Letters to my grandson: On first hearing and reading Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones

As with the proverbial London bus, first one and then another book on Dr Lloyd-Jones. Both are by Welshmen who knew him and heard him and both are very positive about him. Both quote in full the newly available journal entries from 1930 and 1931 that cast light on the Doctor's spiritual struggles. Whereas Philip Eveson's book seeks to defend the Doctor that by Geoff Thoams seeks only to promote him. The latter is written as a series of letters to my nephew and Geoff's grandson, Osian Alsop (it is weid to find yourself being referred to in a book about Llotd-Jones as happens once or twice). Eveson wants to defend the Doctor, I think, on everything, whereas my father-in-law's approach is to appreciate everything ge can but to ignore or deny one or two things and two criticise in certain places in order to avoid hagiography. Geoff's book is much more anecdotal and personal and chatty, partly due to his format. Both books are worth reading and now become part of the body of literature that any PhD student will need to consult. Geoff's book is spoiled a little by one or two slips (eg Osian Alsop not Osian Brady, Thomas not William Chalmers, to say Hilperton is a plant of Bradford on Avon glosses over a great deal of hurt and agaony). I think Isian is reading it and I hope the other grandchildren will and many others. Let's hope it will do good.

Baptised With Heavenly Power: The Holy Spirit in the Teaching and Experience of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

I was sent a copy if this new book by Philip Eveson in the hope I might be able to commend it and give it some publicity. Having now read it I am happy to do what I can. It is a Mentor Christian Focus publication and costs around £17. it is a 421 page paperback.

Philip Eveson first heard Lloyd-Jones as a boy and as a fellow Welshman ministering in London got to know this leading minister of an older generation quite well. Since then he has listened to many of the recordings of Lloyd-Jones ad read more tha fifty of his publications. He is well placed therefore to present the leading elements in Lloyd-Jones's theology and pastoral practice. In this book he looks particularly at his Calvinistic Methodism, his understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer, in Revival and in preaching. Some sujects, such a shealing, are more briefly touched upon,

Mr Eveson is concerned to present Lloyd-Jones in the best light and to bring some clarity to the way his system is understood. It has often been misunderstood. He successfully defends Lloyd-Jones from the oft-heard claim that he was a closet charismatic rather than a mainline Reformed man and points out the importance of context when reading Lloyd-Jones and his tendency to use hyperbole in some instances.

I would guess Mr Eveson is happy with nost of the various nuances of Lloyd-Jones' theology. He was what we could call today an experiential Calvinist. He came to Baptist views but would speak of adult baptism and did not think the mode important. He was a creationist, a big fan of revival and held distinctive views about the baptism and sealing of the Spirit. It is good to have all that laid out very clearly. I would want to depart from his teaching on some things myself but one greatly admires his motives in teaching as he did and most of it was spot on. His approach was always very much a spiritual one in a good sense. His godliness shones through, as it does in the two volme biography by Iain Murray.

The book contains two appendices of previously unpublished material - a message on Evan Roberts and two entries in a journal made when he was in his early thirties. Rightly or wrongly I found comfort in the realisation that even Lloyd-Jones struggled with daily prayer and Bible reading. He was clearly a man of the same flesh as me but a brilliantly man, greatly used of God and a great guide for all who seek to serve the Lord faithfully..

It is great to know that tis very thorough piece of work is now in print. Let's hope it will be read and do much good.

Midweek Meeting May 28 2025

I was quite ill Wednesday but managed t muster the strength to lead the midweek meeting. Four others were there and we looked at Psalm 64, another psalm I've never covered before. We also had a good time of prayer and then lifted the lid from the baptistery ready for Sunday. (Actually two strong Iranian chaps did most of it).

Lord's Day May 25 2025

I'm behind with this because I have been ill most of the week. I'm beginning to recover. Last Sunday was a bit different in that in the evening our six mushroomed to 66 as the Christian Answer weekend, usually based in West Kilburn was based partly in Childs Hill as West Kilburn is undergoing some changes in the building. It is a weekend of outreach, mainly at Speakers Corner. It was good to have them. I had prepared a bank holiday sermon from Matthew 1:28-30 and managed to insert a reference to Verna Wright, which I thought likely to go down well. In the morning we were fairly average in number as I preached from Ephesians 5, the next part.

10 Welsh Words Rooted in Latin

1. Aur, gold (aurum)
2. Braich, arm (brachium)
3. Bresych, cabbage, (brassica)
4. Ffenestr, window (fenestra)
5. Ffos, ditch (fossa)
6. Llew, lion (leo)
7. Llyfr, book (liber)
8. Plwm, lead (plumbum)
9. Pobl, people (populus)
10. Pont, bridge (pons)

(There are hundreds of these)

10 People who died at the age of 66

1. Thomas Cranmer
2. Marie Curie
3. Ernest Rutherford
4. Tom Petty
5. Davy Jones (of the Monkees)
6. Indira Gandhi
7. John Steinbeck
8. George Fox
9. Mark Rothko
10. W H Auden

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Final Part

So the rest of day two was filled with our usual business meeting, agreeing to meet again here, May19-21, 2026 then a break and a UK news session chaired by Colin Grimwood (work in Chelmsley Wood, Chorlton, Bethersden, Wensleydale, Ferris Lindsay teaching English, etc). Engouragements and difficulties abound. Mick Lockwood preached again in the evening, this time mainly on Revelation 21 but with a lot of Luke 24. So a good day - not just from the platform but chatting away with various people I know and didn't know. There have also been prayer meetings Wednesday and Thursday mornings (Noel Ramsey and Derek Meade leading).

I slept well and woke early as we hade to clear our rooms before ten and I was due to speak in the first session of Thursday morning. I had been asked to do something historical and chose to look at John Fawcett. I made ten points fom the material

Ten Lessons for small churches from the life of John Fawcett (1740-1817)

1. Never forget the importance of love

2. Sometimes a small church may find it difficult to pay its pastor

3. Small churches should not be surprised if other churches invite their pastors to step up into a wider sphere

4. Small churches, like large ones, must be led by and be made up of converted people

5. If even small churches produce men of the calibre of a Sutcliff they greatly serve the wider church

6. Interconnectedness. How ever it is done, it can be a great blessing, especially to a small church, to be connected with like minded churches, large or small

7. Even small churches can be involved, with other churches, in the wider work of mission

8. Remember, small churches can grow into big ones

9. Sometimes ministers even in small churches can exercise a wider ministry through print or judicious use of audio and video online

10. Sometimes it is right to hang on in there, even though thin
gs may look very discouraging

(If you are interested in John Fawcett I have begun a new blog on him here

Also my talk is here).

Today is my birthday. I am 66. Dennis Gamston tipped them off and they sang happy birthday to me, which happened once before.

Our final session was a preaching service. Chola Mukanga from Bexley Heath preached from Haggai 2. He reminded us that God is with us as his people, he is with us in his work and he is with us for his glory.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 2 Morning

We had a presentation by four men on different scenarios for small churches to start our second day. It was very interestin and quite moving in parts. This was followed by a helpful time of discussion. David Last chaired.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 1/03

Great preaching this evening as we looked behinf the scenes with the aid of Revelation 12 with Mick Lockwood. A blessing to be here.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 1/02

Our second session was a report session on the work of the gospel in Iran and among Iranians. Our speaker was Pooyan Mehrshahi, the pastor of Providence Baptist Chapel in Cheltenham. He gave a brief but illuminating history of Iran and the inroads the gospel is currently making among Persian people. He sought to give a balanced assessment of the apparent growth in numbers.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 1/01

So I am in Northampton once again. This time at the annual Grace Baptist Assebly, where Particular Baptists from all over England come together as churches to hear and to share. The opening speaker was Mark Stocker, the pastor of Spring Road Evangelical Church in Southampton. Appropriately, he took us to Revelation 5 and spoke of the Lion of Judah in whose hands are all things.

For recordings see link here.

10 Animals Mentioned By Jesus

1. Matthew 6:25, 26 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

2. Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

3. Matthew 10:16a I am sending you out like sheep

4. Matthew 10:16b among wolves.

5. Matthew 10:16c Therefore be as shrewd as snakes

6. Matthew 10:16d and as innocent as doves.

7. Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

8. Matthew 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

9. Matthew 24:28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

10. Matthew 25: 32, 33 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Lord's Day May 18 2025 Bradford on Avon

I was preaching on Sunday at the Baptist Church in Bradford on Avon. We stayed with my sister-in-law and family, who now worship in Hilperton. We know several people in both churches. I spoke at the Sunday School on the priesthood of all believers and then preached on Romans 12:12. We had a lovely barbexue in the afternoon. I then preached on the closing verses of Numbers 15. An old university friend and his wife who have moved to the area were there and one or two other extras. We then drove back to London. What a blessing to be among God's people.

10 Unusual Words found in C S Lewis's "The Great Divorce"

1. Trousered. Drunk, slang (They were both so trousered, slender, giggly and falsetto that I could be sure of the sex of neither, but it was clear that each for the moment preferred the other to the chance of a place in the bus.)
2. Dindle. Tingle, vibrate, shake ("Then only one expedient remains," said the Spirit, and to my great surprise he set a horn to his lips and blew. I put my hands over my ears. The earth seemed to shake: the whole wood trembled and dindled at the sound. … Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.)
3. Fash. Feel uset or worried ("They're both right, maybe. Do not fash yourself with such questions. Ye cannot fully understand the relations of choice and Time till you are beyond both. And ye were not brought here to study such curiosities. What concerns you is the nature of the choice itself: and that ye can watch them making.")
4. Bilked. Got money from someone by deceit (I heard the clink of money and then a scream in the female voice, mixed with roars of laughter from the rest of the crowd. The cheated woman leaped out of her place to fly at the man who had bilked her, but the others immediately closed up and flung her out. ...)
5. Tousle-headed. Having haor that is untidy or unkempt (But a tousle-headed youth at once came and sat down beside me. As he did so we moved off. … I was not left very long at the mercy of the Tousle-Headed Poet, because another passenger interrupted our conversation: but before that happened I had learned a good deal about him.)
6. Lackey. Wait upn or serve obsequiously ("Haven't ye read your Milton? A thousand livened angels lackey her,")
7. Vitiated. SPoled or impaired (Capitalism did not merely enslave the workers, it also vitiated taste and vulgarised intellect: hence our educational system and hence the lack of "Recognition" for new genius.)
8. Bourgeois. Belonging to or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes (He had thought her a really civilised and adult personality, and then she had unexpectedly revealed that she was a mass of bourgeois prejudices and monogamic instincts.)
9. Monogamic. Having only one spouse, one sexual partner, or (in the case of animals) one mate. (He had thought her a really civilised and adult personality, and then she had unexpectedly revealed that she was a mass of bourgeois prejudices and monogamic instincts.)
10. Tragedian. An actor specialising on tragic roles (He was watching the Tragedian out of the corner of his eyes. Then he gave a jerk to the chain: and it was the Tragedian, not he, who answered the Lady. "There, there," said the Tragedian. Etc.)

[Whinnying. Making a soft, high sound like a horse (I can still remember the squelching noise of the soft wet turf under their hoofs, the breaking of the undergrowth, the snorting and the whinneyings; how their hind legs went up and their horned heads down in mimic battle. … It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs.)]

Midweek Meeting May 14 2025

Seven of us gathered last Wednesday. I ran through the material I hope to give at the Grace Assembly next week on John Fawcett. I did it as its designed to encourage small churches and we are one. We also spent time in prayer and then at the end heard a report of the testimony of a potential new member which was received amd agreed.

Day Off Week 20 2025

Much more of a traditional day off this week. It was very sunny so I put on my summer t-shirt and enjoyed myself. Oddly I didn't do much walking but I did go out for a coffee and did some tidying up here. I also read a good chunk of Mere Christianity which I've never read. Also two more amazing chapters of David Copperfield. Almost at the end now. There was also some work on the computer getting ready for Sunday, etc.

The Great Divorce and Miracles C S Lewis

We had another book session at the seminary on Monday (May 12 2025). Every third book we choose is supposed to be a classic and so we went this time for C S Lewis. For some reason we went for two - the brief Great Divorce and the longer Miracles.

I was given a copy of TGD when I was younger and a bit more literalistic. Lewis says clearly it is a fantasy not a cosmology of heaven and hell but I couldn't cope, especially with the apparent to-ing and fro-ing between the two. Hopefully, I am more mature now and could see the points being made. The title is a deliberate play on words and ideas, referencing William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. For Blake good and evil, Heaven and Hell, are ultimately reconciled or intertwined. Lewis strongly rejects such ideas. Hence divorce, a total and eternal separation between good and evil, Heaven and Hell. For Lewis, there can be no blending of the two; souls must ultimately choose one or the other. There is a final, irreconcilable break between those who accept joy, truth,and God (Heaven) and those who cling to self-deception, pride or sin (Hell).

Miracles is a more demanding read and takes a long time to get to the main subject, though those final two chapters are helpful. (Sadly, Lewis was unprepared to defend Old Testament miracles in the same way that he does NT ones).

I guess our group reponse was a typical evangelical one. Wow, what insights but how dangerous he can be at times. I Bought my copies in a slip case with five others at a bargain price. Next time in September, it is John Mak Comer's popular Practicing the Way.

Focus - No Hang Ups - (Live on Danish TV 1974 RMHD)

10 The Lives

There are some well known collections of Lives (and some less well known)

1. The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius
2. The Lives of the Artists by Vasari
3. The Lives of the most eminent English Poets by Samuel Johnson (Milton, Swift, Dryden, etc)
4. Parallel Lives by Plutarch (23 paired lives of Greeks and Romans)
5. The Lives of the Saints by the Venerable Bede (ie "The Voyage of St Brendan", Bede's "Life of Cuthbert" and Eddius's Life of Wilfred)
6. The Lives of Early Methodist Preachers: Chiefly Written by Themselves.(Six volume 19th century work)
7. The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England by Antonia Fraser
8. The Lives of the prime ministers of England from the Restoration to the present time Volume 1 by J Houston Browne (1858)
9. American Caesars: Lives of the US Presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush by Nigel Hamilton
10. The Lives of the Novelists by John Sutherland (294 lives)

Lord's Day May 11 2025

Numbers were down again last Lord's Day although we were 14 in the evening. We're all very different, however. Glad to hear that an Iranian couple now have asylum. Two men still waiting. I preached the next bits in Ephesians and 2 Chronicles and got on okay, I hope. Hard to be encouraged after wht was a difficult week in some ways.

Funeral Sheena Tresidder

A strange phenomenon of our situation here is that you can walk just over 1200 yards from our Baptist church in Childs Hill, and if headed in the right direction, you will come to quite a different neighbourhood and another church, an Anglican one, St Luke's, Kidderpore Avenue, West Hampstead. In some ways quite different, St Luke's is robustly evangelical. I know the vicar, Alistair Tresidder, to speak to but not more than that. We were very sorry to hear that his wife Sheena had contracted cancer a while ago and even more sad when recenty she died, not yet 60.

There must have been over 400 present to hear Andrew Sach preach and the family bear witness to this woman who loved simply being a mother. With five children of their own they went on to foster four others, some with great difficulties. It was a privilege to be there, as alien as I find some of it, just to hear testimonythat it is still possible even in 21st century Britain to live an evangelical life as a happy mother, trusting in the only Saviour there is. How one feels for the family and the congregation to some ectent too.

Midweek Meeting May 7 2025

Among our church members are Eduardo and Anna Marzia. Eduardo is Brazilian and his wife, Anna Marzia is Italian. We met them when Eduardo came to the seminary. For the past nearly five years they have been living and serving in Brazil under the aegis of UFM. There have been encouragemants but things are not working out quite as well as hoped. Currenty we are thinking about Eduardo becoming a pastor back in this country and there is a real possibility in the offing (not here), It qs good to have them at our prayer meetinglast Wednesday then and to hear from them. Their visit is a fying one adn they will soon be back in Brazil. More here.

Penguin Lessons

Yesterday we went to the cinema to see the charming "The Penguin Lessons". Steve Coogan is the main actor. Jonathan Pryce is also in it. It is based on a 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, a British teacher who taught at a boys' boarding school in Argentina in the 1970s (when he was in his twenties; the fact Coogan is 58 didn't really matter). Michell finds a penguin soaked with oil on a beach in Uruguay and takes it back to the school, where it becomes a popular pet. The message is the usual positive side of humanism, the main character being a bit of a waster with a sad past (fictional addition) who perhaps does some good despite himself. It's a 12a for good reason but is worth watching if you can cope with the periodic swearing. The penguin is brilliant. They mostly used real animals apparently but there was a little jiggery-pokery. (This is at least the third Argentinian-themed film for Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, who previously played Argentinian president Juan Perón in Evita, as my wife pointed out to me, and also Pope Francis II (who was Argentinian) in The Two Popes.

V E Day 80 Fly past

It was Bank Holiday yesterday so a bit of a day off. We went down to central London and saw the flypast (courtesy of my son the above). We also saw a film in the cinema (more on that later) and watched some TV and I finished reading C S Lewis's Great Divorce, which I started on Saturday.

 

10 Places with a "went" in their name

1. Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire (Urban locality)
2. Caerwent, Monmouthshire (Village)
3. Cas-gwent, Monmouthshire (Town) [Welsh name for Chepstow]
4. St Bride's Netherwent, Monmouthshire (Hamlet)
5. St Brides and St Peterstone Wentlooge, Monmouthshire (Village)
6. Trewent, Pembrokeshire (Hamlet)
7. East Trewent, Pembrokeshire (Hamlet)
8. Mynwent y Crynwyr, Glamorgan (Village) [Welsh name for Quakers Yard]
9. Newent, Gloucestershire (Town)
10. Wentnor, Shropshire (Village)

Lord's Day May 4 2025

We made a good start to the new month with a bumper turn out for communion and then the morning service. I carried on in Ephesians and 2 Chronicles. Great passages. With bank holiday coming we had a number of visitors but then at least four or five others were not there for some reason.

Family Pic

 

This is a pic of the family was taken on holiday in North Wales last month

10 Places in Hertfordshire beginning with H

1. Harpenden
2. Hastoe
3. Hatfield
4. Hemel Hempstead
5. Hertford
6. Hexton
7. Hitchin
8. Hockerill
9. Hoddesdon
10. Hunton Bridge

Midweek Meeting April 30 2025

Six of us were present (and one online) for our midweek meeting this week, which was followed by a short members meeting to consider current matters (people, future arrangements, finance, building work, etc). We looked first at Psalm 82 (another pslam on my list of psalms not considered before) then had our members meeting and there was still enough time for all of us to pray at the end. It is hard being so small.

Day Off Week 18 2025

Hope Chapel, Hebden Bridge

Wainsgate Chapel Graveyard

Wainsgate Chapel, Midgley

My day off this Tuesday was rather different to the usual. I dropped Eleri off at the school where she is an administrator, got petrol and then headed uo the M1 to Hebden Bridge, where I did a little bit of research on John Fawcett, who I have agreed to speak on next month at the Grace Assembly. I was only there a while but it was a beautiful day and there were no traffic hold ups. It cost a bit for petrol, of course, but very nice. I'm sorry there was not ime to visit my few Yorkshire friends. See more on Fawcett here.

10 London locations beginning with W

It has often struck me that there seem to be a lot of places in London beginning with W and I have sometimes confused them briefly.

1. Walthamstow
2. Wandsworth
3. Wapping
4. Wembley
5. West Ham (and a few other wests - West Hampstead, West Hendon, etc)
6. Westbourne Park
7. White City
8. Whitehall and Westminster
9. Willesden and Willesden Green
10. Wimbledon

(Also Walworth, Waterloo, Wanstead, Wealdstone, Whetstine, Whitechapel, Woodford, Woolwich, Wood Green, Winchmore Hill)

Lord's Day April 27 2025

Last Lord's day we were a little low in number. None of the five newcomers from the week before returned not several others although there were some who had not been present the Sunday before. I carried on in Ephesians in the morning and did a one off from Isaiah 55:6, 7 in the evening, quite evangelistic.