Lessons from Judges 1:1-2:5

God is in control and uses even the messy and the inexplicable.

God's power.

Victories come from God not ultimately from superior skills or numbers.

God's people can expect triumph when they do his will in his way.

God's work does not depend on any human being, not on our leaders or heros.

Total obedience to God's Word even when it feels hard or strange.

Don't think you know better than God. No pragmatism at the expense of principle.

No compromise with sin or with Godlessness.

The seriousness of sin and the reality of the coming judgement. The justice of God.

The need to throw in one's lot with God and his people.

God's blessing come when we work together in unity. Mutual help.

God is patient and merciful. He warns and stands ready to forgive.

Sin has painful sometimes disasterous sometimes unintended consequences.

Emotional repentance is good and fine as is expression of faith and devotion, but they must be real and lasting and applied in action.

We need new hearts, the power of the Spirit, forgiveness, rescue, a Saviour-King, Christ.

(With thanks to my homegroup, Dale Ralph Davis, Judges - Christian Focus - & The Good Book co., The Good The Bad and The Ugly).

Ministers and Priests

One potential disadvantage in calling your minister or priest a minister or priest is that all God's people are ministers and priests. Its good to remember that. The minister or priest mustn't forget that the people are ministers and priests, and they should remember it too. They mustn't expect him to do all the ministering and priesting.

Perhaps Pastor helps to avoid this problem, thought of course we should pastor one another too. Maybe Elder or Presbyter would be the best title in this respect?

A bad argument

(1) Some Roman Catholics are bad or wicked or dangerous or wrong in some ways or something like that

(2) Some Roman Catolics use incense

(3) Therefore we must not use incense

Now, leave aside what you think about (1) for a moment. Just note that if were to grant this it would also prove:

(2a) Some Roman Catholics preach sermons using Bible texts

(3a) Therefore we must not preach (sermons using Bible texts).

As I said, a bad argument.

"They're just not ready for it!"

What would your attitude be if someone said someone else wasn't ready for studying a certain portion of God's Word?

I was pretty unconvinced. It's all God's Word and useful and we all need it all, and so on.

But on reflection, I think I'm a bit more sympathetic.

Imagine the Bible as rich, varried food. All of it is good and life-giving, and we need all of it, and a balanced diet. But some of it might be best for breakfast, lucnh, or dinner, or for a snack. Some may be a fine feast. Some is daily bread. We will naturally like some bits more than others. Some bits will be more or less nutritious, or appertising, or digestable. Some might neeed cutting up or mashing, or lots of chewing, or a good long stewing. Some bits will go together with other bits well, or be a nice change. Some might not taste good or upset us. Some bits might be an acquired taste. Some of us will suffer from defficiencies which mean that certain portions would be best for us. We must eat our greens too and not just have suasages for every meal or over-eat on pudding. And so on.

We don't all have to be able to eat everything in one go.

In the name of God and to his glory

I would be a happy man if I preached like this.

Resolved

When ever possible, when ministering I will take someone with me who might be more involved in that ministry in the future and chat with them about it before and afterwards. Next time, I might go with them and have them do it. Then they can go on their own. Then they can take someone else.

See one, do one, teach one is a good idea for multiplying ministry.

Blessed breasts

God willing, I am going to preach at our Mothers' Union Prayer Fellowship Communion on Thursday on Luke 11:27-28.

Vicar Wanted!

We'd like our old one back at Holy Trinity, Eastbourne, but failing that, you can find our Parish Profile here.

Have Bible Will Travel!

If you are after a preacher or speaker, you could do a lot worse than my old boss, The Revd John Cheeseman, who has just embarked on an itinerant ministry after 30 years of local church leadership. John is a Bible-believing, faithful, clear, courageous, passionate preacher keen on lively real-life application - and I'm no longer paid to say that. He'll be sound but not dull! I hear his rates are very reasonable! Try to get his wife, Joy, to come too!

John was called to the ministry while reading Classics at Oxford and trained for under Alec Motyer and Jim Packer at Trinity College Bristol. He is the author of The Grace of God in the Gospel / Saving Grace and The Priority of Preaching (Banner of Truth). His sermons on the life of Elijah are forthcoming.

A taster of John's sermons is available, I believe, from The Martyn Lloyd Jones recording trust. Many of his sermons from the last 2 years at Holy Trinity, Eastbourne, can be found on our church sermon page.

Be There or Be...

... potentially misinformed, unenlightened, not encouraged, stretched, humbled etc. etc.

What would the 17th Century Reformed say to the 21st Century church? What would thrill or suprise or horrify them?

I hope to find out at The Faith of Our Fathers' Conference in Southgate, North London, Sat 2nd Oct.

See you there or comment to book a place in my car from Eastbourne.

Visible "Word"

If we are going to say that the sacraments are Visible "Words" we will want to think long and hard about what words are.

Marriage alliteration purposes

Marriage is for:

Charity (love), chastity and children.
Partnership, procreation, purity.

And a way of putting it that may have been new to me:

Society (including children), sharing, sexual pleasure, symbol (of Christ as bridegroom of the church)

Thanks to Revd Paul Clark at David & Sarah Wilks' wedding at St Helens, Bishopsgate yesterday for that.

Incarnate Word

It seems to me perfectly acceptable and potentially very useful to compare the inacrnation of the Lord Jesus Christ in two natures (human and divine) with the inscriptuartion of the Word of God, which is both a human and a divine book.

Now, no doubt this is an analogy. We must avoid an illegitimate totality transfer. We need not think there is a hypostatic union between God and Man in the Bible to make use of it. All analogies break down - they are not totalities! They make points about relevant similarity. They invite us to compare and contrast and run thought experiments. They say something in a maybe new or interesting way. They need not say A is B or even the relationship between A and C is identical to the relationship between D and E in all respects. They might just say: hey, have you thought about this: is this a pattern? The incarnation seems to me to be one of the deep structures or paradigms of relatity. Of course it is unique and special in all sorts of ways, but it is also fundamental not accidental or incidental to everything else.

Further, it is no objection to the analogy as such to say that some people abuse it. For example, some people may want to assign stuff they don't get or like to the humanity of the Bible so as to be able to dismiss it. But here the true analogy can help us: Jesus and the Bible both have a perfect sinless humanity. There is no problem with the analogy here - the fault would be with the theology of the incarnation of those who argue thus.

How To Lead A Bible Study

I haven't watched this, but given the familiar face, I expect it'll be very useful.

War & Suffering in OT (reading)

A friend asked:

i was wondering if you know any good books about why God allows/ initiates so much war and suffering in OT

All I could think of to say was:

I'm struggling to come up with anything fantastic on exactly that.

You might try looking at:

D A Carson, How Long O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil (IVP / Baker, 1990)

John Dickson has a book If I Were God I'd End All The Pain (Good Book co.) but I think he gives a rather unhelpful form of the Free Will defence.

You might like bits of Williams and Cooper, If You Could Ask God One Question (Christianity Explored)

It's worth saying that the problem is not confined to the OT. OT - mean God, NT God of love is a caricature.

It's also key to remember that all sinners deserve hell. Holy war is just a minor foretaste of that.

The cross shows God using suffering for good etc.

Sorry not to be more help.

Any other suggestions? What should I have said?

No comforter or friend?

I'm pleased to see that the LXX for "comforter" in Ecc 4:1 seems to be "Paraclete" and reckon that might give a nice conclusion to my sermon. There is a Comforter, the Holy Spirit (John 14-16)!

Jesus is also a friend in need (Ecc 4:10), one who sticks closer than a brother (Prov 18:24; John 15). He is the Supreme Good Samaritan - the one who helps us up when we have Fallen.

Preaching footnotes

Footnotes are not really possible nor appropriate in preaching - hence blogging!

Tomorrow, I'm thinking of using Vaughan Roberts' headings for Ecclesiastes 4:

(1) The way of the world - the absence of love

(2) The way of the wise - the centrality of love

A 9min 50sec wedding sermon on Ecc 4

Rory & Anne-Marie’s Wedding

Well, it’s an emotional day for us all.

I bet even the cake’ll be in tears!

(Boodoom choo!)

(Tough crowd)

(You are allowed to laugh in church – try to get the right moments)

Do you know the story about the Old Vicar rehearsing nervous bride for her wedding?

It’s simple, he said.

All you have to do it walk down the aisle, to the altar and we’ll sing a hymn.

Just remember that:

The nervous bride comes in on her wedding day and is heard muttering to herself all the way in:

AISLE, ALTAR, HYMN!

I’m sure Anne-Marie wasn’t saying that

And even if she was, I suspect the Markhams are a determined plain speaking lot, and she might have a life-long project on our hands!

Rory and Anne-Marie chose our Bible reading from Ecclesiastes.

It speaks of the advantages of a partnership.

2 are better than 1.

That’s true, and very applicable to marriage.

Here are some of the blessings of a good marriage.

Today, Rory and Anne-Marie will become one.

The Bible says its not good for man to be alone, so God makes a helper suitable for him.

Woman is equal to the man but different – complimentary!

Imagine 2 Rorys!

Those of you who know Rory better than I do know what that would be like!

(Best man’s job to be nasty about Rory, so I’ll try to resist!)

How much better a Rory and an Anne Marie than 2 Rorys!

They’re suitable for each other, they go together.

They’ll go together like salt and pepper or a horse and carriage

Or to quote those immortal words from Danny and Sandy in West Side Story:

We go together like
rama lama lama
ke ding a de dinga a dong
remembered for ever like
shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom

Hopefully they’ll not go together like chalk and cheese or itchy and scratchy!

From now on, Rory and Anne Marie are a kind of BOGOF – a buy one get one free.

Buy Anne Marie, as it were, and you’ll get Rory thrown in.

The Bible says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”

Husband and wife become one.

Leaving and a cleaving (cleaving, separating)

It’s healthy for the parents to have a good old cry today

You might have said, “we’re not losing a daughter, we’re gaining a son” – and that’s wonderfully true

But Anne-Marie’s first loyalty now is to Rory, not to Mum and Dad.

Rory and Anne-Marie will form a new household, a new social unit, friendly and welcoming to their former families and friends, but not run by them!

There’s a sense in which Rory and Anne-Marie do have to forsake all others – at least kind of, a little bit.

From this day on, no one else is a prospective husband or wife till the current one drops off the perch.

Rory and Anne-Marie’s 1^st relationship is now with one another, and that will change all their other relationships – we trust for the better.

Marriage is a life-long exclusive unique relationship.

It’s no good if you live as if you’re not married, or as if you’re married to your family and friends, or your jobs, or your hobbies, or whatever.

Remember your married!

And remember to whom your married!

So back to our reading.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work”

Rory and Anne Marie, you’ll be more effective together than you would have been apart.

Marriage is not just an addition, it’s a multiplication.

Anne Marie, you’ll have strengths that make up for Rory’s weaknesses, and presumably vice versa, too.

In our house, I come in handy for emptying the bins and lifting heavy objects.

Mrs Lloyd is marvellous and pretty much everything else.

(She even likes putting up flat pack furniture, can you believe it? What a catch is that!)

2 are better than 1!

“If one falls down, his friend can help him up”

You’ll both fall and fail many times.

You probably will have squabbled by the end of the honey-moon if you last the day!

So be quick to say sorry and forgive.

Don’t get into the blame game

Be friends!

Yes, be lovers and husband and wife and housemates, and partners, and all that: but never forget to be friends!

Help one another.

Be kind and considerate.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves”

Be intimate allies.

Be on one another’s side.

Defend one another.

At times, it may have to be Rory and Anne Marie against the world.

And Rory and Anne-Marie right or wrong.

Even when the other person messes up, be there for them, back them up.

No little comments that put him down.

No jokes at his expense.

No criticizing him behind his back with your friends.

So 2 are better than 1.

Marriage is (normally speaking) better than singleness.

But marriage is for better or for worse.

You need to be committed to this marriage even if it doesn’t work out quite as you dreamed:

If one of you, gets sicker and poorer and you think you could maybe upgrade to a better model, that’s when the solemn vows you make today will kick in.

It’s easy to be in love on your wedding day, the challenge comes when you’re tired and broke and one of you is puking up in the middle of the night again, or whatever…

But last of all, how can you make your marriage better and not worse?

Finally, “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken”

Until now its been 2.

Why suddenly this talk of 3?

Remember that Princess Di famously said of her marriage to Prince Charles that:

"There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”

Make Jesus the only 3^rd person in your marriage.

He wont make it crowded.

He’ll make it better, not worse.

(Triangle – Jesus at the top, you 2 at the bottom) as you grow closer to Jesus, you’ll grow closer to one another too.

He needn’t come between you.

Wedding at Cana. Water into wine. Amazing transforming power.

He produced 750 bottles of the finest Châteaux Neff d’Pap

A watery marriage would be good.

A wine-filled, Jesus empowered marriage would be better.

Invite Jesus not only to your wedding, but into your marriage and lives.

Amen.

Well, it’s not too late to change your minds?

You still want to get married?

Okay, let’s do it!

(Please stand)

Worth knowing

Before, God-willing, I become an Incumbent, I think I might re-read The Canons of the Church of England. There's lots of interesting useful stuff worth knowing. For example, B20.2 Of the musicians and music of the Church is quite helpful:

Where there is an organist, choirmaster or director of music the minister shall pay due heed to his advice and assistance in the choosing of chants, hymns, anthems, and other settings, and in the ordering of the music of the church; but at all times the final responsibility and decision in these matters rests with the minister.

Virtual Communion

"A retired Methodist minister is to use Twitter to conduct Holy Communion - with his online flock taking bread and wine in front of their PCs. The Rev Tim Ross will tweet out the lines of the Eucharist next month to his 357 followers, and says participants can tweet back "Amen". He hopes that it will unite the faithful across the world. 'Where it could lead, who knows? Maybe one day to a baptism by Facebook,' he said."

From The Times, Monday July 26 2010, p.9

One of the potentially many problems of this would be that they will not partake of one loaf (1 Cor 10:17).

Yoked

As Glen pointed out on Sunday night, in Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus seems to assume that we are all (already) yoked or burdened. The only question is whether we will accept Christ's easy yoke and light burden or will stick with some ill-fitting hard yoke and heavy burden for which we were never intended.

New Family Connections

Citing Luther in The Freedom of a Christian, Glen spoke on Sunday evening of faith union with Christ as like a marriage. When I am married to Christ by faith in the Spirit, Jesus pays my debts, I take his name, I gain his wealth, his family connections and his status, just as someone marrying a royal might become royal too.

I think the passage Glen had in mind is Three Treatises (Fortress Press, 1970), p286, the section beginning "The third incomparable benefit of faith is that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom".

Here it is nicked from the Theology Network site:

The third incomparable grace of faith is this: that it unites the soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage--nay, by far the most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ claims as His.

If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul. For, if He is a Husband, He must needs take to Himself that which is His wife's, and at the same time, impart to His wife that which is His. For, in giving her His own body and Himself, how can He but give her all that is His? And, in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how can He but take to Himself all that is hers?

In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For, since Christ is God and man, and is such a Person as neither has sinned, nor dies, nor is condemned, nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned, and since His righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and almighty,--when I say, such a Person, by the wedding-ring of faith, takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them His own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His, and as if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and descends to hell, that He may overcome all things, and since sin, death, and hell cannot swallow Him up, they must needs be swallowed up by Him in stupendous conflict. For His righteousness rises above the sins of all men; His life is more powerful than all death; His salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.

Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its Husband Christ. Thus He presents to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith in the word of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her unto Himself "in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).

Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that rich and pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils and supplying her with all His good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying, "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine," as it is written, "My beloved is mine, and I am His" (Cant. ii. 16). This is what Paul says: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," victory over sin and death, as he says, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).

Impressive but dead

In his sermon on Sunday evening, Glen argued that if you mess with the heart of the gospel you risk killing the church and being left with a corpse. It might still be a big, impressive, sprawling body with much to admire, but it might still be dead.

2nd most read book in the world ever?

According to Glen, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. I'm assuming no. 1 is the Bible!

Christ Alone is not narrow

In his sermon on Sunday evening, Glen argued that "Christ alone" is not a narrow statement since Christ is not narrow. It is because Christ is so great and vast, so cosmic and complete that we must say "Christ alone": he is so immense that there is no room for anyone or anything else. Additions and alternatives are superfluous, indeed, in a way even impossible, since Christ is all.

Christ or the System

In his sermon on Sunday, Glen suggested that we need to be delivered from some kind of "system" to / by Christ. He spoke of Luther's escape from the system of medival piety. Interestingly, later, he also spoke of Bunyan's deliverance from a Protestant system in which he lacked assurance.

What's your system?

What are the besetting systems of conservative evangelicals / the Reformed? Conversionism? Systems of doctrinal orthodoxy, of the 5 points of Calvinism or the Westminster Standards?

Perverse Penance

Glen Scrivner's sermon on Sunday evening (on Christ Alone from Mt 11 & Col 1), suggested that one of the perversities of a system of penance is that it tends to think of saying prayers as some kind of punishment (or a meritorious good work) rather than a privilege of grace.

Son as Camp Adjutant

I wonder if we might think of the relationship between Father and Son as somewhat analogous to that between the Overall Leader of Camp and the Adjutant?

Exactly what heresies that initially suggests to your mind will of course depend on how your camp is run and on the sins and foibles of overall leader and adjutant!

The Overall Leader and the Adjutant are ontologically equal, yet the Overall leader has a functional authority. The Adjutant exercises rule on behalf of the overall leader and runs all things for him.

Another way of saying this might be that the Son is the Executive Officer of the Trinity who carries out all the will of the Father in the power of the Spirit.

Alphabet Photography

We just splashed out on a JONATHAN and an ABIGAIL from Alphabet Photography at the knock down price of £120 for the pair (at The Eastbourne Town and Country Show in Princes Park). If the kids weren't in tow, one could spend ages having fun choosing the pictures. We both thought they were rather clever and cool and hope the kids will like them all their lives!

ENTJ

Mrs Lloyd and I reckon that some of this (and this, and this, and this and this, and this, and this, and this and this and this) is quite insightful about me. As Glen mentions, some of this is aspirational, of course, but I fear there's some truth in the less flattering bits too (e.g. a danger of unforgiving hyper-critical insensitive task-focused self-righteous bigotted dictatorship!). Pity the camp leaders!

Danehill 1

Please pray for the 50 11-14 year olds and 30 leaders who will be at Danehill 1 CPAS Venture from Saturday for The Best Week of the Year.

Preaching Plans

Here are my preaching plans for Sundays at Holy Trinity (Sept - Dec 2010). I'm performing a little more often than usual due to the interregnum.

12^th Sept AM – Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 – Shut up & listen up!

19^th Sept AM – Harvest Family Service – Mark 4:1-20 – How to have a bumper crop

26^th Sept AM – Back to Church Sunday – Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12 – Money & Meaning: Are the better off better off?

3^rd Oct PM – John 13 – Jesus serves

24^th Oct PM – John 14:1-14 – The Way to a Heavenly Reservation

31^st Oct AM – Ecclesiastes 7 – Better Wise Up!

7^th Nov PM – John 14:15-31 – Father, Son and Spirit

21^st Nov PM – John 15:1-17 – How to be a fruitful Christian

28^th Nov AM – Ecclesiastes 8-11 – Knowing how to live when you just don’t know

5^th Dec PM – John 15:18-16 – What to expect

19^th Dec PM – Christmas Carol Service – Bible passage TBA

24^th Dec PM – Midnight Communion Service – Bible passage TBA

25^th Dec AM – Christmas Family Service with Communion – Bible passage TBA

26^th Dec AM – Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:14 – Resolve to remember your creator & fear God

PT Conferencing

I've recently booked myself on to the Proclamation Trust Autumn Joint Ministers' Conference (8th - 11th Nov), details of which are here. See some of you there, perhaps?

Can We Trust The Bible?

Here's the text of my handout:

Can We Trust The Bible?

Yes! And we can trust the God who wrote it!

The burden of proof / unjustified scepticism? - Why wouldn’t we trust it?

A very important question – central to Christianity, big claims, life changing, eternal significance

World’s best selling book - both revered and rubbished – popular rejection / ignoring of the Bible (myths, legends, fairy tales, maybe moral or theological truths but not history)

The basic Christian view of the Bible / what the Bible claims about itself:

Historic / traditional consensus of the church: God’s words – inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) - God’s Word Written – What the Bible Says, God says – God’s Word reflects the character of God - true / authoritative / reliable in all that it affirms – inerrant / infallible (no errors)

Not just believe the Bible because the Bible tells you to (not a circular argument)!

Some reasons to trust the Bible:

Main argument (for Christians!):

Jesus is Lord and Jesus viewed the Bible as God’s trustworthy Word and therefore so should we. He accepted the Old Testament as God’s words and authorised the Apostles to write the New Testament

E.g. John 10:34-36; Matthew 5:17-18; 19:4-5; 22:29-32; John 14:26; 16:12-16

à Are Jesus’ claims about his own identity and authority convincing? E.g. the quality of his life and teaching, the evidence for the resurrection

Supporting arguments:

We can be confident we know what the original manuscripts said since the evidence for the original text of the Bible is very strong. The original text is very well preserved in our Bibles. Relatively few texts are disputed and no major doctrine hangs on any of the mostly trivial disputed texts

Manuscript Evidence for Ancient Writings

Author / Work	When written	Earliest fragment / copy	Time span between writing and copy	Number of manuscripts
Caesar	100 – 44 BC	AD 900	1000 years	10
Plato	427 - 347 BC	AD 900	1200 years	7
Thucydides	460 - 400 BC	AD 900	1300 years	8
Tacitus	AD 100	AD 1100	1000 years	20
Suetonius	AD 75 – 160	AD 950	800 years	643
Homer (Iliad)	900 BC	400 BC	500 years	643
New Testament	AD 40 – 100	AD 125	25 – 50 years	24000

(from Orr-Ewing, p43)

The Gospels were written very close to the events they describe by eyewitnesses or drawing on eyewitness evidence

E.g. Luke 1:1-4; John 20:29-31; 21:24-25; 1 John 1:1-4

The Apostles clearly believed Jesus was who he claimed to be, since they were willing to be persecuted and killed for trusting in him. Christianity is not a fraud job by the disciples!

The extraordinary unity of the Bible – agreement of 66 books, over 40 different authors, written over a period of ? about 1600 years

Where the Bible can be checked, it has proved to be accurate e.g. by archaeological discoveries of inscriptions confirming previously questioned details from the book of Acts

Many Bible prophecies have been remarkably fulfilled (e.g. history of Israel, Jesus)

Professor Peter Stoner took just 11 fulfilled prophecies from the Old Testament and tried to calculate the probability of them being fulfilled by chance. He reckoned it was 1 in 8X10^63 (Blanchard, p28 citing Stoner, Science Speaks, Moody Press, pp67-96).

The Bible is remarkably realistic and insightful on many matters, makes psychological sense, interprets our experience. It is a work of supernatural genius

The Bible has the ring of truth about it (J. B. Phillips), it speaks with convincing power

Countless peoples have met with Jesus and been transformed by reading the Bible

à Try reading it (perhaps one of the Gospels in a modern translation) and pray that God would show you whether it is true or not

Further reading:

Paul Barnett, Is The New Testament History? (originally Hodder & Stoughton, 1986; Paternoster, 1998)

John Blanchard, Why Believe The Bible? (Evangelical Press, 2004) – only 40 pages
Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospel (IVP, 2^nd ed. 2008)
F. F. Bruce, New Testament Documents: Are they reliable? (Eerdmans / IVP, 1943)
Walter Kaiser, Old Testament Documents: Are they reliable and relevant? (IVP, 2001)
* Top Recommendation? * Amy Orr-Ewing, Why Trust The Bible? Answers to 10 tough questions (IVP, 2005) – includes consideration of some more modern and postmodern type objections e.g. the Bible on sex, matters of interpretation

J. B. Phillips, Ring of Truth: A Translator’s Testimony (Hodder & Stoughton, 2^nd ed. 1978)
John Wenham, Christ and the Bible (Baker) - deals with a number of supposed "difficulties" with the text. Argues, as above, that Jesus thought of the Bible as the authoritative Word of God and so should we
Brian Edwards, Why 66? The Canon of Scripture (Answers in Genesis, DVD, 2008) - how do we know we have the right books in the Bible?

Seeking A New Vicar (worksheet)

What should we look for in a new Vicar?

Or (rather!),

Biblical qualifications for Pastor-teachers

Look up the passages below and see what you can discover about:

(A) The person specification for a Pastor-teacher – who are we seeking?

Consider (i) character (ii) skills etc.

(B) The job description / work of a Pastor-teacher – what should he do?

Be ready to feedback

(1) Mk 9:35; 10:42-45

(2) Acts 20:17-38

(3) Eph 4:11-16

(4) 1 Tim 3; 4:6-16; 5:17-22

(5) 2 Tim 2; 3:10-4:5

(6) Titus 1:5ff; 2:1, 15; 3:1, 8-11

(7) 1 Peter 5:1-4

(8) (Heb 13:7, 17)

Can you think of any other teaching of Jesus / the example of Jesus or other people in the Bible (e.g. Paul) or any other relevant Bible passages?

Bishop of Chichester re Women Bishops

A pastoral letter from The Bishop of Chichester to the Diocese in the light of movements in the C of E towards women bishops (PDF file).

Bible Prophecy a Fluke?

Professor Peter Stoner took just 11 fulfilled prophecies from the OT and tried to calculate the probability of them being fulfilled by chance. He reckoned it was 1 in 8X10^63. In other words, mind bogglingly unlikely.

(John Blanchard, Why Believe The Bible? Evangelical Press, 2004, p28 citing Stoner, Science Speaks, Moody Press, pp67-96).

REAL

Classically the Church of England is Reformed and Evangelical. The historical formularies of the C of E unmistakably take such a position. But there is great (and not so great!) variety within Anglicanism today and much confusion about what it means to be an Anglican - not to mention what it means to be Reformed or Evangelical!

For these and other reasons, The Church Society's new Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library, edited by Rev'd Lee Gatiss is to be welcomed. They've kicked off with some Whitefield and I look forward to seeing what the subsequent publications will be.

Backwards!

Ouch! :)

Poetry to go with Ecclesiastes 3

Shakespeare’s All The World’s A Stage / Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It - Jaques (Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)

Solomon Grundy

Andrew Marvel, To His Coy Mistress – “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime…. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near;”

Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill

The Weaver by B.M. Franklin

Contrast W. E. Henley’s Invictus – “In the fell clutch of circumstance … I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”

Ps 31:15 - “My times are in your hands”

Ps 33:10-11 – “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. ¹¹ But the plans of the LORD stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

Is 45:6b-7 – “I am the LORD, and there is no other. ⁷ I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”

Ps 131 – “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. ² But I have stilled and quietened my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. ³ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and for evermore.”

Prov 26:1-12