In Writing 147

 I should have mentioned that IN Writing 147 is now out.

Art of Shepherding 2026

It was good yesterday to be with about 40 others at the annual Art of Shepherding conference at St Giles in Islington. The conference for ministers is quite laid back with a flexible but predictable format that includes plenty of coffee and an excellent pulled pork lunch.

The fixed points are the first and third sessions - Phil Heaps on the Bible - this year from 2 Corinthians and Brad Franklin on a historical pastoral theme - this year from Bonhoeffer’s Shared life.

With that this year we had one session on politics and one on envy. For the first they invited John McDermott over from Magherafelt in Ulster who drew on his experiences in that divided world to help us think through our situation. Finally, we had Rob Pickering on the subject of ministerial envy a common enough phenomenon but one rarely touched on in conferences.

All four speakers did well and along with the opportunity to chat to fellow Reformed Baptists new and old the conference proved both challenging and encouraging. The very last thing was a meal with several conference attendees. The usual curry was not possible this year so we headed to the holloway Road to a Lebanese grill and very enjoyable it was. Big thanks to all involved in organising this year's conference.

Evangelical Library Annual Lecture 2026 Brian Edwards on Tyndale

It was great to be one of over twenty gathered at the Evangelical Library in London on Monday to hear Brian Edwards speak on William Tyndale and 500 years of Bible translation in this anniversary year of the first appearance of Tyndale's New Testament. It was an excellent lecture taking us all te way from Luther to the AV and delivered in good style. The lecture will be on our YouTUbe site soon. Btina has a book on the subject available here - Day One

Lord's Day May 312026

A large congregation and then a small one as is ouor patern on the last day of the month, as we continued through Luke morning and evening. We looked at the Last Suppr and the disciples' argument over who was the greatest.

Two Books about the Beatles

One of my sons likes to buy me books on the Beatles and the Nazis (two subjects I find pretty compelling). For my recent birthday, he got me John and Paul by Ian Leslie. I read this well written book that focusses on John and Paul and their relationship, especially in song writing, close after completing a previous book on the Beatles so I noticed what was in the previous book and what was missing. Truth is the Beatles are so well documented and there are so many disputes over certain stories that it is difficult to keep up. Very interesting stab this, which I enjoyed reading. Leslie suggests that with his marriage to Linda, Paul switched from being markedly promiscuous to being markedly monogamous, which he puts down to love of extremes, probably correctly. Ian Leslie is a champion of Paul over John but tries to be fair. I still find myself wanting to favour John, even though he was clearly a monster in many respects. I guess they are both very talented people with huge flaws whose relationship with one another is tangled and full of fascination. The book contains an interesting bibliography so I am in danger of spending even more time on this subject if I am not careful.

I was very drawn to the other book because it deals with The Beatles who I love to read about and Bob Dylan, who I know much less about but who draws me for several reasons. I also like the way journalists write books. Like scholars, they make a through search then collate and write. Unlike scholars, of course, they make it interesting. I knew a lot of the stuff in this book, I guess, but by no means all of it and some of it I had forgottenn, including John Lennon's born again phase. I had also not appreciated how conservative Dylan was from the beginning, despite his way of presenting himself. The book is full of fornication and drug taking, inevitably, and also an unsual amount of throwing up, usually missing from such books. Anyway, the book gives a fairly complete history of two incredible phenomena of the sixties and beyond and where their paths crossed. Fascinating.

10 expressions of faith found in the Psalms

Gerard van Honthorst, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

1. 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
2. 25:1, 2 Of David. In you, LORD my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3. 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
4. 31:6 and 14 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the LORD. 14 But I trust in you, LORD; I say, "You are my God."
5. 33:21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
6. 52:8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.
7. 55:23 But you, God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of decay; the bloodthirsty and deceitful will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you.
8. 56:3, 4 and 11 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise - in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? 11 in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?
9. 86:4 Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you.
10. 91:2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

(Also 143:8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.)

10 more unnamed women from the Bible

1. Enoch's wife (Edna)
2. Moses' Cushite wife (Tharbis)
3. The wise woman of Abel (Serah)
4. The wealthy Shunammite woman
5. Naaman's wife
6. And her servant girl
7. The woman with the issue of blood
8. The woman at the well
9. The widow who put two coins in the treasury
10. The mother of Rufus

Midweek Meeting May 27 2026

Just four of us and one online last night as we looked at the final part of Romans. We also spent time in prayer. One burden was churches looking for pastors. We know of several at the moment (Swansea, Bradford on Avon, Wellington, Finchley and ourselves).

Birthday Books 2026

Once again the family have been very kind. These are from my wife and sons. (One son made sure he didn't buy me a book as he doesn't like to be too predictable, so I had other good things from him.)

Eisteddfod Yr Urdd Anglesey

FYI The Urdd Eisteddof for young people is on atm. It's live on S4C.

That's my oldest grandson in shot singing in the choir.

Lord's Day May 24 2026

Several away as it was a bank holiday weekend but plenty of extras in the evening from the UBM Christian Answer weekend based nearby. Nice singing to good old hymns. I am carrying on with sermons from Luke back to back at the moment as my retirement nears. So we finished Chapter 23 in the morning and began on Chapter 22 in the evening. The second looked the least promising set of verses but proved to be fuullof interesting things.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Closing Remarks

Of course, the assembly is a whole lot more than I have written about so far. There were prayer meetings at the start of Day 2 and 3, there was the Assembly business session on the afternoon of Day 2, we ate together and chatted together informally, always good. Having decent coffee available at all hours is a good idea. There are also book stalls and one or two other stands. About 44 churches were represented one way or another and there were at least 12 new people there. We are on the old siide and most of us represent small and uninfluential churches. It is good to come together, however. I was encouraged on the whole. Next one May 18-20, 2027.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Day Three

Our final morning at the conference was taken up with an open forum chaired by DAvid Last where we discussed how to mobilise church members. This led to a discussion of the neglect of the Lord's Day, one reason for some of the problems we have. Finally, Simon Green fro Rattlesden preched an excellent and encouraging sermon from Psalm 126.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Day Two (Evening)

The rest of today was taken up with interesting reports from various UK churches and the second message from Peter Schild, who gave us another seven helpful points, this time from 2 Timothy 2

1. The apostles understood training men as passing on the treasured gospel received

2. The apostles looked for faithful men not necessarily talented men

3. The apostles trained men through fatherly nearness, shared life

4. The apostles entrusted men with real responsibilities, tasks that they were to fulfil

5. The apostles corrected warned and protected the churches through clear criteria

6. The apostles trained men for suffering in the battle

7. The apostles ultimately entrusted men to God and the Word of his grace

Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Day Two (Morning)

We had two sessions this morning - one from Chola Makunga and one from Robert Strivens. They were both stumulating. Chola looked at the subject of equipping God's people to serve today and Robert took a historical approach looking at the use of catechisms and training for the ministry.

Chola asked a number of questions

1 How do we encourage believers on the fringe to become more involved in church life?

2 How do we motivate and mobilise those who are already members? (Converted Hungry for the Word gospel saturated prayer warrior loving to fellow believers regular sharer of the gospel cares for the holiness of the church accountable to the church)

3 What are the constraints and challenges that we need to overcome?

4 What attitude should we have as we seek to motivate and mobilise? (patience hard work prayer love the gospel)

There were plenty of answers but there will eb more discussion tomorrow.

Robert concluded with these conclusions and challenges

• They took the work of discipling and preparing for ministry very seriously.

• They did not despise traditional methods, while adapting and innovating where appropriate.

• They were fundamentally theological in their approach.

• Preaching was central to the promotion of Christian growth and discipleship.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Day One

It is good to be here once again in the Kings Centre, Northampton, this time for the Grace Assembly 2026. We had three session on this first day today - Matthew Gray preaching on three wells mentioned in Genesis, then a news session on the Reformed Baptist works in Romania from Mircea Aioanei from Arad and then this evening Peter Schild, a pastor in Frankfurt in Germany.

Peter spoke on the way Christ trained his men, a model for us. He had seven points

1. Christ the Master chose ordinary weak men who were teachable
2. Christ the Master prayed earnestly before he chose his disciples
3. Christ the Master chose men that they shoould be with him
4. Christ the Master instructed his disciples in private
5. Christ the Master patiently bore with the faults of his disciples and taught them in love
6. Christ the Master gave his men tasks and allowed them to grow in responsibility
7. Christ the Master left his men and sent them out withe the Holy Spirit

10 people who died at the age of 67

I like to do this around this time of the year.

1. Hugh Latimer
2. Gladys Aylward
3. Ingrid Bergman*
4. Paul Cezanne
5. Leonardo Da Vinci
6. George Washington
7. Woodrow Wilson
8. Chris Squire
9. David Cassidy
10. Demis Roussos

*Bergman (175 cm) incongruously played Aylward (147 cm) in the 1958 film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

(Also Catherine the Great, Henry I)

Lord's Day May 17 2026

A few visitors, many away. Another typical day in Childs Hill Baptist. Here's an irony. We know a lady who likes to give to the church but rarely sits under the ministry. This Sunday she decides to stay and what am I preaching on? Giving! Perhaps the thing she least needs to hear about. But what do I know?

10 Royal Places

Arnoprepa1, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

1. Royal Leamington Spa

"Royal" prefix Civil parish with town council 1838, 1974, 2002

Spa town established in late 18th century. The town received the title of "Royal Leamington Spa" in 1838 following a visit by Queen Victoria. Royal Leamington Spa was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1875, and on the borough's abolition in 1974 charter trustees were formed. The charter trustees were themselves abolished when a town council was formed in 2002.

2. Royal Sutton Coldfield

Historic town, now a civil parish within the City of Birmingham. Honour bestowed by Henry VIII 1528 3. Royal Tunbridge Wells

Unparished area 1909, 1974

Spa town, incorporated as a municipal borough in 1888. In 1909 Edward VII allowed the prefix "Royal" in recognition of the town's connections with the royal family since the Stuart dynasty. The Borough of Royal Tunbridge Wells was abolished in April 1974, and charter trustees were briefly appointed to preserve the mayoralty of the town. The trustees, who were themselves abolished in December 1974, obtained letters patent reauthorising the prefix "Royal" to the name of the town.

4. Royal Windsor, also known as New Windsor

Municipal borough council From reign of Henry I in early12th century

5. Royal Wootton Bassett

Civil parish with a town council 2011 - Repatriation of military personnel

6. Royal Port of Barrow

"Royal" prefix Port 2025

Construction of warships and nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy

7. Royal Greenwich

Royal borough. London borough council 2012-  To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Also birthplace of Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

8. Royal Kensington

Metropolitan borough council 1901 1965. In memory of Queen Victoria, born at Kensington Palace

9. Royal Berkshire, royal county

Location of Windsor Castle

10.Kingston Upon Thames

Municipal borough council in Surrey-Ancient prescriptive right, confirmed in 1927.1965 Coronation place of King Æthelstan in 924–925. Æthelstan described Kingston as royal town in a charter, as did Eadred later in the 10th century. In 1927 the mayor of Kingston upon Thames petitioned George V for the right to use the title of "royal borough". In reply to the petition the king declared that Kingston was entitled to the status, having been described as a royal borough since time immemorial.

Day Off Week 20 2026

There were a few thigs to be done first thing but once they were sorted I could focus on reading. There was time too for a coffee out and a bt of TV but it was mostly reading.

Paul Mallard on Heaven

This is a delightful little book on a delightful subject. Orthodox, practical and full of illustrations it is no doubt the fruit of preached sermons and is easy to read. Relying mainly on Revelation but taking in many other Scriptures, this little bookby a veteran pastor, without being dogmatic where there is no need to be, will answer most of the questions that people have about this vital subject. It can be highy recommended. The closing chapters usefully show how this doctrine should comfort us, encourage us to be holy. and make us steadfast. There are a few books on this subject. Thsi is one of the best.

10 Reasons to be Cheerful

made with adobe express

I was at the Westminster Fellowship yesterday, a monthly ministers fraternal. Paul Levy had been invited to speak on the current scene. He was very helpful and balanced it out by considering positives and negatives. He had 12 positives and I thought they would be worth replicating here in our own style.

1. The unstoppable growth of the global church

2. The open mindedness that some outsiders seem to have to the gospel at the moment
3. The fact that angry atheism seems to have faded away
4. The fact that Islam appears tobe in retreat for the most part

5. Immigration means that the world is coming to us
6. Many churches have been planted in the last 30 years

7. The work of Christian camps for young people is thriving

8. The mulititude of Christian books that are available today

9. The way the Internet is being used for evangelism

10. The existence of many happy traditonal families who share meals together

(His other two were the abundant opportunities for Christians to speak up and be heard and the disputable fact that ministers tend to be better trained today).

Lords' Day May 10 2026

It was a fairly typical day in Childs Hill - lots there in the morning with plenty missing and rather few in the evening. We looked at the end of Luke 20 back to back. How we need revival.

Where the music had to go

I have recently read a new book on my kindle - Where the Music Had to Go: How Bob Dylan and The Beatles Changed Each Other – and the World by Jim WIndolf. I was very drawn to this book because it deals with The Beatles who I love to read about and Bob Dylan, who I know much less about but who draws me for several reasons. I also like the way journalists write books. Like scholars, they make a through search then collate and write. Unlike scholars, of course, they make it interesting. I knew a lot of the stuff in this book, I guess, but by no means all of it and some of it I had forgottenn, including John Lennon's born again phase. I had also not appreciated how conservative Dylan was from the beginning, despite his way of presenting himself. The book is full of fornication and drug tking, inevitably, and also an unsual amount thrwoing up, ususally missing from such books. Anyway, the book gives a fairly complete history of two incredible phennomena of th sixties and beyond and where their paths crossed. Fascinating.

10 Places in the UK with a Regis

Old Direction Sign - Signpost by White Post Cross,
Brompton Regis parish by Alan Rosevear, CC BY-SA 2.0
 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Regis signifies "of the king"

1. Bognor Regis in West Sussex
2. Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire
3. Salcombe Regis in Devon
4. Bere Regis in Dorset
5. Lyme Regis in Dorset
6. Milton Regis in Kent
7. Beeston Regis in Norfolk
8. Grafton Regis in Northamptonshire,
9. Brompton Regis in Somerset,
10. Newton Regis in Warwickshire

(Also Rowley Regis in the West Midlands, Melcombd Regis and Wyke Regis in Dorset, etc)

The World around the Old Testament: The People and Places of the Ancient Near East

As readers of this blog will be aware I have been reading this big book for a while now but have eventually now finished it. It was recommended at one of the recent Tyndale House gatherings. It's the sort of book I should have read when preparing for ministry I guess. Better late than never. Thirteen contributors introduce us to peoples and places either mentioned in the biblical text or from that part of the world. Those covered include the obvious Egyptians, Philistines, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks but also the Assyrians, Phoenicians and Transjordanians (Moab, Ammon and Edom) and further, the Amorites, Ugaritians, Hittites/Hurrians and Arabians. The essays are similar in length but necessarily vary in approach and some contain rather difficult passages that are not easy to negotiate. One huge disappointment is the pretty complete sell out to modern academia that means a very sceptical attitude is taken to Scripture. Not only is this not an evangelical postion but I would guess a lot is lost simply because the academic world is currently so atheistic. Copious footnotes and plenty of pictures add to the value of this very interesting book.

New Day One Book Now Out

 More details here

Midweek Meeting May 6 2026

Six of us gathered in Wednesday with one online. After looking at the dn of Romans 15 we all prayed. What a blessing to be there.

When you share your home with a Welsh speaker

 

(The dog is being groomed today)

Day Off Week 19 2026

I had a sort of day off Tuesday, although following a bank holiday I felt I needed to get some things done. Eleri and I went for a pleasant walk on Monday but she was in work Tuesday so I filled the day with reading and blogging and cataloguing books on Library Thing and so on. The main book I am reading at the moment is Where the music had to go by Jim Windolf about Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Very interesting. Another thing taking up my time is annotating an interesting book I found online. I got down to West Hampstead only to find that my favourite of the two bookshops there is closing down House of Books). I took opportunity to buy two Chiltern Classics for Eleri and my son to give me on my birthday this month (forgetting Eleri has spent more than enough on a pair of Birkenstocks for me).

10 Unnamed women in the Bible

Here are ten women who appear in the Bible but whose names are not given and the names given them by tradition.

1. Noah's wife (Naamah)
2. Lot's wife (Ado or Edith)
3. Job's wife (Sitis or Dinah; some traditions posit a second wife, Rahma)
4. Potiphar's wife (Zuleikha)
5. Pharaoh's daughter (Thermutis or Bithia)
6. Jephthah's daughter (Seila or Adah)
7. Manoah's wife (Tzelelponit)
8. The widow of Zarephath
9. Peter's mother-in-law
10. The widow of Nain

(There are as many as 600 of these)

10 Unnamed men in the Bible

Leonardo Campitelli Filho, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

Here are ten men who appear in the Bible but whose names are not given and the names given them by tradition.

1. The blasphemer of Leviticus 24
2. The prophet of Judges 6 (Phinehas)
3. The man of God in 1 Kings 13 (Iddo or Jadon)
4. The Magi or wisemen (Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar)
5. The rich young ruler
6. The man born blind in John 9 (Celidonius)
7. The thief on the cross who repented (Dismas)
8. The thief on the cross who didn't repent(Titus or Gestaas)
9. The soldier who pierced Jesus's side (Longinus)
10. The Ethiopian eunuch (Simeon Bachos or Djan Darada)

10 Commentaries on The Book of Jonah

1. Hugh Martin
2. M R DeHaan Fact or Fiction
3. T Desmond Alexander
4. Peter Williams Running from God
5. Henry M Morris The Remerkabke Journey
6. O Palmer Robertson A Study in Compassion
7. Ian Barclay The I of the Storm
8. Sinclair Ferguson Man Overboard
9. Frank Sellar Anywhere but Nineveh
10. Gordon Keddie Preacher on the Run

(Also Keller and Rosemary Nixon)

Lord's Day May 3 2026

We began with communion last Lord's Day. We then had a very well attended morning service (lots of Iranians) and a very small number in the evening. I preached on from Luke 20 morning and evening consecutively - taxes to Caesar and the woman with multiple hsbands.

Lumos in West Hampstead

My kind wife took me down to a church in West Hampstead (a horrible high church with a statue of Jesus I'm afraid) where we spent an hour listening to Lumos. The Lumos style is to put hundreds of candles out (battery operated but looking like the real thing) and then preform. This time round it was a violin, a viola and a cello and mstly Einaudi compositions. So a very pleasant time that we enjoyed. I've almost never been into a church to listen to music before, although many people do I know.

Dai and the Arabian gods

I came across a passage today in a book.It had me thinking for a while.

"Secondly, the Assyrian annals identify the gods of the Arabian pantheon as Atar-Samayin, Dai, Huhai, Ruldāwu, Abīrillu and Atar-qurumā."

10 on the 10

Plenty of good books on the ten commandments have come out over the years, including these

1. Thomas Watson
2. Jochem Douma
3. Kevin DeYoung
4. Edmund Clowney How Jesus tranforms ...
5. Brian Edwards ... for today
6. Norman Shields Pattern for life
7. D James Kennedy Why the ten commandments matter
8. David Searle And then there were nine
9. Peter Masters God's rules for holiness
10. Michael Horton The law of perfect freedom

(Also, Ernest Reisinger Whatever happened to ..., Stuart Bonnington Love Rules)

Day Off Week 18 2026

We haven't had a formal day off for a while but we tried to have one last Tuesday. There were a few things that needed to be dealt with but otherwise there was time for reading, coffee and to receive a parcel of books by Benjamin Beddome, vry kindly sent by someon eno longer needing them. In the evening I drove up to The Stables, Milton Keynes, to catch Focus on their latest tour. Bed by midnight.

Ecclesiastes 11:3b

 

Childs Hill Park

Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,

in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Pascal at the PA

Yesterday, I was back at the Pastor's Academy perhaps for the last time. I was at the reading group leading a discussion of a new biography of Blaise Pascal by Graham Tomlin. The book is a fine piece of work and appears to give a full and fair description and assessment of the giant and genius that is Pascal. The below were written to provoke discussion, whuch they did. They plan to look at Oilgrim's Progress next, September 7.

Pastors Academy Reading Group April 27 2026 [GB]

Blaise Pascal, the man who made the modern world by Graham Tomlin [H & S 2025]

Impressions? Did you enjoy it? What did you know of P beforehand? Can we trust Tomlin?

Intro [1-8] Does Tomlin oversell P? Did P anticipate postmodernism?

1 Great Century [9-36] How necessary is this chapter, how helpful? Is P an enigma [13]?

2/3 Majesty of Science [37-59]/Weighing the Air [60-73] Do these chapters help us with the science versus religion debate? What are the differences between P and Descartes? Would it be better today if scientists were more open to changing their minds if the evidence suggests it? [63] Do “Science & theology require different methods”? [72] If so, why? “It is the heart that perceives God not the reason”; true? [72]

4 Nothing Is Certain [74-96] Any libertins or honnete hommes today? What are the differences between P and Montaigne? How did they see death similarly/differently? Where did they differ on attitudes to self? What about man's insignificance/right responses to the human condition? 'What do I know?' or 'What do I do?' [95]

5 Children of Port-Royal [97-123] Is there an argument for sometimes abstaining from communion? What about retreats? [102] What about contrition and attrition? [112] What about pre-communion self-examination? [113] Does Chapter 5 help us on the matter of living out “the spiritual life in the middle of the world”? [121] What about providence – eg P not marrying, escaping his crazy uncle, etc? [120, 122]

6 Night of Fire [124-149] Is there a place for burying a talent? What do you make of P's “second conversion”? How does it compare with Descartes' story? Is it anti-physical at all?

7 Two Champions [150-168] Who are the two champions; what difference does P highlight under their names? Are Protestants far too confident that they, they alone, know the true meaning of the Bible? [159] Is sceptical dogmatism/dogmatic scepticism the right way to think?

8 Demented, Heretical or Jansenist? [169-196] What do we say to the five propositions? Is God a capricious despot moving pawns around? [172] Is there a blurring of Church and world today and will instruction put things right? [174] Were Jansenists Calvinists in disguise? [175; 112/3, 185] Would an entirely different approach help us perhaps? Does ridicule have a place? [176] Is there more of a need for popular writing? [178] Are there things to discuss here about use of technology/ persecution? What about the Jesuit views considered in letters 5 & 7? What do you make of the discussion of grace 186-191? Are both Jesuits and Jansenists wrong? Is it true to say heresy is often driven by an apologetic agenda, the Jesuits being a prime example? [192/3] Was P a Jansenist?

9 Hidden God [197-220] P speaks of the force of truth; a useful phrase? [197] What of his commitment to Romanism? [198] “P was always a too big and independent a mind and a character to fit ...” True or false? If true, good or bad? [199] Ridicule and eloquence might amuse but do not convert – discuss [201] Is the idea of God being hidden useful [202]? “True miracles can never be performed by anyone … to confirm an error” Is that a biblical position? [206] Are false miracles a proof there are true ones? [207] Do people believe miracles or not on the strength of evidence or what's in their hearts? [208] Is this helpful on the incarnation? [209, 220] Is P's doubt over creation's power to convert right? [212] It provides “too much to deny and too much to prove”; true? [213] “... he must see enough to know that he has lost him ...” Useful? [217]

10 Cleopatra’s Nose [221-244] Is P helpful on politics? Did the Jansenists act Jesuitically? [243]

11 Distracting Ourselves to Death [245-267] P was not content with conventional wisdom; is that a good thing? [251] What of P's struggle to balance his love of maths, etc and his love for God? [255] Is P helpful on distraction? Why is the most pleasure in the chase? [260] How do Montaigne and P differ on happiness? What about the long quotation 263?

12 Christianity Is Strange [268-293] Was P pre-suppositionalist? [275] How do we learn to love people? [276/7] Is P's order of arguing his case good? How do we escape thinking only of the past and future? [287] What about the problem of self-deception? Do we need to learn that we are monsters? [289] Is the observation top of 292 about Adam true and helpful? Is Christianity strange?

13 Make It Attractive [294-317] Is it right to say that simply piling up rational arguments for faith is a mistake? [299] What about “All those contradictions which seemed to take me furthest from the knowledge of any religion are what led me most directly to the true religion”? [302] How important is it to stress that we need a Redeemer? [303] What about his approach to Islam and the Old Testament? And the centrality of Jesus Christ? [308] Is the realisation that revelation is paradoxically hidden a helpful insight? [309] “Despite its total implausibility”? [310] The importance of the cross? What about pages 316, 317?

14 Spinning Coin at the Edge of the Universe [318-342] Atheism – not a bad argument but a bad gamble?? [332] What about the power of habit? [334] Confirmation bias?? [336] Three ways to believe? [340]

15 Hate Your Self [343-364] Does P define conversion well? [343] The competitive, deceiving, divided, trivial self and the remedy? The right balance in hating self?

16 If You Only Had a Week to Live [365-388] What do we make of P and his critics?

Lord's Day April 27 2026

It was our privilege yesterday to hear Geoff Low preach on John 17 and Job 41, 42. We had what are good turn outs for us (c 50 and 15) and good fellowship between times. Geoff and Rachel live south of the river and so our paths have hardly crossed despite moving in very similar circles.

10 Nyms

Claus Färber (3247); based on bitmap image by Nataraja., CC BY-SA 3.0
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

1. ananym, pseudonym consisting of the real name written backwards eg Erewhon, novel by Samuel Butler
2. anthroponym, personal name eg Brady
3. aptronym, a name suitable to one's occupation eg Usain Bolt the runner, Sara Blizzard the weather forecaster
4. cryptonym, secret name eg Operation London Bridge the code name for the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II, who died September 8, 2022.
5. homonym, one of two or more words spelled or pronounced alike but different in meaning eg bat (an animal/sporting equipment), park (recreational area/position a car) rock (a stone/a music genre)
6. metonym, name used of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated eg Wall Street (the financial sector in the US) The Press (news media or journalists) Boots on the ground
7. pseudonym, fictitious name eg Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), George Orwell (Eric Blair), Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
8. retronym, term newly created and adopted to distinguish the original or older version, form, or example from other, more recent versions, forms, or examples eg steam train, acoustic guitar
9. synonym, one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses eg large, huge, giant/pretty, attractive, alluring
10. toponym, place name eg descriptive Rocky Mountains, Greenland; commemorative Victoria, St Petersburg; associative/origin New York, Jamestown, shift New England

The Fox and the Cat

It's not a great picture and the creatures are behind mesh, which does not help, but I was amazed the other day to see this little cat and this fox looking at each other. The fox was not malicious and the cat was not afraid, as far as I could see.

10 Reasons to Lament over the Church of Christ

Claude Vignon, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>,
via Wikimedia Commons

This list was prompted by what Christopher Ash had to say at the conference

Because of ...

1. The persecution so many suffer
2. The needless divisons that too often exist
3. The false teachings that have come in and doen much harm
4. The ill taught nature of so many
5. The scandals that Christians fall into, especially ministers
6. The triumphalistic pride and self-confidence that is sometimes shown
7. The lack of success in evangelism
8. The worldliness that characterises so many
9. The lack of love and joy that is so often the case
10. The lack of repentance that seems to prevail so much

British Museum

Jononmac46, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

I forgot to say that one of the things we did when the family was here, apart from the London Wetlands Centre and Whipsnade Zoo, etc, was to go to the British Museum to see this wonderful pendnat recently discovered from the time of Katherine of Aragon. See here. We have a friend working in the museum and she arranged for us to see the Samurai exhibition too.

Banner of Truth Conference Final Day

We finished the conference with another sermon from Dan Peters and a closing sermon from Mark Loughridge. Mark took us to Psalm 126 ad spoke of the need to celebrate joyfully, pray expectantly, work confidently and listen to Jesus singing, praying and reassuring us. Dan chose to remind us of the need to preach in the Spirit. It is difficult to preachin the Spirit if that is what you are describing. It was a timely and helful word, nevertheless, and the whole conference wa a great blessing - not just the messages but the more informal discussion too. Next on April 12-15, 2027. Speakers will include Gerrard Hemmings and David Whitla,.