Aberystwyth Conference 2024 Session 9 (Evening 5)

There was no official Friday evening meeting last year but it was back with a bang this year. A packed Great Hall listened to Dyfan Williams give the final address of the 2024 conference looking at scenes from the life of Jacob. For me, this meeting (including Alun Ebenezer leading in prayer) was the highlight of the week. Clearly, warmly and with rhetorical power Dyfan expounded the Scriptures very practically and helpfully and ended with a powerful evangelistic call. Judicious use of powerpoint helped rather than hindered the message. 

He closed saying,

Now let me ask you this as we come to a close, will you hear Jesus's word tonight? Will you believe the God who sent him? Robert Frost, the American poet, wrote a poem The Road Not Taken and he says "I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference."

I want to suggest to you this evening, the final day of Aber, two roads are converging for you this evening, two roads, Jesus talked about them didn't he? He talked about the broad road and the narrow road. He talked about the broad road - there are many on it. The broad road leads to destruction. The narrow road, the narrow road they're not on it, so many. The narrow road leads to life, eternal life. And I want to ask you which road are you on? Which road are you on? Will you believe in the Lord Jesus? Will you put your faith in him? Will you get off the broad road and will you trust in this Saviour who promises you eternal life? Will you do it? Paul talks in in 2 Corinthians 5, he says we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were making his appeal through us - be reconciled to God. Well, I want to be that voice this this evening to you. I want to say, God is making an appeal to you through me, through his word this evening - be reconciled to God, come to this God. He is appealing to you this evening. He's saying, come on, come on. Trust in my son. Get off the broad road, get onto the narrow road that leads to life. The consequences are eternal. Robert Frost says that it's made all the difference. It's made all the difference, the road which I took and it's going to make all the difference for us, for you. Get on the narrow road, follow this

Lord Jesus, put your trust in him. There are young people that were with me in Aber at the conference, years and years ago ... there are people who were with me and in our friendship group. They are nowhere now. They are nowhere. They're not following the Lord; they're on the broad road and I don't want that to happen to you. I don't want it to happen to you.

God is appealing. God made Christ who had no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You can be righteous. You can be right with God this evening through faith in Jesus. You've crossed over from death to life. Take the road less travelled by and that will make all the difference.

Maybe this evening, maybe this evening, this will be the first stage of God's grace for you here. May we all know God's grace through the various stages of life and may we be strong to the finish. Amen, amen.

Two helpful little books recently published

I have recently read two new little books, one from EMW and one from Evangelical Press. They are quite different in style and content but both to be highly commended.

The first is My sunflower girl by Dyfan Williams. I bumped into  Dyfan a year or two back in the seminary on sabbatical. I guess he was working on this then. In 2003 Dyfan and Caroline's daughter Megan died rather suddenly. She was only 10. This book is a reflection on that fact  I guess it does not contain anything I did not know about the Bible's approach to Christian suffering but coming, as it does, from someone who really has suffered in a  way I never have it has a strength that I could never muster if I put pen to paper. There are also some helpful reflections on grief, such as its individuality. I particularly liked the illustration of the ball and three containers of different sizes and how the grief does not change in size but the ability to contain it does.

The second is Paul Helm's new little book on biblical revelation Just words? This is written in a simple philosphical style rather than than the usual well referenced biblical manner and so it comes over more Johannine than Pauline, if I can put it that way. That gives it a simple but profound  character that probably menas that only a second reading will bring out all the arguments it contains. You can get the favour from these two pargraphs from Dr Helm's blog

In this short book we are to consider one important aspect of the ordinariness with which God visits us. God has done things for us and he says things to us. Some of the things he does are to attract attention. But not like Presidents may command our attention, by their residence or their motorcade or the eloquence of their speech or the might of their army or the size of their entourage. In making himself known, God does not lose anything of his glory, but in what he does his glory shows through in surprising ways. And when all his redemptive work is done his glory will be manifest to all. Christ will come in great glory, and all his angels with him.

We learn that in God’s dealings with the human race, matter and manner are intertwined, vitally connected. In this study we are considering God’s book, what we call The Holy Bible. It is a book made up of other books, spanning hundreds of years. This shelf of books itself has a character that is at one with God’s coming down. For what God says in his book and how he says it are seamlessly woven together. The Bible tracks what has happened in human history when God came down.

Some new books