Lord's Day June 28 2020

It was a good day last Sunday. Different yet again in some ways. We began again with the singing time but our pianists were unable to be at their piano and so we made use of the excellent collection provided by the EMW. My son Gwïon kindly organised that for us. It's been good having him mostly with us over the summer (he has now headed back to Aber where he will work in the newly reopened bookshop over the summer). I recorded a service for YouTube last Friday on 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. (I had the camera a little low. I notice it officially has no views but I'm pretty sure that is wrong). In the evening it was Zoom time once again and I preached on the final three verses of Joshua 5. We also had Jonathan Parkinson with us from Caring for Life. We started supporting them years ago but have not been very good at keeping up so it was good to hear some news.

365 Albums 166-180

1. Tarkus Emerson Lake & Palmer 1971
2. Gach Sgeul Julie Fowlis 2014
3. Cyclone Tangerine Dream 1978
4. Dancehall Sweethearts Horslips 1974
5. Not too late Norah Jones 2007
6. Eli Jan Akkerman & Kaz Lux 1976
7. Unicorn Tyrannosaurus Rex 1969
8. Guitar for Sale Jan Akkerman 1969
9. Hymns IV Page CXVI 2011*
10. Nice to have met you Thijs van Leer 1978
11. Two sides of Peter Banks Peter Banks 1973
12. In and Out of Focus Focus 1970
13. Always Gabrielle 2007
14. Aqua Edgar Froese 1974
15. Voyager Mike Oldfield 1997

London Seminary End of Term

It was not possible, of course, to have the usual end of year service at the seminary with a visiting preacher and tea on the lawn. Instead we had a stripped down zoom meeting with testimonies from the leaving students and a short sermon from the principal. It is a shame that we can do no more but at least something was done. Thank you to those who arranged it. There appeared to be over 100 participating.

Rutherford on Providence

Rutherford to Lady Kenmure, as quoted by Alistair Begg.

Madam, when you are come to the other side of the water, and have set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the waters, and to your wearisome journey, and shall see in that clear glass of endless glory nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, you shall then be forced to say, “If God had done otherwise with me than he hath done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.”

Banner Lite 2020

As the usual Banner Conference was not possible this year, Banner very kindly sent us all a box of books and organised a series of messages on All Things for Good. Ian Hamilton, a very familiar face, kicked us off in an obvious place, Romans 8:28. He was followed by someone unfamiliar to me, Hensworth Jonas, a Baptist in Antigua and Barbuda. he took us to Psalm 27:14 in a fresh Al Martin style that was helpful. We then had a book review of Thomas Watson's book on the conference subject. Ian was backed by a word map and I guess Hensworth was in his church - a slick production with camera angle changes and words appearing appropriately. Jeremy did the no, no, and had his library behind him. Not a problem for Banner types I guess but some may have been tempted to try and assess what he has (everything) and does not have.(nothing). The final session was good old Alistair Begg on lessons from the life of Joseph and Genesis 50:20, the Old Testament Romans 8:28. It was a relief to have a little bit of humour at certain points. The messages are all on the Banner site at YouTube. I enjoyed the music between sessions too, courtesy of YouTube I guess.

Midweek Meeting June 24 2020

We zoomed once again last night. Again there were a gratifying number (including some who are not in Childs Hill at the moment and could not have joined us under normal circumstances) including our new friend from Sunday. A good number prayed too. We looked at 1 Chronicles 1:28-2:17. This is not proving easy but we are getting on with it. Hopefully we will be able to get back together in person soon.

Day Off Week 26 2020

Today I read a large chunk of an excellent new book by Joel Beeke and Bryan Hedges on using the Puritans It is a very helpful book spotlighting the work in general of the Puritans and specific volumes. I have ready many of the works cited but I did notice that there are titles here I know but have still never read. I must put that right. I also did my 10,000 steps and listened to the latest Louis Theroux podcast. I also watched some TV in the evening. Good day.

Blog of the week 15

Conscience  - Quotations

Queen Elizabeth One
She says to everyone:
If your conscience is clear
You'll have nothing to fear.
Elvis says of conscience
When your intelligence
Don’t tell you something's wrong
Don't say to you "Hold on!"
Don't give your arm a shake
You know you are a snake.
(Just two brief quotations
To raise expectations.)

This blog was started in 2015 and contains quotations on the subject of conscience, on which subject I have a published book. There are over 100 entries. There have been more than 2,000 hits. It can be found here. Most popular post on the blog is a quote from Elvis Presley You can find it here.

10 Evidences of the dominion of sin by Owen

There are uncontrollable evidences of the dominion of sin in men, some whereof I shall mention, and only mention, because they need neither proof nor illustration. 

1. It is so where sin hath possessed the will. And it hath possessed the will when there are no restraints from sinning taken from its nature but its consequents only. 

2. When men proclaim their sins and hide them not; when they boast in them and of them, as it is with multitudes 

3. Approve of themselves in any known sin, without renewed repentance; as drunkenness, uncleanness, swearing, and the like 

4. Live in the neglect of religious duties in their closets and families; whence all their public attendance unto them is but hypocrisy 

5. Have an enmity to true holiness, and the power of godliness 

6. Are visible apostates from profession, especially if they add, as is usual, persecution to their apostasy 

7. Are ignorant of the sanctifying principles of the gospel and Christian religion 

8. Are despisers of the means of conversion 

9. Live in security under open providential warnings and calls to repentance 

10. Are enemies in their minds unto the true interest of Christ in the world. 

Where these things and the like are found, there is no question what it is that hath dominion and bears rule in the minds of men, all men may easily know, as the apostle declares, Rom. vi. 16.

(Dominion of sin and grace - see Vol 7 of Works)

Lord's Day June 21 2020

We had a very good day last Sunday. We met to sing first (accordion accompaniment so it had a Beach Missions feel) and then listened to the recorded service on 2 Corinthians 4:13-18. We seem to have something different each week. This week I reintroduced consecutive readings (Jonah 1) and we used Abe Conference hymn recordings available from EMW. This took the pressure off our pianists, helped me to edit earlier and was probably nicer to sing with.  In the evening we zoomed, I preached on Joshua 5:1-12 and Andrew Murray, pastor of Hope West End reported. This is a project we have long supported so it was good to catch up. Also had that meeting something happened that we have longed for - we had a visitor. Someone local had tracked us down, emailed us and then joined us for the service. It's quite a little story how they became a ware of us but that will keep. So encouraged.

Midweek Meeting June 17 2020

It was quite a moment for me last Wednesday and nothing like I'd imagined it but as I have now preached on almost all of the Bible, I have come to the point where I think I may be ready to tackle 1 and 2 Chronicles. And so we started off with 1 Chronicles 1:1-27 and it was okay. We are on Zoom still but that is not too much of a problem by this stage I hope. We also had a good time of sharing and praying as ever. Good turn out again.

Day Off Week 25 2020

Thin week the day off was a bit bitty as I was trying to fix my coffee machine and set up a new hub for the wifi. We were fairly successful with the hub but not with the coffee machine which still functions fine for my Americanos but will not do frothy milk. The hub chain was overdue. In the evening I watched the second two of the BBC's dramatisation of the Salisbury poisonings, which was quite well done. I had rather forgotten about this outrage not having been affected by it. Its parallels with the present crisis are obvious. Got one or two other things done too, including my 10,000 steps, although that did include doing circuits in the kitchen at night.

Trace not chase

Recent rainbow in Childs Hill (found here https://twitter.com/anne_clarke)

One new feature of life for us in lock down is seeing hymns written up on screens rather than in books and so we have seen some few typos, one or two American spellings and occasionally different wording. Last Sunday we sang O love that wilt not let me go. I was surprised to see in our version

O joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I chase the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be.

I'm not sure when that error crept in but I think it brings in quite a different idea to George Matheson's original. Chasing rainbows is vague and ethereal, whereas tracing them through the rain is an exercise in faith.

Blog of the Week 14

Proverbs and sayings

This blog's about words
Sayings - two thirds
And the rest, words alone.
Forgive me please
And do not tease
As on and on I drone

This blog was started in back in early 2010 and contains various things loosely connected by the idea of words, a lifelong area of interest. There are over 300 entries there. There have been about 23,600 hits. It can be found here. Most popular post on the blog with about 1500 visits is on the phrase You have to eat a peck of dirt in a lifetime. You can find it here. I would like to do a sort of 2 minute podcast on words but I don't know if I'll get round to it.

In Writing 135 now available

The new edition of in writing from the Evangelical Library is currently going out