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.