Look unto Me

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ไธญๆ–‡

โ€œ๐ด๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘€๐‘œ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘™๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ , ๐‘ ๐‘œ ๐‘š๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘†๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘€๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘ข๐‘ / ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐ป๐‘–๐‘š ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘“๐‘’. / ๐น๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐บ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘ ๐‘œ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘™๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐ป๐‘’ ๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐ป๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘”๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘†๐‘œ๐‘›, ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐ป๐‘–๐‘š ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘‘ ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ โ„Ž, ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘‘ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘“๐‘’.โ€ (๐ฝ๐‘œโ„Ž๐‘› 3:14-16)

The church in Toledo has been enjoying biographies and testimonies from dear saints who have gone before us. The short excerpt below is a testimony from Charles Spurgeon as a young man looking to the freeing power of the cross. It echoes the fresh wave of enjoyment of salvation in the recent spiritual walks of our local brothers and sisters.

“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 to the pulpit to preach.

It is interesting that at least three persons later would claim to be that thin man. Spurgeon regarded the impromptu preacher as a local, not a minister. The text was: โ€˜Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.โ€™ The preacher bungled the pronunciation. Spurgeon recorded the opening:

My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, โ€˜Look.โ€™ Now lookinโ€™ donโ€™t take a deal of pains. It ainโ€™t liftinโ€™ your foot or your finger; ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ โ€˜๐’๐’๐’๐’Œ.โ€™ Well, a man neednโ€™t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man neednโ€™t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, โ€˜Look unto Me.โ€™ Aye! Many on ye are lookinโ€™ to yourselves, but itโ€™s no use lookinโ€™ there. Youโ€™ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, โ€˜Look unto Me.โ€™ Some on ye say, โ€˜We must wait for the Spiritโ€™s workinโ€™.โ€™ You have no business with that just now. ๐‹๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐‚๐ก๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ. The text says, ‘๐‘ณ๐’๐’๐’Œ ๐’–๐’๐’•๐’ ๐‘ด๐’†.’

Spurgeon thought the preacher had said all he had to say, when to his great surprise, the thin man looked straight at him and said, โ€˜Young man, you look very miserable, and you always will be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death if you donโ€™t obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look. ๐’€๐’๐’– ๐’‰๐’‚๐’—๐’† ๐’๐’๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’โ€™ ๐’•๐’ ๐’…๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’–๐’• ๐’•๐’ ๐’๐’๐’๐’Œ ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’๐’Š๐’—๐’†.โ€™ The preaching was crude, but it contained the power of Godโ€™s salvation. Spurgeon wrote:

๐‘ฐ ๐’๐’๐’๐’Œ๐’†๐’… ๐’–๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’ ๐‘ฐ ๐’„๐’๐’–๐’๐’… ๐’‚๐’๐’Ž๐’๐’”๐’• ๐’‰๐’‚๐’—๐’† ๐’๐’๐’๐’Œ๐’†๐’… ๐’Ž๐’š ๐’†๐’š๐’†๐’” ๐’‚๐’˜๐’‚๐’š. ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’†๐’“๐’† ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’„๐’๐’๐’–๐’… ๐’˜๐’‚๐’” ๐’ˆ๐’๐’๐’†, ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’…๐’‚๐’“๐’Œ๐’๐’†๐’”๐’” ๐’‰๐’‚๐’… ๐’“๐’๐’๐’๐’†๐’… ๐’‚๐’˜๐’‚๐’š, ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’Ž๐’๐’Ž๐’†๐’๐’• ๐‘ฐ ๐’”๐’‚๐’˜ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’”๐’–๐’, ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐‘ฐ ๐’„๐’๐’–๐’๐’… ๐’‰๐’‚๐’—๐’† ๐’“๐’Š๐’”๐’†๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’Š๐’๐’”๐’•๐’‚๐’๐’• ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’”๐’–๐’๐’ˆ ๐’˜๐’Š๐’•๐’‰ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’Ž๐’๐’”๐’• ๐’†๐’๐’•๐’‰๐’–๐’”๐’Š๐’‚๐’”๐’•๐’Š๐’„ ๐’๐’‡ ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’Ž, ๐’๐’‡ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‘๐’“๐’†๐’„๐’Š๐’๐’–๐’” ๐‘ฉ๐’๐’๐’๐’… ๐’๐’‡ ๐‘ช๐’‰๐’“๐’Š๐’”๐’• ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’”๐’Š๐’Ž๐’‘๐’๐’† ๐’‡๐’‚๐’Š๐’•๐’‰ ๐’˜๐’‰๐’Š๐’„๐’‰ ๐’๐’๐’๐’Œ๐’” ๐’‚๐’๐’๐’๐’† ๐’•๐’ ๐‘ฏ๐’Š๐’Ž.

There are many ways to the Way. Some find Christ suddenly and dramatically, like Paul on the road to Damascus. Others grow up like Timothy, with a faith of their mothers and grandmothers. John Bunyanโ€™s โ€˜Pilgrimโ€™ toiled with a heavy load until he came to the cross and, in and instant, found release. Godโ€™s way of bringing the human spirit to Himself cannot be standardized or stereotyped.โ€

(Excerpt from ๐ถโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘†๐‘๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘œ๐‘›: ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘’ ๐บ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘‚๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ (Heroes of the Faith series) by J. C. Carlile. Emphasis added.)

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