Book Buys March

I have probably mentioned most of these. All pretty theological this time.

There were the Calvin ones

1. An introductory guide to the writings of John Calvin by de Greef (Trans Bierma)

2. The unaccommodated Calvin: studies in the foundation of a theological tradition by Muller

3. Life in Christ: Union with Christ and twofold grace in Calvin's theology by Garcia

I also got

4. Reformed Dogmatics Volume 4 by Bavinck

And my books from GPT

5. Just by believing by Allred

6. Christian basics by John Hall

Also which I haven't had a proper look at yet

7. The Christian Lover: The Sweetness of Love and Marriage in the Letters of Believers by Haykin

Busier and busier

As ever the week has been pretty busy. My father back in South Wales went into hospital last Saturday and so I took the coach to see him last Monday. As it turned out he was leaving the hospital as I arrived so I missed him and had to go on to Croesyceiliog (two buses) to visit. So in the end I only had an hour with him but that was okay. I also got to see my sister Gail, which was good. She gave me a lift back to the bus station.
It's always a little traumatic going back. I love hearing the accents. Newport is a rough old place. I noticed that opposite the bus station the university has a massive 35 million pound building project – but it all seemed quite quiet.
Tuesday I was giving my last lecture for the year at EMF. We made a quick visit to the world of Opus Dei and spent most of the morning on Eastern Orthodoxy. They're a good bunch this year (unusually all men but one). As I only give six lectures by the time I get to know them it is time to go,which is a shame. After lunch in Welwyn, I headed to Hampstead School, where Dylan with others was doing his GCSE Drama group devised play. Dylan's play was the fourth of eight. He took the lead role of Sydney in a sort of morality play about a successful writer who loses touch with what really matters. The boy is clearly gifted (like his older brother).
Wednesday morning we had about 40 kids from the nearby Anglican School at the chapel to look around as part of their religious education. Some of them I know from our clubs. I told them some thing then they asked questions – lots of questions but mostly of the more terrestrial kind. I had to slip down to the Evangelical Library in the afternoon to sign something. In between all this I prepared for the evening meeting where we looked at the first nine verses of Deuteronomy 22. It was a good time. Our old friend Grace Lan, a Chinese missionary with CWI in Glasgow was there. Always nice to see her.
On Thursday, books I'd ordered from Amazon for some lectures on Calvin next week at JOC finally arrived. I need to do some speed reading there, in between preparing for the Lord's Day. I also managed to get a manuscript book read this week – a potential GPT title. In the afternoon I was at LTS to sample the coffee again. We also did some Greek (three of us being led by Robert Strivens) – the subjunctive and a bit more of the Sermon on the Mount. After that I joined Richard (our LTS student) again for a bit more Lloyd-Jones on preaching.
And so Friday is here already. The main thing today is GPT committee meetings in Covent Garden. They went off okay. We were given copies of the latest publications Just by believing by Frank Allred and Christian Basics revised edition by John Hall. So it's off home now for tea and then the clubs tonight.

Heavenly Worldly Links

Here are some links you might like.

Two are more worldly

1. Animal babies. I guess this one is designed for kids but it's interesting anyway. I discovered it when I wanted to know the correct name for baby rabbits. There's a nostalgia element here as this is the sort of thing they taught you when I was a boy.

2. Historical coincidences. I found this one when I had that coincidence with hearing Focus's Sylvia opposite a hairdresser's called Sylvia. Example

Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn't one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was The Girl From Petrovka. That in itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one - containing his own annotations - to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. 'Is this the one?' he asked, 'with the notes scribbled in the margins?' It was the same book.

Two are more heavenly

1. Grace Publications. One of many hats I wear is that of a trustee of Grace Publications. Andrew Shrimpton has recently set up a website for us and has kindly reminded me that I have not mentioned it yet. So here it is. Do have a look. There are excellent books there, especially the condensed classics series and Nick Needham's church history.

2. Don Carson. I also recently came across this link to a wealth of audio material by Dr Carson.

Grace publications

Grace Publications Trust have purchased an eminently portable banner recently. I took it from the meeting on Friday and used it in Pains Hill adn at the Westminster Conference. I then put it up last night in the church. If you double click you might be able to read it.

Pains Hill Chapel

I set off around 9 am yesterday to travel the 33 miles through London to the little country chapel on Pains Hill near Oxted and Limpsfield in Surrey. Most of the journey is very familiar due to several recent trips to Gatwick. I've preached there more than once before anyway. The connection is an Aber University friend who is in the congregation. As it turned out he was unwell and so I didn't get to stay with the Averies but had a very nice afternoon with the Copemans who I did not know at all. Alan is heavily involved in Pilgrim Homes and it was interesting to find out more about them.

The chapel is very well looked after. The people are serious minded and appreciative of the Word too, though they all travel in to the chapel. (Someone told me that the illustrator Arthur Rackham [1867-1934] used to live next door, which I'd not realised before.) I preached on Mark 8:1-10 and Ephesians 2:1. I'd been at a GPT meeting last Friday and so I took some leaflets along and put up our new roll out display. I was encouraged when one woman said she'd gone to the Evangelical Library to try and read Luther, etc but found it hard going. They recommended to her GPT's Christian Classics (abridgements of the greats) and she found it really helpful. Being involved in both organisations I was glad to know they'd been such a help.

GBM Meetings

It was good to be at the annual meetings of Grace Baptist Mission in The Friends Meeting House near Euston once again on Tuesday. The morning meeting allows the 116 or so churches involved to have their say on how the mission is run and although this is obviously a little unwieldy it is unique and no doubt a better approximation to biblical norms than what happens in most societies. As we were reminded the council is also elected by the churches and so the input from local churches is strong. The difficulties that have been experienced in Kenya were rightly alluded to without any detail. It was good to have the report on all the various activities of the year and to know that financially there was actually a surplus this time round. Of course, the present climate means no-one can be too sure what will happen next and once again a tiny minority of churches refused to vote for the proposed budget.
It’s always good to see a large number of familiar faces at these events – not every name immediately comes to mind, sadly, but I had some nice conversations with various people. I grabbed a bite to eat and ended up chatting with the present minister at Over (it used to be Over Strict Baptist Church which if you say it quickly is as funny as St Thomas More Catholic Church which I saw again in Bradford on Avon on Monday). David Smith is from South Africa and seems a good hard working fellow with a heart for sinners.
The afternoon was spent running to various seminars. I managed to fit in three. First, one on training ministers. Jonathan Bayes introduced the work of Guelph based Carey Outreach Ministries and Robin Dowling spoke of his imminent return to FUSBC, the Seminary in Medellin, Colombia – short term at present but may be more long term. Every man and his dog seems to minister overseas these days (there were more examples later in the day of short trips to Armenia and Kenya – I’ve been myself on an occasion!). It’s all very good I’m sure but sometimes one wonders what happened to the Pauline method of going to a place, working hard then leaving the locals to get on with it. I suppose that the argument is that if Paul had been able to use jets he would have.
I bumped into the Days from Pontrhydyrun, Luke Jenner, now at Welwyn, fresh back from the Philippines in connection with CCM, Norman Hopkins from Strood in Kent to talk about the law and the new covenant Baptists and John Hall from Westerleigh who is always guaranteed to show that things are much worse even than I had thought, which in itself is cheering.
Next it was a GPT session with Maciek Stolarski talking about the work in Armenia (where Sin is serious a simplified Ralph Venning work and no 22 in a series, has just been translated) and Ruth Firth from Latvia explaining to Tim Curnow how she has almost finished a simplified version of Horatius Bonar’s Everlasting Righteousness. This reduction of English classics to simplified form ready for translation does seem a way forward. Sin is serious is now available not only in Armenian but also in Bulgarian, Burmese, Kiswahili, Slovak, Spanish and Portuguese.
I went on to hear Malcolm and Ruth talk about the work in Latvia in the main hall. There are lots of encouragements and this lovely couple are obviously working very hard. One senses an underlying discouragement however with the general lack of enthusiasm for things Reformed.
Several spoke at the evening meeting (chaired again by Geoff King) including Jonathan and Robin who I’d heard but also Anthony Green from Peru and Andrew Gullett, who with his wife is about to go out to Kenya to work. We also heard from Nathan and Urpha Javed who are planning to be involved in church planting in Bradford (not on Avon). What a task they have. It made me wonder if they should rethink parading people like that and let them get started first and then come before the meeting. On more than one occasion things have been announced with a fanfare and then come to nothing. Or could they not have asked someone like Tim Mills to talk about reaching people in Bradford? One also wishes there was more of a spotlight on others doing similar work, such as Robin Asgher in Cranford.
Anyway we sang, the tie-less John Benton briefly preached from Acts 1 and we headed home with our goody bags full of info for the folks who couldn’t make it. Nothing on earth is perfect but this is a bright spot in a dark world and I for one was glad to have been present.
Last night I showed the free DVD Comment entendons-ils? This has been done quite well by Roger Cook. Rather than simply focusing on Fiona Steward in Bordeaux (where Alan Davey is) he visits other works and let's them also plead for workers. Clearly the mission field there is vast, demanding and on our doorstep.

I can plod

There are plenty of biographies of William Carey, the leading 18th Century Baptist what is unique about this one is that it is written by a Baptist, a Calvinist, a missionary to India and a man of mature years. John Appleby's I Can Plod: William Carey, The Early Years Of The First Baptist Missionary Society is a beautifully produced GPT imprint. I found it slightly difficult to get into at first for some reason but once I was past the opening chapters it was fine. I can't put this into words but it struck me as very Baptist in style. I guess what I mean is that he has done his research okay but does not presents it in a cold academic manner. This is chiefly a compliment but may be slightly critical, I guess.

The book is in three parts with 9 appendices.

1. Stalk (1-6 closing with his entrance into the pastorate)

2. Ear (7-22 arguing for overseas mission, eventually going and the early years)

3. Full grain (23-35 New start at Serampore through to death)

It's full of good things including a thorough enquiry into the 'sit down young man' story (Chapter 8); due emphasis on Calvinism and the state of things among Reformed Baptists at the time; plenty of coverage of the rope holders and the Serampore end; honest and sympathetic treatment of Dorothy Carey (with a good appendix on A N Groves and his wife); little extras like references to the Jamaican work and other fields; plenty of material on the problems and the way mission developed; the fascinating 1805 agreement; chapters on Carey the Botanist and the Social Reformer; nice appendices on Carey's catholicity, the communion question, etc.

The book sparked off lots of interesting thoughts - on how mission begins and develops; the matter of commitment (Carey ended up giving thousands to mission); the sorts of men God uses; issues of culture and use of time (the sorts of issues this blog is very conscious of - I thought Mr Appleby sounded slightly defensive of Carey's botanical activities); the place of team work; the ease with which there can be misunderstanding, etc.

I was very struck by the very different way Carey and his poor son Felix reacted to great setbacks and I may well do a post on that.

There are one or two very minor typos. An index would be a great help if a second edition appears.

River still running

The busyness continues. This week I am auditing lectures at the John Owen Centre on the atonement from Garry Williams of Oak Hill. We started today on the Fathers and Calvin. Very interesting. There's one other auditor and 8 MTh-ers.

Yesterday was very full, of course. I preached to quite a large multi-national congregation in the morning on the end of Mark 2/beginning of Mark 3 and to a much smaller one on most of Hebrews 2 in the evening. So the Sabbath and Christ's work of redemption.

On Saturday we had one of our periodic clean ups at the chapel. A few of our Korean friends were helping so we were in double figures. We made some definite progress. It was nice to have chips together at lunch time and some went on to play football later - though not me as I was busy preparing for Sunday. I saw a bit of the England game and then settled down to watch the main feature just before 5 pm. Well, you know the result! Eleri was out for the evening with friends so I did some minimalist baby sitting for the youngest ones. Gwion had been out for a sleepover with a school friend. The two older boys went to bed early - whacked out because they are now doing a double paper round each. Rhodri the eldest was out elsewhere. He'd had his RADA audition in the morning.

Friday had been very busy too. I was lecturing at EMF Welwyn in the morning - on the JWs and the Mormons. I dashed from there to a committee meeting for Grace Publications. I missed most of the session with the new man at Evangelical Press (our distributors) but was in for the rest and gladly received my complimentary copy of the new biography of William Carey by John Appleby I can plod. From there it was on home and then out for the children's meeting and then the young people's meeting. We had just under 20 for the first then over 20 for the next. We are looking at the life of Elijah and it was Naboth's vineyard tonight. I had to leave a little early as Eleri and I were off to a quiz night at friends to raise funds for the Welsh School [no website at present]. (We raised over £150). I was in the winning team. I think knowing not only that Far from the madding crowd was by Thomas Hardy but also that the line is from Gray's Elegy written in a Country Church Yard clinched a closely fought contest.

The snag with busyness is that prayer can so easily be squeezed out. What care is needed.

Busy weekend

It's been a busy weekend. Eleri went away (a very rare thing) with friends Friday and Saturday on the Eurostar to Cologne and so I was left in charge. First duty was lunch boxes and taking the two youngest to school. In the afternoon I was in Covent Garden for a Grace Publications Committee. Someone else kindly picked them up. I took a few minutes to look round a second hand bookshop in Charing Cross Road. Anne Fadiman had me thinking about them with one of her essays. Back home I prepared an haute cuisine tea - pizza! - before heading off to our children's meetings.

Saturday the two youngest were at a party in Gulliver's Kingdom, Milton Keynes, all day, so duties were minimal. They were home in time for Robin Hood after a really good day. In the evening Rhodri had organised a quiz night for 15 and overs. That was a fun time. I spoke on the ultimate questions, using John Blanchard's book as a basis. Eleri was back pretty late and had really enjoyed the time. On Sunday I preached from Mark 10:13 and 14 (am) and Matthew 4:10 (pm). It was the Korean pastor's last Sunday so we marked that briefly. He's off to Pusan. We're always saying goodbye here.

Monday I thought I was dying from a cold but I wasn't. We had a committee meeting for the London Inreach Project down at the London City Mission HQ in Tower Bridge Road. I got there early and had a wander and a cafe at a very nice Caffe Nero they have there. I'm rarely in that part of town.