Some of my best childhood memories were spent watching historical documentaries. My parents had a great appreciation for history, and we lived in a part of the US overflowing with early American history, so access to it was easy. No one in our family (I am the second oldest of eight) was exempt from read-alouds and documentary viewings. I know virtually nothing about Saturday morning cartoons or popular music, but I have a rich, rich appreciation for the lives of ordinary people throughout history. This was an investment my parents made in me and I'm forever grateful for it. I say all that because this morning I watched the newly released documentary Through the Eyes of Spurgeon. Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers, has been a peculiar blessing to me. His love for the word, his affection for Christ, and his depth of struggle, particularly with depression, have all been an encouragement to me in the past few years.

"I would go into the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted that I might know how to speak a word in season to one who is weary."

I am deeply grateful for this man and grateful for this well-made documentary. I wish you would all take the time to watch it. But I also wish, if you are a parent, you would watch it with your children. Maybe watch it in parts, or make it a week-long viewing, but somehow I recommend you do it with them.

Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary says this, "It's as though Spurgeon never lived a boring day in his life, every day was marked by gospel adventure and rigor of gospel service." The heroes of my childhood were Benjamin Franklin and Marquis de Lafayette, Betsy Ross and Abraham Lincoln, but how much greater would it have been if my heroes were godly men and women like Charles Spurgeon? What a gospel adventure the man lived and what an example of servitude to Christ.

Watch the full documentary here.