The Pastor's Note: A Collection of 100 Daily Devotions

By John L. Spurgeon

Throughout the gospel, we find how Christ used parables to describe our personal relationship with God. He took the tangible things of life as example to illustrate a spiritual life in Christ.

The devotional before you has one hundred devotions, many based on parables of my life and stories I recall. Why one hundred? One hundred represents fullness and a completion, as well as principle of return. My first hope is that your reading this will not only help you to recognize that everything is spiritual, but also give you an opportunity to know and experience more of Gods presence. Second, my hope is that completing this devotion wont mark an end or accomplishment, but that you will be spiritually primed to pursue greater depths in an intimate relationship with our Savior. And last, with the principle of return, I pray that you will continue to grow and be further profitable to Gods kingdom and purpose, taking what God gives in abundance and pouring it over into the lives of others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512775235

John L. Spurgeon

John Spurgeon surrendered to the ministry at the age of forty and he is currently the pastor of Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas. He has his B.B.A. degree from Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. He and his wife, Debra, have two children and three grandchildren. To find out more, visit www.johnspurgeon.com

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The Pastor’s Note

A Collection of 100 Daily Devotions

John L. Spurgeon

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Copyright © 2017 John L. Spurgeon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture quotes marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are fromthe ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotes marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7524-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7525-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7523-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901805

WestBow Press rev. date: 3/6/2017

Contents

Imagine That

Raining in My Heart

I Can’t Right Now

Utilizing the Fullness of God

The Essential Ingredients

A Very Sharp Knife

God’s Got You

To Overcome Fear

May I Have Your Attention?

Where Do You Stand?

Extra Baggage

Does He Have Every Room?

Hold Up for a Minute

Without the Son

We Are the Body

Who Am I?

The Strong Hands of Our Father

This Is Going to Be a Great Day!

Walking in the Fullness

We Thirst For Him

I Rest in His Peace

His Picture of Faith

Experiencing God

Raised to Walk

The Water of Life

Knowing Him

Calling on My Name

Efforts of the Adversary

Our Testimony of Grace

Being Attentive to This Day

Fear No Evil

Centering Our Lives

Profitable to His Purpose

What’s the Song You’re Singing?

The Exact Gift

Expanding Our Trust

A Mountain in Christ

A Holy Rock

Keep Your Head Down

Surety of His Presence

A Song of Grace

A Time to Rest

Step Up to the Fountain

How Is the Weather?

Committed to His Path

True Paradise

Read the Instructions Carefully

To You This Day

His Team

A Change in Weight

Don’t You Remember?

His Grace on Me

Guide Me, Lord

I’ll Fly Away

Lead Others as I Lead You

Denying Ourselves

Every Second of Every Day

I Will Follow

What a Great Gift!

Follow the Savior

He Empowers Me

In the Midst of …

A Trustful Expectation

Watch the Hand

The Word Became Flesh

By Grace, Not Ashamed

Have You Checked Your Fences?

The Proven Cornerstone

This Cup

Huge Estates

New Days and Seasons

Step Up and Be a Leader

Gracious and Merciful

Prosperous Intentions

It Started with Him

A Sweet Aroma

Lord, Lift Me Up!

Both Body and Blood

For God Is Love

A Need for Light

Not the Same

Arise and Praise!

Covered in Grace

In the Forefront of Friendship

Plans for the Day

Shaken up in Jesus’ Name

By the Hand

In All Our Adversity

My Faith in Him

Look No More; He Cares

Cry Out to Him

A Gift from God

Accepting His Offer

Becoming a Vessel

The Greatness of His Love

A Taste of Honey

Am I Different?

Secured in Christ

Praying for Pastors

King or Servant

Dedication

I give all praise and glory to God, the Father, who called me to the ministry eleven years ago and said He would put the words in my mouth and share what He gives.

Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have put My word in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.

—Jeremiah 1:9–10

I also give praise and glory to God for a very important person whom He brought into my life more than twenty-five years ago; that is my wife and best friend, Debra. Without her response to the prompting of the Spirit, this book would not be in front of us today. She saw God’s hand at work in me through these writings and moved to open up opportunities for others to experience it as well. I love you, Debra, and praise God for your love, support, and constant devotion.

Foreword

This devotional book was born of a series of pastor’s notes sent out each week from a pastor to his congregation. The purpose was to encourage believers to remain focused on Christ and build a life of consistent fellowship with the Father. The notes are short and quite concise, focusing on one or two verses of scripture and how they apply beautifully to the various circumstances of everyday life. These writings always have a clear message of application; not a sermon, but a personal note from the life of one to another.

You see, John Spurgeon has a very unusual spiritual gift. This gift is from the Holy Spirit and is manifested in John as a profound ability to read scripture and clearly understand what the scripture means. He communicates this understanding to others in incredibly simple terms. Each of the pastor’s notes is a sample of this gift. Even though the note is written to a broader audience, you will find each one quite personal. That is the extended work of the Holy Spirit doing His amazing work in our lives.

—Charlie Carlisle

Introduction

Throughout the gospel, we find how Christ used parables to describe our personal relationship with God. He took the tangible things of life as example to illustrate a spiritual life in Christ.

The devotional before you has one hundred devotions, many based on parables of my life and stories I recall. Why one hundred? One hundred represents fullness and a completion, as well as principle of return. My first hope is that your reading this will not only help you to recognize that everything is spiritual, but also give you an opportunity to know and experience more of God’s presence. Second, my hope is that completing this devotion won’t mark an end or accomplishment, but that you will be spiritually primed to pursue greater depths in an intimate relationship with our Savior. And last, with the principle of return, I pray that you will continue to grow and be further profitable to God’s kingdom and purpose, taking what God gives in abundance and pouring it over into the lives of others.

There are journal spaces provided at the end of each devotion where you can date your reading, make a note of what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you, or simply write a prayer for the day.

May God bless you in your life in Christ.

Imagine That

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

—1 CORINTHIANS 2:9

As I began to examine and meditate on this verse of scripture, my mind went to a song MercyMe released a few years back entitled I Can Only Imagine. It is a very powerful and moving song that describes the attempts we make to try and comprehend what it will be like in heaven, only to conclude that the grandeur of it all is more than we can possibly fathom. I truly believe God’s heaven, which awaits the life of every believer, stretches far beyond anything we could possibly imagine.

For quite some time in my life, the Holy Spirit has invited me to search all things, yes, the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). Christ reveals to us in the gospel of John that He came so we might have not only an eternal life but an abundant life as well. He used parables to help us further grasp what it is to have a personal relationship with God. When Jesus would speak, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like …, He was saying our relationships with God, through the saving grace of His Son, are like this. Then He would go on to describe characteristics of a healthy relationship.

This takes us to the Word today. We, as God’s children, are not only encouraged to find hope in the heaven that awaits us when