Midweek Meeting October 14 2015

Well, who'd have predicted? There were 17 people there last night. We usually have 10-12 I guess. I'm sure it wasn't because they knew I was going to speak on fig trees! I think it was just a few things coming together at the same time. Anyway, I did pursue our current project of looking at trees by turning to the fig. The fig plays a lesser role than the vine I guess but we looked at Jeremiah 24 and the parable in Luke 13 and especially the cursing of the fig tree in Mark 11. Fruitfulness was once again the main call but with other nuances too this time. We also had a very good time of prayer, seeking the Lord's face. Funny thing, my wife made me a fig and goat's cheese for lunch ysterday, so the theme of the day was figs, perhaps.

Opportunities for intake last week

Gavin Peacock, Highgate Rd Chapel

The opportunities to hear others ministering last week were so many that it has taken me until now to write things up.

We started off last Monday (4th) in Westminster Baptist Church listening to Paul Yeulett from Grove Chapel speaking to the fellowship on Stress in the ministry. He began with some more general remarks on the subject of stress before narrowing down to stress in the ministry going to the Psalm and 2 Corinthians before finishing with some practical suggestions such as the importance of things such as rest, variety and delegation. It was a helpful paper and although our chairman was rather disappointed by the number present (about 16) it seemed none to bad given the subject and the day. I must say that although the folk at Westminster Baptist Church are extremely welcoming and kind, the building is not a great draw aesthetically. Such relatively superficial considerations do weigh with some.

The Westminster Fellowship was originally the brainchild of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones and on Tuesday evening it was the Dr Lloyd-Jones Memorial Lecture that I went off to at the LTS. This normally takes place during the annual John Owen Centre Conference but as the lecture is intended not to be only for ministers a shift of timing was felt desirable. A good number attended this year's lecture which was from Old Testament specialist Dr Iain Duguid. He spoke on The Song of Songs, on what love is and on marriage and singleness. He helpfully argued that marriage involves  a threefold bond - legal, affectionate and sexual. He spoke of marriage as friendship on fire. He closed with an appropriate focus on Christ and the cross. See here for a similar paper given at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Besides this public lecture Dr Duguid lectured to the seminary students on the Song. On the Wednesday afternoon  there was an opportunity for others to be present when we turned to another of the wisdom books Proverbs and how to preach it. Dr D made some helpful remarks on the subject and gave an example or two of how to go about it. It was good to be present for that too.

As if all that was not enough, there were three further opportunities for intake on the Saturday. The LTS was having an elders day with Garry Williams, Robert Strivens and Ian Fry (a minister and Director of Youth and Children’s Ministry Training at Oak Hill Theological College) [LTS here] and next door the Kensit church had a morning conference on reaching Muslims with Amjad Mahand. We opted for Gavin Peacock with is wife Amanda at Highgate Road Chapel, following up the Song of Songs work with a well attended day conference on biblical manhood and womanhood. There are difficulties when a group focusses only on one matter but it was good to look at the subject again with some very clear messages and an opportunity for questions at the end. More from cbmw here.

Duguid/Yeulett

 

Another nice video

Lord's Day October 11 2015

Somehow, this Sunday seemed to go better than the week before. Not sure why. We started with a Bitesize Theology Class on Adoption.  A decent number turned up. it's a fairly straightforward doctrine and one that Christians instinctively sense is right. Just before we finished a man turned up who we'd never met. From the moment he told me that he was not asking for money I knew that he was asking for money. He said his name was George and that he came from Moldova. Anyway I listened to his story which, as is often the case, was rather convoluted but boiled down to the need for money. Anyway, I wasn't convinced and I told him frankly there was no money and so he decided to move on. Subsequent enquiry suggests he was a conman.

Anyway such things can be disconcerting but a speedy resolution meant that I was not distracted for the morning meeting where we looked at the church of Pergamum from Revelation 2. A good number were present though some were missing as ever. In the afternoon we had tea together. We tend not to make best use of these opportunities but this time we had a brief review of biographies available in our little library and some reports from meetings in other churches the day before. I then preached on the Song of Deborah to a decent sized evening congregation. A good day, I hope.

Fun Video

I saw this on TV tonight. (See belowfor what I saw). Lots of fun.

10 Bible Mnemonic Acronyms

1. The first five books of the Bible

Gentle Eskimos leave numerous daughters

(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)

2. Jacob's sons

Repentant Sinners Love Jesus. Do Not Give Anyone, In Zeal, Jewish Books (Muslim Either)

(Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph Benjamin [Manasseh, Ephraim])

3. The Ten plagues

Big fat gnats fly low,

Boiling hot lava drips flow,

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

(Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Livestock, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Firstborn die)

4. The Ten Commandments

First I Must Remember How Mothers Add Steel Lined Covers

(Put God First, Have no Idols, Don't Misuse God's Name, Remember the Sabbath Day To Keep It Holy, Honour Your Mother And Father, Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not covet)

5. The Cities of refuge

Girls race boys to the east

Kids shoe horses in the west

(Golan, Ramoth, and Bosor on the east; Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron on the west)

6. The Kings of Judah (and one Queen)

Readily Available As Jellied Jam,

All Are Jewish Amazons

Unless Jolted And Headed Manfully

Amid JeJune Ju-Jitsu Zebras

(Rehoboam Abijam Asa Jehoshaphat Jehoram

Ahaziah Athaliah Jehoash Amaziah

Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah Manasseh

Amon Josiah Jehoahaz Jehoiakim Jeconiah Zedekiah)

7. The Minor prophets

How Jolly Amateurs Obediently Made Nutritious Haggis,

Zealously Hugging Zipped Melons

(Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,

Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi) 

8. The Twelve disciples

Peaceful Androids Judge Jewish Philanthropists

Before They Make Jammy Judges Smash Jugs

(Peter, Andrew, John, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Jude, Simon, Judas)

9. Paul's Letters

Run CedriC, Go Eat Pop Corn TarTs (and ToasTed Peas)
(Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians)
10. The Seven churches of Revelation

Every small person that sings prays loudly

(Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea)

[Some old, some new, some borrowed, none blue]

Midweek Meeting October 7 2015

I seem to be rather our of sync with these midweek reports. This one is late and I didn't do one last week because we had only a prayer meeting as part of our week of prayer meetings. I appear to have given nor report the week before either (September 23). That was on the cross - a tree of death and of life. Anyway I went on this week looking at the vine, considering Isaiah 5, Ezekiel 17, Psalm 80, Matthew 21 and especially John 15. It was more interactive and more of a Bible study this time round than usual. We had a good turn out and a good time of prayer. What an oasis these midweek meetings can be.

Macbeth

I managed to get to the cinema this week with two of my sons to see the new version of Macbeth. It was quite a good production with plenty of gore. The decision to roll the scene back to around a thousand years AD in a wild Scotland is understandable and made for some rugged scenery. This meant though that the Shakespearean element was overlooked. For some reason children featured prominently as did fire. The witches were also given more of a role visually. Some few scenes were cut. Surprisingly, Lady Macbeth's part was not emphasised as it often is. The focus on Fleance at the end was interesting as it made a little suggestion as to how the future might unfold following Macbeth's death. Perhaps it is why the film begins with a funeral. The Burnham wood to Dunsinane was done rather poorly, I thought. People say that Fassbender and Cotillard (the lead actors) were compelling and magnetic but that sounds to me like overstatement.

10 Words often misused

1. Enormity
Does not mean: Enormousness
Does mean: A profoundly evil or immoral act
2. Instant
Does not mean: Very quickly, with lightning speed
Does mean: A specific point in time
3. Less
(Bit pedantic this one)
Does not mean: a smaller number of items
Does mean: a smaller amount
4. Infinitesimal
Does not mean: very many
Does mean: extremely small
5. Chronic
Does not mean: Severe or intense
Does mean: A condition or state that lasts for a protracted period
6. Historic
Does not mean: happened in history
Does mean: significant in history
7. Unique
Does not mean: rare
Does mean: the only one of its kind
8. Panacea
Does not mean: A cure
Does mean: A cure-all, as in a medication that would cure a wide variety of ailments
9. Plethora
Does not mean: A great amount of something
Does mean: An amount in excess of what is necessary
10. Ironic
Does not mean: Something very bad or funny that happened to you
Does mean: An occurrence that is the opposite of what you’d expect

How politics apparently works

Tonight's news reports that David Cameron said in his speech at his party conference

 

“Thousands of words have been written about the new Labour leader. But you only really need to know one thing: he thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a “tragedy”.

 

Right then, you think "I want nothing to do with him." But, of course, the comment is quoted out of context. Jeremy Corbyn said it was a tragedy Osama Bin Laden had been killed rather than being arrested and put on trial.

Commenting in 2011 on the killing of Osama Bin Laden he said:

 

“On this [the killing of Osama Bin Laden] there was no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him, to put him on trial, to go through that process. This was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy. The World Trade Centre was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy.”

 

Perhaps it is fair to say that thousands of words have been written about the Conservative leader. But you only really need to know one thing: he thinks people are stupid and will believe a soundbite and not check it out for themselves.

10 Kiwi International Rugby Coaches

1. New Zealand - Steve Hanson
2. Wales - Warren Gatland
3. Scotland - Vern Cotter
4. Ireland - Joe Schmidt
5. Canada - Kieran Crowley
6. Fiji - John McKee
7. Georgia - Milton Haig
8. Tonga - Mana Otai (grew up in Auckland)
9. Austria - Philipp Stevenson
10. Singapore - Casey Mees

Cranford Meeting 2015

It was good to be inn Cranford once again with Robin and Muno Asgher for the annual meeting. The situation continue s to be one of vast opportunity among Asian people of Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu background. About 40 of us gathered. The preacher was Gerard Hemmings from nearby Amyand Park. He preached very helpfully from 2 Corinthians 11 and 12. I chaired. It is a privilege to be involved in this work. Do pray for the work.

Lord's Day October 4 2015

A new month is here so we started with communion as usual. I spoke from Romans 5, a bit briefer than usual I think. Despite a good start, I didn't seem to get on so well with the preaching (from Revelation and Judges). It wasn't disastrous but I was a little long and not as easy to follow as I would like to be. People were tired in the evening. The children's talk went okay on the tenth commandment. There are bound to be Sundays like this I guess. Two members who have been ill were back so that was good but others were ill. A long lost Filipino re-appeared. We had visitors in the morning - couple from LTS, and in the evening a man who seems to have seen through the prosperity gospel by God's grace but the next move will not be easy for him. Three members were out preaching (one only in the evening). Not sure where other members were.

Week of Prayer September 2015

Last week we had a week of prayer meetings. That's why I didn't report on the midweek meeting. We had a prayer meeting that night (Wednesday) and the night after and other prayer meetings - one Sunday evening, two early morning ones, one mid-morning and one with breakfast on the Saturday. Seven in all, it was good to have a reminder of the centrality of prayer and to pray. We try and have these weeks twice a year.

Quietly confident Wales

Things look okay for Wales though beating Australia on the 10th is a tall order