Nick Cave and the Good Seeds

I've never been a fan of the rock musician Nick Cave. I've listened to piles of music like his, but never made the time to give him a try. He certainly is an interesting person, and someone unfraid to think deeply about life, and live out his convictions. So I was really interested to come across a Times interview with him today. Cave says, of reading Mark's Gospel, “The Christ that emerges from Mark, tramping through the haphazard events of His life, had a ringing intensity about Him ... it was through His example that He gave our imaginations the freedom to rise and to fly.” He also noted, “Mark just wants to get to the death. It’s done with such urgency.”

Well said, Nick. It's so sad to me that this rock star finds his 'meaning' by proclaiming that nothing really matters. I tried that once, and it's obviously false. But I'm excited that he sees in Jesus something gripping, and shocking. Just maybe, what the drug and the sex and the rock music can't give, he might discover in Jesus.

Home Alone

We had a wonderful holiday in the Dordogne, in the very quiet and rural area of Perigord. We spent much of it in the L’Isle, the local river, swimming, fishing, canoeing and generally disturbing the peace. It was great checking out local markets, pedalling off each morning for baguettes and feeding the chickens we were keeping an eye on. Precious memories will stay with us for many years – a night walk with two of my boys through the countryside under brilliant stars and the Milky Way, picking blackberries by the roads, capsizing with the two youngest children at the bottom of a weir race on our canoeing trip, seeing the world-famous cave paintings at Lascaux, and hunting for lizards and snakes in the garden of the house we stayed in. A really brilliant holiday!

Sarah and I really enjoyed speaking French again during the holiday. I love the French language, which I studied to A Level. I feel a special affinity with it because it was a book in French (actually, a Roman Catholic Prayer Book – long story) which I was reading when I felt the truth of the Gospel and became a Christian. As we enjoyed the space and beauty of the region, and the warmth of the people, it was hard not to feel deeply sad about the spiritual plight of the nation. France is a land which was once abundantly blessed by Gospel faith, but needs the powerful work of God’s Word and Spirit to bring new life. Whilst there are wonderful outposts of God’s Kingdom across the land (and I’ve worshipped with French believers before), the need of Calvin’s country for his Gospel is stark and convicting. La France, que le Bon Dieu vous benisse.

Now I’m back, and am home alone, as Sarah has taken the children up to Yorkshire for a week or so to her parents’ farm. I treasure the opportunity of having fewer family responsibilities for these days, and the chance to put serious time into my ThM studies and into sermon prep and other leadership items ready for the Autumn. This week I’ve got a module at the John Owen Centre on Schaeffer and Van Til and their methodology in apologetics with Bill Edgar from Westminster Seminary. It's hugely enjoyable, not least because I’m studying in the fellowship of good friends from some years back. Next week my very good friend from school days, Garry Williams, will lead another study week on the Atonement. Garry was the first person who challenged me with the claims of the Gospel as we spent long nights discussing issues with the intensity of the teenagers we were then. I’ve watched his ministry develop through the years and am so thankful to God for him and for the ways in which his gifts are being used.

So please remember me, if you pray. It's a huge privilege to have this time to be stretched and to see more of the glories of God’s self-revelation in His Word, and to think through the responsibilities of ministering His Gospel to others. Who is sufficient for these things?