I ran across something last night C.H. Spurgeon told his students at his college about men who wanted to enter the ministry through his college. "One brother I have encountered – one did I say? I have met ten, twenty, a hundred brethren, who have pleaded that they were sure, quite sure that they were called to the ministry – they were quite certain of it, because they had failed in everything else. – My answer generally is, 'Yes I see you have failed in everything else, and therefore you think the Lord has especially endowed you for his service; but I fear you have forgotten that the ministry needs the very best men, and not those who cannot do anything else. A man who would succeed as a preacher would probably do right well as either a grocer, or lawyer, or anything else. A really valuable minister would have excelled at anything." You and others came to mind.

Spurgeon went on to say "There is scarcely anything impossible to a man who can keep a congregation together for years, and be the means of edifying them for hundreds of consecutive [Sundays]. He must be possessed of some abilities, and be by no means a fool or ne'er-do-well. Jesus Christ deserves the best men to preach his cross, and not the empty-headed and the shiftless."

Before the Lord opened my eyes, I spent many years listening to the empty-headed and the shiftless. They preached, or so called preached, many sermons about their gods. Oh, but when He touched me and opened my eyes to His truth, reached down and ripped out that heart of stone and replaced it with a little piece of burning ember. Now only the truth will do. Listening to the empty-headed does nothing for that ember; but listening to you and your brothers glorifying Him, the Lord takes that ember and makes it flame to a raging furnace.

Before I fell asleep, I asked the Lord to help me keep you and your brothers in my prayers, that He might bless your ministries by His mighty power and speak through you to call many to Christ. – That those with hardened hearts will feel a softness stealing over their spirits. – That those who are careless will be compelled to sit down and think. – That those wrapped up in earthly things will be compelled to think of eternal things. – That, thinking, they will be disturbed and driven to despair, but afterwards led to our Savior. I know there are many things you could have excelled at in the world; but I thank the Lord for saving the best for His ministry. My family and I will be eternally blessed because our paths have crossed.

Your friend in Christ,
Matt Tompkins