Category Archives: People

Wanted: prophetic discernment

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In Micah, chapter 2, the prophet suddenly turns from a message of stern warning to one of hope.  It strikes me that to know when people are living under God’s frown, and when they are living under his frown requires a level of discernment that we might characterise as ‘prophetic’ .

In this connection, I was interested in a note concerning the Puritan Nicholas Byfield.  He ‘was known for his excellent scholarship, judgment, and aptitude, in addition to his ministerial skills.…

Preach love, as well as truth

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Whatever captures the heart’s trust and love also controls the feelings and behavior.  What the heart most wants, the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable.  It is all-important, then, that preaching move the heart to stop trusting and loving other things more than God.  What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves – what they love most, more, less, and least.  That is more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. 
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Preach reality, as well as truth

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To engage the heart is also to engage the imagination, and the imagination is more affected by images than by propositions.  Here, we are talking about what are usually termed “sermon illustrations.”  Over the past generation, preachers have recaptured the importance of story.  Common sense tells us that stories capture interest and stick in the mind, and so preachers are often advised to lace their sermons liberally with narratives.  However, we should think a bit more deeply about why they are so effective. 
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Unhappy birthday

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I am reminded by this post by Justin Taylor that it is 50 years ago today – Tuesday, October 18, 1966 – that an event took place that shook British evangelicalism to the core.  The after-shocks can still be felt today.

That event was a meeting of the National Assembly of Evangelicals, held at Westminster Central Hall, London.  At that meeting, Martyn Lloyd-Jones was understood by many to be appealing for evangelicals to secede from doctrinally mixed denominations, and should come together in a ‘fellowship, or an association, of evangelical churches’.…

God blesses truth

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Brethren, I do not believe that God will set his seal to a ministry which does not aim at being strictly in accordance with the mind of the Spirit.  In proportion as a ministry is truthful, other things being equal, God can bless it.  Would you have the Holy Spirit set his seal on a lie?  Would you have him bless what he has not revealed, and confirm with signs following that which is not true.  
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Lost boys

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Tom Wright, bless his heart, has a habit of turning things on their heads, so that we see them at a completely different angle.  Sometimes this is infuriating.  But at other times it is fascinating and enlightening.  So…

Much of the discussion about the Bible’s teaching on the relationships between men and women, between husbands and wives, has focused in recent years on the role and status of women.  But this can disguise the fact that in our own day it’s harder than ever to be a boy.  …

What is legalism?

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Legalism is a distortion of obedience.  It is guilty of:-

  • a skewed purpose, seeing good works as ways of earning God’s favour;
  • an arrogant attitude, leading to contempt for those who do not make the same effort to gain God’s favour;
  • a loveless focus on self, squeezing kindness and compassion out of the heart.

In the New Testament, legalism is found in two main forms:-

  • Jesus confronted legalism in the Pharisees, who boasted of their privileged status as children of Abraham and their law-keeping.  
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An ethic of hope

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An ethic of hope pervades the New Testament:-

  1. It is an ethic of pilgrimage: one should see oneself in this world as a stranger traveling home (1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13).
  2. It is an ethic of purity: everyone who really hopes to be like Jesus when he appears “purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
  3. It is an ethic of preparedness: we should be ready to leave this world for a closer relationship with Christ our Lord at any time when the summons comes (2 Cor.
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Assurance to be desired

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Although one can have faith without assurance, belief without confidence, nevertheless assurance of salvation is much to be desired.  It provides comfort and strength in challenging times.  So writes J.C. Ryle:-

1. Assurance will help a man to bear poverty and loss. It will teach him to say, “I know that I have in heaven a better and more enduring substance. Silver and gold have I none, but grace and glory are mine, and these can never make themselves wings and flee away.

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The case of the rotting fisherman

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Richard Bauckham offers vivid demonstration of how reliable eyewitness testimony can be.  I was particularly drawn to this pair of accounts relating to the same incident, because it took place in my home county of Norfolk, England.

In June, 1901 a local newspaper carried the following report:

STRANGE TRAGEDY AT WINTERTON - Body Found in the Sandhills
Late on Tuesday, a gruesome find was made on the sandhills at Winterton, a large fishing village eight miles north of Yarmouth.
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