The Death of the Righteous

John Donne, 1572-1631, poet, preacher, thinker, sufferer. He saw life's hardships in ways few of us ever do, enduring poverty, persecution, numerous deaths of family members, including his wife and several children, His working life was a series of battles and broken dreams. In all of it, though, he discovered the certainties of God's promises, and the sure hope of resurrection life in Christ.

Several years before he died Donne commissioned the picture above which he put in his study. It is Donne in his grave clothes, the body he knew Christ would come to claim, and take to a place of peace and joy. Our shallow, death-denying world needs the outlook of a John Donne, and the wise admonition of this gentle friend to remind us that we are but dust, and shall soon to dust return.

Enjoy these words, and feel the power of their Christian comfort. Of those who are in Christ Donne says,

"they shall awake as Jacob did, and say as Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven,” and into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell, where there shall be no cloud nor sun, no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light, no noise nor silence, but one equal music, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no foes nor friends, but one equal communion and identity, no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity. Keep us, Lord, so awake in the duties of our callings, that we may thus sleep in Thy peace, and wake in Thy glory."

Sermon XV

Will the Real God please stand up?

1 Samuel 5 is a classic OT story – it’s got everything!

Obscure and obsolete place-names
Strange-sounding god, complete with a statue
Tribal conflict
A big fight over a religious artefact
Things that go bump in the night
A just-so story
A vengeful God
A very nasty plague
A clear claim about the authority of the God of the Bible

Here are at least 9 reasons why people don’t read the Old Testament, or the Bible at all. It just seems to be tall stories. Even if we could believe them, they have no relevance on our lives, and little which attracts us to what they’re saying.
Or so we think.
Actually, this passage tells us everything about Biblical Christianity. The God of the New Testament is the same as the God of the Old Testament. What you see here is the God of the Bible, and the human heart. And God’s response to it. That’s Christianity. 1 Samuel 5 is a perfect place to start if you’re going to see what Christianity’s all about.

The passage poses two questions,and shows us their answers:

1. Why do people worship things which aren’t real?

We worship what works for us

Dagon, the god of agriculture, had always worked for the Philistine. It was natural to worship him, then. Now we live in the years AT – After Tesco, and Tesco got agriculture and food all taken care of. So we worship a different food god in a different way. Back then, to ignore Dagon would make you a fool.

And for these 11th Century BC Philistines, Dagon worked. He’s won the battle, He’d beaten this god of Israel. He had taken the ark. Remember the Ark, the special box which contained the 10 Commandments? The chapter before tells us that the Israelites put so much trust in it that they took it into battle. Now it was stolen. And the Philistines thought that they had got this god in a box. ‘Where’s the evidence for God?’ they could have shouted: ‘look at our gods, our values have beaten him. Let’s celebrate!’

What’s working for you right now? What’s an idol for you? Not sure? Ask yourself, what must I have in life, above all-else? Approval, success, romance, wild sex, power over others…..? You’re looking at your idol. And you’ll understand, then, that you’re like everyone else – religious.

We ignore the facts

Picture the scene: the Philistines had fought, and won. Dagon had come up trumps, now it’s party time! Come day 2 they get a rude awakening – they weren’t the only ones who’d crashed out after a night’s partying – Dagon had, too. Their god had toppled over. They panic, and pick him up. Day 3 comes, the same things happen, except now Dagon’s head and hands – his wisdom and strength – were cut off, and he was prostrate before the Ark. The historian’s message couldn’t be clearer.

So they didn’t do the sensible thing – after the second time – of breaking it up; they set it up again. Oh dear, it’s a sad picture, isn’t it?
But it’s not so different from life as we so often try to live it. Our gods fall over. The things we live for, the things we put our trust in, have a way of falling over, don’t they? Our gods don’t work, but yet we still turn to them, again and again. We set up the Dagon, broken though we know it is. And we ignore the despair of our hearts, because we think that next time the god won’t fail us…

It wasn’t a broken Dagon alone which showed that the real God had shown up, the facts were all over the nation of Philistia. There’s this dreadful plague – tumours and rats sounds exactly like the bubonic plague: ‘Devastation’ (v. 6) doesn’t seem too strong a way of putting it.
And then it gets more frightening, more dreadful – wherever they take the Ark death goes with it. If it weren’t so terrifying it would be comical – Ashdod, Gath, Ekron – all suffering from something which make swine flu look like a blessing! All this until our historian tells us, in v. 12, ‘their cry went up to heaven’. What started out as a victory party turned into a living hell.


2. Why don’t people worship the Living God?

They didn’t; they had seen His power. Their god was broken; their catastrophic plague. They knew that this God was Living, powerful, true; they clung to what they trusted in. Come on, they knew just what was happening. But they wanted a broken god rather than the real one, even after their minds told them how wrong they were.

The real God is too much for us

Episode tells us three things about the God of the Bible, the God of true Christianity: God is Living; God is Powerful; He’s a God we can’t play around with.

He’s Living – ask Dagon- better still, ask the Philistines. A God you can’t see – that’s scary. You never know where He is; you knew where Dagon was – right there, in his temple; in that place you could chose to go to or not to go to. You could involve him in your life if you wanted to; you do a few things and you can believe that you’ve made him happy, you’re in His good books. That’s religion. It’s about having the gods where you want them, getting them to do what you want them to do. Christianity’s all different: It’s not about trying to control God, but recognising that He’s in control.

He’s Powerful – you can’t put Him in a box. Think of the Philistines’ pride: they’d beaten his armies, they’d captured His magic box; now they had Him just where they wanted him. He was powerless- surely? People make that same mistake today. They think they’ve got god safely in dusty church buildings; outdated hymns; fading memories of school assemblies, Sunday school lessons. He’s a god for the children; a god for the elderly. A god for people of an earlier age. A god for other people, in other worlds. That’s Philistine theology! How wrong we are. This God is real, and He’s the God of all people, all places.

You can’t play around with Him. You can’t pass Him off, as a problem you just don’t’ want to deal with. That’s what the Philistines did, shunting the ark round the country, only to see their problems increase with every attempt they made to avoid the Living God. We need to face up to Him.


We want to live life our way

Remember Romans 1.21, 25: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened….They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.”

We don’t want to admit that we’ve been wrong: our pride just can’t handle it. Bernard Madoff wasn’t the only man to be ensnared by his pride – we all are, and it’s made fools of us all. We claim that ‘there’s no evidence’ – the repeated claim from the atheist scientist at our recent debate. But the evidence for God is all too clear. Heaven and earth cry out, as Augustine once put it, God made us! Remember the television camera with its 60,000 photo-electric elements, and then think of the human eye, with 137,000,000. One of our ears has 24,000 strings, whereas a piano has a mere 240 strings. Nobody claims that camera and pianos are accidents, mere random mutations? They’re evidence of design. Our God proclaims Himself in our world and in our minds and hearts. And His reality in gloriously proclaimed in the Bible and there in the Lord Jesus Christ. As with the Philistines long ago, it’s not the evidence that’s lacking, but the humble willingness of the people who are faced by it to make the right deductions about it. Men and women don’t’ want evidence for a God who proclaims Himself the Lord – we vainly struggle on, content to do it our way.



1 Samuel 5 makes for part funny, part terrifying reading. And it leaves us with little comfort, if we end it there. But we need to see it in the bigger and fuller picture of the revelation of all of God’s purposes, and there is a message of grace for us, for all. We remember that the invisible God has made Himself visible for all people, and that not in plagues, but in a Person. Jesus Christ, the One who is ‘in very nature God’ has stood amongst us, proclaims the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2, to be touched, studied, listened to, and trusted in. Try to think if you can on this. Eternal Deity in human flesh: this is the true and Only God. He doesn’t allow rivals. He can’t be tamed; you can’t keep Him in a Temple, or put Him in your pocket. He is the God – if we can put it like this – who ‘works’, who alone makes sense of life, and alone can root out our deepest controlling idols in order to set us free. And yet this God-man, astonishingly, was broken for us, cut down, laid in the dust of death as He took upon Himself our sins, and God’s punishment of our sins. He bore it all, and was laid as our substitute before God’s holy justice. And He lives now, He lives to raise us from the death of idolatry, to reveal truth to our blind eyes, and to give indestructible life to our mortal bodies.
He is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5.20). We trust in Him, we are delivered to the freedom of His service. We run in the path of His commands, because He has set our hearts free (Psalm 119.32).

Some Debate

Last weekend we had our debate on the question ‘what can science tell us about God?’ with Professors Lewis Wolpert and Russell Cowburn, an atheist and a Christian respectively. At my estimate about two hundred and fifty came along. It was the biggest proportion of faces unknown to me that I think I’ve ever seen at a Gunnersbury event, and the largest proportion of nonChristians, too.

We had a good time. ‘Good’, that is, meaning that the question of God was being engaged with by two excellent minds, one of them a convinced and mature Christian, with a full building listening to this exchange, whilst making their own points and asking questions in the allocated time. It was a wonderful privilege to welcome so many, a good number of whom were friends or contacts who had come onto our premises for the first time. The warmth of the welcome and the quality of the refreshments underlined, we hope, the welcome of Christ.

And yet, the event had its real frustrations. Uppermost, to my mind, was Lewis Wolpert himself. Professor Wolpert was not so much under-prepared as not even wanting to engage seriously with the question. For him it was axiomatic that science can tell us nothing about God, as God does not exist. His oft-repeated mantra was ‘but where’s the evidence?’ When presented with the challenge of the Bible’s witness to the revelation of God, and that supremely in Jesus Christ, he was entirely dismissive. Along the way he showed an alarming ignorance of the contents of the Christian faith, at one point asking why we should believe in reincarnation. His arguments against the authority of the Bible, such as they were, were a collection of far-fetched and ludicrous received ‘scholarly’ opinions which have long been discredited.

This might sound unfair to Professor Wolpert. He is a man of undoubted brilliance who has made landmark progress in his scientific specialities. Why should we demand of him that he’s au fait with the case for the historicity of Scripture? In essence, that’s not what I’m asking of him. I do, though, think that he has a responsibility to do a whole lot better than just say ‘where’s the evidence?’ when asking about God’s existence. The evidence, claims the Christian believer, is in the text of Scripture. It is evidence in events which cannot be repeated, any more than any other historical event could be repeated in order to be verified according to the criteria of scientific method. And so, yes, we do find ourselves looking back to the events of 2000 and more years ago in order to assess the claims of Christianity.

It is not an intellectual retreat for the Christian to say that God has evidenced Himself in Scripture, a record of the past. We believe that He has acted definitively in human history in a way which has been accurately recorded. We believe that that revelation is complete, sufficient and compelling in the Person of Jesus Christ. We also believe that the nature of the evidence for God, in Scripture and Christ, is of a kind with all historical evidence: ask it to be repeated in your own experience to match your own criteria of what constitutes scientific verifiability and you’re making demands which are as impossible as they are foolish.

Lewis Wolpert gave reasons which he felt were evident to anyone as to how God cannot exist. Well, he didn’t give a reason which I hadn’t thought through by the time I was eighteen. I used to convince myself that they were sufficient in order to dismiss what I knew were the Christian claims for God’s existence in Christ as recorded in the Bible. At nineteen I went to the Bible with extreme reluctance and massive scepticism. What I met there challenged my view of reality, and my confidence that I really could avoid the claims of Jesus Christ and have any intellectual integrity. I was no longer convinced that there was no evidence for God. At that time in my life I was a Classics student, and was well used to reading ancient texts from the Mediterranean and Near Eastern World. I knew that in the New Testament I wasn’t meeting myths, legends and fables. Incredible as the narrative of the New Testament was, especially in the teaching, acts and miracles of Christ, I knew that I was reading the writings of men who wrote what they were convinced was true. My assessment was that, like the one they reported, they weren’t deceitful, tying to lead a new movement from wicked motives, nor were they misguided, suffering a collective delusion about Jesus Christ. They were men who courageously testified to events and recorded them with painstaking accuracy. The challenge to us is clear: what will we do with their witness to Christ?

Russell Cowburn’s contribution to the debate was a quite a contrast to Professor Wolpert’s. Russell had prepared carefully, and was keen to engage in each point which he heard. What came through clearly in Russell’s presentation and handling of Lewis’ and the audience’s questions was that he did have a confidence in the Bible’s witness. He didn’t believe that our universe is merely the sum total of the discovered and as yet undiscovered phenomena of existence and the scientific laws which seem to govern them all. He was convinced that the Bible gives a totally reliable guide for discovering the One who created and sustains this and all worlds, and who can be personally encountered in Jesus Christ. Lewis Wolpert was unwilling to engage with the details of what Russell said. It didn’t do to say ‘there’s no evidence’ when Russell brought forth both the strong clues for an Intelligent Designer and the challenge of the Scriptures. One man’s evidence can only be dismissed if it’s shown to be inadequate. Anything less smacks of poor science, and possible prejudice.

As with all debates, there was a tangible sense of frustration in different quarters at different times. Frustration when the speakers or questioners said something which others disagreed with, and frustration, too, that there were no conclusions. It’s the standard atmosphere of debates. If one thing came home strongly to me again after the debate it’s that people love their opinions, and will hold passionately to them when faced with the challenge of looking at evidence which might be uncomfortable. To many there Russell Cowburn was the clown, the otherwise brilliant scientist who had this tragic religious ‘thing’ which he couldn’t or wouldn’t shake. I would disagree: I think he’s looked at the evidence for himself in a spirit of genuine scientific inquiry, and has concluded that all of his professional scientific endeavour is simply the quest to know more about the God who has so graciously and definitively revealed Himself in Christ.

After the debate I walked back with Lewis to his car. It was a genuine pleasure to chat with him. I sensed that the debate had wearied and probably irritated him (he’s in his eighties, and so surely lacks a little of the energy and patience he once had!). I do hope and pray that what he heard will give him reason to consider his convictions carefully. In Jesus Christ there is life, and without him there is only a fearful eternity.

Preached!

God's Word comforts, heals, disturbs and breaks, sometimes all in the same sermon.
Last Sunday morning we thought about the new humanity which God is building through His Son, Jesus Christ.

'God's New Humanity' - Ephesians 2.11-18

An Excellent Ruse!

This weekend we're hosting a debate: 'What can science tell us about God?'

This is an excellent article by Michael Ruse about the hubris of those who profess to be the voice of sane and learned inquiry as they defend and propagate an atheistic worldview. Timely words from an atheist who refuses to let them speak for him!

In Full Retreat

This week I took two days out on Tuesday and Wednesday to have a prayer retreat. I took my Bible, spending time in Ezekiel and 1 John, an i-pod with some excellent sermons to listen to, a favourite Puritan and a notebook, and headed to a cottage in the Sussex countryside. For nearly 48 hrs I was on my own with just the nature around to enjoy (kestrels, a hooting owl at night, and an industrious and deadly stoat outside the kitchen window).

So I had a break, then? Yes and no.
Yes, it was a welcome relief to put down ministry responsibilities, and a huge privilege to enjoy quiet time and space in which to think and pray. We all need this sort of space far more regularly than most of us ever make time for, whether in ministry or not. And at the same time, it was a ministry essential, with its own challenges. For those of us called to full-time Gospel ministry the need to have times alone is, to my mind, absolutely essential. I think, read, write and pray. I seek to see my sins and struggles; I also seek to review God's grace in my life, and to think clearly about my present personal and ministry life as well as to look ahead and be ready for future responsibilities. As I have more time to ponder God's Word and to seek His face He unfailingly draws close to refresh and renew. This week, yet again, He was unfailingly kind.

Not that taking a retreat is always comfortable, though. It's a genuine struggle to take the two days out of all that's going on in the normal routine, and always much to catch up on on returning. There have been times when it's not been comfortable really to bring my heart before the Lord and to be searched by His Word. Frequently I've felt bewildered and downhearted looking at the problems of my own life and those in the church. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In a different sense, when the Lord examines us and shows us our sins often we would rather not be there. And yet; and yet God call us into fellowship with Himself in the Gospel. He wants all of us, not just some parts of our lives. Above all, He wants our hearts for Himself. He wants hearts which are so joyful to be walking with Him. He wants to examine us, to identify sin, and then to set to work on fighting against it by His Holy Spirit. You can neither pretend with God, nor can you hide from His purposes. But when the Lord reveals the glory of His love to us in Christ why, we should ask, would we ever want to keep a distance from Him? They were good days.

Re-tyred

Today we're off for a few days' peace and quiet (sort of, five kids, you imagine the scene...). We've been flat out since the end of August and the charge to Christmas is always exhausting, so we need to use these days to go a bit more slowly. I'll have to take my ThM studies on my travels, but they're always a bit of light relief from the pressures of ministry!

It's not only me who's worn down. My motorbike tyres need replacing. I'm always keen to save my pennies, but you can't compromise quality with bike tyres, so I'll be choosing carefully. Bikes, like marriages, families and souls, need looking after. Let them wear down and you'll only have yourself to blame if you wipeout.

And next week I'm prioritising soul-care. I'm taking two days out to be completely on my own(something I try to do each six months). I'll take my Bible, an ipod with some sermons on and a favourite Puritan author and head off to a cottage. I need to hear the Lord speak to me, and I need to talk to Him. These are always thrilling and enriching times and charge me up again for Christian living and ministry.

So long, Sennacherib

On Sunday mornings at Gunnersbury we do a children’s talk, a short slot in which we teach a bible verse to the children before the primary-age attenders leave for Sunday school. This Sunday I was given 1 John 4.4: ‘the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.’ No easy task? How on earth was I to teach that to four year olds?

I decided to retell the story of the Assyrian threat against Jerusalem from Isaiah 36-37. Do go back to your Bibles and remind yourselves of this gripping narrative. A maniac Assyrian king Sennacherib, a godly but understandably terrified King of Jerusalem, Hezekiah, a desperate prayer to the Lord, a prophet from the Lord, and a shattering, and liberating, divine intervention. And the message for us? The One who is with is – and in us, by His Holy Spirit – is the One we can trust in for all our needs, day by day as well as for eternity. What an amazing hope we have in a Living God through Jesus Christ.

Listening to the talk was a church member with a literary passion, and it set her mind back to a Byron poem she learned as a school girl. I didn’t know it, but she called this morning and recited it down the phone. Glorious stuff, even from an ungodly poet! Enjoy the poem, and hold firmly to your faith in so good and mighty a God.


The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Guilt-Edged Religion?

“It is guilt upon the conscience that softens and cowardizes our spirits: “The righteous are bold as a lion,” Prov. 28.1.

It was guilt in Cain’s conscience that made him cry, “Every one that meets me shall slay me,” Gen. 4.14.

A guilty conscience is more terrified with conceited dangers than a pure conscience is with real ones. A guilty sinner carries a witness against himself in his own bosom. It was guilty Herod cried out, “John Baptist is risen from the dead.” Such a conscience is the devil’s anvil, on which he fabricates all those swords, and spears, with which the guilty sinner pierces and wounds himself; guilt is to danger what fire is to gun-powder; a man need not fear to walk among many barrels of powder if he has no fire about him.”

John Flavel, Works, Vol. 5, p. 455

And thrice on a Sunday

Sunday saw me in William Grimshaw country, and what a stirring time it was. As I had a preaching commitment at Slack Top I really wanted to make the most of the day to see Gospel work in its different forms in West Yorkshire, so I planned a full itinerary.

After an early start from London I arrived in Haworth at Hall Green Chapel for their morning worship. I’d heard of Mick Lockwood and the work he’s involved in at Haworth, but it was a real privilege to attend the service and enjoy his ministry as well as meet many very friendly people there. Mick took on a situation of four people some ten years ago, and the Lord has really blessed his patient ministry of preaching, care and Gospel witness, so that the chapel has a real buzz about it, and the service was characterised by warmth and Gospel seriousness in a growing congregation. Singing a couple of Welsey hymns in what was once a Methodist heartland had a real poignancy. Old Grimshaw would have been a happy man!

After a quick lunch with Jill and Mick they were off to a church plant in Bradford and I went through Hebden Bridge and up to Mount Zion Baptist Church at Slack Top (not Slack Bottom, mind, that’s the other end of the hamlet…). This persevering band of brothers and sisters in Christ love God’s Word, and I brought Psalm 126 to them. We had great fellowship and talked at length as to how their work might go forwards. I hope that we can get an article on the work in Evangelicals Now soon.

Then it was into Halifax, where I found the Grace Baptist Church which meets in an attractive new building on the west side of town for the third worship service of the day for me. Grace is maintaining a solid Gospel witness in its area. Luke Jenner (not the one from here, but the one from here) preached a really thoughtful and helpful sermon on forgiveness, which got me thinking about some of my relationships and where my own heart is. Halifax is like so many towns in the M62 corridor, bereft of town centre Gospel witness and experiencing rapid Asian immigration. These places are crying out for courageous church planting. It’s brilliant to see the vision and the progress made in recent years by the Yorkshire Gospel Partnership and the North West Partnership. May the Lord raise up many more workers for the North of England.

At the end of a long day I was looking forward to hooking up with Martin Woodier at Otley who was giving me a bed for the night. Martin’s been pastoring the church at Otley for 23 years (and isn’t old!), and is pioneering a new witness in Ilkley. We enjoyed great fellowship and talked through the different aspects and possibilities of our respective ministries.

London is a long way from West Yorkshire in every sense, but united by the same realities: people are sinful and under God’s judgment, and they need to know the forgiveness and transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What God did through John Wesley as he roamed the whole of Britain, and what He achieved through Grimshaw as he preached intensively through England’s Northern Counties, He is well able to do again. Ted Hughes, who grew up a few miles from Halifax, once spoke of the enduring influence of Grimshaw and his like on the landscape of West Yorkshire, and speculated that he must have been like a planet striking the earth in his own day. “Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few” (1 Sam. 14.6). Do it in our day, Lord.

Learn, Learn, Teach!

“The things you’ve heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2.2

The best teachers are the best learners. A pulpit without learning is a great disservice to its congregation. However and wherever they learn, Pastors must be serious about growing in their understanding of God’s truth if they are going to be truly qualified to pass on the Gospel deposit to others.

Tuesday saw me joining with the Board of the London Theological Seminary for the AGM. It was a very encouraging time. The Seminary has been richly blessed with a good faculty and some excellent facilities. The number of men coming to LTS to train for pastoral ministry is a reflection of the Lord’s blessing on the institution, and it’s a genuine privilege to play even a very small part in its future development.

Training for ministry isn’t the sort of thing you do for a few years at the outset, but it must be a life-long commitment for any effective Pastor. I’m putting myself through my ThM in Historical Theology this year and next for that very purpose. I’m burdened, too, to see men putting their energies into stretching their minds and continuing to learn good theology and better ministry skills in order to be better servants of the Word. The many conferences and ministry courses which combine ministry placement and theological study are a much-needed and very welcome feature of the current Reformed and Evangelical scene.

To that end I organised a ministry morning with Paul Levy and Liam Goligher for Pastors and ministry workers in West London. On Wednesday 30 of us gathered for the inaugural meeting, and we profited from a full and very helpful morning together. Dick Lucas taught the Pastoral Epistles, and Garry Williams led our thoughts on Calvin and Justification. It was superb to be with other like-minded men (and women), and to share this precious opportunity. We plan to run another in the new year.

We learn in large part in order to preach and teach. I recently heard about a great ministry near Heptonstall, West Yorkshire. The church meets at Slack Top – what a fantastic Pennine place-name! - and is ambitious to bring a Gospel witness to its local community, but is lacking in strength at this stage in its life. I long to see churches like this continue in the Lord’s strength, so, as well as preaching for them this Sunday I would love to think with them about how their work can go forwards and flourish. Please join me in my prayers, and remember my travelling. Thanks.

Why the Banner is Brilliant

Just one of the reasons why the Banner is brilliant.

Happy Birthday to you!

My wonderful little boy, Asher, is 3 today. Happy birthday, little man!

Lots of love from his big brothers, Ezra and Samuel, and from his big sisters, Maisy and Jemimah. They all love him deeply, and their affection is returned with spoonfuls by their biggest (and smallest) admirer.

International Harvest Event

Harvest Services in London. Hmm, well, we've valiantly pressed on with them through the years, but the last few years have shown that they have little contact with non-Christians. So last year we tried something different. It was a great success. And with a few minor changes we're repeating the event this Sunday at 5pm, our International Harvest Event.

We'll set out table and chairs in the space where our pews normally are, and will set out a range of harvest-related activities and items. For the children there's a chance to try out instruments from around the world, plenty of craft activities and an expert face-painter. There's superb international food for all, including a BBQ on the forecourt. We have representatives from Tearfund, Traidcraft and Compassion UK, who will be informing us of the work of Christian relief and charitable works around the world, and providing opportunities to support their ministries. We will watch a brief DVD about what God is doing in His world, and then one of our members will be sharing the Gospel message with all assembled.

As you can see, this is a lot of hard work for all involved, but it's an effort which we believe truly honours the Lord. We're inviting many friends to join us, and have put the word around our community. We want to witness to the reality of a grace-giving and compassionate God, and to hear His Gospel of grace together. Please pray with us for the event, and if you're local, do come along!

Worse the Devil you know

“Remember, that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace and sweet communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was, and lies lowest in the foundation of Satan’s building. It is the most difficultly rooted out, and is the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps in insensibly into the midst of religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility.”

Jonathan Edwards

One Fabulous Weekend

That's what many of us who were at Sunbury Court are saying. For me it was the most enjoyable church weekend to date - and all have been excellent! I'm scratching my head to think why it was so good. I'm sure it was a combination of factors. Here's a top three for me:

First, I really appreciated Wes McNabb's preaching. His warmth, humility and down-to-earth manner were a wonderful channel for God's Word. I ask you, who wants a cold, aloof preacher, however good his content is? A sermon is man and message, inseparably so, and a man changed by the Holy Spirit is the only fit person to speak with the Lord's authority and to show the attractiveness of the Gospel. I appreciated the godly servant who spoke God's Word, and valued all that he had to say about discipleship as we learn it through David's life.

Second, it's superb to be with God's family. I knew it would be. But I felt it at times almost overwhelmingly so. I felt quite choked on Saturday night as I looked around at my church family. So many godly people, using their gifts in the Lord's service and yielding to His Spirit's work in their lives. And some part of that work means putting up with me!
I remember hearing a politician once say that the thing he most dreaded in all the world was speaking to the same audience three times. I reckon that I've preached around a thousand Sunday sermons to the Gunnersbury congregation, and have opened the Bible on numerous other occasions in midweek meetings, weddings, funerals, evangelistic events and so on. That the church still listens to me is NOT to do with any gifts or godliness on my part - that's why I was choked on Saturday night - but all to do with the Holy Spirit's work in their lives.
And throughout the weekend I saw the Holy Spirit at work, bringing hearts together and sharing joy as we spent those days in each other's company. There's nothing like a church cricket match, or a big bunch of young and old taking over the local open-air swimming pool as we did; or two people, from different backgrounds, at different ages and stages, sitting down over a coffee and sharing their lives; or seeing newer arrivals at the church being so welcomed and put at their ease by seasoned members. God's family is a very special place.

And last, the Gospel is amazing. You can't separate the Gospel from the preached Word or the church, of course. But it's in each that the Gospel shines so brightly. One life was lived, offered up to death for us, and then raised from the dead and exalted for our salvation. We have a vibrant, solid hope in Jesus Christ. We have a message to live and die for, to share with all and to sing of for all of our days.

So, treasure your church. She's imperfect, and sometimes she will hurt you through imperfect, sinful people. But she is precious to God, and must be precious to you, too.

"How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the Presence of our God because of you?" 1 Thessalonians 3.9

The Reason for the Reason for God

Hurray, it's done! I've finally been able to sign off and send off my translation of the Strasbourg Reformer Martin Cellarius's work 'De Operibus Dei'. It's been a great exercise to wrestle with Latin again, though I don't think it's a really spectacular work - Cellarius's, I mean, the jury's out on how well I've translated it!

Now it's a totally different task. I'm writing on Tim Keller's The Reason for God. It's a publishing phenomenon. I've read it twice, and have lent it to others to read, Christian and non-Christian. And yet I think that in many places it's a rather strange book, and that it really could be better.

So I'm taking the opportunity of studying it. In particular, I'm looking at how it matches up to the methodology of Cornelius Van Til, long-time Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. What would he have made of it, and would he approve of Keller's method?

Van Til is (in)famously difficult to follow, but even a passing acquaintance with him convinces you just how important his voice is in the discussion of how to present the truth of Christianity to an unbelieving world.

Please pray that I might find the time to think clearly, study well, and deliver a piece of work which will help my thinking, and maybe that of others, in this area.

Preaching for Life

'Like newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.' (1 Peter 2.2-3)

'God begets and multiplies His church only by means of His Word. It is by the preaching of the grace of God alone that the church is kept from perishing.' John Calvin, comment on Psalm 1

As my church is off for our church away weekend both the Apostle's and the Reformer's words strike me. Spiritually healthy people are hungry people. Sermons are not optional, they're essential for solid, Christian growth. Without the Word - preached, discussed, learned, prayed over and passed on - we will perish. But with the Word we have Christ, and to share Him together, as we'll be doing this weekend, will be precious indeed.

Please pray for a really fruitful time for all who attend, and for Wes McNabb as he preaches to us.

Essential Sovereignty

We've been thinking a lot about God's Sovereignty as we've been studying Ephesians so far. The Sovereignty of God is one of the most thrilling, awe-inspiring, hope-inducing doctrines in Scripture. And it's not an option!

But Christ

Tempted to look and to long beyond Jesus Christ? Think again.

"After Jesus Christ we have no need of speculation, after the Gospel, no need of research. When we come to believe, we have no desire to believe anything else; for we begin by believing there is nothing else which we have to believe."

Tertullian (c.160-c.220 AD)