November Banner Mag

Another new Banner Mag is just out. It includes the second part of an article I have put together on Benjamin Beddome and friendship.

October Banner Mag

The new Banner Mag is out and looks good. It includes the first part of an article I have put together on Benjamin Beddome and friendship.

Day off week 44 2019

One of the tasks of most days off is to put away the clothes that magically appear washed and ironed every few days. My wife is a hard woman who expects me to actually put them away. Alo this week I spent a little while putting the hundred and more books that seem to have accumulated around and under my bed over the months into a rickety booksheld brought in from elsewhere. Otherwise I had a ood long chat with a friiend in North Wales by phone and read Private Eye and most of a little biography of Elgar that I picked up in acharity shop recently. There was alos time for blossing and trawling through my computer archives sorting things. I added several pieces to my pulished articles blog. See here.

Stan and Ollie

I finally got to see the film about Laurel and Hardy yesterday. A  double treat I saw it in Cwmbran but that's another story. I really enjoyed the film, which I thought was done very well indeed. The decision to place it where they did (in 1953 in Britain) and not to include representations of the very final years (Hardy died 1957 and Laurel 1965) was wise. The film is full of gentle humour and little by way of action but this was not at all detrimental. What emerges is a great friendship, not without its vicissitudes and some great humour. I loved it. Whether others would I'm not sure. My wife for example would not have enjoyed it as much as I did (she went to see the Mary Poppins film) and certainly not my son and his cousin (who went to see How to train your dragon 3). It deserves Oscars.

A nice postcard

A friend in Germany sent me the above postcard at the end of last year. He had been in Switzerland and had found my commentayr on Proverbs among some other purchases. The book has a new cover these days and is in its second edition. I believe EP are committed to keeping the Welwyn seriees in print. it's good to be found in the company of Ryle, Spring, etc. Thanks Stefan.

Jam packed two days

This last Saturday and Sunday has been jam packed and would normally take up at least five posts in their own right so what I'll do is give you the highlights and then we'll see what else I get round to doing.

Saturday began nice and early with a trip to Tesco's for breakfast items. Five of us gathered in the chapel at 8.30 am for a men's breakfast and a discussion of Chapter 6 of Disciplines of a godly man by Kent Hughes. It was good to discuss reading and related issues.

My wife then gave me a lift over to Highgate Road Chapel for their day conference on singleness. Some 90 people were there for what was a useful day of teaching and sharing.

That finished around 4 and I was back for tea around 5. I then headed into town and meandered through the rain to a the home of a good ministerial friend in Soho. Providentially I arrived just as the Wales match was coming to a close and so I saw Australia draw level with a kick and then Wales take them in the end with a final penalty. So 9-6 and o far so good for Wales. The game I think was a tense but grim battle.

We then headed out the the 100 Club on Oxford Street. There we heard a Finnish vocalist and blues guitarist Erja Lyytinen who was worth hearing but nothing compared with the mighty Focus who once again blew us all away (including my friend who I was glad to see suitably impressed).

Seeing Focus is always a joy but as an added bonus they also chose to release their new album that day and so I now have a signed copy (the first really in six years).

It was midnight before I was home but I got off to sleep quickly enough. I don't like late Saturday nights as I am always afraid it will interfere with the Lord's Day but I had prepared well in the week and things went fine - although I did doze in the afternoon. It was Remembrance Day, of course, and we had lunch in the church - more on that anon.

I kept the new Fous album for today. It's sounding very good.

Recent Activities Mostly in Wales

In recent weeks it has been quite busy. I am working on a big project for May and besides the regular work in the church I have been speaking elsewhere. A week back from last Friday I was down in Sussex. Firstly, I was in Halland where I had been invited to eat with a ministerial friend and his wife and then I spoke in Hailsham Baptist on the missionary David Brainerd. It was gratifying to see such a large number gathered and I think I was able to get across something of that great man.

Then over this last weekend it has been a great weekend of blessing. It began last Thursday night with the journey to Aberystwyth (Eleri, my youngest, the dog and me). There we stayed with my oldest son and his family. We arrived late but we had much of the day with them Friday. Another son, currently studying in the university, also came over.
Around 4 pm Eleri and I headed east again, this time to Bala where Eleri was taking part in a ministers' wives conference organised by EMW. My daughter-in-law and an old friend up from Pembrokeshire came with us. There was a good turn out at the conference with something like thirty or so by the Saturday.

At that point I left Bala and went further east to Pentre Halkyn near Holywell in north east Wales. North Wales can look pretty amazing in the Spring sunshine. It was a lovely trip. I was heading for a friend's house but it's a while since I last went there so it took me a few tries to find the right door. Chris and Carol, who are members in the church in Denbigh, treated me very kindly to a lovely Chinese meal. Carol disappeared at some point but Chris and I carried on chatting away and listening to music. Suddenly it was 2 am and past time for bed.

In the morning we went for a MacDonald's breakfast and then I was away back west to Bala, over the hills and past the rocks and sheep. That morning Eleri was speaking in the conference - not something she has really done before. She spoke on how we use our tongues and got on well, I'm sure, despite a cold that with unhelpful timing had begun to come on back in London.

I arrived around twelve and had a brief cuppa and then lunch with Eleri's cousin. He and his wife have been running the conference centre Bryn-Y- Groes in Bala for some time now, and very well. A big building project begins in September.

Having had a little break after lunch the ladies reconvened and it was my turn to be introduced and to speak. I managed to convince them that Eleri and I know one another quite well, despite some slip ups. I spoke on the second half of Proverbs 31 seeing the woman there not as an impossible challenge for women but a description of wisdom, wisdom found only in Jesus Christ.

After a cup of tea and cake the conference slowly dispersed until only our hosts and Eleri and I were left. We had a lovely evening with them talking.

On the Lord's Day I preached in the local church in Bala. I decided to go for texts - Hebrews 2:3a and Romans 8:28. The Word was much appreciated.

Eleri and I then headed back to Aber where Rhodri was busy with the students, including his younger brother. Also with them was a girl I knew is the daughter of an old friend from my youth. It was nice to chat with her. Earlier on I got the change to read a bed time story to my grandsons. I used the two books I wrote for them a few years ago (The boy with four uncles and The boy with a Z in his name).

This morning we (Eleri, Owain, the dog and me) left at a not too early hour. We drove to Watford Gap services where I joined my father-in-law, Geoff Thomas, for the drive to the Banner Conference in Yarnfield.

Funeral St Bride's Wentloog

I was at a funeral yesterday. Going back home is always a little troumatic I find. I grew up in Cwmbran and the nearest boy of my age on the street where I lived, lived three doors up. His father was older than mine (and had fought in the war) but both worked at Lucas Girling (though my father left when I was 10). Stephen and I were thrown together from babyhood. Sadly when we were 6 Stephen's mother left home and we lost touch a little not really reconnecting again until we were 9 or 10. He is the one who invited me to the church where we were both converted and baptised. I was his best man when he married Fay, still quite young, and he reciprocated some years later when i married Eleri. Unlike me, he has continued to live in the same general area. He is an accountnat.

This month his dad, Uncle Eric, died at the grand age of 95. He was buried in the graveyard of St Bridget's,.St Bride's Wentlooge near Newport, where he grew up and where my friend Stephen lived a short time. It is a distinctive low lying part of the country. It makes me think of the Kent Marshes in Dickens. We were only about 25 present at the church, where we sang Hark the herald and Abide with me with food served later at the Ashbridge in Cwmbran. I enjoyed being with my sister and talking to some old college friends and members of Stephen's family.

Uncle Eric was a distant figure for me. My main memory is of him coming to our house weekly on a Thursday night to pay my mother the rent she had paid for him. It always seemed to be during Top of the Pops. I spent a lot of time when he was out at work in his house in the summer holidays as a teenager jumping down the stairs or over the hedge (they moved immediately around the corner and we moved across the road when sisters came along but we were still only yards from each other's homes). We listened to Uncle Eric's records (Last train to San Fernando, Trains and boats and planes, Ernie, etc) adn soemtimes Stephen would try to horrify us with his dad's spare glass eye. As was said in an excellent eulogy, he was a conservative man of humour who loved to tell stories. It was right to honour him and his good deeds. Whatever age you are it is never good to lose your father.

Farewell Friends Reunited

I hear that Friends Reunited is on its last legs overwhelmed by the social media sites that have come since it began. I must confess I have only been on it in my wife's name. My wife signed up and after she had had a little go on it I tried and found I could look up my old schools using her log in. I felt reluctant to put my onw name put there. I'm not the only one. A friend told me had been on there and had been disappointed to find lots of names he didn't recognise. He also said that he had gone on there using an alias. Not the only one I guess! Your school days may take up only a small portion of your life but how fascinating it is to think where all the kids you once knew may be now.

News story here

Dad's funeral

As I blog so many things here and have had a great deal to say about my father over the last few months, I thought it right to say something about the funeral last Friday. We headed to Cardiff last Thursday evening after the school concert. We stayed with Eleri's sister and family and then went to Gail's the next morning. We were driven from there in two cars behind the hearse (via Hazel Walk where we grew up) the short distance to the chapel. It was a cold but clear day. With Dylan, Dewi, Uncle John and an old neighbour (Alan) I helped carry the coffin into the chapel, where around seventy family and friends had gathered.
John Edmonds, pastor of the Pontrhydyrun church, led the service. John began with Scripture verses and prayer then we sang How great Thou art. He then read part of Psalm 25, which was very helpful.
Using material we had supplied and his own knowledge, John sketched my dad's life from his birth in 1929 through to those last months when he knew he was going to die. John explained how he at least became convinced that my dad came to trust in Christ. He was at pains to make clear that it wasn't that dad was a good bloke after all or that it is easy to come to faith at the end. I found a lot of help in what he said. Since I became a Christian I have tried to pray for my dad and I think it is right now that I must believe that God answered my prayers (and those of others) for him as for my sister and mother.
My Uncle John spoke next. He was understandably emotional and failed to stick to anything prepared. His main point was that my dad had a power to cheer people up when he came into a room, which is very true. John then went on to thank individuals for coming - family members, my father-in-law who he recognised from my wedding. When his eye lighted on his cousin Ron he chided him for not answering letters. We laughed. That's how a Brady deals with grief.
John then prayed a prayer of thanks and read from Jonah 2 the passage he felt led to preach on. I wasn't sure why he had gone there at first but his point was that Jonah was a man who realised before it was too late that he had been running from God. Jonah was "lucky" - God used his near death experience in the great fish to wake him up to reality. My dad had said to John that he was lucky to be told he had a short time to live. It is not always like that. We will all die however and so we need to see that we are running from God and need to get right. It was clear gospel but how it was taken I don't really know.
The service closed with the hymn At the name of Jesus, prayer and benediction.
We then went to the nearby crematorium. Rhodri helped us to transport the coffin this time. We entered and left to the sound of my dad's favourite Glenn Miller track American Patrol (as he always desired). We stood for the short committal. John used that crucial word "brother". For me to use that word is difficult but I think I must by faith. It is not the conversion I imagined and it may be that is partly to humble me.
We then headed back to the chapel for some refreshments. It was a blessing to speak with family members (big ones from my dad's family, small ones from my mam's side), old friends from Pontrhydyrun, former neighbours, etc. People are so kind.
We then headed back to Gail's. After Geoff and Iola and Rhodri and Sibyl had headed back to Aber we went for a meal together in the Ash Bridge. It was a happy time for us orphans.
We then headed back to Cardiff.
The next morning, before heading home, we buried my dad's ashes with my mother's in the chapel graveyard (there were just eight of us with John and the undertaker). I'm not a fan of cremation but to see my dad's ashes in a tiny wooden box when he had been in a long wooden box just hours before had its own powerful testimony.
Sunday was a good day but I'm a little numb. Monday was difficult in some ways. It's different to when my mother died for all sorts of reasons. Being sober is a good thing.

Visiting Dad 06

https://www.essentialaids.com/mobility/rollators/rollator-walker.html?

Last week was so busy, I didn't have chance to report on my last visit to Cwmbran. This was quite different again as I went up in the car and we had specific tasks. I arrived around 10.30 am after a straightforward journey in the sunshine. The care support worker was ready to leave when I arrived. The nurse was expected to change a dressing but when she had not arrived by 11 we pushed off.

My dad has this new apparatus he is getting used to. I find from the net that it is called a rollator. It is an excellent help.

We headed off to Newport, found a parking space eventually and did the building society then the quite impressive Natwest bank, where we were treated to a cuppa and a chat about finance. My dad can be a little frustrating with some of his ideas about money.
Before heading home we popped into Marks & Spencer's to spend a voucher my dad had for his eightieth. That didn't take long. He bought a long sleeved one for some reason. Marks is remarkably unchanged though it needs some attention. Its marble steps are among my earliest memories.
Back home we had a bite to eat - a ham sandwich and a Tesco value pork pie which is cheap but has no taste. We actually saw a bird on the bird table.
A bonus on this trip was that my best friend Chris was also in town to visit his mother and so we were able to meet up for a cuppa and cake in the Nine yards.
The journey home was uneventful. We had our church members meeting the same evening. We were a small number as ever.
My dad seems well. He now goes to the hospice every Monday and is being well looked after by home visitors.

Luvly Jub'lee

As some of you may know I turned 50 today (like Morrisey and John Sopel). Thanks for all your greetings (cards real and online, phone calls, Facebook messages, etc). I had lovely presents (smellies and cheese and chocs and socks, shirt, money, etc). I especially appreciated The London Encyclopedia from the family - a brilliant buy. My father-in-law wrote me a poem and Rhodri reworked My Brother Jake (My father dad!) to great effect. I think I had four lots of happy birthday sung (from Aber, Cardiff, at home and in church). People are so kind.

Fifty, of course, is pretty old and means most of your life is probably over. So far its been 25 years preparation for the ministry, 25 years of on the job training and now hopefully my best 25 years of service. We'll see. I'm very thankful to God to be alive, to have been converted and to be wanting to serve.

TWTWTW

I must admit I'm half glad that the snow has come as I'm incredibly busy at present. It started last Monday with an evening committee meeting for the London Inreach Project in Covent Garden. Prior to that the day was fairly easy. Managed to go for a run round the park.

On Tuesday I was out all afternoon continuing to pursue the matter of where the Evangelical Library should move to. As reported, I spent Tuesday evening at Grove Chapel listening to jazz.

Wednesday was dominated by my regular visits to take services at Spring Court and Heath Grove Lodge (on Philippians 1 and Jonah 4). In between that I popped into central London to meet up with my good friend Chris Buckingham. In the evening it was our regular midweek meeting (looking at Deuteronomy 18).

In the midst of all this I found myself sheltering from the rain with my i-pod on. A live version of Sylvia (my all time favourite) came on and although I've listened to that song thousands of times it struck me once again how good it is. As I looked up there was the word Sylvia across the road in front to me (good job I'm not religious, eh?).

By Thursday I had so much to do I had to get up an hour earlier. I fitted most of it in, including writing a tract, preparing various other things and an afternoon Greek session at LTS on participles and the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. In the evening we had our bi-monthly church members meeting. It's always a good time but I wish we could have more present.

On Friday I was in Welwyn at the EMF lecturing on JWs and Mormons. I had some business at a bank near Goodge Street en route home plus a visit to Finchley to read from Lloyd-Jones' masterful Preachers and preaching with Richard Raven a student at LTS who is one of our mentoring students. (He preached for us yesterday and quite acceptably too). We celebrated Dylan's birthday in the evening with fahitas and krispy kreme doughnuts. Also that evening, of course, it was the clubs for children and young people where I spoke about this current ad on the buses suggesting there is no God and we had a quiz.

Saturday morning we were giving out tracts in Golders Green in the bitterly cold wind - not the best weather for it. In the afternoon most of the family went to Aldenham Country Park and had a nice time there despite the cold.

Sunday morning I preached in the Welsh church, as reported. The three older boys were in Childs Hill to hear Richard. We went for a walk in Kenwood in the afternoon. I took communion in the evening adn then Richard preached on Psalm 145.

Early October

Lunching with good friends,

The October sun shines down.

Paul's Greek, it's profound.

Lovely sunshine today. I went to West Hampstead for a bachelor lunch with one of my deacons and three other friends. He's getting married on Saturday.

I then went on to Finchley for some Greek studies at LTS. The class has mushroomed to eight which changed the dynamics, but it was good. Home via Golders Green with my camera. Church members meeting tonight.

North Yorkshire

On Thursday and Friday this week I was in unfamiliar territory up in North Yorkshire. I had been asked to preach at a monthly North Yorkshire Bible Rally. On Thursday afternoon I left by coach from Golders Green and went all the way to Thirsk (it was going on to South Shields). We have friends very near Thirsk and they kindly put me up for the night (I deprived their 17 year old of his bed for the night) and got me to the meeting which was in a small church in Northallerton.

I suppose about 50 gathered in the small chapel . The chairman was the pastor at Geneva Road, Darlington, Mark Rowcroft, who we got to know when he was a student at LTS. It was good to be among friends - several I'd met before, others I'd not and one or two in between (!). I preached on Christian Freedom, a fresh sermon I'd felt led to preach that arose out of studies in the Confession. It was sound and helpful stuff but lacked power I guess. (I'd been reading about unction all the way up and so that was on my mind).

So after good fellowship back in Carlton Minniott, a good night's rest and a brief look around Thirsk (picked up two nice old books of anecdotes - on Mark and Acts - in Oxfam) I was soon back on the coach again. A very friendly Nigerian lady I'd sat next to on the way up, a professing Christian, was on board again and we ended up chatting most of the way home which was very pleasant. I passed on a copy of my sermon. I arrived home just as everyone was coming back from school. Good to be home again. It was then off to the clubs for children and young people. Lots to do now before Sunday.

Weekly Proverb 08

Friends love always, Brothers are for bad days 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity

George VI’s 1942 Christmas radio broadcast referred to a former US President telling 'of a boy who was carrying an even smaller child up a hill. Asked whether the burden was not too much, the boy answered ‘It’s not a burden, it’s my brother!’'
A 1969 hit by the Hollies is based on the story.

So on we go, his welfare is my concern.
No burden is he to bear; we’ll get there,
But I know he would not encumber me.
He ain’t heavy – he’s my brother.
If I’m laden at all, I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart isn’t filled with the gladness of love for one another.

Like 12:26, 14:20, 16:28, 17:9, 18:24, 27:6, 9, 10 this proverb is on friendship. A man born blind when asked what he thought the sun was like replied ‘Like friendship’. True friends are there not only in good times but also in bad. Brothers are especially good for adversity. Great biblical examples - Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan - have adversity in the background. Joseph showed undying love to his brothers despite all they did to him.
The Bible presents Jesus as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Mt 11:19) who calls believers friends not servants (Jn 15:13-15), and is not ashamed to call them brothers (He 2:11-13, etc). Whoever does the Father's will is his brother and sister and mother (Mt 12:50). Gill notes how the Jews saw the verse as referring to Messiah. They saw it as showing 'that the Messiah, being God, would by his incarnation become a brother to men'.
Christ’s friendship is a favourite theme in evangelical hymns. Albert Midlane’s children's hymn begins

There’s a Friend for little children
Above the bright blue sky,
A Friend who never changes,
Whose love will never die;
Our earthly friends may fail us,
And change with changing years,
This Friend is always worthy
Of that dear Name he bears.

Think too of ‘Oh, the best friend to have is Jesus’ (Peter Bilhorn); ‘Friend of sinners, Lord of glory’ (C Newman Hall); ‘Friendship with Jesus’ (J C Ludgate); ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’ (Joseph Scriven). James G Small (‘I’ve found a Friend, O such a friend!’) speaks of him as

So kind and true and tender,
So wise a Counsellor and Guide,
So mighty a Defender!

And Newton wrote

Poor, weak and worthless though I am
I have a rich almighty Friend;
Jesus, the Saviour, is his name;
He freely loves, and without end.

On the good ship again

I have a friend, a fellow minister, and we meet once a year in January, when he has a sort of sabbatical month. We first met in LTS and then were neighbours and so used to meet once a week in a downmarket cafe in Kilburn. This time round we had a look at the sites round St Paul's - Wesleyania, Smithfield, martyrs' memorial at Smithfield, etc, to inspire us. More anon, perhaps. We then grabbed a coffee in the Barbican Centre, talking all the while. As we sat there. He tested me on his portable music collection (very white and seventies). He was quite impressed by my knowledge, especially 'Tom, Tom turn around' by New World (amazingly I have their autograph somewhere) and 'Silver machine' by Hawkwind. He's really a football man rather than music (he gave me a nice illustration about Teddy Sherringham - still playing Premier League football because he not only likes the playing but the training too) and has all girls not boys like me. He has a much larger suburban church with elders and assistants, etc. But we're both the Lord's and set apart to the ministry. It's great to spend time with someone who understands that (and has a sense of humour and history). He was particularly helpful to me, as I shared my fears and failures, in reminding me of the importance of discipline. As we walked to Piccadilly Circus to part I thought 'good bloke (I must remember it's his turn to pay for the coffee next year)'.

The Good Ship Friend

I met up with my good friend Chris last night. He was down from North Wales on business. We just had an hour or two - time for two coffees and a bite to eat. Conversation never let up - music, family, our sins and failures, church responsibilities (he's just been made church secretary), growing old, etc. I've known Chris for 35 years and more and though I'm not much of a friend to have he's a great one. I thought of him when I ran across this C S Lewis quote from Michael Haykin's blog (see my link). He got it from Jayne Thompson at http://maryellensgranddaughter.blogspot.com/

"Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, "Sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends." I know I am very fortunate in that respect."

[The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (29 December 1935)]