Have you ever felt small?  Not when you were a kid and you weren’t tall enough to ride the ride at the amusement park.  I mean small as in insignificant.  I remember the first time I saw the ocean.  Wow that’s a lot of water!  The emotions I felt while standing there are hard to describe; insignificant, vulnerable, little, powerless, and generally small.  Small seems too trite and pithy, yet it really does sum up how I felt to the extent that words can be used to express such things.  Watch this video and see if you feel some of these same emotions:

As I consider how truly little we are, it’s easy to get lost in it.  It’s a really big place, and it’s easy to give in to desperation and a sense of futility.  What’s the point in what little-ole-me does in such a vast place?  But as that thought crosses my mind, another one immediately replaces it.  Diamonds are small too.

Diamonds are small.  Diamonds are rare.  Diamonds are valued.  I am small.  I am rare.  And I am valued.  I watch that video and I see God.  There is no other reasonable explanation for the amazing intricacy, balance, power, size, and design than an almighty God.  (It amazes me that others can watch that video and see the absence of God – read the comments – but that’s a different post).  Out of that vastness, we are.  And to our knowledge, there are no others.  Some theologians go so far to say that, based on the Bible, there can be no others.  Regardless, despite being small, we are NOT insignificant.  And being rare in this large universe makes us all the more special.  We ARE valued.  We are NOT worthless.  How do I know?  The creator of all this has told us so.  ”But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

I still feel little, but only because it’s such a big place.  I am loved by God, the one who measures the universe with the span of His hand, and He has promised me that He will not lose me.  I am His and I am valuable to Him. That’s a Valentine’s Day message everyone should hear.

The following is taken from “Spurgeon” by Shai Linne and from “The Spurgeon Archive“ being originally attributed to Eric W. Hayden, former pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle, from Christian History Magazine, Issue 29, pp. 2-3. Copyright © 1991 CHRISTIAN HISTORY

• Charles Haddon Spurgeon is history’s most widely read preacher (apart from the biblical ones).  Today, there is available more material written by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, living or dead.
• Spurgeon was born on the outskirts of London in 1834.
• Both Spurgeon’s father and grandfather were in the ministry.
• When Charles Spurgeon was only 10 years old, a visiting missionary, Richard Knill, said that the young Spurgeon would one day preach the gospel to thousands and would preach in Rowland Hill’s chapel, the largest Dissenting church in London, and that his sermons would be translated into many languages. His words were fulfilled.
• At the age of 15, a snow storm forced Spurgeon to cut short his journey and seek refuge in a nearby chapel.  The minister was not in attendance and instead a layman was preaching.  After about 10 minutes or so, the preacher commented on Spurgeon’s miserable appearance and continued  ”and you always will be miserable—miserable in life, and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.  Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.”  Spurgeon writes, “I saw at once the way of salvation.”
• Spurgeon began preaching the same year of his conversion at the age of 15.
• At 17, Spurgeon was asked to pastor a rural Baptist church.
• At 19, Spurgeon was called to The New Park Street Church in London.
• One woman was converted through reading a single page of one of Spurgeon’s sermons wrapped around some butter she had bought.
• Spurgeon read The Pilgrim’s Progress at age 6 and went on to read it over 100 times.
• The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit—the collected sermons of Spurgeon during his ministry with that congregation—fill 63 volumes. The sermons’ 20-25 million words are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The series stands as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity.
• Spurgeon’s mother had 17 children, nine of whom died in infancy.
• Spurgeon missed being admitted to college because a servant girl inadvertently showed him into a different room than that of the principal who was waiting to interview him. (Later, he determined not to reapply for admission when he believed God spoke to him, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not!”)
• Spurgeon’s personal library contained 12,000 volumes—1,000 printed before 1700. (The library, 5,103 volumes at the time of its auction, was housed at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, until being moved to Midwestern Baptist Theological College & Seminary in 2006.)
• Before he was 20, Spurgeon had preached over 600 times.
• Spurgeon drew to his services Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone, members of the royal family, Members of Parliament, as well as author John Ruskin, Florence Nightingale, and General James Garfield, later president of the United States.
• The New Park Street Church invited Spurgeon to come for a 6-month trial period, but Spurgeon asked to come for only 3 months because “the congregation might not want me, and I do not wish to be a hindrance.”
• When Spurgeon arrived at The New Park Street Church in 1854, the congregation had 232 members. By the end of his pastorate, 38 years later, that number had increased to 5,311. (Altogether, 14,460 people were added to the church during Spurgeon’s tenure.) The church was the largest independent congregation in the world.
• Spurgeon typically read 6 books per week and could remember what he had read—and where—even years later.
• Spurgeon once addressed an audience of 23,654—without a microphone or any mechanical amplification.
• Spurgeon began a pastors’ college that trained nearly 900 students during his lifetime—and it continues today.
• Spurgeon built two orphanages.
• Spurgeon started a monthly magazine and wrote over 150 books.
• In 1865, Spurgeon’s sermons sold 25,000 copies every week. They were translated into more than 20 languages.
• At least 3 of Spurgeon’s works (including the multi-volume Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit series) have sold more than 1,000,000 copies. One of these, All of Grace, was the first book ever published by Moody Press (formerly the Bible Institute Colportage Association) and is still its all-time bestseller.
• During his lifetime, Spurgeon is estimated to have preached to 10,000,000 people.
• Spurgeon once said he counted 8 sets of thoughts that passed through his mind at the same time while he was preaching.
• Testing the acoustics in the vast Agricultural Hall, Spurgeon shouted, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” A worker high in the rafters of the building heard this and became converted to Christ as a result.
• Spurgeon and his wife Susannah Thompson both suffered physical maladies their enire lives.  Susannah became an invalid at age 33 and could seldom attend her husband’s services after that.  In addition to the physical ailments, Spurgeon also fought clinical depression.
• Spurgeon’s stance on orthodoxy resulted in his being shunned by his denomination.
• Spurgeon spent 20 years studying the Book of Psalms and writing his commentary on them, The Treasury of David.
• Spurgeon insisted that his congregation’s new building, The Metropolitan Tabernacle, employ Greek architecture because the New Testament was written in Greek. This one decision has greatly influenced subsequent church architecture throughout the world.
• The theme for Spurgeon’s Sunday morning sermon was usually not chosen until Saturday night.
• For an average sermon, Spurgeon took no more than one page of notes into the pulpit, yet he spoke at a rate of 140 words per minute for 40 minutes.
• The only time that Spurgeon wore clerical garb was when he visited Geneva and preached in Calvin’s pulpit.
• By accepting some of his many invitations to speak, Spurgeon often preached 10 times in a week.
• Spurgeon met often with Hudson Taylor, the well-known missionary to China, and with George Muller, the orphanage founder.
• Spurgeon had two children—twin sons—and both became preachers. Thomas succeeded his father as pastor of the Tabernacle, and Charles, Jr., took charge of the orphanage his father had founded.
• Spurgeon’s wife, Susannah, called him Tirshatha (a title used of the Judean governor under the Persian empire), meaning “Your Excellency.”
• Spurgeon often worked 18 hours a day. Famous explorer and missionary David Livingstone once asked him, “How do you manage to do two men’s work in a single day?” Spurgeon replied, “You have forgotten that there are two of us.”
• Spurgeon spoke out so strongly against slavery that American publishers of his sermons began deleting his remarks on the subject.
• Occasionally Spurgeon asked members of his congregation not to attend the next Sunday’s service, so that newcomers might find a seat. During one 1879 service, the regular congregation left so that newcomers waiting outside might get in; the building immediately filled again. 
• Spurgeon died at the age of 57.
• Spurgeon is known today as “The Prince of Preachers”.

You’re dirt.  The question is:  which kind?

I’d like you to do something.  2 Corinthians 13:5 says “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”  I’d like to ask you to do just that.  Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.  I’m not asking you to do this alone.  I’ll help – along with another passage of scripture.  But to be fair, I should warn you….this might hurt a little.  Or a lot.

Jesus taught about people that have heard the Gospel and how they respond to it.  This teaching can be found in Matthew (chapter 13), Mark (chapter 4), and Luke (chapter 8).  As recounted in Mark 4, verse 13 says “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?’” As you may know, Jesus used parables a lot and the secret to understanding them, Jesus says, is in understanding this one.  But not only can we learn from this parable how others respond to the Gospel, you can, if you will be honest with yourself, use it to see how you have responded to the Gospel and to see whether you are in the faith.

The parable, as recounted in Matthew 13:3-9, reads as follows:

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

The disciples didn’t know what to make of this; they missed His point and did not or could not understand what Jesus was trying to get across to them.  So He explained the parable to them in verses 18-23:

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:  When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.  The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.  But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

So which are you?  If you have not heard the Gospel, please click here.  If you have and you have rejected it, then you are like the path – hard, beaten down, and trod upon.  I would plead with you – soften your heart to the saving grace and loving kindness of Jesus Christ.  Repent of your sins and put your faith in Him.

Have you at one point responded to The Good News in some way, such as perhaps you walked to the front of the church and/or signed a commitment card, but shortly after quit going to church and stopped reading your Bible (if you ever even started)?  If this is you, then you are like the rocky ground springing up and then withering away.  Or perhaps you openly call yourself a Christian, but don’t go to church unless it’s Christmas or Easter, you don’t read your Bible, and unless you tell someone you are a Christian nobody would ever know?  If this is you, then you are like the thorny ground allowing the world to rule you instead of the Lord.  Both of these types of false converts can occur for a number of reasons, but usually they happen due to a lack of repentance and responding to the Gospel with your head instead of your heart.  Focus on your sins, let them drive you to your knees, and just when you cannot bear looking at yourself in front of a holy, almighty God, look up and see your Jesus on the cross paying your penalty for you.  Then turn to Him out of gratitude and thankfulness for His amazing love and He promises you He will never lose you.

Are you a regular church attender, reading your Bible regularly if not daily?  Do you participate in programs and activities in the community?  Are you a Christian?  Are you sure?  Are you sowing seeds?  Have you produced a crop?  If not, don’t do so out of guilt or obligation nor for pride or reward.  The crop these motives will produce will be burned up.  Instead, do so in response to what has been done for you by Christ on the cross.