Day Off Week 28 2022

I've done a lot of reading this week. I devoted my day off to two books - How to argue with a racist by Adam Rutherford (not quite finished) which I picked up after reading his more recent Control. The themes overlap slightly in that the more recent one deals with eugenics and this one with attempts to establish racial distinctions on the basis of genetics. Despite the evolutionary assumptions the book sounds an expected alarm against jumping to conclusions (Jamaicans can sprint, Jews are clever, etc) on the basis of race.

Very helpful. I don't know Phil or Angela Hill at all well but I have been aware of Phil's ministry since I was a student. On Facebook he expressed some sadness at the appearance of his atheist son's book Original Sins. Being a nosy parker I downloaded it and read it. Matt Hill clearly loves his parents on some level but caricatures them mercilessly and with some humour as part of his rejection of most of what they (and I) believe. As the publicity suggests it is an extraordinary memoir, a story of faith, family, loss, shame and addiction. It is recklessly honest, funny but grave, courageous and compulsive (I could not out it down). Because of its subject matter I would not recommend it to most people but if you want to read the story of someone from a good (but imperfect) evangelical family and how he went miles adrift then this is worth a read. Not that it explains anything. The author claims to have been convinced by intellectual arguments against Christianity but I think it is clear that is not why he has rejected this precious faith which could be such a blessing to him as it has been to me. The book certainly makes me more Calvinistic. There's a lot more I could say but this is probably not the place.

O how the grace of God amazes me!
It loosed me from my bonds and set me free!
What made it happen so?
His own will, this much I know,
Set me, as now I show, at liberty.

My God has chosen me, Though one of nought,
To sit beside my King in heaven's court.
Hear what my Lord has done,
O, the love that made Him run
To meet His erring son! This has God wrought.

Not for my righteousness, for I have none,
But for His mercy's sake, Jesus, God's Son,
Suffered on Calvary's tree;
Crucified with thieves was He;
Great was His grace to me, His wayward one....

Aber 2015 Last Session

Our final plenary session at Aber featured Paul Gamston preaching on Luke 13. He sought to apply the principles of the passage to those of us at the conference and hearing him there or online (as I had had to be with one of my sons in A & E following the football - he's alright). It was especially good to hear a clear gospel appeal, something that has not been so prominent as in the past, perhaps.

It has been a good conference on the whole. I have not attended any of the extra time or prime time sessions or prayer meetings or anything like that but I did get to the three afternoon seminars - David Meredith on contemporary evangelism, Phil Hill on backsliding and (best attended of the three) Paul David Tripp on relationships. The first two included helpful discussion.

Of course, it is also good to meet various folk. I might have mentioned our meeting up with three other couples, most of whom had been contemporaries with me at University. There was also a family celebration one lunch time with a large number of relatives most of whom have been at the conference. We had lunch today too with a former assistant at Childs Hill and his family and this afternoon I had coffee with a Facebook friend keen to meet face to face.

So a great week. The EMW Youtube Channel seems a little erratic at present but some of the messages are up and running and presumably they will all be eventually (as are the 2014 ones).

Aber Conference 2015 Evening Session 01

The opening session of the week at Aber featured someone who is something of a blast from the past for many of us. Phil Hill had just completed his work with UCCF in Wales when I first became aware of him. Many years on he is now a lecturer in WEST and living again in Wales. He took us to John 21 and the restoration of Peter to enter a plea to the backslider to return and to his fellow believers to help him in the process. He said a number of interesting things about the passage and from the passage. Of course, it raises all sorts of practical questions as to how you facilitate such restoration but as an expository sermon it was commendable and something we all need to hear. You can listen to the sermon and indeed the whole service on Youtube here. Hymns this year are all on screen (hymn books available to those who want them). It would be good if they indicated when we had come to the final verse as some systems do.