Scripture reading: Numbers 21:4–9

Thank God for the Snowstorm!

Look to me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! (Isaiah 45:22. NKJV)

 

Most of us consider a snowstorm a bothersome and sometimes dangerous interruption. Charles Spurgeon, however, was eternally thankful to God for the blizzard that hit Colchester, England, on January 6, 1850. Looking back on that moment when he was fifteen years of age, Spurgeon tells what happened:

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache, but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache. The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed, but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!” (Isa. 45:22). He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus: “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. . . . But then the text says, ‘Look to Me.’ Aye,” said he, in broad Essex, “many of ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. . . .” Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He 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.” Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.” (The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon)

That morning, Spurgeon did what the preacher told him to do. He looked to Jesus. And that look of faith brought salvation to his soul and joy to his heart. He was reborn and became a new creation in Christ. He went on to become one of the greatest preachers of the nineteenth century, and his writings and sermons continue to minister to millions today. Dear friend, if you are unsure of your relation- ship with God and feel lost and near despair, let Spurgeon’s testimony encourage you to take the step of simple faith in Jesus Christ. Cease your striving and start believing. Look and live!

 

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.  —C. S. Lewis

 

point to ponder • Did Spurgeon choose God, or did God choose Spurgeon?

prayer focus • For the conversion of someone you know who seems so far from God that his case seems hopeless.