8 People Commended by Jesus

• Nathanael: When first meeting him, Jesus called him a "true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false" (John 1:47)
• The Roman Centurion: Jesus marvelled at this Gentile soldier's profound faith and understanding of spiritual authority, stating, "I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!" (Matthew 8:5-13)
• John the Baptist: Jesus publicly defended and honoured John, calling him the greatest among those born of women and describing him as a "lamp that burned and gave light" (Matthew 11:7-11)
• The Syrophoenician Woman: When she persistently begged Jesus to heal her daughter, he commended her persistence and faith, telling her, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted" (Matthew 15:21-28)
• The Poor Widow: Jesus praised a widow who placed two tiny copper coins into the temple treasury. He highlighted her sacrifice, noting she gave "out of her poverty... all that she had" (Mark 12:41-44)
• Mary of Bethany: After she anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, he defended her actions from critics and commended her devotion, declaring that she had chosen "what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42)
• The Anointing Woman: In Luke 7:36-50, a woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears and hair. Jesus commended her great love and faith, saying, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace" (Luke 7:50)
• The Scribe: After a teacher of the law correctly summarised that loving God and one's neighbor is more important than burnt offerings, Jesus told him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:28-34)

Six More Items Recently Read

The Man Who Drew London: Wenceslaus Hollar in Reality and Imagination by Gillian Tindall

I am a fan of the Puritan Richard Bernard and many years ago I noticed that Wenceslaus Hollar had drawn a portrait of him for a posthumous book. I then saw this book at a discount somewhere. Some years passed and then I finally read it. Getting hold of info on Hollar seems to be difficult and so Gillian Tindall has supplemented her research with some speculative biographical sections. I appreciate the effort but I found these a little tedious to be truthful, especialy knowing that it was sepculative. May be some other method would have worked better. Not much on Hollar though and this is pretty decent. Sorry I took so long to get round to such an important man.

Memorial : the mystery of Mary of Bethany by Dolores Kimball

This is a book by a woman about a woman and so I should not have been surprised that it is written for women, although it doesn't actually say that on the cover. Anyway, it's a short and interesting book for the most part. I would disagree on certain points I guess (eg I'm pretty sure Mary Magdalene and this woman were the same woman) but some good points are made.

A Short History of the World in 50 Animals by Jacob F. Field

This is a great idea for a book. All the expected ones are there such as cows and sheep and fleas and bees. Some individual animals are highlighted such as Leika the space dog, Hans the counting horse and Dolly the sheep. Bats, rats, cats and many others are all there. Missing? Locusts, donkeys. The book is hampered by its evolutionary assumptions but if you ignore these it is a fascinating read. The dodo and dinosaur are there, of course. Did you know that beavers had iron edged teeth and that a child could fit into a blue whale's arteries?

The Two Prophets to Nineveh: Goodness and Severity in Jonah and Nahum by James E. McCarthy

This is a great idea for a commentary. Jonah is very well known but Nahum much less so. However, both concern Nineveh and by treating them in the same little book the writer covers a sixth of the minor prophets in brief but relevant fashion. McCarthy has good illustrations and is very thorough with the text and all could learn from what he writes and how he writes. This is an excellent little commentary well worth getting hold of.

Distinct Communion: The Believer's Relations with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by Dan Peters

This is a brilliant book - cogent, well written and betraying a very well read author. Most Reformed ministers know about John Owen and his advocacy of communion with all three persons of the Trinity but this book builds on that and explores the whole subject with some panache. Besides Owen, he explores Goodwin and Durham (with whom he is less than pleased) and the pulpit prayers of C H Spurgeon, which are held up to us as exemplars. The final chapter considers whether we should pray to the Holy Spirit, something I have not seen dealt with anywhere else, despite it being an obvious question. This is in the Christian Focus Mentor series and so is intended for ministers and Bible college students but I believe many more could benefit from this well written tome. My only very slight disappointment was the distracting and unnecessary use of the generic feminine pronoun.

Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel

Antisemitism is a fascinating subject. When I saw this book in a secondhand shop I immediately bought it and have now read it. (David Baddiel lives in this area, as do many Jews). Baddiel's simple point is that antisemitism is not taken seriously enough and tends to be placed lower in the hierarchy of racisms. He also points out the fundamental inconsistency in the way most people think of Jewish people. From the time I was converted I was encouraged to love the Jewish people and have tried never to be antisemitic or racist towards anyone but if I am honest, I am guilty. This book helped me to see this again. More than once Baddiel quotes people defending Jews and I think fine, no problem, only to find him pointing out the subtle racism hidden in the quote. One could try and dismiss that as being pernickety but I think there is a genuine issue. It is also interesting, as a Christian (as perseuted as Jews if not more) to see his take on things. (One other thing is that without excusing Jeremy Corbyn, he does appear to explain what happened).

Six Items Recently Read

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

The Rip Van WInkle story is better known by name than actuality. To avoid confusion let me advise that Van WInkle sleeps only twenty years not a hundred and time goes by in the usual way. Crucially he misses the American Revolution and so when he sleeps, George III is King and when he awakes the American Republic has come into existence. It is a well told story, a little old fashioned and mysogynistic in its view of marriage, perhaps. It is chiefly good fun. This edition includes four Rackham colour plates and is based on a 1905 edition.

The Grace of Repentance (Redesign) (Today's Issues) by Sinclair B. Ferguson

Came across this short book recently (at the Catalyst Conference) and read it in one sitting. It focusses on Luther's first thesis (of the 95) and Psalm 51 and is a very good all levels discussio of a vital subject that is too often neglected. Good to pass on.

Preaching for God's Glory (redesign) (Today's Issues) by Alistair Begg

There are a few good books on expository preaching, the good thing about this one is that it is short and punchy and memorable. He quotes Stott, Dick Lucas, Lloyd-Jones and (sadly) Roy Clements as well as older writers. One fears he may fall into the trap of claiming that exposition is everything but he does not make that mistake quite. Read in one sitting a long time after the publication date.

Gospel Evidences of Saving Faith (Puritan Treasures for Today) by John Owen

This nicely presented little work is one of Owen's lesser known practical items. It is well worth reading as it recalls the Christian to holy living and repentance. This whole series from RHB looks like a very worthwhile effort.

Spurgeon's Forgotten Sabbatarianism: Examining the Role of the 4th Commandment in His Life and Theology by Brandon Rhea

Academic pieces don't always translate easily into popular works but this one does okay. It picks up on a forgotten or overlooked aspect of Spurgeon's life and writing - his adherence to the Lord's Day Christian Sabbath. It is not difficult for Dr Rhea to establlish his thesis and it is useful to have the full evidence of the position that Spurgeon (like many others) took. Spurgeon's position would be considered extreme even in conservative circles today, perhaps, but he is shown to be consistent with his roots and Scripture and he stands as a loud reminder to us that we really need to take this matter more seriously.

Is the Trinity Practical? by Ryan M. McGraw

This brief but helpful booklet by systematician Ryan McGraw begins by raising the question of whether the Trinity matters, moves on to what Trinitarian devotion looks like and then describes three pracical ways all this can be implemented in our lives - by developing a Trinitarian piety, seeing the importance of unity and diversity in church life and gaining great comfort from the work of all three. Good stuff.

Lord's Day July 19 2026

 

Preached my final two sermons from Luke yesterday. I have been preaching from Luke since 2023 and have preached over a hundred sermons atogether on this my second run through the third Gospel. Over the years I have preached through the synoptics twice each and John once. So it was the resurrection morning and evening yesterday and communion in the evening.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Odyssey-Christopher-Nolan/
dp/0571403387

On Friday my youngest son treated us to a trip to the cinema to see the new version of Homer's Odyssey. We couldn't get into the i-max but I don't think we missed much as the Vue version was clear, large and loud in a packed cinema. I tried to read the Odyssey many years ago and can't honestly remember how much I covered but most of the stories were familiar and Nolan seems to have been fairly faithful but switching back and for timewise to keep up interest. There were more fistfights and more swearing than in the original I guess in a macho action film that kept interest to the end but perhaps lacked a focus.

Midweek Meeting July 15 2026

Just four of us and one online last night, while everyone else watched the football. Our word for the evening was inerrancy and we all prayed to close.

Day Off Week 29

Nice day off Tuesday. There was some cofee, a little walking and some TV but the main thing was reading this excellent book by Dan Peters on distinct communion with the different persons of the Trinity.

Article in the Aug Sep Banner

I have an article on Unbelieving Husbands in the latest Banner Magazine, which they have kindly published. It is very basic but I hope it will help pastors and Christian women dealing with this.

Lord's Day July 12 2026

It was not me preaching last Lord's Day but our friend Chungman Shon. We are very hopeful this will lead to good things for Childs Hill. In the afternoon the members interviewed him. It was nice to meet his fiancee briefly. Watch this space.

Saturday's Farewell Service

 

The church very kindly arranged last Sunday a farewell service for us, as I step down from the pastorate at the end of the month (I will prach most of August and move at the end of September). Well over a hundred gathered (members, former members, locals, family and some few ministers and others from other churches). People are very kind.

The arrangment was that first two (sometimes tearful) long standing Nigerian members spoke about their memories and then one of our deacons interviewed us about our memories. One of the Nigerian ladies had a striking story I had forgotten about her being in a car in America somewhere and hearing an interview on the radio with Gary brady from Childs Hill Baptist Church!

After all this my father-in-law preached a straightforward mosty evangelistic sermon from Acts 10. Just right.

Then there was food and time for chatting. Enjoyed the plantain, the jollof rice and the Iranian food and all sorts of other things incuding the supermalt drinks.

Of course there were flowers and cards and gifts galore too. SO thankful.

Church Family Pic

 

Family Pics

 

Then and Now 2

 

We tried one of those reconstructions again recently.

This is me with my three oldest sons about thirty years apart.

Jan Akerman Lammy Part 2

I noticed this morning that someoone had highlighted my video, available here - Lammy Part 2 

The music is from Jan Akkerman's 1974 algum Tabernakel and for me is probably the most wonderful ever. I added pics interpreting the prompts given by Akkerman (Tabernakel, Last Will and Testament, Amen, etc)/ I write at Facebook

"I added those pictures about 16 yeara ago and I just rewatched. The music is superb and although the pics are done in a fairly amateurish way they do enhance the experience expecially if you know the story which is how Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness 40 years and died before entering the Promised Land. Moses and the Law will never get you into the Promised Land only Jesus can and here I start to preach - I am a preacher after all. Thanks again Jan."

Modern Life again

One feature of modern life is the way advertisers try and match up with what you are reading. It can produce humorous results and Private Eye has a regular feature on the subject. I spotted this on Bible Gateway today.

Midweek Meeting July 8 2026

There were nine of us present last night at the meeting. Two old friends are in town for the meeting on Saturday and our new attendee was there, as well as six others. We looked at the interesting subject of the regulative principle and then spent time in prayer. Good time.

10 Observations on Jesus in Revelation 1 by David Clarkson

If we observe how Christ is represented when he is said to be in the midst of the churches, we may thereby know what discoveries of Christ are made in the assemblies of his people, Rev. i. 13, &c.

1. Clothed with a garment down to the foot. That was the priests’ habit. Here is the priestly office of Christ, the fountain of all the saints’ comfort and enjoyments.
2. Girt about the paps with a golden girdle. This was the garb of a conqueror. So Christ is set forth as victorious over all his people’s enemies.
3. His head and hair white like wool. Here is his eternity; whiteness is the emblem of it. Therefore, when the Lord is expressed as eternal, he is called the Ancient of days.
4. His eyes as a flame of fire. Here is his omnisciency; nothing can be hid from his eye. The flame scatters darkness, and consumes or penetrates whatever to us might be an impediment of sight.
5. His feet like to fine brass. Here is his rower; to crush all opposers of his glory and his people’s happiness; they can no more withstand him, than earthen vessels can endure the force of brass.
6. His voice as the sound of many waters. Here his voice is most loud and powerful; so powerful, as it can make the deaf to hear, and raise the dead out of the grave of sin. His voice in private is a still voice, here it is as the sound of many waters.
7. He had in his right hand seven stars. Here is his providence, his tender care of his messengers, the ministers of the gospel, the administrators of public ordinances; he holds them in his hand, his right hand, and all the violence of the world, all the powers of darkness, cannot pluck them thence.
8. Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. His word publicly preached, sharper than a two-edged sword, as described, Heb. iv. 12, 18, pierces the heart, searches the soul, wounds the conscience. With this Christ goes on, conquering and to conquer, maugre all opposition.
9. His countenance was as the sun that shineth in his strength. Here the face of Christ is unveiled, the fountain of light and life, the seat of beauty and glory, such as outshines the sun in his full strength. So he appears, as he becomes the love, the delight, the admiration, the happiness, of every one whose eyes are opened to behold him.
10. Now, as he is here described in the midst of the churches, so does he in effect appear in the assemblies of his people. No such clear, such comfortable, such effectual representations of the power and wisdom, of the love and beauty, of the glory and majesty of Christ, as in the public ordinances: ‘We all here, as with open face, behold the glory of the Lord.’

Westminster Fellowship July 2026

Thomas Cross, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I don't always mention the Westminster Fellwoship but I was there yesterday and it was a particularly good one. Around twenty gathered to hear Dr Garry Williams from London Seminary on the Davidic covenant and, as one would have expected, it was incisive and stiimulating as he interected with the Bible and the literature. His main focus was on a 1657 work called Mysterium & medulla bibliorum, the Mysterie and Marrow of the Bible by Francis Roberts (see above). We normally make our own arrangements for lunch but Henry Dixon arranged fro us to have sandwiches together and that worked well. This is my last official Westminster Fellowship (although I have agreed to speak next year). Once I am in Wales I am not sure if I will travel up (although Jeremy Bailey does regularly). I am also thinking through the while question of retired ministers and fraternals and conferences.

Lord's Day July 5 2026

With a new month here, we began last Lord's Day with communion lokking at John 15. We welcomed our three newly baptised members into membership. So five new members in recen times. Encouraging. I carried on preaching through Luke with the burial at the end of Luke 23 and starting on the resurrection in the evening. Such great and important passages. In the evening we also had oour friend Sajida Iqbal from Pakistan present. Noot minnistrie is quit e force (see here). We had Sajida and Gill who brought here for tea with quite  afew others from the churhc. That was a happy time too. In the niorning a Gravce Baptist minister on sabbatical was with us. It was nce to put a face to a name and discover connections. I spoke to the children in the monring about Christian fellowship and how all Christians are connected and as I think abouot it we spent the day underlining that.

10 Single Volume Commentaries on Ephesians

 

1. Francis Foulkes
2. John Stott
3. H C G Moule
4. Charles Hodge
5. James M Boice
6. William Hendriksen
7. Harry Uprichard
8. Gordon Clark
9. Geoffrey B Wilson
10. Stuart Olyott

10 Notable Words Used by Washington Irving in his Rip Van Winkle Tale

1. Termagant: A harsh or overbearing woman (used to describe Rip’s nagging wife).
2. Galligaskins: Loose, baggy, or large trousers.
3. Rubicund: Having a red or ruddy complexion.
4. Dapper: someone - typically a man - who is neat, trim and stylishly dressed. (It can also refer to someone who is brisk, active and lively in their movements and manners.)
5. Junto: a small group of people, usually a faction, committee, or council, joined together for a common purpose (often secretly or with political aims).
6. Virago: Like Termagant, a domineering, fierce, or bad-tempered woman 
7. Dominie - a traditional term primarily referring to a schoolmaster or teacher in Scotland or a member of the clergy, specifically a pastor, in the Dutch Reformed Church.
8. Hollands - short for "Hollands gin" refers to a strong, juniper-flavoured gin originally distilled in the Netherlands. Also commonly known as Jenever.
9. Firelock - a historical firearm and the specific ignition mechanism it uses. It describes guns where the gunpowder is ignited by sparks struck from flint and steel, such as a flintlock. Broadly, the term historically distinguishes any flint or wheel-lock firearm from earlier matchlock systems that required a burning cord.
10. Connubial - related to marriage, wedlock or the intimate relationship between spouses.

10 People and Psalm 119

Manton/Wilberforce

1. Thomas Manton, a prolific 17th-century Puritan, wrote a massive, three-volume commentary exclusively on Psalm 119, spanning 190 separate chapters and over 1,600 pages.
2. George Wishart, Bishop of Edinburgh, in the 17th century (not to be confused with another Scot by the same name who was martyred a century earlier) was condemned to death for his faith. But when he was on the scaffold, he made use of a custom that allowed the condemned person to choose one psalm to be sung, and he chose Psalm 119. Before two-thirds of the psalm had been sung, his pardon arrived and his life was spared.
3. William Grimshaw of Haworth was accustomed to round-up the unwilling with a whip, prowling the village mid-service whilst the congregation was singing a psalm — a favourite one being Psalm 119, because it was the longest.
4. Matthew Henry the famous Bible commentator was raised on the Psalm. His father, Philip Henry, made the children meditate on one verse every single morning, cycling through the entire Psalm twice a year to foster a lifelong love for scripture.
5. William Wilberforce the 19th-century British politician who led the movement to abolish the slave trade frequently recited Psalm 119 from memory during his daily walks back from Parliament to calm his mind and maintain political courage.
6. David Livingstone the famous 19th-century Scottish pioneer missionary and explorer of Africa famously won a New Testament at his local church Sunday school when he was only 9 years old by flawlessly reciting the entire Psalm.
7. John Ruskin the art critic was made to emmorise the Psalm. He reflected heavily on it in his later years, famously noting how his mother's strict childhood enforcement of the chapter transitioned from feeling "repulsive" to becoming his most "precious" biblical text, representing an "overflowing and glorious passion of love for the Law of God".
8. Henry Martyn, the pioneer Anglican missionary to India in the early 19th century, famously memorised the entirety of Psalm 119 in 1804. During his arduous life of translating scriptures into local languages and facing exhaustion, he confessed that it was the Word of God alone that gave him strength.
9. Martin Luther held Psalm 119 in the highest regard, famously stating that he would not exchange a single leaf of it for the entire world. He viewed the psalm not just as a prayer, but as a core textbook for spiritual formation, using it to define his famous "three rules for studying theology" (prayer, meditation, temptation).
10. Charles Spurgeon, the "Prince of Preachers" deeply loved Psalm 119 and highly recommended the Exposition of Psalm 119 by Charles Bridges, calling it "worth its weight in gold."

Day Off Week 27 2026

Slighty odd day in some ways. I had hay fever all day, which can happen even though I take an antihistamine every day throughout the season. I spent the morning cataloguing books in LibraryThing (I took loadsto the Evangelical Library on Monday). Eleri was home until lunch time then going out so we had our main meal at lunch time (salmon). Because of the hay fever I didn't feel like walking the Thames and then two books I ordered weeks back arrived so I decided to go to Caffe Nero, West Hampstead, and sit in the air conditioning, reading them both which I did (only 60 pages each). Very helpful but I got quite depressed after and so after watching the news I headed for bed.