Website Revamping Underway!

I’ve had the Pastor’s Study website up since 1996. When I was in between pastorates back in 1997-98 I did some major work on it, wrote the study Bible reviews and other articles. It also originally had king-sized links pages as that was all the rage back in the late 90s! I tinkered with the website a little over the years, but have finally decided to upgrade it with an extensive listing of sermons and Bible studies and other materials. Check it out at

The Hidden Riches of the Secret Place

Isaiah 45:3 “And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
It is my fear that there is nothing missing from Christian lives today more than a real, daily walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you meet with the Holy Spirit to commune with God the Father and God the Son every day?
Psalm 91:1 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
I use this illustration: A husband says of his wife “we never talk except for when there is a problem or a great need! We have a great marriage!” NO ONE WOULD SAY THAT IS A GREAT MARRIAGE, NO ONE! Yet, isn’t this exactly how most Christians treat our precious Lord? Do you only use God as a “genie in a bottle” to run to when the going gets rough? I am afraid most do!
Now to go from preaching to meddling! If you are a pastor or a missionary (or both!) and you are reading this, I have a question for you: Do you meet with God every morning before you do anything else? If you don’t, you are disobeying the Lord Jesus Christ and dishonoring the very ministry you claim to love!

David wrote in Psalm 55:16-17 “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.”

The great Christians have always been men of prayer — it is impossible to be a “great” Christian without it!
As you read the biographies of well-known Christians such as John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Finney, D.L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon.
Let me quote Spurgeon from his “Lectures to My Students” (p. 41) “If, in the future, you shall be called to sustain pastorates, large or small, if you become lax in SECRET DEVOTION, not on will you need to be pitied, but your people also; and, in addition to that, you shall be blamed, and the day cometh in which you shall be ashamed and confounded.”

A few pages later he quotes from David Brainerd’s diary: “Lord’s Day, April 25th–This morning spent about two hours in sacred duties, and was enabled, more than ordinarily, to agonize for immortal souls; though it was early in the morning, and the sun scarcely shone at all, yet my body was quite wet with sweat.” (p. 45)

He quotes John Knox who “wondered how a Christian could lie in his bed all night and not rise to pray.” (p. 46)

He refers to a Joseph Alliene who “did constantly arise before four of the clock, and would be much troubled if he heard smiths or other craftsmen at their trades before he was at communion with God.” He would say “How this noise shames me.
Does not my Master deserve more than theirs?”

When should a Christian meet the Lord each day?
There is no better description of this than in Mark 1:35 “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

In 1884 Spurgeon preached a sermon “Before Daybreak with Christ.” Here are a few of his comments:
“If I could impress my heart on every syllable and baptize every word with my tears, I could not too earnestly entreat you to be above all things earnest in prayer. I delight to think of our Lord as praying before He did a great thing. It was His custom to do so. Perhaps the early morning prayer of our text preceded the Sermon on the Mount.”
“He rose up that weekday morning early and retired to a solitary place to pray, to teach us not to keep out religousness for Sabbath days or retain our prayerfulness for one day of the week.”

To draw a few analogies –
In baseball they used to say that throwing to the base BEHIND the runner is like locking the barn after your horse is stolen!
It is so much better to do things right the first time around than to have to fix them later on.

Now I am going out on a limb here! I know that some of you may not agree, but I truly believe that the time to meet with God is first thing in the morning BEFORE you do anything else!

Psalm 63:1 “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee.”
I believe that it is vital for a Christian to rise early and have a designated place to go and meet God — ALONE.
I even schedule it on my computer and phone!

Spurgeon wrote in the same message “Before Daybreak with Christ” — “You observe that in His prayer He desired very much to be alone.” (Mark 1:35 departed to a solitary place).
“Secret prayer is the secret of prayer, the soul of prayer, the seal of prayer, the strength of prayer. If you do not pray alone, you do not pray at all…the less prayer is observed on earth, the more it is observed in heaven. That which is carefully concealed from men is seen of the Father (Matt. 6:6 – “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”)
Spurgeon went on to say: “’Oh,’ says one, ‘I live in the spirit of prayer, and therefore I do not need times and seasons for prayer.’ And do you think that Christ did not live in the spirit of prayer?”

William MacDonald writes: “Jesus rose a long while before daylight and went out to a place where He would be free from distraction and spend time in prayer. The Servant of Jehovah opened His ear each morning to receive instructions for the day from God the Father (Isa. 50:4, 5). If the Lord Jesus felt the need of this early morning quiet time, how much more should we! Notice too that He prayed when it cost Him something; He rose and went out a long while before daylight. Prayer should not be a matter of personal convenience but of self-discipline and sacrifice. Does this explain why so much of our service is ineffective?”

Only God can transform your life — the Christian life is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I believe that every Christian should desire to be right with God — if not, there is a serious spiritual problem.
All of you want the results of a secret place meeting with God every day, but probably few really are willing to do what it takes!
Start tomorrow morning by getting up 15 minutes early, praying and spending time in God’s Word, communicating with Him — it is worth it!