Didn’t think so!

Too busy to finish that post. Devon here we come!

wordle of Genesis 1-11

I doubt I’m going to get round to finishing the ’should we blog’ post before holiday. Here is a little wordle based on the text of Genesis 1-11. One week without internet coming soon. I wonder how many emails I’ll have when I get back?

Church list

I’ve decided to drop the church list on the side of my blog. Too many questions - ‘why is x church included’, ‘why is y church not there’ etc. Easier to list none. I do hope to introduce a list of sermon pages I recommend at a later date.

Weekend away

A short personal post now to note our weekend away and annual trip to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I am working on another post to come entitled ‘Should Christians Blog?’ having been advised strongly of the negative view in recent days. This may come out in a few days or a few weeks depending on when it gets done. This website is not my boss - and I have got other things to do - but I find it to be a pleasant leisure activity of more profit than watching television!

Back to the weekend - Clare and I, with the fiendish dog, went up to London for the wedding of my lifelong friend, Alison Polling, to Dr Mark Elliot. It was a lovely day. I was interested to see the inside of St Helens, Bishopsgate, where the wedding took place, and rather wowed by the beauty of St Andrews Undershaft, where the reception was held. It used to be a church in its own right, but now functions more like a church hall for St Helens. Mark and Alison had chosen their ceremony to be in the original prayerbook language, which I do like, as it has a certain timeless quality and solemnity. I gave the New Testament reading from Ephesians 5.22-33, and originally I was told it would be KJV, but it ended up being ESV, the St Helens pew-bible. As I regularly lead worship and preach, it was not a trial to stand in front of a group of people and read, but I had to keep a grip on myself and not lapse into the KJV/NKJV forms that I am much more used to, especially with such a familiar passage!

It was a very happy day - good to see Alison’s brother whom I had not talked to for about ten years, and all quite emotional. Alison has been through a lot in her life (she is just a month younger than me) and to be honest, getting married was the last thing on her mind through many years of sickness and struggle. But through it all, her faith in Christ has been evident, as has her irrepressible will to live her life as normally as possible - if you count skydiving as normal!

As the speeches and cake-cutting were done at the church, the reception was quite muted and several folks slipped away, but we stayed to the bitter end which did not take very long as Alison had been half an hour late for the wedding in the first place, and they had to catch a Eurostar train! As we walked away, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the ‘Gherkin’ which sits just across the narrow street from St Helens. Many thanks to St Helens, by the way, for allowing us  one of their very limited parking spaces - it would have been very expensive for us to get there in an accessible way otherwise.

Sunday was a good day, relaxing indeed. I find now that even if I am not preaching, I have this unshakeable feeling of being ‘on duty’ at our own church. Which, as an Elder, I should be. But I tend to worry about things and obsess about little details - so it was wonderful to be able to roll up to church on a hot day, sit under airconditioning rather than hoping that the pulpit fan might spare a little draft for me, sing loud praises with hundreds of others rather than straining my voice trying to lead our small congregation, and listen to sound expository preaching and clear evangelistic reasoning morning and evening respectively rather than trying to deliver same and castigating self for failure!  I would particularly recommend the morning sermon by Dr Masters - pop over to the Tab website and download it. I could have sat and listened another hour.

In a way, I am enjoying going back to the Tabernacle more now, as we know less people and therefore less people ask us the same questions over and over! It is quite glorious to look around hundreds of faces and only know a third of them by name. I remember growing up when I knew 90 per cent of the people, all of the time. God is blessing His church with many new faces, and frequent conversions, which is encouraging to see.

We had a good time with our family, Sunday afternoon tea in the garden was a grand experience until the visiting Molly the Dog decided that Dolly the Dog was too friendly with her pack leader, Auntie Pom, and so decided to initiate ‘Operation Gum-Scruff’ - she hasn’t got many teeth! Dolly being twice her size I thought it better to shut her away in a bedroom for a little while in case she retaliated!

Now we’re back in sunny Cheltenham, preparing John for a week away on a Scripture Union camp in Somerset. A bit of self-reliance will be good preparation for the big ‘comprehensive’ adventure, now only four weeks away - wow!

Proclamation Trust talk

Last Sunday, 20th July, David Jackman of the Proclamation Trust was in Cheltenham speaking at  Cambray Baptist Church. I went along at 3pm (not clashing with our church meetings) to hear him address the topic ‘Teaching the Bible in today’s context’. Some would say that the problem with the Proc Trust is summed up in that title - teaching rather than preaching - quality and content and academia over Spirit-led heralding. But the talk really blew that out of the water. Perhaps some folk are overwhelmed by the emphasis of the Proc Trust on expository preaching to the exclusion of all else - but so much of what is done is a neccessary corrective to ‘felt needs’-driven ‘preaching’ today. As for the other accusation levelled at PT and St Helens Bishopsgate - Sandemanianism - that didn’t come over at all. Nor did it come over in the sessions I attended last summer at the Cheltenham Bible Festival.

Cambray Baptist Church Pulpit

As promised to one or two friends, here is a summary of what DJ said: He began by quoting 2 Tim 3.14 to 4.3, pointing out that many outsiders today think that the Word has nothing relevant to say, and that many Christians take on all sorts of nonsense from ‘teachers’ without any serious study of their own.

He highlighted the importance of confidence in God’s Word - the inspiration and authority of Scripture. He pointed out that whilst thise doctrine is still widely accepted in evangelicalism on a theoretical basis, it is under attack in practice. We must learn, he said, to handle the word rightly - as workmen - working in the Word is what God requires of us! He mentioned the old word and spirit  debate and affirmed that we should be churches that value both, together in tandem, not as seperate concepts.

He then proposed, for want of a better term, a job description for the Bible: 1. To bring men to faith in Christ by its declaration. This must be the heart of our conviction - that men are saved through the agency of the proclamation of the Word. 2. To grow believers in the faith by teaching, rebuke, exhortation, correction, etc.  He proposed that ‘the man of God’ in v17 of 2 Tim 3 does refer to ministers, but also in a wider sense to all believers.

He made the point that we must have a robust defence for the authority of Scripture - or at least a better one than the man who told a questioner who asked if what he was teaching was not all a little bit extreme ‘yes, it is extreme - I am extremely right and you are extremely wrong’. He reminded us that Scripture is God-breathed - or indeed, the very breath of God - His mind revealed.

He moved on to Colossians 1.25-29 to discuss what he considered to be standing in true apostolic succession. That is v25 ‘To make the word of God fully known’. This was Paul’s task, and is ours today. For the present we proclaim ‘Christ in you’ and for the future ‘the hope of glory’ (v27). We added ‘we proclaim Christ, we don’t proclaim Bible’. From v 28 he pulled the vital aim of preaching, to ‘present everyone mature in Christ’. This is what is at stake - we are to be about the work of helping each other grow in grace. It is supposed to be hard work  and a struggle to rightly divide the Word. In the face of this difficulty, why not give up? He answered with verse 29 - we don’t give up because we seek energy from Christ - we don’t go on in our own strength.

In the second part of his talk he asked ‘How can we teach the Bible better?’ and gave some pointers which he emphasised were NOT hard and fast rules, simply practical aids. He suggested we divide preparation into four sections, as follows:

1. What does the text mean? Exegete the text, using language tools, as much as you can without consulting commentaries or opinions of men.

2. What does the text signify?  - Why is the text there? What was its purpose? What is the context? He gave the example of asking why Paul talks about marriage in the letter to the Ephesians, considering the Ephesian culture of worshiping a female deity and subverting the Biblical order. He suggested that a good challenge for all message preparers is to be clear in our own minds what ALL sixty-six books are there for.

3. Application. Our hearers must not be ‘head Christians’ only. He quoted Dr Lloyd-Jones’ comment on application - that it must be through the mind, to the heart, activating the will.  We must consider appropriate questions to ask which will unfold the meaning to minds, relate the meaning to hearts, and suggest some actions as a result. The first line of application is always (he said) ‘What does this text teach about God?’ Secondly, he suggested, ‘What does this text teach about Israel/ the church’. He warned against the use of ‘bolt on cultural applications’ like ‘pray more’, ‘read your bible more’, or ‘witness more’. We could ALL do MORE of ANY of these things - applications should be truly challenging - the Word of God changes lives.

4. How should I express the message? He suggested we work out a theme sentence - the driving force behind the whole passage - if you like, an ‘aim sentence’ - what do we hope that God will do through His Word in the lives of our hearers? What will our hearers be able to say when asked over coffee ‘I was in the creche today, what was the sermon about?’

David concluded by stating that God does not have a plan ‘B’. The Word is how He works, with no exceptions. May our lives give credibility to our proclamation of the Word - that the world around might begin to hunger after Spiritual reality - and real spiritual LIFE!

There was a time of questions after. I slipped one in about how we should respond to those in the churches who disparage message preparation and study of books before proclamation. He responded that there are only four possible sources of authority - Experience, the Church, Human Reason, or Scripture. Of course, our position is that Scripture alone is the authority, and our careful study of it is an expression of this. He very perceptively then said that Christian believers who oppose study and hard work in the Word will only do this if they have another source of authority, ultimately - and that in evangelical circles this will invariably be their own personal experience. A fair illustration of what he began by saying - affirming the authority of scripture in theory, but denying it in practice. May we be delivered from this!

Little war criminals get punished, big ones don’t

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20294.htm

 

An insightful article from Information Clearing House, much food for thought. I’d not perhaps agree with the writer’s absolute support for Palestine over against Israel -I believe that both sides are in the wrong - but apart from, worth your time. If you dare.

A little update. Some folk feel that me linking to this article is a ‘political’ statement. No, it isn’t. Some folk feel that I am anti-Israeli. No, I’m not. What we need to do is take a step back and consider that not everything in the world around us is good. We need to consider that not everything the western world does in foreign affairs is moral or motivated by altruism. History shows us this even if we are too blind to excercise a little discernment at the present time.

No Ball Games!

Just a couple of photos. One from John’s school play, Hansel and Gretel. You can see the whole school there as his school was close this summer due to Council cutbacks. The other is our (and John’s) bedroom wall. It has been screwed in with eight screws, and we hope it survives. We’re expecting some kind of ‘reaction’ to it from our favourite local misfit. He and his friends were throwing bricks and other items at our wall last Sunday night at 10pm. Sidling out into the back garden, I heard him urge them ‘keep throwing stuff and the bloke will come out’. So I didn’t. Nor would I in the twilight with no witnesses! After about five minues they stopped, and I phoned the police and got the usual incident number. I have a nice collection of them now!

I feel sorry for this young man. He has serious problems and half the reason he is on the streets so much is that he gets kicked out of the house by his Mum. He probably deserves it but its so sad to see families broken down and to see sons raise their fists at their mothers. I witnessed all of that today whilst walking the dog. Maybe there will be an opportunity for good in all this - I hope so. It seems pretty hopeless, but then again everything seemed hopeless to Joseph, trailing behind camels, enslaved, on the way to Egypt - and look what the Lord did there!

Gene Again…

Interviewed for the Times here, we have the following from Bishop Robinson…

He also lamented the Church’s obsession with sex. “When young men are knifing each other on the streets of London and a billion or more people are living on less than $1 a day, why is the Anglican Communion tearing itself apart over two men wanting to make a Christian family together?”

Adding that he was totally orthodox on doctrines such as the Trinity, the Resurrection and the Virgin Birth, he said: “We are fighting over something that is much less than all those. We have raised this one issue of sexuality over and above all the essentials. This is at best unhelpful — and at worst idolatry.”

I am very glad that Gene is orthodox on the Trinity, the Resurrection and the Virgin Birth. What is more important is that he is not orthodox in his approach to God’s Word - i.e. he can pick and choose what he likes. As much as Ian McKellen repeats his sad old mantra about evangelicals ‘rooting through’ the Bible to find verses opposed to homosexuality, pro-homosexual Christians do precisely that, only they ‘root out’ what they don’t like.

Back to the part of the quote I have emboldened above… how can two men make a Christian family together?

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. - Genesis 2:24

And He (Jesus) answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’  “and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

Who defines the Christian family? Almighty God or Bishop Gene Robinson?

We support Harry’s Place

I don’t agree with everything they say, but I agree with their right to say it, especially in relation to the threats to our freedom of speech and liberty which come from Islam.

 

 

 

http://www.neoconstant.com/314/support-harrys-place-blogburst/

Bishop Gene Robinson… and other related stuff

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7504472.stm

This is the link to BBC news which carries a video of a man heckling openly-homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson at St Mary’s Church in Putney, London. I suppose that Bishop Robinson would expect this kind of thing, having arranged his tour of the UK as a stunt to ‘protest’ his exclusion from the Lambeth Conference and to advance the cause of practicing homosexuals within the Anglican communion.

He was later able to take the high ground, calling on the congregation to pray for the protestor, and maintaining calm and dignity. Of course, what he said about other people breaking up the communion is laughable, as he and others want to change the rules of the game and they expect everyone to agree with them.

Was the protestor right? Well, what he said was absolutely right, Gene Robinson (and indeed that entire congregation) should ’stick to the Bible’, and should repent of their open rejection of God’s laws. By orthodox Christian standards, Bishop Robinson is also a heretic.

BUT the protestor was also utterly wrong, I would humbly submit. Just as wrong as Stonewall protestors are to invade and heckle church services that they do not like. I would not call public disorder ‘Christ-like’ behaviour - and before anyone raises the cleansing of the temple - it was HIS temple. Yes, we should speak up, and publish the true gospel for as long as we legally can, but we must ’speak the truth in love’ and not interrupt those of other religions (for that is what they are) if we would so highly prize our own rights of freedom of worship. Those who shout and bawl at the pilgrims at Walsingham are just the same. They’ll never win anyone to Christ, because their conduct is Godless.

This is also related to the furore in America over a man who ran out of a Catholic service without having consumed the ‘consecrated host’. Hence he has effectively kidnapped a part of the body of Christ - that is what the host becomes when consecrated in Roman Catholic teaching. I don’t believe this dogma for a moment, but neither will I mock those who do. Many atheists are laughing their heads off, as Rod Dreher observes, and calling on others to steal communion wafers. Would they dare do something similarly offensive to a Muslim, like wrapping the Koran in a bacon rasher or similar desecration? No, never. I’d like to see Stonewall storming a few Mosques - that would be consistent. Indeed, our protestor today should himself heckle in Mosques, Hindu Temples, Jewish synagogues, and anywhere else he thinks is teaching falsehood - if he is consistent. But I don’t think that he would do so. In fact, anywhere but a church and he would probably have been arrested.

Our long-haired protestor today is an example of how we, as christians, can be absolutely right - and absolutely wrong at the same time. God is in control of all these things, and He is quite capable of standing up for Himself.