CHARLES SPURGEON, West Norwood Cemetery, London

Spurgeon's wife was often too ill to leave home to hear him preach.

Spurgeon had a long history of poor health. He was already being reported as having gout when he was 33.[53]

It was true, he said, that he had had the gout, and a very horrible pain it was; but he had had the gout in his left leg, and he had preached standing on the other. He had not had the gout in his tongue, and he was not aware that people preached with their legs.

By 1871, when he was 37 he was already being advised by his doctors to leave town for his health.[54]

His favourite place to go to rest was Menton in the South of France. He was often there in the winter months.[55] He was there often enough to have visitors, with George Müller visiting in 1879[56] and members of the Baptist Union in 1887, attempting to get him to rejoin the Union.[57]

When he was on the improve in Menton he would preach in the local church,[58] or write, such as in 1890 when he wrote a commentary on Matthew while ‘resting’.[59]

He became increasingly unwell and in May 1891 he was forced 'to rest'. In 1891 he went to rest in Menton, and remained there three months. During this period he wrote 180 pages of commentary.[60] However, he did not recover and died aged 57, while still in Menton, from gout and congestion of the kidneys.[61] From May 1891 until his death in January 1892 he received 10,000 letters of 'condolence, resolutions of sympathy, telegrams of enquiry'.[60]

After returning the body to England it lay in state in the Metropolitan Tabernacle.[62]

Two days prior to the funeral, four memorial services were held at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The first service at 11am was for those with current communion cards, the second at 3pm was for ministers and student pastors, the third at 7pm was for Christians who hadn't gotten in yet and the final service at 11pm included the Stockwell Orphans. Police controlled the crowds waiting to get in during the day, and to help with order, at the end of services people left through a back door.[60]

On the day of the funeral eight hundred extra police were on duty along the route the cortège took,[63] from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, past the Stockwell Orphanage and to the Norwood Cemetery. Accounts vary about the number of carriages in the cortege. One account puts it as:[64]

Sixty-five pair-horse broughams were provided by the undertakers for conveying the invited mourners and delegates to the cemetery, but there were altogether from two to three hundred private carriages and other vehicles joining in the procession, which it is estimated must have been nearly two miles in length

Extra trains were put on to cater for the crowd, along with extra omnibuses and cabs.[65] Except for a few tobacco shops and taverns, the businesses along the funeral route were shut, with some houses displaying black and white material.[66] An estimated total of 100,000 people either passed by Spurgeon as he lay in state or attended the funeral services.[62] An unknown number lined the streets for the cortége. As the cortége passed the Stockwell Orphanage it stopped briefly while the children sang a verse of one of his favourite hymns For ever with the Lord, with the refrain Nearer home.[67]. Along the route some flags were at half staff.[68]

Spurgeon was survived by his wife and sons. His remains were buried at West Norwood Cemetery in London, where the tomb is still visited by admirers. His son Tom became the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle after his father died.

Library

William Jewell College  in  Liberty, Missouri , purchased Spurgeon's 5,103-volume library collection for £500 ($2500) in 1906. The collection was purchased by  Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary [69]  in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2006 for $400,000 and can be seen on display at the Spurgeon Center on the campus of Midwestern Seminary. [70]  A special collection of Spurgeon's handwritten sermon notes and galley proofs from 1879 to 1891 resides at  Samford University  in  Birmingham, Alabama . [71]   Spurgeon's College  in London also has a small number of notes and proofs. Spurgeon's personal Bible, with his handwritten notes is on display in the library of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

Works[edit]

Spurgeon's works have been translated into many languages and Moon's and Braille type for the blind. He also wrote many volumes of commentaries and other types of literature.[72]

Author’s Contributor - About Guy GreenField

GUY GREENFIELD IS A former pastor and seminary professor, performs counseling services through Panhandle Pastoral Counseling Ministry, which he founded. He is a member of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and the American Association of Christian Counselors. Greenfield is also the author of several books, including The Wounded Parent and Reigniting Love and Passion. He lives in Amarillo, Texas.

Born: August 17, 1931, Frederick, OK

Died: 2007

The Title – Wounded Parents featured in this book. A Relationship Masterpiece on Wounded Parents and how to parent children

Author’s Contribution - About the Author – James B. Richard

JAMES RICHARDS IS A pioneer in the field of faith-based human development. He has combined spirituality, energy medicine, scientific concepts and human intuition into a philosophical approach that brings about congruence in spirit, soul and body, resulting in incredible breakthroughs in health, emotional management and financial abundance. He is a life coach, consultant, teacher and motivational trainer. He holds doctorates in Theology, Oriental Medicine and Human Behavior. He was awarded an honorary doctorate for years of service in the Philippines. His many certifications include: substance abuse counselor, detox specialist, herbalist, handwriting analysis, EFT, energy medicine and an impressive number of additional certifications and training certificates.

Dr. Richards has been successful as an entrepreneur who has built several

successful businesses ranging from contracting to real estate to marketing.

As a national best-selling author, Dr. Richards has written several books

that have sold several million copies around the world. His most noted work is Heart Physics®, a life renewal program designed to equip people to transform any aspect of their life through changing the beliefs of their heart.

When asked why he has studied such a broad field his answer is

simple: If it helps people, I want to understand it!

The goal of all his work is to help people experience wholeness: spirit, soul and body!

The Title – How to Stop the Pain is a masterpiece on relationship management and how to avoid paid in our relationships.

Author’s Contributors - About Author Tim Lahaye

Timothy Francis LaHaye

(A pril 27, 1926 – July 25, 2016) was an American  Baptist   evangelical Christian   minister  who wrote more than 85 books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the  Left Behind  series of  apocalyptic  fiction, which he co-authored with  Jerry B. Jenkins . [1]  He was a founder of the  Council for National Policy , a  Conservative Christian  advocacy group. LaHaye strongly opposed homosexuality, believing it to be immoral and unbiblical. He was a harsh critic of  Roman Catholicism , and a strong believer in conspiracy theories regarding the  Illuminati .

Biography

Early life

Timothy Francis LaHaye was born on April 27, 1926, in  Detroit, Michigan  to Frank LaHaye, a  Ford  auto worker who died in 1936 of a  heart attack , and Margaret LaHaye (née Palmer). His father's death had a significant influence on LaHaye, who was only nine years old at the time. He had been inconsolable until the minister at the funeral said, This is not the end of Frank LaHaye; because he accepted  Jesus Christ , the day will come when the Lord will shout from  heaven  and descend, and the dead in Christ will rise first and then we'll be caught up together to meet him in the air. [ citation needed ]

LaHaye later said that, upon hearing those remarks, all of a sudden, there was hope in my heart I'd see my father again.[2]

LaHaye enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1944, at the age of 18, after he finished night school. He served in the European Theater of Operations as a machine gunner aboard a bomber.[3] Then he studied at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1950. LaHaye held the Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Seminary.[4]

Ministry

He served as a pastor in  Pumpkintown, South Carolina , and after that he pastored a congregation in  Minneapolis  until 1956. [4] [5]  After that, the LaHaye family moved to  San Diego, California , where he served as pastor of the Scott Memorial  Baptist Church  (now called  Shadow Mountain Community Church ) [6] [7]  for nearly 25 years. [4]  In 1971, he founded Christian Heritage College, now known as  San Diego Christian College . [4]

In 1972, LaHaye helped establish the Institute for Creation Research in El Cajon, California, along with Henry M. Morris.[8][9]

Political activism

LaHaye started numerous groups to promote his views, having become involved in politics at the  Christian Voice  during the late 1970s and early 1980s. [ citation needed ]  In 1979, he encouraged  Jerry Falwell  to found the  Moral Majority  and sat on its board of directors. [3] [10]  LaHaye's wife,  Beverly , founded  Concerned Women for America , a conservative  Christian  women's activist group. [11]

Then in 1981, he left the pulpit to concentrate his time on politics and writing.[12] That year, he helped found the Council for National Policy (CNP) a policy making think tank[13] in which membership is only available through invitation; it has been reported the most powerful conservative organization in America you've never heard of.[14]

In the 1980s he was criticized by the evangelical community for accepting money from Bo Hi Pak, a longtime Sun Myung Moon operative.[15] He was additionally criticized for joining Moon's Council for Religious Freedom, which was founded to protest Moon's 1984 imprisonment.[15] In 1996, LaHaye's wife spoke at an event sponsored by Moon.[15]

In the 1980s, LaHaye founded the American Coalition for Traditional Values and the Coalition for Religious Freedom. He founded the Pre-Tribulation Research Center along with Thomas Ice in 1998. The center is dedicated to producing material that supports a dispensationalist, pre-tribulation interpretation of the Bible. He and his wife had connections to the John Birch Society, a conservative, anti-communist group.[16]

LaHaye also took more direct roles in presidential politics. He supported Ronald Reagan's elections as United States president.[5] He was a co-chairman of Jack Kemp's 1988 presidential bid but was removed from the campaign after four days when his anti-Catholic views became known.[3][4] LaHaye played a significant role in getting the Religious Right to support George W. Bush for the presidency in 2000.[3][10] In 2007, he endorsed Mike Huckabee during the primaries[17] and served as his spiritual advisor.[18]

Left Behind

Main article:  Left Behind (series)

LaHaye is best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction that depicts the Earth after the pretribulation rapture which Premillennial Dispensationalists believe the Bible states, multiple times, will occur. The books were LaHaye's idea, though Jerry B. Jenkins, a former sportswriter with numerous other works of fiction to his name, wrote the books from LaHaye's notes.[19] Jenkins has said, I write the best I can. I know I'm never going to be revered as some classic writer. I don't claim to be C. S. Lewis. The literary-type writers, I admire them. I wish I was smart enough to write a book that's hard to read, you know?[20]

The series, which started in 1995 with the first novel, includes 12 titles in the adult series, as well as juvenile novels, audio books, devotionals, and graphic novels. The books have been very popular, with total sales surpassing 65 million copies as of July 2016.[4] Seven titles in the adult series have reached No. 1 on the bestseller lists for The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.[21] Jerry Falwell said about the first book in the series: In terms of its impact on Christianity, it's probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside the Bible.[22] The best-selling series has been compared to the equally popular works of Tom Clancy and Stephen King: the plotting is brisk and the characterizations Manichean. People disappear and things blow up.[10]

LaHaye indicates that the idea for the series came to him one day circa 1994, while he was sitting on an airplane and observed a married pilot flirting with a flight attendant. He wondered what would befall the pilot if the Rapture happened at that moment.[3] The first book in the series opens with a similar scene. He sold the movie rights