GBA 2013 Tuesday Afternoon and Evening

Ellis

Hughes

Mills

I'm afraid I arrived here in Swanwick for the 2013 Grace Assembly late and missed the first session at which David Ellis spoke. He and Barbara are our hosts this year.

At 5 pm Bill Hughes spoke. Having ministered for 35 years in Scotland, he has been ministering in Florida these last 12 years but has now moved back to the UK and so he was invited to give some reflections of the American scene. As he himself said, he was not able to say very much that was original but it was good to have this informed assessment of the situation, which is mixed and confused.

Then after supper Tim Mills spoke of justification by faith from Habakkuk 2:4, which he called Habakkuk's greatest statement. He urged us to go back to that initial moment when we first believed and to recognise the layers involved. He listed these as

1. Belief in the big facts about the Bible and God

2. Dependence on God

3. Confidence and certainty about God and his promises

4. Emergency and desperation to escape sin and judgement
At the close he simply raised the question of whether this initial faith is the same as the faith we are to go on with.