Something to Say

Moody Stuart and how to pray

2011-11-16T18:36:00.001Z

Here Moody Stuart speaks about importunity in prayer. It is based on theparable of the friend at midnight asking for three loaves (Luke 11:8).

‘Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life; this spiritual bread is the most abundantof all things (John 10:10), the freest of all things (Isa. 55:1), but therarest of all things in actual possession, and the reason is, “We have not,because we ask not” (Jas. 4:2). Jesus tells us to ask, but he teaches us alsohow we should ask, and loves to place the petitioner in the most unfavourablecircumstances, that others may be assured likewise that they shall obtain ifthey ask.

‘The first thing in prayer is a sense of need: a need which is entireand ascertained. The suppliant must first know that he has nothing, but is poorand needy. He must be sure of this, and make it a settled point, and not merelysuspect it. There is a great difference between suspected and ascertained want.Many say they have little if anything good, but they don’t want to be sure ofit and so never cry for the bread of life. The suppliant’s need must be urgent,requiring immediate assistance whether for himself or for others. Christ puts acase in which the man requiring bread could not wait till tomorrow. The needmust be felt to be irremediable otherwise. Neither shop nor market was open atmidnight, and the man had nothing to set before his guests, and he was shut upto go to his friend as his only resource.

‘Next, the suppliant must have confidence in Christ as being willing togrant his request. This is supposed to be a very common belief, but if thisbelief were to come athwart you it would be a new thing to you. It has runcurrent among you that Jesus Christ has bread to give, but is it a reality toyou? Sometimes men are ready to say, “Christ can give, but he has no will.” Oh,what blasphemy! How amazing that God hath endured his people when they havebrought up such an evil report against him! Oh, dear brethren, it is this thathinders prayer, and success in prayer, when we say, “He has no mind to give uswhat we ask.”

‘Next, perseverance in asking is needful. The first knock has obtainednothing; it seems to have produced no result, but the man continues knocking.Many knocks have produced no effect, but these knocks have troubled thepossessor of the bread, and have brought out the secret, not that he has nobread, or objects to bestow it, but that he is not willing to be troubled atpresent. The petitioner is unwilling to trouble his friend, but he is stillmore unwilling to go home and tell his guest that he must starve; so hedetermines that he must knock, for he cannot do without it, and for hisimportunity he gets it. Even so with our Father in heaven. We begin to beashamed of asking the same thing over and over again; but then there is thegreat want; and the feeling, “I cannot go without it,” leads to perseverance,and this obtains it in the end. The difficulty becomes the greater, the longerwe continue knocking; for if we are not to go without it, we must make louderand more continual knocking. I must either go away, and give it up, or seekwith such vehemence as must obtain it, as if a greater effort than ever wereneeded and must be made. And it must be so with us, seeing how dreadful it isto perish. I cannot perish! or in interceding for others, “How can I bear tosee the destruction of my people? Therefore let me seek until I find.”

‘Jesus says, “Every one that asketh receiveth.” Never was there a caseto the contrary. Thousands of cases there have been when men have knocked andgot nothing and gone away; but there never was a case of a man who sought tothe end and did not get. Then, the bread is supplied, and in great abundance.He gives “as many as he needeth”. This importunate petitioner never lessens hisrequest because of the denial, and it is great wisdom in spiritual things notto lessen our requests because of the delay. We should not diminish therequest, but increase the importunity. There will be no counting of the loaves.There is bread enough in our Father’s house and to spare; and, oh, there iswant enough! Though God tarry, have large desires and expectations, but thesecome to nothing unless there be large faith and large requests. Let us, dearfriends, ask much of our God, and keep asking much, because when he arises hewill give an abundance.’

Moody Stuart and pulpit prayer

2011-11-16T18:17:00.001Z

In a conference address to fellow-ministers, Moody Stuart reflected on ‘theduty of prayerfulness on the part of ministers, and its relation to theeffective conducting of public prayer in the sanctuary.’ This is what he said:

‘The impressibleness of ourpeople on the Sabbath depends much on prayer through the week; and theirpraying for us and for themselves depends much on our praying for them.

‘And then on the Sabbath how much hangs, not merely on the words thatare spoken, but on the spirit in which we preach and pray. Especially inextemporary prayer, we are in constant danger of sinking into a formalityperhaps more lifeless than if we were using a form; a formality which we mustall have detected in ourselves, by falling into the groove of the same words forwant of fresh life within. Or if in such a state we make an effort at themoment toward real prayer, the prayer is constrained and laboured, instead ofthe spontaneous utterance of our thoughts.

‘When the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart, out ofspiritual desire, spiritual sorrow, or spiritual joy, what conciseness, whattenderness, what power is in the supplication, taking the people along with usin all our petitions, or else making them to feel their own lack of the spiritof grace.

‘This one ordinance in our Church of public prayer without a form ofwords, shuts us all up to a very peculiar necessity of becoming and continuingto be men of prayer; shuts us up under the pressure of a severe penalty,resting on ourselves and on our people week by week, as the sure consequence ofour failure.’

Moody Stuart and the range of his prayers

2011-11-15T13:44:00.000Z

Moody Stuart prayed about virtually everything that came his way. Here are three examples, taken from his biography.

‘On one occasion at Rait, he writes in his diary (1895): “There has been a long continuance of drought which has been becoming serious, withering the pastures and injuring the crops. This forenoon the heat was greater than ever, under a cloudless sky. I had a sense of guilt in not having prayed more earnestly for rain, and now it seemed further off than ever. This set me to seek “the effectual fervent prayer that availeth much,” and I pleaded with much earnestness, remembering that even for temporal blessings there is only good in intense supplication if it is with childlike submission to the will of God, and if we resign not only the object prayed for but likewise the prayer itself to the will of our heavenly Father. I quite hoped that in due time, it might be after a day or two, and more prayer, there might be an answer, but to my surprise and thanksgiving, since four in the afternoon there has come a copious rain with a magnificent thunderstorm, the God of glory thundering and His voice upon the waters. The thunder has not yet ceased, and the rain has come in such an uncommon downpour, mingled with very large hailstones, that already it must have brought a great refreshing to the dry earth. O for another such shower on the souls of many, and the God of heaven Who sendeth rain upon the earth desireth much more to pour out His Spirit upon us, and is “waiting to be gracious” till He is entreated by us.’”

‘The clerk of the Kilspindie School Board recollects that once during Dr. Moody Stuart’s chairmanship he was engaged with him after their meeting in adjusting the minutes, when they found it very difficult to choose the proper terms to express exactly the understanding the meeting had come to. After working at it for some time the chairman said, “We had better pray for direction.” After he had done so, the proper words at once suggested themselves, and fell into order without any more trouble. It was his regular habit thus to take every perplexity to the Lord in prayer, whether it was small or great.’

Moody Stuart’s son writes: ‘Mrs. Kalley mentions that Dr. Kalley [a Scottish missionary in Madeira] was restored from a critical illness in Madeira, after my father and others had met to pray that the physician might be guided aright, the next remedy that he tried proving successful.’

Meeting with God in prayer

2011-11-14T11:40:00.000Z

Some time ago, I noticed that a friend was interested in the prayer life of Alexander Moody Stuart, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh during the second half of the nineteenth century. I was aware that several people had commented on his prayer life; for example, David McIntyre in his book The Hidden Life of Prayer quotes Moody Stuart’s three rules for prayer: (1) Pray until you pray; (2) Pray until you are conscious of being heard; (3) Pray until you receive an answer. I assume that he affirmed these rules because he had experienced them. So I decided to have a closer look at what we know of his prayer life since answered prayer is part of normal Christian living.

One feature of his prayer life was his delight to meet with others to pray. During his ministry on an island in the north of England he met weekly with a Christian ploughman for prayer. He records what happened on one occasion.

The ploughman ‘was in the prime of youthful manhood; his fine countenance stamped with the double impression of meditation and intelligence, yet blooming with the glow of ruddy health, the fruit of constant outdoor labour. One summer evening, the moment the hour allotted to prayer was ended, he went home without uttering a word. He appeared unwell, his face had sunk, the bright hue of his cheek was pallid; he looked as a strong man ready to faint, but bearing up against some physical distress that all but overmastered him. Partly from his haste, and partly from his obvious aversion to speak, we parted without exchanging words.

‘The second day following, I hailed him at some distance in the fields to inquire for his health. “You seemed unwell when we parted the night before last; were you sick?” “Oh, no.” “Were you in distress of mind?” “No.” “What then?” Slowly and reluctantly he replied: “When we were on our knees I was so filled with a sense of the love of God, that the joy was too much for me; it was all that I was able to bear, and it was with a struggle that I did not sink under it.”

‘The fact itself was obvious, although to me it had not excited the least suspicion of the cause. The joy of this Divine love had remained with him all the night, and, though less intensely, throughout the next day and the night following. For myself, it was singularly refreshing to witness the presence and power of the Holy Ghost manifested in a manner so remarkable; and not under any moving address, but while two of us were quietly engaged in reading the word of God and in prayer. It was a gracious out-flowing of the love of the Lord Jesus making His servant “sick of love”.’

The Hidden Life of Prayer

2011-07-27T10:49:00.001+01:00

This book review appears in the August edition of the Record (monthly magazine of the Free Church of Scotland).

What does Malcolm Maclean have in common with John Piper, Wayne Grudem and Geoffrey Thomas? ‘Not very much,’ I hear a few of you say. ‘Nothing at all,’ I hear most of you say. Both groups are wrong because the four of us have all been influenced by a little book called The Hidden Life of Prayer, written by David McIntyre, and first published almost a century ago.

It is probably best to let you know what the three well-known Christian leaders have to say about the book. Wayne Grudem says, ‘I have read The Hidden Life of Prayer again and again since Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia first gave it to me when I visited there as a prospective student forty years ago. Every time I read this book, the Lord uses it to deepen my prayer life and encourage my faith. I strongly recommend it.’

Geoffrey Thomas first read the book in 1971. He writes, ‘Every time I read it I discover something fresh, convicting and helpful. The book does not make you afraid of prayer.’

According to John Piper, ‘God brings books at their appointed times. The Hidden Life of Prayer arrived late but well-timed. This little jewel-strewn tapestry has done for me at 64 what Bounds’ Power Through Prayer did at 34. I could be ashamed that I need inspiration for the highest privilege. But I choose to be thankful.’

The author, David McIntyre, was born in Monikie, Angus, in 1859, into the family of the local Free Church minister, Malcolm McIntyre. David was converted when young and thereafter lived in the sunshine of God’s love. He summarised his life, from his conversion onwards, in these words: ‘Immediately, without an instant’s delay, I rested my soul on Christ, and was at peace. Since that time I have never doubted that my Lord has undertaken on my behalf. There was very little difference in my outward life after this; but the inward change was very great. Now I began to rejoice in God my Saviour, and I have never lost the comfort of that good hour. Though I mourn when I recall the disappointments with which I must often have touched the heart of the Redeemer, yet during almost the space of a lifetime, God has been the “gladness of my joy”, and I trust I shall come to the Eternal Summer with the Spring-time of my first love unspent.’

David dedicated himself to the service of Christ and trained for the ministry. His first charge was in London, where he was for five years, before moving to Glasgow in 1891 to become the colleague and successor of Andrew Bonar (who died just over a year later), whose daughter David married in 1894. In the church at Finnieston, McIntyre developed his pulpit style. According to a biographer, he was not ‘a sparkling orator or popular star. Indeed, he never attempted such flights. His values were elsewhere. His forte lay in the devotional exposition of the living Word. His springs were ever fresh and deep. His delivery was quiet and even in tone, but the sincerity of both mind and spirit was unmistakable. He shot his well-polished shaft home, where many a more ornate preacher failed.’ The same person says of McIntyre, ‘His parish was the Bible, and he walked the length and breadth with reverent and scholarly stride.’

So it was not surprising when, in 1913, McIntyre became Principal of the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow, where he was to work for the rest of his life, while remaining the honorary senior minister of Finnieston. Over 1,000 students went through the College during his time, most of whom went abroad in missionary service for Christ.

His fifty years in the ministry was marked by a special service in 1936. After listening to the many tributes and receiving an appropriate financial gift in appreciation of his work, he made a speech in reply. He closed his address by summarising his outlook as an aged servant of Christ: ‘My ministry must now be nearing its close. I have entered that region which lies along the frontier of the King’s country, where as John Bunyan tells us, the contract between the Bride and the Bridegroom is oft-times renewed. It is a covenant of free grace: not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. On his word, and on his completed work, I rest.’

McIntyre died in March, 1938. During his lifetime, in addition to his work as pastor and as principal of Bible Training Institute, he wrote many books. Some of them are on complex doctrines, yet he always wrote in a devotional style. Although in some ways his style is antiquated, I have never read anything by him without feeling the better for having done so. His books on the Saviour (Christ the Lord and The Prayer Life of Jesus) reveal a man whose love for his Master was strong and that surely is the basic requirement for anyone who ventures to write about him. But it is his book called The Hidden Life of Prayer that has remained in constant print and influenced thousands of people in addition to the four gentlemen referred to at the beginning of this article.

What can be said in its praise? First, it is short. The current edition in print is only about 120 pages in length. I recently re-read it, in a Kindle edition, on a journey (a couple of hours on a train and just over an hour on the flight between London and Inverness). Furthermore, each chapter is short. Within the book there are eight chapters, so it is not difficult time-wise to read a chapter at a sitting. Indeed Geoffrey Thomas says that he has often read it through aloud during a week of morning meetings with his assistants and deacons before they started work.

Second, it contains lots of real-life stories. The obvious benefit of such a story is that it is real. What the person describes truly happened. Indeed this is why McIntyre said he wrote the book: ‘Books on secret prayer are without number; but it seems to me that there is still room for one in which an appeal may be taken, steadily, and from every point, to life – to the experience of God’s saints. In these pages no attempt has been made to explain the mysteries of intercourse with God and commerce with heaven. What is here offered is a simple enumeration of some things which the Lord’s remembrancers have found to be helpful in the practice of prayer. The great Bengel explained that if he desired the most perfect intimacy with real Christians on one account rather than another, it was “for the sake of learning how they manage in secret to keep up their communion with God”.’

Third, it is scriptural. In a sense, the book is an explanation of Matthew 6:6: ‘But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’ McIntyre proceeds to take the reader through various aspects of that activity, basing each of them on the Bible. In this manner he explores, a chapter at a time, the life of prayer, the equipment for prayer (a quiet place, a quiet period of time, a quiet heart), the focus of the mind in prayer (realisation of the presence of God, honesty with God, faith in God), the actual activity of prayer (worship, confession and request), the hidden riches of the secret place (serenity, submission to the will of God), and the open recompense (answered prayer).

Fourth, it is stimulating. Obviously this is a subjective response. But the author’s style does not crush the reader, even although he probably suspected that many readers would have confessed their inadequacies in prayer. Reading his examples of men and women who prayed, in a wide variety of circumstances, and received clear answers from God makes one long to experience the same blessing. Behind the selected examples one also senses the spirituality of the author. It was said of him, that he ‘was conspicuously a man of prayer. He walked and talked with God.’ And in this short book, he made it clear that his heart’s desire was that God’s people would experience answers to their own prayers, and therefore he wrote in an encouraging manner to stimulate them to persevere in a spiritual activity which at times can be hard to do.

I mentioned above how the book had challenged me many years ago. In saying this, I am not claiming to have achieved a great deal in my prayer life, nor would anyone who has taken seriously the message of the book. But one thing I can say is that, since reading this book, I am aware of what can be achieved through prayer. And that, at least, is a good start. Because, as McIntyre would have admitted, we can only ever be learners in the school of prayer.

Festschrift for Donald Macleod, the People's Theologian

2011-05-14T22:18:00.001+01:00

On the evening of Friday, May 13, I attended a very pleasant evening in the Free Church College, Edinburgh. It was the annual close of the academic year and there were the usual student contributions as well as the awarding of prizes, plus a suitable address from Principal John L. Mackay encouraging the students who have completed their course and are about to begin pastoral ministry.

The occasion was enhanced by the presentation of a festschrift to Donald Macleod, the former Principal of the College, who has also filled the Systematic Theology chair for over thirty years. Prior to becoming Professor of Systematic Theology, he was pastor of two congregations, one near Fort William and the other in Glasgow. In addition, he was editor of the denominational magazine The Monthly Record from 1977 to 1990; he has contributed a regular column called Footnotes to The West Highland Free Press; he has authored several books, and also written many articles for Christian magazines and theological journals. Those who studied under him in the Free Church College remain grateful to him for the stimulating lectures that he gave. Throughout those years of service, he has been regarded as an outstanding preacher, and many listeners can still recall vividly sermons they heard by him years ago.

The festschrift is entitled The People’s Theologian, a title that admirably sums up the ministry of Donald Macleod (theology is not just for academics and it must be the basis of effective preaching). Dr Iain D. Campbell and I had the privilege and pleasure of editing the book, which has been published by Christian Focus Publications (who have published many of his titles – William Mackenzie, the Managing Director of Christian Focus, also gave to Donald a copy of one of his books (Priorities for the Church) which has now been published in Japanese.

The festschrift, which contains contributions from colleagues, former students and friends, is divided into sections and the chapters are as follows:

Introduction by Alex J. Macdonald

1. Logic on fire: the life and career of Donald Macleod (by his son, John Macleod).

Bibliographical

2. Footnotes Columnist in The West Highland Free Press (by Brian Wilson)

3. Editor of The Monthly Record by Iain D. Campbell

4. Writings of Donald Macleod by Martin Cameron

Historical Theology

5. Robert Bruce and the Lord’s Supper by Malcolm Maclean

6. Glory, Glory Dwelleth in Immanuel’s Land by Guy M. Richard

7. William Cunningham and the Doctrine of the Sacraments by Mike Honeycutt

Systematic Theology

8. ‘More Than That’ – Christ’s Exaltation and Justification by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.

9. Spirit-Baptism and The Clash of the Celts by Derek W. H. Thomas

10. Re-Visiting The Covenant of Redemption by Iain D. Campbell

Theology and the Church

11. The Preacher as Prophet: Some Notes on the Nature of Preaching by Carl R. Trueman

12. David and Derrida: The Psalms and Postmodernism by Fergus Macdonald

13. Layered Reading: The Preacher as Reader of Scripture by Alasdair I Macleod

14. Leadership in the Church by Donald M MacDonald

15. Systematic Theology and the Church by Rowland S. Ward

16. Appreciations by Changwon Shu, Mary Ferguson, David George, Donna Macleod and David Meredith.

The Importance of Spiritual Comfort

2011-04-24T17:05:00.001+01:00

As indicated in a previous blog, I am reading John Colquhoun's book on Spiritual Comfort and have completed his second chapter which considered the importance of spiritual comfort.

Colquhoun gives twelve reasons to confirm the importance of believers enjoying spiritual comfort. First, there is the desire of God. The Father, out of his great love, sent his Son into the world to purchase at great cost comfort for them, and then highly exalted him with the purpose of dispensing it to them. The Father and the Son also send the Spirit to apply comfort to the souls of believers. Each of the divine persons has a name that includes comfort: the Father is the God of all comfort (Rom. 15:5), the Son is the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25) and the Spirit is the Comforter (John 16:7). The Lord commands his servants to comfort his people (Isa. 35:3-4).

Second, since fullness of comfort and joy is an essential aspect of eternal life in heaven, so it is present in less degree in the same eternal life begun on earth. Such ‘holy consolation is a commodity of heaven, that distant country, not to be imported but by faith and prayer.’ A third reason that shows the importance of spiritual comfort is that it is part of the pure delight believers share with angels because it is connected to communion with God, especially of the enjoyment known in the presence of God and the Lamb.

Fourth, every part of the Bible is intended to promote spiritual comfort (Rom. 15:4), whether ‘types and prophecies, histories and examples, laws and doctrines’. Fifth, God in his providence, even in those aspects that seem adversarial, is working all things together to produce spiritual comfort. An example is the promise to bring his people into a wilderness where he may speak comfortably to them (Hos. 2:14). If any comforts are taken from them, it is because the Saviour’s design is to give them better ones.

Sixth, spiritual comforts, to a very high degree, heighten and sweeten all temporal comforts that a believer has: ‘when a man is enabled cordially to trust that the Lord Jesus loves and saves him, and that He will perfect that which concerns him, his joy and peace in believing cannot fail to impart a heavenly sweetness to all his earthly joys.’ Seventh, spiritual comfort also alleviates all their calamities. Believers in earlier times took joyfully the spoiling of their goods because they had received from Jesus spiritual comfort. He gives them peace even when the world gives them trouble (John 16:33), and they can rejoice even in times of tribulation (Rom. 5:3).

Eighth, spiritual comfort is the only way of dealing effectively with troubled spirits. Ninth, such comfort overbalances the strong difficulties that come on the path of following Jesus (such as repentance for personal sin, mortification of indwelling sin, self-denial, fighting spiritual enemies), so making the path sweet and easy. Tenth, in proportion to how much of it is given, spiritual comfort removes the terror of death and judgement by the promises of heaven and resurrection, and enables the believer to fall asleep ‘in the arms of their dear Redeemer’.

Eleventh, the importance of spiritual comfort will be seen when it is contrasted with worldly joy. The latter never lives up to the claims made about it whereas the fullness of the former cannot be imagined. Further, worldly joy demeans the human soul but heavenly joy honours it. Those who have tried both know which is best.

The twelfth, and most important, reason for the importance of spiritual comfort is that it promotes holiness in every area of life. Comfort stimulates obedience, love for Jesus, hatred of sin, and desire for perfection. ‘It is the “oil of gladness” that makes the wheels of their voluntary obedience move forward with ease and speed.’ Further, spiritual comfort ‘so exhilarates and so constrains him as to make all his affection run out to the Lord Jesus, and all his strength run out for Him.’

Since these twelve reasons are true, we can deduce (1) that no other joy can compare to the joy of salvation, (2) that heaven’s fullness of joy must be inexpressibly glorious since what is experienced on earth is so wonderful, (3) that we are bound to love Jesus for procuring and providing such comfort, (4) that the more communion we have with Jesus and the more conformity to him, the more comfort we will enjoy, (5) that we should use diligently the appointed means of obtaining such comfort, and (6) that the loss of such comfort will be grievous.

Having read Colquhoun’s comments, I wonder what I have been doing throughout my Christian life. But I know what I hope I will doing throughout the remainder of it.

Spiritual Comfort

2011-04-14T01:14:00.001+01:00

I have begun to read Spiritual Comfort, a volume written by John Colquhoun in 1813, an eighteenth/nineteenth-century Scottish Presbyterian minister (1748-1827). He wrote his book to help Christians struggling with an awareness of indwelling sin and who frequently allowed themselves to become dejected because of it. Such dejection often leads to despondency, to doubting, and to an inability to perform Christian duties. Colquhoun’s remedy for such was to administer spiritual comfort to them because he realised a threefold responsibility: (1) it was one of the main purposes of the Bible, (2) it is an aspect of fellowship between Christians, and (3) it is a duty of pastors towards their people. So even as I read his foreword I sensed dejection because I fail in each of these three areas. But I was not despondent because Sinclair Ferguson assures readers in the foreword to the book that Colquhoun’s insights are very helpful for dealing with this important area of sanctification.

Colquhoun begins by considering spiritual comfort in general. He distinguishes it from natural comfort (things we enjoy in everyday life) and sinful comfort (pleasure from what is forbidden by God). In contrast, spiritual comfort is ‘that inward solace or satisfaction which supports, strengthens, and exhilarates holy souls, and which they have in and from the Lord Jesus, their Covenant-Head, by the exercise of faith, hope, love, and other graces of the Holy Spirit’. That sounds marvellous, especially as Colquhoun also says that spiritual comfort is ‘that spiritual delight, that holy joy, which cheers and invigorates the hearts of believers under all their inward and outward troubles’. I have read many descriptions of how Christians should benefit from their union with Jesus, but can’t recall at this moment one that betters Colquhoun’s assertion. In passing, who said that Scottish Presbyterian ministers were dull? Right away, Colquhoun has distinguished between the shallow and the sublime.

Believers need comfort when in trouble or when facing a difficult situation (I suppose that summarises life). The qualification for receiving it is humility – ‘indeed, the oil of spiritual joy is such that no vessel but a contrite heart can hold it.’ Further, there are degrees of spiritual comfort – ‘the lowest is peace of conscience, the next is joy, and the highest is triumph.’ Looking at them, I would say that the first is straightforward in that Christians generally go to God for pardon and are comforted by knowing he keeps his promises of forgiveness. But I suspect that few proceed to ascend to the second step, perhaps because we ignore Colquhoun’s insight that joy comes from ‘feasting upon Christ in the offers and promises of the gospel’. And the third step, well ….

Spiritual comfort comes from each of the divine persons of the Trinity as the consequence of their commitments arranged in the covenant of grace. I suppose that it is both intriguing and enjoyable to experience this. To do so, says Colquhoun, is to enter into the meaning of eternal life, to have samples now of the future fullness that each believer will receive from God. Yet Colquhoun makes it clear that believers should focus mainly on what Jesus does, without forgetting the benefits given by the Father and by the Spirit.

It is their duty and privilege to find spiritual comfort: duty because God requires that they do so, and privilege because he keeps his promise to provide it. This means that the seed of spiritual comfort has been sown within them, even when a sense of it is absent. Occasions of experiencing spiritual comfort vary, including following spiritual desertion, preceding a heavy trial, during times of hostility to the gospel, opposing indwelling sin, or when meditating deeply on ‘the adorable Saviour and His glorious grace’.

In whatever situation spiritual comfort is needed, it always comes in the most suitable way. Because the comfort is divine, it will always prove stronger than the cause of unease. Yet it is administered through faith; ‘it is the office of faith to take and to hand comfort to the soul, to bring peace into the conscience, and joy into the heart.’ Faith in action means going direct to Christ the fountain and receiving fresh supplies of comfort. This is better than discovering marks of grace: ‘Although the sight of His evidences of grace is indeed pleasant to a holy man, yet the sight of Christ in the offer and promise should be much more delightful to him.’

Of course, there is a counterfeit comfort. Colquhoun provides some evidences of the real thing: it is accompanied by godly sorrow for sin, it encourages holy living, it humbles the recipient, it renders all sins hateful, it promotes impartial self-examination. Spiritual comfort, with its features of love to and rejoicing in God, leads to loving submission to God’s law: ‘the more he is refreshed by the holy consolations of the gospel, or enabled to rejoice in Christ Jesus and His great salvation, so much the more does he delight in evangelical obedience to His will, and in holy activity for His glory.’

According to Colquhoun, God in this life does not usually allow a Christian to become too depressed or too elated. He prevent depression by giving comfort and he prevents elation by allowing distress, as Paul discovered with the thorn in the flesh that was allowed by God.

Because Christ is the primary ground for spiritual comfort, it means that spiritual failure should not cause despondency because such failure should not prevent us trusting in Christ. Instead believers should resolve at all times to trust in Jesus.

I found this explanation of spiritual comfort challenging for my personal experiences and my pastoral work. Where do I go for spiritual comfort and where do I direct others to go? Colquhoun has helped me see the centrality of Jesus in finding true comfort. So you may think that I have found the book very helpful. So far, I have only read the first chapter, but if the remaining ones are as full of spiritual wisdom as the first, then I will enjoy it.

Singing the Songs of Jesus

2011-02-05T20:53:00.003Z

Singing the Songs of Jesus (Revisiting the Psalms), Michael Lefebvre, Christian Focus, 2010.

This easily-read book by the best publisher provides an interesting approach to using the psalms. It is not a defence of exclusive psalmody (although the author agrees with that view). Instead the book is about spiritual benefits that individuals and congregations will receive through using the Psalms in their worship services. Even at a basic level, the Psalms, because they are divinely inspired, inform us of the features that God wants us to sing about when we are worshipping him.

In the first chapter, the author surveys the practice of psalm-singing throughout church history, providing evidence for their ongoing use from the early church, on through the Dark Ages and into the Reformation period. His concern is to discover why interest in psalm-singing declined. Major reasons for the decline was poor participation in congregational singing of them and the suspicion that some features of the Psalms, such as those containing imprecations, were unChristian.

In his second chapter, Lefebvre, after highlighting the divine inspiration of the Psalms, explains a second crucial aspect of them which is that each was composed by a ruler of Israel or supervised by one – I had not noticed this feature before (but then there are lots of things that I have not observed) – and that the rulers led the singing of the public praise of God in Israel. Their roles pictured the activities of Jesus as the provider of worship songs (the Psalms) and the royal leader of our praise. He ‘sings his own songs in his own words (composed prophetically for him). They are his praises of the Father which he calls us, as his subjects, to join him in singing.’

Since Jesus sings the psalms with us, it means that in a sense the psalms are conversations with Jesus about various aspects of his person and work. The author explores this reality in chapters 3 and 4. When using the Psalms, sometimes we sing with the King about God and his ways, sometimes we sing to the King, and sometimes we sing to one another in the presence of the King. In the Psalms, we sing about his deity, his humanity, his birth, his life, his love of God’s law, his atoning death, his resurrection, his ascension, his exaltation, his kingdom, his return, his role as Judge, his role as Priest, his role as Prophet, his role as Shepherd, and many other facets of his person and work. The author here helped me understand further how Paul could in Colossians 3 equate the communal singing of ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ with the ‘word of Christ’.

What is the heart motion behind our singing that will stimulate appropriate praise? The author states that the Psalms indicate it is meditation, which is stressed by the prominence of this activity in Psalm 1, a psalm that is generally recognised as the introduction to the Psalter. Indeed, he argues that a possible translation of hagah (meditate) is singing as against the usual suggestion that the blessed man of that psalm is muttering or speaking to himself. The evidence that meditation has this role is seen in the wide range of human situations dealt with in the Psalms, and how the psalmists are led to praise God after reflecting on how he can deal with these situations.

Of course the big problem with the Psalms, at least for western Christians, are those containing imprecations (psalms that call for divine judgement). The author notes that such imprecations are also found in the Gospels (even on the lips of Jesus) and in the Epistles, which makes one wonder why they are a problem only in the Psalms for such people. These psalms, when sung with Jesus or to him or about him, remind us that he is the Judge of all as well as the Saviour of his people. They enable us to express with him deep cries for justice to be administered by God. These psalms are not cries for personal vengeance but descriptions of why awful consequences of sin must be dealt with by God.

In addition, the Psalter also leads us to contemplate victory. But who gives the victory to us and who celebrates the victory with us? As we sing such psalms of triumph we should be aware of the presence of King Jesus leading us to participate joyfully in his triumphs for us and through us.

In this short book of 160 pages, we have a good summary of the theology (purpose) of the Psalms. The author provides clear principles for interpreting the Psalms in a Christ-centred way and shows us how we can develop a precious intimacy with the King through ongoing usage of the Psalms. Using them in public worship is a God-given way of exalting King Jesus as we see him fulfil his role as Leader of the praise of God’s people.

Some features of preaching

2010-12-15T18:28:00.000Z

When we look at the sermons of Andrew Bonar that have been handed down in books and other ways, we will see several prominent features. Here are four that I observe.

A leading feature of his preaching was that it was imaginative. Many of his sermons display this characteristic, but as an example I refer to his address on angel workers in which Bonar imagines a gathering of angels in which they relate various visits they made to earth on behalf of God (eleven of them, plus an introduction and a conclusion, which of course ignores the notion of three headings each sermon). All the missions are recorded in the Bible, such as the angelic missions at the Passover in Egypt or in the life of Christ. This method has the benefit of using a string of word pictures with a basic theme, yet each being different. If the listener knows the Bible, then this type of sermon has a gripping effect because the listener is curious to discover which incident will be described next. If the listener does not know the Bible, he still finds the presentation intriguing. Of course, what seems to be the main feature (angelic visits) actually is the background – the main feature turns out to be God’s message to Bonar’s church in Finnieston, with a wide range of applications covering Christian workers (most of the angels are nameless), the unconverted (the angels involved in acts of divine judgement spoke of its awfulness), the wonder of speaking about Jesus, the wonder of serving Jesus, and so on. I suspect that all who heard him got the message, and also that few forgot the message.

A second feature of his sermons was simplicity. Bonar prepared for his sermons by reading the original languages and studying appropriate commentaries and other helps. Yet what is so striking about each of his sermons and addresses is their straightforwardness. None of them are difficult to understand. Of course, making a speech complex is not the mark of an effective communicator. The best way to convey important information is not to simplify it, but to clarify it. I have heard low-level sermons that actually had nothing to say; and I have heard complex sermons that confused me although I realised that I understood the doctrines being discussed. How pleasant it is to listen to a straightforward sermon on profound doctrines delivered in a manner and choice of words that are easily grasped. Listeners did not leave Bonar’s sermons scratching their heads, although many left with pierced hearts.

A third feature of many of his sermons was a focus on crucial aspects of Christian living. Bonar was deeply concerned with holiness of life. It was one of the priorities in his own life. He was sensitive to the presence of indwelling sin in himself and in others, and realised that its outworkings had to be dealt with in his preaching. For Bonar, living the Christian life was a serious matter and he never trivialised it by inappropriate comments from the pulpit. I suspect that this concern about living the Christian life explains the large number of sermons that he preached on Bible characters. In them the ups and downs of the Christian life are seen, and remembered. Dealing with such enabled Bonar to warn his listeners about dangers and to encourage them with examples of growth and development.

A fourth feature of his preaching was his enrapture with the Saviour. This was a lesson he learned early, during his time in Jedburgh. In his entry for Sunday 29, 1836, he records, ‘Especially blessed be God for bringing me to Jedburgh, where my views of truth have been greatly quickened, and the necessity of preaching Christ in every sermon impressed upon me by example and by experience. If already God has so wrought, I sometimes cherish the hope that, when He has ordained me, and actually put me into the ministry, I shall be a thousand-fold more useful. Since last year at this time my times of strong sorrow and vexation have been few; I find that the constant service of Christ is the true remedy.’ There are several matters that could be highlighted from this comment by a trainee pastor: the spiritual benefits for preacher and hearers of preaching Christ in every sermon; Bonar’s logic that initial blessings were indications of future ones from God; and his realisation that engaging in service for Jesus was an effective way of getting rid of negative feelings and fears.

What was the reason for Bonar’s success? His daughter, in her Reminiscences, provides the reason: ‘The congregation that gathered round Dr. Bonar in Finnieston Church was attracted, not by the eloquence of the preaching, but by its simplicity, and the fresh light the preacher threw upon the Scriptures, making them appear to many like a new book.’ She continues: ’The most ignorant among his hearers could understand his simple unfolding of truth, while many a striking saying fell from his lips as he leaned in his characteristic way over the pulpit, and talked quietly to those before him. The most fearful felt their faith strengthened by his joyous confidence in the things of which he spoke. Eternal things came very near, and unseen things became real, as they listened to one who spoke as if already among them.

A preacher who is heard

2010-12-11T00:04:00.002Z

I have been thinking a lot about my preaching, mainly because of some things I observed in studying Andrew Bonar's methods of delivering sermons. I realise he lived in a different world from today, a world which we are told dislikes preaching. I suspect that he would reply that the inhabitants of the various places where the gospel was declared in the New Testament did not like its contents either, yet the apostles and others continued to preach to them. And, I assume he would say, that is to be expected in all periods and places.

Although Andrew Bonar was a successful preacher, he was not regarded, by himself or others, as an orator. Indeed his daughter observed that even after years of preaching ‘Strangers had to grow accustomed to the peculiarities of his voice, and his habit of letting it suddenly drop just when the hearer's attention was fixed.’ So how was he able to build up his congregation in Glasgow numerically and spiritually? What were the secrets that made over 1,000 people gather regularly over many years to listen to him? One response that we might give is to stress it was God's sovereign purpose, which is a true answer, although I suspect we often use it to avoid our responsibilities. Another answer is the state of God's servants as they focus on their preaching. How did Bonar personally prepare for and protect his preaching?

One reason was his focus on prayer in discovering which passage to preach from on each occasion. He records in his diary that he had ‘been much impressed with the sin of choosing my text without special direction from the Lord. This is like running without being sent, no message being given me. I ought to feel, “This I am sent to tell you, my people.”’ Bonar wanted to preach not only from God’s Word, but he only wanted to preach what God wanted him to say from the Word on each occasion. Therefore he went to God in prayer in order to discover what verse(s) he must preach about.

Prayer was essential for another reason as well. Bonar not only wanted to preach God’s message, but he wanted to preach it with God’s power. He wrote on one occasion, ‘God will not let me preach with power when I am not much with Him. More than ever do I feel that I should be as much an intercessor as a preacher of the word.’

Bonar also believed that preachers should be in a spiritual frame of soul whenever they preach, and the two marks of such a frame are joy and love. He noted ‘that joy in the Spirit is the frame in which God blesses us to others. Joy arises from fellowship with Him – I find that whatever sorrow or humiliation of spirit presses on us, that should give way in some measure to a fresh taste of God’s love when going forth to preach.’

Further he also wanted to preach aware of God’s presence, to preach ‘with the solemnity, and earnestness, and affection that Jesus would have had had He been there’. He did not mind the prospect of preaching with God at his elbow, indeed he desired it. I suppose that a preacher would not flaunt himself or engage in trivialities if he was conscious of God’s presence.

Bonar did not assume that his prayers had to be limited to preparation. Prayer should not only precede his preaching, it should also follow his sermons. Perhaps surprisingly, Bonar did not regard preaching as his main activity of the Lord’s Day (and he preached at least twice on them); instead he believed that intercessory prayer was his most important work of each Lord’s Day. So he spent a lot of time praying about his listeners each Sunday after they had heard him.

One feature of his preaching that worried him often was church growth without converts through preaching. He was not content to have individuals converted through other means, although he rejoiced over such. I suppose he took to heart that most New Testament church growth occurred through preaching. This problem is not limited to him, since today I would suggest that, in the main, less people are converted through preaching than by other means. His response was to pray until he saw blessing through his preaching.

So I suspect that Bonar was heard by God before preaching, heard by his people in preaching, and then heard by God after his preaching. He was a preacher who was heard because he prayed.

2010 Westminster Conference

2010-12-09T18:34:00.000Z

I have just returned from attending the Westminster Conference in London. I travelled down on Monday via a combination of buses and trains as the snow played havoc with all forms of travelling (there were no flights) – it took me over sixteen hours to make the journey. And when I made my way to Gatwick airport on Wednesday night to return home, I discovered that the airline had cancelled my flight to Inverness, so I had to spend the night in an hotel. Thankfully, the flight went this morning.

I enjoyed the conference – despite having attended many conferences with Christian Focus, I had never been to this annual event before. It was good to meet some old friends and make some new ones. There were six addresses – the first five were well presented and provoked interesting discussions (summaries of them are here and here). I gave the sixth, on Andrew Bonar and my text can be read here. They will be published at some stage.

I was thankful that there was not a discussion after my address, mainly for the reason that I had to rush away in order to catch the plane which was later cancelled. What can I say? I missed being questioned and I missed my flight.

Hymns, honestly

2010-11-20T13:06:00.001Z

Yesterday, a special Plenary Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland agreed to allow congregations freedom to include suitable hymns and instrumental music in worship services. In a sense, this is returning the Free Church to its position on worship in the second half of the nineteenth century.

We now have a situation in which two different views are held concerning public worship (although no clear description of such worship was accepted). One view (held by those who adhere to inspired praise) is that the use of hymns in public worship is unbiblical because there is no biblical example of such or any biblical warrant for using them; the other view (held by those who embrace hymns) is that the alternative view is inadequate for expressing New Testament revelation concerning the Trinity, use of the name of Jesus, etc, and that traces of New Testament hymns expressing such truths are cited in the New Testament letters.

One inevitable consequence of using hymns is that congregations will now include within their services the words of men (and women) whom they would not normally allow to teach in their churches. Hymns reflect the theological opinions of their authors, yet it is possible for their words to mean different things to different people (so that a Calvinist can read, for example, some of Charles Wesley’s hymns in a Calvinist manner, which I did for several years when I was a member of a hymn-singing church). Eventually I concluded such a practice was not one I could agree with because it was a misuse of the authors’ purposes in writing their hymns. If I was to treat their other types of writing in such a way, I would be accused, correctly, of abusing their texts for my own benefit.

The denomination in which I was previously also adopted the practice of rewriting phrases or lines in many hymns in order to conform them to its doctrinal perspectives. Most of the authors were dead, so obviously permission could not be obtained from them for these adjustments to their words (I suspect that sometimes permission was not obtained from living authors either). No information was given to indicate where or why such changes were made. If we adopted such practice with regard to their books, we would be criticised for inappropriate editing (at the least!), and for making them say something that they had not intended to say. I am not aware of what authority a church committee has for such a practice.

It was also the case within that denomination that many of the theological opinions of the church members (very fine people) was taken from the hymns they were singing. For example, many of the ideas about heaven which were adopted were based on hymns and not on the Bible (even if the hymns themselves were expressing biblical truths; my point is that the Bible was moved a step further away).

It was a relief to me to discover that the concept of using only inspired praise, the ‘psalms, hymns and songs’ referred to by Paul in Ephesians and Colossians (and equated by him with the word of Christ in Colossians, a description that cannot be made of hymns that require re-adjusting by doctrinal committees). Of course, I will continue to use inspired praise, but I feel sorry for those who now have to wonder whether they truly understand the intended message of the hymns they sing or whether they are actually singing the original words of the authors.

A devoted life

2010-10-28T13:56:00.003+01:00

I have been working on a talk I have to give soon on the life and work of Antoine Court (1696–1760). Who? That is how I responded a couple of months ago when I was asked to give the lecture. Once I started to look for information about him, I realised that my ignorance was inexcusable because Court was an intelligent, brave, diligent, resourceful servant of Christ in France during the prolonged period of persecution of the Huguenots that covered the first six decades of the eighteenth century. Of course, the persecution of the French Protestant church had been taking place for more than a century before Court was born.

From his childhood, Court revealed that his heart was with the decimated Huguenots, even although it was very dangerous to identify with them. The persecution extended to children of the Huguenots and they were often forcefully taken from their parents and educated in Roman Catholic teaching. When he was in his late teens, he began preaching among the small, harassed groups of Protestants in south-east France (called ‘The Church in the Desert’). Although so young, he began to devise a method by which the Protestant church could be re-structured (his method was a form of Presbyterianism) and he spent two decades doing so, even although he and his colleagues were chased round the countryside by government forces. Many of his co-preachers were martyred. In his years of service in France, Court received no remuneration from the churches because they were very poor.

In 1729, he moved to Lausanne in Switzerland where he had set up a seminary for the training of pastors to serve the Huguenot congregations (many of these pastors were also martyred). He went back once to the area in France where he had preached. That was in 1744 (there was a respite in the persecution because government soldiers were engaged in a war), and for a month he preached virtually every day to congregations that numbered a couple of thousand. The largest audience was several thousand strong, a big change from the handfuls of people to whom he ministered when he began preaching thirty years previously.

The obvious lesson from Court’s life is the amount that the Lord can do with a person who is devoted to his cause, who has counted the cost, and is prepared to do anything and suffer all kinds of hostility for his Master. In comparison to Court, I know I have done very little.

How do we preach?

2010-07-12T11:55:00.000+01:00

Last night, I completed reading a book about George Davidson, a nineteenth-century Free Church of Scotland minister in Caithness. He was an interesting character for several reasons: he was a nephew by marriage of John Macdonald (the Apostle of the North) and knew him well; he was a tremendous organiser and turned a parish that was in a chaotic state when he became its minister into four healthy, separate congregations of several hundred persons in each; he experienced times of spiritual power during the 1859 revival (although it was 1860 before it reached his congregation); he knew painful personal sorrow through family bereavements (he was married twice and each of his wives died a few years after the wedding); he has a direct link to the current Free Church in that his son-in-law (Rev. J. D. McCulloch) was one of the persons who maintained the Free Church in the crisis of 1900.

Yet the detail from the book that spoke strongest to me was not said by the author about Davidson. Instead it was a comment made about Robert Findlater, another minister and one with whom Davidson stayed for a few months before he became a preacher himself. Describing Findlater's preaching, the author opined that 'there was a blessed newness about his preaching. He spoke from the heart, and seemed as if joy made him speak.'

In saying that his preaching was marked by newness, the author did not mean that Findlater was preaching new doctrines that his parishioners had not heard before. Yet they seemed new to his listeners and they found his presentation attractive and compelling, and followed him in large crowds to different locations in his parish in order to drink in what he declared. Certainly the sense of newness came from the work of the Spirit in his heart and theirs. Of course, the opposite of newness is staleness, and I have heard plenty stale sermons (and no doubt have delivered quite a lot as well). So what was Findlater's secret in being able to preach fresh-sounding, eagerly listened-to sermons?

I suspect a major part of the answer is found in the other details of the author's description, that Findlater 'spoke from the heart, and seemed as if joy made him speak.' Obviously sermons have to contain information, but often the impression conveyed to me at conferences and sometimes in churches is that the preacher is speaking only from his mind and not also from and through his emotions. I suppose the problem is a lack of passion, although not all passion is good.

I am intrigued that the impression made about Findlater's preaching was that he spoke out of joy. It has often been stressed to me, and perhaps I have urged others, to speak out of love, which of course is necessary. Yet surely when preaching about deliverance from sin and the riches of God's grace, there should be such joy in the preacher that others notice it.

It looks to me as if Findlater's preaching was marked by newness because the themes about which he preached made him very happy. So while I may not have Davidson's organisational skills or not be given by God the blessing of sharing in nationwide revival, I would like to be a happy preacher like Findlater.

Visiting London for a conference

2010-06-27T14:52:00.001+01:00

I spent most of last week in London, attending the annual EMA gathering. I have attended this event for almost twenty years and find it very beneficial. Three helpful aspects of it that repeat themselves are (1) meeting other ministers that I seldom see anywhere else; (2) listening to sermons and addresses geared towards aspects of ministerial life today; and (3) being able to spend time each evening applying what I have heard to my own situation and trying to come up with a preaching programme for the next few months.

The set of addresses that helped me most were the morning studies on the life of Samson by Rupert Bentley Taylor. Not only did he show how Samson was a man of faith selected by God to lead his people, but he also opened up lots of ideas in my mind for me to pursue as possible preaching subjects. So I hope that my preaching in the months ahead will be changed.

In addition, I am still thinking about one of John Piper's addresses in which he considered the role of the Holy Spirit in helping his people pray about issues concerning which they have no information (in Romans 8: 26-27, the Spirit intercedes for them according to his knowledge of the secret will of God, and this intercession reveals itself in their groanings). I found Piper's explanation of the Spirit's intercession compelling. Until I heard that address, I would have said that, in my prayer life, I worry more over the things about which I have no information than I do over the items about which I have some or ample information. It seems to me, now, that my prayers for people and issues about which I have no information are well taken care of, and that I should regard such groanings as not merely an expression of perplexity but also as a divine provison of effective prayer. The fact is, I am in the dark regarding most of what is going on around me and within me (story of my life, I have to say), so it is liberating to discover that the Spirit uses his perfect knowledge to more than make up for my weaknesses. So I hope that my praying will have been changed.

I appreciated all the talks I heard. But the issue remains: as as consequence of attending another conference, will I confer better to others about God and will I confer better to God about others? Time will tell.

New Principal at Free Church College

2010-05-22T14:55:00.000+01:00

One of the happy events at this year's General Assembly was the appointment of Professor John L. Mackay as Principal of the Free Church College. I have interacted with him at different levels over the years and in each of them he has maintained a consistently high Christian character. Many others can say the same.

Before I went to the Free Church College as a student for the ministry, I imagined I knew a bit about the Old Testament. My time in the Old Testament classroom not only told me how little I knew (I was and am grateful for that discovery), but also showed me how it is possible to make the Old Testament very relevant for Christians – and for others searching for the true God. In his classroom, we knew we would not travel down pointless roads; instead we anticipated ascending spiritual heights.

His commentaries for Christian Focus (Exodus, Jeremiah, Lamentations and most of the Minor Prophets) and Evangelical Press (Isaiah) are outstanding examples of Reformed scholarship and should be in every minister's library. They are faithful to the text of Scripture, which would be expected from a Free Church of Scotland professor. In addition, they are lucid and understandable, which makes them very user friendly in sermon preparation. Hopefully, more such commentaries will come.

This appointment is evidence of the degree of confidence the Free Church has in him and of the affection it has for him.

The Free Church General Assembly

2010-05-22T14:16:00.001+01:00

The 2010 General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland finished yesterday. How does one measure it? If assessed on lack of major disagreements or the absence of controversy, it was successful. Of course, lack of disagreement in itself is not always a definite sign of harmony. It may only mean that areas of potential divergence were not on the agenda. Or if judged by the firm control of the Moderator (David Merideth of Smithton Free Church), whose authority ensured that there was very little waffle or time-wasting comments, the Assembly was successful because everything ran smoothly. It was unusual watching those responsible for arranging the programme responding to having too much free time.

There were highlights for me, three in particular. (1) Douglas MacKeddie’s retiring sermon in which he focussed on, among other matters, the appropriate ways by which the Lord Jesus spoke the truth to a variety of people was a challenge to me, and no doubt to others, as to how to speak at the General Assembly and elsewhere. (2) The Moderator’s lecture on the Exciting Church was a reminder that neither the Bible nor church history, including Free Church history, endorses the existence of a church or denomination that conveys a sense that no spiritual excitements happen in its services. (3) The International Mission evening was the highlight I enjoyed the most, especially the contribution of Rev. Billy Graham as he described features of mission work in south Africa; there was a definite sense of the felt presence of God as he spoke, and if such a palpable effect happened in every service we would indeed be an exciting church. These occasions will be remembered by me.

I usually get the impression (very subjective, I know) that General Assemblies are the closure of an ecclesiastical year rather than the catalyst for the year ahead. Maybe it is because we get several reports looking back to what has happened. This Assembly was different in that some future plans for church revitalisation in Scotland were presented and hopefully they will exceed even the largest expectations of their most enthusiastic supporters.

Yet as I sit here thinking about the Assembly, I do not sense that it has very much to say to the people to whom I will be ministering tomorrow. I have prepared an accurate summary for the congregational newsletter, but for some reason it sounds a bit detached from where most of them are. I am not anticipating lots of questions about it and I suspect that is the challenge facing the Assembly. It meets, makes decisions, but what does it bring about that will enliven the Christian experience of our congregations and get them to value its role? I wish I knew the answer.

Prayer by a Free Church minister

2010-05-15T14:27:00.000+01:00

I have been glancing through my copy of the life of John Milne (a Free Church of Scotland minister in Perth in the nineteenth century) and came across this prayer that he had recorded in his diary: ‘I pray for a far more energetic thankfulness; to be a whole and a continual burnt-offering. Let all false fire die; but let the flame of love, through the Holy Ghost, keep me spending and being spent. Renew my spiritual strength, O Lord.... I see some whose heart seems to be right with God, and yet they do not receive much blessing on their work. Perhaps they are not seeking themselves; but are they honouring the Lord by faith? The soul that is lifted up is not upright; it is cleaving to self instead of God; it is trying to rise by building a Babel instead of taking hold of the Almighty. But there is a dishonouring of the Lord by the want of a large, joyful, practical expectation that goes on in His strength, and surely prevails. Moses had not this at the commencement of his enterprise, but got it afterwards. Many seem never to get it, and to drudge on in an unprofitable routine.’

John Piper, Sweet and Bitter Providence, IVP, 2010

2010-05-14T23:55:00.000+01:00

The book of Ruth describes a marvellous love story between Boaz and Ruth. Perhaps some readers leave it there and fail to recognise that another important feature of the book is its emphasis that God is at work, even in times of trouble, disappointment and confusion. His purpose includes short and long-term goals. In the short-term, he provided graciously for Naomi, Ruth and Boaz; in the long-term, he was preparing for the royal line of David, and through it the coming of the Messiah.

The material in this book of 160 pages began as a set of sermons preached by the author. Reading his words gives us an example of how to preach an Old Testament book in such a way that sermons are relevant for twenty-first century listeners. Piper also shows us how to connect biblical passages to the person and work of Christ.

Throughout this Bible study, we see the sad failures and the godly traits in the lives of Bible characters, enjoy helpful illustrations that help clarify various points made by the author, receive insights into the gracious ways of God (particularly in explaining the picture of God as an eagle under whose wings Ruth had found refuge) and appreciate the reality of the connection between the ordinary events of life and the spread of God’s kingdom.

Is it the best book on providence or on Ruth? No doubt there are deeper theological works on the doctrine of providence and larger commentaries on the Book of Ruth. Nevertheless for those wanting to begin studying the doctrine of providence, this book is ideal. And it will be a tonic for those who perhaps are experiencing difficulties in providence and want their faith in God refreshed.

How to avoid a depressing general election

2010-05-14T11:44:00.000+01:00

I have been away from home for a couple of weeks, attending a couple of conferences and a holiday in between. My first conference was the Banner of Truth annual event in Leicester where I enjoyed meeting up with old friends as well as listening to informative lectures and sermons. Two addresses on the Sabbath by Iain D. Campbell and a biographical account of an African church leader by Palmer Robertson spoke to me the most.

Having said that, the most interesting detail for me from the conference was the news that the Banner are going to republish the biography of John Milne of Perth by Horatius Bonar. I read this biography years ago and easily recognised that I was reading about a spiritual giant. Since I still have my copy, I will not be purchasing the Banner edition. But I would recommend it to all.

Something else happened to me at the Banner conference – I only purchased three books. What does this say? Am I running out of money? No. Am I becoming more sensible with my money? Probably not. Have I decided to read the books I already have? Hopefully.

After I returned to Scotland, my wife and I went on holiday to Ireland. We spent the weekend in the North and took the opportunity on the Sunday of visiting Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church in Newtonabbey where we heard two excellent sermons by Ted Donnelly and experienced a warm welcome and kind fellowship from the congregation.

On the day before, I was led by an unknown impulse straight to the door of the Evangelical Bookshop (it is true, I found what I was not looking for, but was grateful I did, and not just for the warm welcome by John Grier). I mention this because I purchased several books there, which proves that nothing serious happened in Leicester to my book-purchasing practice.

After that, we went down to Killarney, a very beautiful area. I managed to read two books for review in the Free Church Record, and I will post them here soon. One is John Piper’s book on Ruth and the other is Roger Steer’s biography of John Stott.

One benefit of spending our time there was that we escaped all the hype, mail shots, TV analysis, desperate promises, third leaders’ debate (I didn’t watch the previous two) and other matters connected with the final week of the General Election competition. Sadly, for me at any rate, my absence from the country did not prevent the leader (and party) I liked least from getting the most votes.

We returned to Scotland in time for the Scottish Reformed Conference at which we heard two excellent preachers and three very good addresses. Dale Ralph Davis gave helpful insights into Christian living from David’s experiences at the end of I Samuel and Kenneth Stewart challenged us to the reality of our discipleship. There was a large number in attendance, with a large proportion being young people. The conference was a good boost for returning to work.

The lesson from all this: whenever a general election comes along, apply for a postal vote, arrange a holiday, attend a conference, read a couple of Christian books, return home and, despite the media hype and excitement, discover the same needy world as existed before.

J. I. Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Crossway).

2010-03-29T22:50:00.001+01:00

The cross of Jesus is central to the Christian faith and to the life of each Christian. Therefore it is important that we know what was involved in Christ’s death, how we can explain it to others, and what difference it makes in our lives once we have trusted in Jesus.

Of course, many books have been written on the death of Christ, so some reasons should be given for highlighting this one. First, it is short – I hope we all realise that a book should not be judged by its length but by its depth. There is little point in using a lot of words to say a small amount, but there is obvious benefit in using sufficient words to say a great deal. Second, it is scriptural – our understanding of what happened at Calvary cannot be based on any other source apart from the Bible, and this volume is an exposition of what the Bible says took place there. Third, it is succinct – sadly, not every short book is to the point, and so misses it. This book cannot be defined as doing that. Indeed it goes straight to the cross and stays there. Fourth, it is scholarly – not in the sense that the writers are above our heads, but that they actually use theirs and convey to readers the profound insights they have been given concerning this important doctrine.

This book contains three important articles by Packer on the atoning work of Christ, one article by Dever on the significance of the blood of Christ, plus some additional material. Its publication was prompted by the appearance of books from within the evangelical community that downplayed, if not actually denied, the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death. In this book, readers will discover the meaning of theological terms such as penal substitution, propitiation and reconciliation and will be led to reflect on the wonderful love of God that sent his Son as Saviour. There is also a chapter, compiled by Ligon Duncan, which lists and summarises important writings on the atonement and their authors.

Sinclair Ferguson assures us that this book is ‘a must read – a tract for the times to call Christians to be Bible-based, Christ-centred, atonement-believing and -understanding, God-adoring people.’

Words of Power

2010-03-29T09:01:00.004+01:00

At one of my services yesterday I was preaching from 1 Samuel 3. One of the verses in that chapter that hit me like a mallet was verse 1 which says that 'the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.' The writer does not mean there was not any Scripture (the priests at that period would have read to the people from the Pentateuch and Joshua); nor does he mean that there were not any sermons (the priests would have instructed the people from these books), and neither does he mean that people were not attending public worship and participating in it (although aspects of their worship left a lot to be desired). The religious leadership was a big concern (Eli was ineffective and his sons Hophi and Phinehas were sinful rebels against God), and no doubt their behaviour was one of the reasons God was silent. Thankfully he had taken steps to prepare a servant who would be different, although at that time Samuel was still very young. The point that I suspect the author is making is that God was not speaking powerfully in a fresh way at that time.

It seems to me that one of the greatest tragedies that the church can go through is implementing a religious programme in the presence of a silent God, when he chooses to say nothing to them, and also chooses to say nothing through them to others. Such a situation does not include the absence of words; there were plenty words during the period of 1 Samuel 3, the problem was that God was not often involved. What was absent was the presence of divine power accompanying these words. Whenever I speak, I do so according to the energy I have. When God speaks, he does so according to his power and listeners are affected by what he says.

I don't suppose there has ever been a period in which so many words have been said or written about the things of God as today. Books come from Christian publishers in an increasing number, Christian newspapers and magazines appear regularly, and thousands, if not millions, of Christians are blogging about this or that. Yet in all we have to say, how many of us are aware of God speaking in power to us and through us?

I don't know how many words I read and spoke yesterday. Obviously I wanted the Lord to speak powerfully to me before I preached and through me as I preached. The message I preached was the gospel, which Paul says is the power of God unto salvation for all kinds of people. So hopefully God was at work. But what if he was not?

I often hear people say that if we returned to the Bible's message we will see blessing. The congregation I am in has never departed from that message in its history, nor have the other congregations in my denomination. But are we satisfied with merely repeating a true message about God that does not give evidence that he is speaking to us or through us in a powerful and widespread way?

Perhaps the source of the problem is that we would rather speak for God than to God. In one way, that is a very simple analysis of what is wrong. Yet it has been shown many times in church history that power comes through prayer. In 1 Samuel 1–2, true power (that is, power with God and power from God) was with a woman who prayed (Hannah), although few would have realised it. Earlier I said that I don't know how many words I read and said in preaching yesterday. More importantly, God knows how many words I used in prayer for power.

Reformed evangelism

2010-03-18T06:41:00.002Z

In my congregation at present we are giving thought to methods of evangelism. At one level, evangelism is simply telling another person about Jesus and this can take place anywhere. I can recall many Christians who spoke to me about Jesus in a very natural way before my conversion; their words were the overflow of a heart that was focussed on Christ. I was not converted the first or the hundredth time someone did so. Nevertheless I was aware that they had a warm affection for Jesus Christ.

I have been at a conference this past couple of days and communication of the gospel in our postmodern, post-Christian European society has been one of the topics on the agenda. Personally I don’t think that what is called postmodernism is very new; instead I wonder if what has happened is that thinking people (i.e., those with degrees), who in the past focussed on evidences and theories (modernism), have now caught up with the rest of us who did not place much attention on these details in the first place and merely did what we felt like doing. Perhaps then the way to evangelise contemporary people is to imitate how previous generations did it, making allowance of course for changed environments. For what it is worth, evangelism as far as I can see involves three actions by us (by actions, I mean actions from the heart).

First, we have to look for lost sinners rather than looking at lost sinners. Often, discussions of postmodernism and modernism are merely expressions of paralysis by analysis. I may be able to assess that a postmodern human does not believe in the certainties of technology while he plays with his pocket computer, mobile phone etc, but unless I go and speak to him in a loving way about his need of Christ my diagnosis is merely an opinion heading for the waste-paper basket (or for the delete button in my paperless world).

Second, having looked for lost sinners by making contact with them, we have to love them. I’m curious as to why many Christian commentators give the impression that postmoderns are the first group not to experience true love. From my limited understanding of society, the absence of true love was a feature of previous situations as well (families sending children to work in factories and up chimneys was hardly an expression of a loving society, nor was the presence of starving migrants wandering about the countryside). Was family life so wonderful in previous periods? The church (the true one, that is) has always been the counter-cultural society that showed love to its members and to those outside of it. Love requires involvement and time, and it is hard for a society focussed on its own shallow needs (by purchasing things) to give love to those with deep needs (by sharing things). True love cannot be programmed beforehand and slotted into one’s diary; it can only be given at the place of need. Of course, the love we have to show is the love of Christ, and we can only have this love by spending time with him personally in private devotions and corporately in church fellowship.

Third, having loved lost sinners into the kingdom, we continue to show love to them by loosening them from the chains that they drag along with them from their past. I have been puzzled (mainly by looking in the mirror) by the reluctance of some Christians (who were loosed from their chains by others) to spend time helping new Christians find the meaning of spiritual freedom. One way by which brotherly love is expressed is by spending time trying to find out why a new Christian is not making as much progress as he should. Often, the failure is caused by actions or attitudes which he did not realise were unhelpful and which could easily have been shown to him by someone spending time with him.

I’ll probably come back to this topic later. But it seems to me, for what it is worth, that evangelism involves looking for, loving and liberating those enchained by their sins. I know it can only be done by the power of God blessing the message about Jesus, but usually he conveys his power alongside or through our words and actions.

Attracting Listeners to Sermons

2010-02-10T01:55:00.003Z

I have been reading a book called The Scottish Pulpit by William Taylor. Various well-known preachers are assessed by the author, including Samuel Rutherford. In his assessment of Rutherford, Taylor proposes a way of having a successful preaching ministry. This is what he suggests:

'Grosart says of Rutherford's practical discourses that their one merit is "that they are full of the exceeding great and precious promises and truths of the Gospel," and that "they hold forth with wistful and passionate entreaty a crucified Saviour as the one centre for weary souls in their unrest, and the one hope for the world." But, after all, is not that the "one thing needful" in all preaching? And it is for that especially that I would hold him up for an inspiration to you. Like him preach the living, personal Christ, once crucified, but now risen and reigning as the Saviour and Sovereign of men. Unfold His loveliness. Proclaim His merits. Hold up Himself. Let the truth which you declare to be the truth as it is in Him. Let the faith to which you urge be faith in Him. Let the loyalty which you enforce be loyalty to Him. Let the heaven which you hold before your hearers be to be with Him, and to be like Him. "Hold you there," and let your words be such as love to Him shall inspire, then you shall not lack hearers, and shall not need to lament the absence of results.'

I have no idea whether or not such preaching guarantees success. But all I can say is that it would be a nice way to be a failure.

Church Planting by Psalm Singers

2010-02-09T12:25:00.002Z

Last night at our meeting of presbytery, a good friend asked a question to this effect: ‘Can effective church planting involving praise marked by exclusive psalmody without musical accompaniment take place outside Free Church areas of influence?’ It was a reasonable question, and one which I decided to take some time to consider rather than open my mouth without thinking (I am not implying that those who did speak were guilty of such a response). So I have thought about it and here is my response. Probably there is nothing new here for others, but it did help me clarify an aspect of my thinking.

Given that I believe the New Testament teaches that worship in first-century churches used unaccompanied singing of metrical psalms (music, as is acknowledged by historians, was not introduced until centuries later), it would be easy for me to say that the answer to the question is ‘yes’. That answer is sufficient for me, but I suspect those asking the question might want additional reasons. So here are three, and they can be classified as history, motive and understanding of success.

First, from a historical point-of-view, the answer is that such churches did plant similar churches – hundreds of Reformed churches in Scotland (and elsewhere) were planted, each of which was marked by inspired praise and no music. This was the case in virtually every denomination that existed in Scotland between the Reformation and the second half of the nineteenth century – it was not until then that hymns and musical instruments became common. The Free Church itself engaged in an extensive church planting activity after 1843 all over the country, and these plants did not use hymns and instrumental music. I suppose the question can be phrased another way: ‘Have more churches been planted in Scotland since hymns and instrumental music were introduced than were planted before then?’ Obviously I am not denying that church plants have taken place in groups that used hymns and music, but I would say that the evidence we have historically is that they are not essential for successful church planting. But I wonder what is the answer to my rephrased question mentioned a couple of sentences ago.

Second, the original question raises another question for me: why do we plant in non-Free Church areas? If the only answer to the question is, ‘Because we want to tell people about Jesus,’ then are we not duplicating the activities of other evangelical churches already in that area? While there are large sections of Scotland that do not have a Free Church, there are very few areas which do not have an evangelical witness, be it by Baptists, Brethren, Charismatics, Pentecostals, Church of Scotland (at times), and various independent churches. It seems to me that if all we want to do is ‘tell people about Jesus’, then we should join groups in these communities that are already doing so and help them.

Personally, my reasons for praying for, and supporting practically if possible, Free Church plants are based on more than initial communication of the basic gospel message. I would like to see Free Church plants because I have concluded that New Testament churches should practice covenant baptism (unlike Baptists), have recognised, ordained teachers (unlike some Brethren), regard spiritual gifts such as tongues and prophecy as limited to the apostolic period (unlike Charismatics and Pentecostals), have exclusive male eldership (unlike some evangelical Church of Scotland congregations), and have a commitment to specific doctrines, summarised/stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith (unlike most churches). In addition to these features, since I have concluded that New Testament worship involves unaccompanied inspired praise, and since this is the current practice of the Free Church, it is inevitable that one reason for planting Free Churches in non-Free Church areas is to have churches with this feature. If we move away from the items I have listed, then our contribution ceases to be Free Church in particular and becomes an undefined church plant. At present, the distinctives that stand out from most other evangelicals are our view of baptism (not just its mode, but also its meaning) and our current practice of praise. I see no valid biblical reason for modifying either of them in a church plant situation. This does not mean I don't want other groups of Christians to prosper in winning souls for Jesus.

Third, of course, we all want to have church plants that develop into self-sufficient congregations that go on to church plant (at least, I hope we do). But is that the only kind of successful church plant? Is ‘success’ based on a large number of individuals coming along or is it based on the number who become committed to what we believe? Sometimes the number who come along consists of a small group of committed people, at other times it becomes larger and larger. Does God denigrate the plant composed of committed people that remains small? Does he disapprove of their desire to remain loyal to his Word? Unfortunately, despite having made an attempt at answering the question raised by my friend, I cannot give a definite answer to the question in the previous sentence because the public answer will not be given until the Day of Judgement. But, without being presumptuous, I think I know what God’s Word says about it.

Revival – some questions

2010-02-05T23:32:00.006Z

I would like to ask some basic questions about revival that affect us in the Scottish Highlands in particular?

First, can revival come to a Christian community that is divided (as the church in the Highlands is)? Obviously, division is not desirable, but does its existence automatically prevent revival coming? The answer from church history is that it does not. For example, the Erskine brothers, who had separated from the Church of Scotland, disagreed strongly with George Whitefield’s practice of preaching in evangelical Church of Scotland congregations and spoke harsh words against him. The disagreement resulted in an open breach. Yet both Whitefield and the Erskines continued to enjoy periods of revival through their preaching.

This is not to say that divisions will not produce aspects that mar the beauty of a revival, such as believers not praying together for converts or rejoicing together over converts. Nor does it means that God-sent revival will not result in unity being restored eventually. In fact, to maintain a wrong spirit in times of revival is a dangerous response from a Christian. Nevertheless although we live in a divided Christian community, we should not be discouraged from praying for revival.

Second, can revival come to a community that is diminished in population (as many parts of the Scottish Highlands are)? Sometimes the impression can be given that revival only occurs in places where there is a large number of people. When we picture in our minds a congregation experiencing revival, what do we imagine? We think of the vast crowds that listened to Whitefield and Wesley or that used to gather at communion seasons in the Highlands during the years of revival. What we forget is that often these crowds were swollen by large numbers who often travelled long distances. The reality is that the presence of revival in a small community can only be gauged by the effects in that area. And if every person in that area was converted, it would still not be a large number. So revival does not need large numbers to be called a revival; it all depends on whether a sizable percentage in a community is converted.

Third, what would be the point in God giving a revival to small congregations in communities with a declining population? There are many possible answers to this question. Here are three:

A first answer concerns the glory of God: revival in a small congregation shows that progress is not by human might or power, but by the Spirit; Jesus is to be honoured in small communities as well as larger ones.

A second answer concerns the present state of the church: revival can raise up in a small community a group of Christians that would be mighty in prayer, not just for its immediate community, but for the entire nation, and for the spread of the gospel throughout the world.

A third answer concerns the future: revival in a small congregation should ensure that there will be a Christian church for the foreseeable future in that community; it should also maintain the existence of Christian families from who may come individuals who will be used by the Saviour decades from now, long after we are no longer here.

Fourth, what methods will bring revival to us? There are several spiritual blessings that may be known without revival being experienced. These include dedicated Christian living (many believers have lived devoted Christian lives without seeing revival), harmonious church experiences (sense of God’s presence in the public meetings of his people), biblical preaching in content and manner, hearty witnessing to one’s faith etc. The reality is that revival comes primarily through earnest, insistent, reverent, communal prayer to God that King Jesus would send the Holy Spirit in gracious power.

Encouragements for prayer for revival are many: the purpose of God (often he uses revival to achieve conversions), the promises of God (there are many promises concerning revival in the Bible), and records of previous revivals (I can understand why many Christians do not like to read heavy theological literature or books of sermons or ponderous biographies, but I cannot understand a Christian who would not enjoy reading accounts of the great days of spiritual blessing of the past; reading them expands our estimation of what God can do in our communities today).

I have been reading about a three-year revival in GlenLyon in Perthsire that happened in the second decade of the nineteenth century. GlenLyon was hardly the centre of of national life at that time, yet its experience of revival had both widespread and long-term effects. They were widespread in that many of those blessed during the revival moved elsewhere, including abroad, and took its influence with them; also other parishes in the country were encouraged to pray for revival and, for all I know, that revival may have been a catalyst for the country-wide spiritual movement that preceded the Disruption. The effects were long-term because I noticed that several biographies of nineteenth-century ministers that I have read recently (selected without me knowing the connection) ministered to a spiritually healthy congregation in that out-of-the-way community.

Of course, this leads to one more question: when did the effects of that revival die out, or perhaps they are still being felt somewhere in the world?

Revival – some thoughts

2010-02-05T23:29:00.001Z

I suppose many definitions could be given of revival, although most of them would be related to historical records, which means that there is the fact of revival. There are so many records of such spiritual occasions that only a perverse person would deny they occurred.

Further, many factors related to it can be assessed biblically, which means that there is a theology of revival. A theology of revival attempts to explain God’s action in promoting his kingdom through the gospel. It looks for biblical doctrines that describe, for example, the involvement of the risen Jesus in revival, the work of the Spirit in revival, the activity of the devil in such periods, the contribution of prayer made by God’s people for such times and in such times.

A third aspect of revival are features that are absent from some revivals and present in other revivals, which indicate that these features are not necessary for a revival to occur. Most of these things would come into the category of social consequences, and they may be beneficial or not for the community. For example, some revivals are accompanied by great improvement in the living standards of the poor (the revivals connected to 1859 in Britain and America had that consequence). Other revivals are followed by increased persecution of God’s people, resulting in loss of living standards (this happened throughout the twentieth century in communist countries).

A fourth feature of revival is that we inevitably visualise it through our own understanding of it. There have been frequent revivals in the Highlands, particularly the Outer Hebrides during the last two centuries and details of what took place in them have become part of our spiritual heritage. The knowledge of what God did then creates within us a longing for him to do it again. As I have listened to these accounts during the last three decades since I was converted, I have sensed that many people assumed that, when the next revival comes, it will be a repetition of what occurred previously. But while the gospel message will not change and the response of repentance and faith will be essential, there may be features in the next revival that will be totally different from previous ones.

For example, if a revival began tomorrow, what would be the contribution of modern technology? Revivals in the eighteenth century occurred within the limitations of the time: information containing points for prayer was conveyed by letter that could take months to reach their destination, preachers travelled on horseback or walked between places, and sometimes places experiencing revival were unaware that communities twenty miles away were also enjoying God’s blessing in a similar way (it also meant that some communities were unaware that a revival was taking place anywhere). Revivals in the nineteenth century utilised the invention of the telegraph and the development of printing of books to help spread the revival. A revival thirty years ago had the means of tape recordings and telephones to help it (we may not be familiar with that because we have not experienced a revival in which they were used.) But if a revival comes tomorrow, it is likely that the Lord would use our current technology as one of the means of bringing people to repentance and assurance. Sometimes, we look at the millions of people in our society and we ask ourselves, ‘How can we reach all these people?’ The question usually expects a negative answer. Whether God will bring a revival or not tomorrow, it is obvious that through modern technology the gospel can be preached to millions of people simultaneously.

And if God poured his Spirit out on our nation, it would not be difficult for the gospel to get prime time slots on TV schedules. The forms of media (newspapers, journals) that existed in times of previous revival were quick to report on revivals, and there is no need to imagine that modern media would ignore a widespread revival.

Encouragement from the past

2010-02-03T18:55:00.007Z

I suppose there are a variety of encouragements that a minister can have. Obviously, he will get encouragement if he looks up to God in prayer and asks him to fulfil his promises of blessing. A preacher can also receive encouragement by looking round and observing the way God may have used him to some effect in the lives of other people. I have received some encouragement by looking back, not to events in my own life (although there are plenty years to explore), but to what God did in my city long before I was born.

Encouragement from those days is dependant on written records and I have been reading about two servants of God who came to Inverness in the past. They were quite different from one another and came here through different means, yet the consequences of their comings was of great significance to the town.

I have to look back a long time to see what God did through Robert Bruce (not the king). He is best known today for his book on the Lord's Supper, but in his own time he was famous for his faithful preaching. In those days, Inverness was not a holiday resort; instead it was a small village on the verge of nowhere and a suitable location for a king to banish preachers who had guts as well as words. Bruce was banished twice to Inverness by James VI (the man who later arranged for the King James Version), but the king on his second occasion (1620s) did not realise that he was extending the Presbyterian cause that he so much detested.

Bruce was by then an old man and not very well. He spoke a different language from the Gaelic of the Highlanders (although he may have been able to speak it somewhat). Yet his time in Inverness was much blessed by God as thousands travelled from all over the north of Scotland to hear the gospel from his lips. This had been anticipated by Bruce because, as he was about to leave for Inverness, he received from the Lord a special commission to go to Inverness and plant a seed that would last for a long time. He received this commission through an experience that many modern Reformed people would shake their heads at (a kind of trance as he was about to mount his horse), but which many Highland Reformed Christians would have regarded as to be expected. My encouragement is not that Bruce had such a profound commission (I have not experienced anything close to it), but that a man in his later decades of life came to this city and was used by God to such an extent that echoes of his ministry were heard in Inverness for over a century – a supporter of the Jacobite rebellions in the first half of the eighteenth century blamed Bruce's influence for the poor support they received in Inverness area (although Invernessians today are quite happy to benefit financially from visitors to Culloden etc.).

I do not have to look back so far for the other story that gives encouragement. Robert Findlater came here two centuries after Bruce, but almost two centuries ago (1820s). He came to a town in which religious controversy was alive, where large numbers of visiting workers were ignored, and where the ecclesiastical systems were ineffective in dealing with the increased population. Prior to coming to Inverness, he had been involved in a three-year revival in Perthshire and so was able to assess between genuine spirituality and formal religious behaviour. He noted that much of what he saw, even in his large congregation of 1800, belonged to the formal.

His response was to preach sermons that exalted Christ and not to use the pulpit for the minutae of Christian experience (he dealt with that in private meetings with individuals). He also realised that it was pointless asking visiting workers to church if they did not understand the message of the gospel. So he supported the setting up of Sunday schools in which such could be educated (today we call it pre-evangelism, but as an Invernessian I am pleased that the idea was here two hundred years ago). His method was successful and people were converted.

Why am I encouraged by Robert Findlater's ministry? Because he shows that focussing on Christ and using a bit of initiative resulted in making the gospel relevant to a growing centre of population.

So looking back as well as looking up helps me to look forward.

Achievements without prayer

2010-01-26T23:08:00.003Z

I have been reading a Focus on the Bible commentary on the Book of Acts by Bruce Milne that Christian Focus will publish later this year. Among many comments that I found challenging about modern evangelical church life in Britian was this one:

Samuel Chadwick’s words are as relevant today as when he first penned them: ‘Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.’ One is reminded of the reported comment of a South Korean leader who was recently taken on a tour of some ‘successful’ mega-churches in North America, but was surprised to discover in the course of it how little prayer featured in these congregations, either in the multiplicity of ministries being undertaken, or in the services of public worship. When his hosts asked him at the conclusion for his impression he apparently responded: ‘I am astonished at how much you folks are able to do without God!’

Is It More Difficult to Preach to Mature Christians?

2010-01-01T16:13:00.004Z

Robert Findlater wrote to his father and in the letter suggested that it was more difficult to preach to mature Christians than to less mature believers or to non-Christians. This is his father's response:

‘26th March, 1807. I do not savour your opinion when you say “It must be more difficult to preach to established Christians than to those who are not, or those who have not yet attained to the knowledge of it” – except you mean a graceless minister: in that case, you are right, as he cannot preach Christ, neither knows he what way a Christian lives upon the gospel, so as to preach to them. But I never knew a godly minister but would rejoice upon having the people of God to preach to – yea, they are out of their element when they are saying any thing but “Feed my sheep – Feed my lambs.” You mention that it is to a young preacher the difficulty would be. There should be no such young preachers in the world that could not preach to the oldest Christians in it. However young the ministers of Christ are, they can say all to the oldest Christian: We have received the same Spirit of faith, therefore we speak. Without this Spirit they cannot speak, neither will they be understood. They know not the voice of a minister that is a stranger to the same Spirit of faith with themselves. I hope before you enter upon preaching you will change your opinion, which I pray God of his mercy, may grant you. Your mother prays the same.’

Delight in a preaching ministry

2010-01-01T15:50:00.003Z

After the death of his minister, Charles Calder, Robert Findlater wrote to his son in Edinburgh who was preaching at a communion service there. In the letter mentioned an interest the congregation in Ferintosh had in having John Macdonald as Calder's successor and then states how much Calder's preaching was appreciated.

‘I hope you will have an agreeable time of it in Edinburgh. I pray for his presence among you. Though not acquainted with Mr. McDonald, you may make offer of my best wishes to him and tell him that Ferintosh is proverbial for a good dram, and that we hope he will present us with nothing inferior to what we got. It has oft been so strong and sweet, that we have drunk of it, till we forgot our poverty, and remembered our misery no more.’

More advice on the ministry

2009-12-28T01:59:00.002Z

As I said in a previous post, I have been reading the life of Robert Findlater. A ministerial friend set him the following advice regarding the service of Christ.

‘On your being licensed to preach the gospel, I congratulate you. The office of an ambassador for Christ has, by all invested with it who have tasted of the grace of God, been considered as pleasant and honourable; while at the same time, it has been felt by them to be arduous, l will not enlarge on these things. The apostle of the Gentiles magnified his office, and reckoned it his glory, and a grace given him, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. His heart and delight were in the work; while at the same time, no man knew more by experience, both what he had to do, and to suffer, in the faithful discharge of his office. I pray God, that by the lively state of religion in our own souls, by communications of spiritual consolation from Himself, and by the abundant success of our labours, He may lead us to feel the pleasantness of the office; that by gifts and graces, He may qualify us for honourably transacting the business of reconciliation, between Him and rebel sinners; and that in proportion as He exposes us to the difficulties connected with the office, He may support us under them.

‘A circumstance, or rather quality of the office, to which my attention is directed as much as to any, is the solemn tenure on which we hold it. “Woe unto us, if we preach not the Gospel.” The sinner must receive warning, else his blood will be required at our hand. By faithful dealing with all, we must deliver our own souls. Who is sufficient for these things? You suppose my experience may enable me to suggest something profitable on the subject. I have little experience yet, that I can either call my own, or by which I can profit others; but if I have learned any thing by experience, it is the answer to the foregoing question, namely, “Our sufficiency is of God.” The more we feel our own insufficiency, and are led to God, in Christ, for all things, both to our own and our people’s souls, the more comfort do we feel, the more success are we likely to get.

‘But you will perhaps be thinking that I might say something more, of what I have learned by experience, in preaching the Gospel. In a letter I must be general. I think then, I know, that there is nothing of greater consequence to comfort and success than personal religion. Most difficulties arise, or are increased, either from the want, or the low state of this in the soul – entirely destitute of it, we must be unfaithful, comfortless, and burdened in the work – weak in religion, we are likely to be unskilful, in some degree unsteady, inactive, or exposed to the fear of man that bringeth a snare, ready to be overborne by every difficulty. And the more lively our own souls are, the more comfort do we feel; the more faithful are we enabled to be; and the better do we know, whether to apply for supplies of grace, for strength under difficulties, for ability, and success. All this is to be understood, in consistence with our sufficiency being of God. Personal religion is all from Him; and is the first and fairest means of success.

'I do not know a better way, in dependence on our Redeemer’s grace for encouraging personal religion, than to spend much time at once, and often, in deep meditation, self-examination, searching the Scriptures, and prayer. A person cannot (with a deceitful heart) meditate, examine, or read without prayer. I know because I have felt it, that converse with the world is hurtful; and had I been engaged in the profitable exercise alluded to, when at College, and at home I spent much time idly, or even in reading books that were in themselves useful, too constantly – I would now be more fit for my work. Without intimate spiritual knowledge of the Scriptures also, I must add, we cannot rightly divide the word of truth.

'And as speaking to a brother, I would advise you to study your discourses well. We are accountable for what we say; and not a little care and pains are necessary, in choosing fit passages of Scripture, by which to illustrate or prove our subject. I find most pleasure in delivering my most carefully composed discourses.

'I hope the Lord will direct and bless you and your labours. You will likely get some settlement soon; and it is chiefly in the view of this that I have written the preceding, as your situation then will be similar to mine. – I am, yours truly, John Shaw.’

Advice on the ministry

2009-12-28T01:49:00.002Z

I have been reading the life of Robert Findlater, a minister who experienced an extensive period of revival in his Perthshire congregation in the second decade of the nineteenth century. He came from Kiltearn, north of Inverness, and knew various evangelical ministers in the area, one of whom was Charles Calder of Ferintosh. Calder sent him the following letter when he was licensed to preach the gospel:

'It gave me sincere pleasure on my return from the Moray-side, where some pressing calls brought me last week, to hear of your being licensed to preach. That in the blessed work to which you are thus called, you may be signally countenanced of God, and become the happy instrument in the hand of His Spirit of winning souls to Christ, and of spreading the savour of His name, is my hearty prayer.

'To a young man in similar circumstances with you, newly licensed to preach the everlasting Gospel, and expressing to the eminent Cadogan, how much he felt burdened in the prospect of the work before him, the reply was, "You have but one thing to do, Exalt Christ, and the promise is, ‘And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.’” This important counsel you will find much benefit from always bearing in mind; and together with it, a saying I met with t’other day in the memoirs of the pious Mr. Pearce, “It is from diligent ploughing in the closet, that successful reaping is to be looked for in the pulpit.”’

I suspect the last sentence explains it all.

Marcus Loane, Makers of Puritan History, Banner of Truth, 2009

2009-12-22T14:58:00.002Z

This hardback was previously published in 1960 with the title, Makers of Religious Freedom, and contains biographical accounts of four prominent Christian leaders from the seventeenth century. Two are from Scotland (Alexander Henderson and Samuel Rutherford) and two are from England (John Bunyan and Richard Baxter). The present title is one that was given to the American edition of the 1960 book.

Each of the four names is well-known today for various reasons. Three of them (apart from Henderson) have many books still in print. In addition, each of them was an outstanding preacher, and accounts of their lives are of value to contemporary preachers.

While the current title is not inaccurate (they did make history in Puritan times), it hides a prominent theme of Loane’s book, which is the contribution each of them made in the fight for religious freedom. Today we are facing threats to our religious freedom and while our circumstances are different from what they faced, we can learn from their dedication to Christ’s cause and their willingness to suffer for their convictions. Much of the freedom of subsequent generations can be traced to the readiness of these men, and many others, to do what was necessary in order to secure religious freedom in our country.

As with all of Loane’s books (and he wrote several), this one is easy to read. It will serve as a good introduction to the lives of the four men on whom he focuses, and will remind us of the cost that was paid by others to provide us with our freedoms.

Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, Christian Heritage, 2009.

2009-12-22T14:32:00.004Z

According to Derek Thomas, the Marrow ‘is one of the most important theological texts of all time’. Sinclair Ferguson states that ‘Anyone who comes to grips with the issues raised in the Marrow of Modern Divinity will almost certainly grow by leaps and bounds in understanding three things: the grace of God, the Christian life, and the very nature of the gospel itself.’ When Thomas Chalmers read it shortly after his conversion, he stated that he now had ‘a growing delight in the fullness and sufficiency of Christ. O my God, bring me nearer and nearer to him.’

This hardback edition has been produced in a very attractive and user-friendly format, which makes it easy to read the original text by Fisher alongside the later notes by Boston. There is also an informative essay detailing the process by which this book came to be written and how its author has been identified (to begin with, he was known by the initials EF), as well as a summary of what became known in Scotland as the Marrow Controversy.

Although the title contains the word ‘Modern’, the book is a classic from the Puritan period. Originally written in England, it became a major influence in Scottish evangelicalism through the instrumentality of Thomas Boston, who provided extensive comments throughout the work (in a 1726 edition), and the group of evangelical ministers to which he belonged (later called the Marrowmen). The book helped many understand the gospel afresh, especially because the Church of Scotland at that time was affected by a form of legalism that diminished the doctrine of justification and distorted why and how believers should obey God’s commandments.

Even before Boston’s discovery of the book, it had been highly regarded in evangelical Scottish spirituality: according to David McIntyre, it was read by many suffering believers during the days of the Covenanters and was of great help to Fraser of Brea. After Boston’s contribution, the Marrow quickly became very influential in Scottish evangelical church life and it took its place on the bookshelves of the pious, alongside Samuel Rutherford’s Letters, William Guthrie’s The Christian’s Great Interest, Thomas Boston’s Fourfold State and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

Its republication is timely because we live in a day when the Reformed doctrine of justification is again under attack and antinomianism is spreading even within Reformed churches (perhaps we should anticipate another round of legalism in response). Reading this classic work will help us, including ministers and preachers, appreciate the wonder of God’s way of salvation and the effects his grace has in the lives of his people. It contains a helpful discussion on the Ten Commandments.

The form the work takes is that of a dialogue between a Christian pastor and several individuals over matters connected to salvation, and we can see in their discussions many issues that trouble people today. The book will be useful in guiding readers towards assurance of salvation and protecting them from the many dangers antinomianism and legalism create.

It is also worth noting that a book written by an obscure author has stood the test of time. This is another reminder that a Christian does not have to seek prominence in order to provide sources of spiritual blessing, not only in his own day, but also in the days after he has gone.

Sweetness in preaching

2009-12-16T11:00:00.004Z

As intimated previously, I read recently Douglas Sweeney's book on the ministry of Jonathan Edwards. I have been challenged as I have reflected on some of Edwards' words: 'There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can't have the latter, unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mouth.'

At one level, Edwards is saying that a true Christian has genuine experiences of God's grace that include emotional responses as well as intellectual understanding. Yet taking his illustration, I suppose it is possible to have experienced what honey tastes like without knowing how to define in accurate terms what has been eaten. I have met some who can speak about the Christian faith and yet don't convey, at least to me, a sense of its sweetness; I have also met some who were unable to explain theologically what they were enjoying, but whose delight in God's mercy was so obvious that, at that moment, I would have exchanged my theological knowledge for their experience.

I know that the best solution is to have both. What concerns me about myself is that while I have not yet lost any theological understanding I attained, I cannot claim to be always enjoying its sweetness. When prompted, out can come an explanation that answers any misunderstanding in the person asking the question. Yet the individual is not always thrilled to bits at having received a correct answer. I suspect that the problem with him is that my answer, while theologically correct, has not indicated a sense of sweetness in my heart or conveyed that sense to him.

Obviously Edward's intellect was such that he could answer any problem posed to him. His genius must have carried the continual possibility that his answers would be beyond the abilities of most listeners to understand him. No doubt, many a person would have found it hard to grasp all that Edwards said in a sermon, but I suspect they would also have been attracted to the God in whom he delighted as he preached. Was one secret of his ministry his freedom to preach in such a way that told his listeners that the doctrine he was speaking about was sweet in his own heart and that it would be good for them to have that sweetness too?

Tired but happy

2009-12-08T14:35:00.006Z

Each Sunday I preach three sermons, a feature that is not rare in my denomination because many of my colleagues also preach the same number every Sunday, with some also preaching in two different languages. I mention this figure because last Sunday evening, which had been preceded by an additional sermon on Saturday evening, several individuals kindly asked if I was tired. Their question, however, raises some issues.

For many years I was a truck driver working twelve hours a day, five days a week. Regularly I was tired physically at the end of a day's work. I have been a preacher now for several years and as far as I can tell I have not been as physically tired on my busiest Sunday as I was at times during my days driving trucks. But I will admit that on most Sunday evenings, after the services are over, I am tired. Yet I am pleased that I am tired because it means that I put some effort into preaching. If I was not tired, I would have to consider how much effort I had put in to delivering my sermons.

Of course, the tiredness is not only the consequence of physical exertion. There is an emotional contribution as well. There is emotional stress caused by knowing some listeners have rejected the gospel, and such feelings contribute to tiredness. There is also the regular Satanic assaults that come in variety of ways before, during and after a sermon – they also contribute to tiredness. These aspects make a preacher's tiredness a feature of his calling.

For a variety of reasons, I expect to be tired on Sunday evenings. After all, while Sunday is the New Testament Sabbath, it is not my day of rest. I have to take another day off. But the tiredness should not be all of the story, even on Sundays – I should find a place of rest, which is usually having a chat with my wife.

There can be other places of rest as well. No doubt, such places will be different from time to time. Sometimes rest comes from meeting with Christians for fellowship on Sunday evenings (I experienced this form of rest last Sunday and it refreshed me greatly, as such meetings have done on numerous occasions); at other times it comes from reading a biography of a person who experienced the presence of Christ. The list of possible places of rest is a long one, and each person has to find the ones that help him most.

There is at least one other benefit of being tired on Sunday night. At the end, before I go to sleep, I am glad to know that I have tried to serve Christ as best as I could. I realise that he does not need my best in order to achieve his purposes (I am preaching on Jonah at present and his response proves that point), and I also know that my best is marred by sin. Still, my tiredness tells me that I have tried my best, and I am grateful that, through Christ's grace, my hardest efforts are given to his cause.

Returning to the Real World

2009-11-30T14:36:00.007Z

I am now back in the real world (at least, my real world) after two weeks elsewhere. As indicated in the previous blog, I was in New Orleans where I attended three annual gatherings: the Evangelical Theological Society, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the Society for Biblical Literature.

At ETS, I heard several lectures, although the one I enjoyed most was the annual Society lecture given this year by Bruce Ware who spoke about the role of the Holy Spirit in connection to the humanity of Jesus, with a special focus on how the Spirit helped the Saviour in resisting temptation to sin. What made his lecture appealing to me was not only its focus on Christology; in addition the speaker used terminology that was understandable and his words also contained a warm devotional aspect. I have never understood why I sit through many addresses I cannot follow and then applaud the speaker at the end. But this was a lecture I understood and appreciated, and I am still thinking about what I heard.

At IBR, I listened to a lecture by Tremper Longman III on the role of commentaries on books of the Bible. His lecture was lucid and gave helpful advice on writing such works, and given that he is the editor of two series as well as the author of several commentaries his assessment on that level is very useful. Nevertheless, he did not really deal with an important detail, which is, Why should readers trust the authors of commentaries? Indeed a comment was made (I can't now recall by who) that scholars should be allowed to study the Bible without having to take confessional statements into the reckoning. But it is commitment to confessional statements by biblical scholars that maintains confidence in them by readers. When authors of commentaries contradict doctrinal statements, especially doctrinal statements they have promised to uphold, readers lose confidence in their writings.

During SBL, I heard a lecture by Tom Wright that was sponsored by IVP in connection to his new book on the doctrine of justification that he wrote in response to John Piper's criticism of his view of justification. As on previous occasions when I have heard him, Wright was charming (why do I think of sitting beside a warm fire with a cup of Horlicks each time I listen to him?), scholarly (quoting passages of the Greek New Testament with ease, naming scholars from here and there as they come to mind) and elusive (after hearing him several times, I still don't know what he believes about justification). Of course, I realise I could be confusing elusiveness with my stupidity, which is why I went the next day and bought his book, hoping that it would at last let me know what he believes about this crucial doctrine. I'll let you know if it does.

Yet a week later, I have returned to what I think is the real world. The return was helped by my flight home, but the means of entry back into the real world was not because the plane descended from the sky down to Heathrow airport. Instead, during the flight I read Douglas Sweeney's short assessment of the life and ministry of Jonathan Edwards called Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word. Here was a book written about a scholar whose abilities far transcend any that I have heard in my lifetime, who devoted himself to serving God by ministering to his people and building them up in their faith as well as endeavouring to win those yet outside the kingdom. I will give my thoughts on this book in a subsequent blog. For the present, I am thankful that it brought me down to earth.

Across the ocean

2009-11-19T02:42:00.005Z

In recent days I have tasted a little bit of American church life. My first weekend was spent in Detroit where I gave three addresses connected to Calvin (his views on the Lord's Supper, the doctrine of adoption, and the call of Abraham). The congregation belongs to the Free Church of Scotland and it values its connection to the spiritual heritage of the Reformation as it flowed to them through the stream of Scottish Presbyterianism. Needless to say, my wife and I felt very much at home in this congregation.

My next weekend was spent in Columbus, Mississippi, where my wife and I stayed at the home of David and Sheena Strain. David, who is now minister of Main Street Presbyterian Church there, was a fellow student with me and we stayed next door to them during our time at the Free Church of Scotland College. We had the privilege and pleasure of listening to David preaching twice on the Lord's Day, first from Romans 2 in the morning and then from Ruth 3 in the evening. His congregation welcomed us warmly and we were grateful to spend the Sabbath with them. I would urge you to listen to or read David's sermons here.

We are now in New Orleans where I am attending the annual Evangelical Theological Society meeting. I have met many friends whom I only see at this gathering and it is encouraging to discover how the Lord is enabling them to serve him in various theological institutions and missions. Yet this gathering is very diverse as can be seen from the various speakers and the wide range of topics published by Christian publishers. What struck me today as I listened to various speakers and noted some titles on display is how far evangelicalism is from the heritage of the Reformation. Of course, many would claim that evangelicalism has always had a very loose connection to Calvinism.

The distance is clearly seen in much contemporary Christian literature: such as in attitudes to the Bible (questions are raised in books regarding its inerrancy), in understanding of the worship of God (where it is assumed that he will accept all that is offered as long as it is wholehearted), in declaring his Word (preaching needs communication techniques, which is not very far from communication tricks) and so on.

Nevertheless I am enjoying my time in America.

Glory in the Glen by Tom Lennie

2009-10-23T17:35:00.006+01:00

The reality of spiritual revival is one that interests most Christians, including those in Scotland. One possible common feature of their interest is the assumption that very little spiritual revival has happened in Scotland since 1859 apart from the one on the island of Lewis in 1949. This assumption will disappear once Glory in the Glen by Tom Lennie is read as it describes in detail many revivals that occurred in Scotland between 1880 and 1940. Virtually every area of the country was affected at one time or another during these decades, with some areas, such as the Western Isles, experiencing several revival periods. And this book does not record all that took place during that time.

The obvious question that comes to mind is why such revivals no longer seem to take place. No doubt there have been local movements of the Spirit here and there, but we seem to have entered a long period without them taking place in a significant way. Often the escape route that is used is to put it all down to the sovereignty of God, which of course is true, although at one level such a response may be an attempt not to face the possibility that God, in his sovereignty, is judging his church for its failure to engage in meaningful prayer for spiritual revival.

In any case, reading this well-researched book should stimulate prayer for the God of revivals to once again come in widespread power into our communities. It would be possible to read the book with a red pen and stroke out every revival we don’t like, but such a response would miss an important point, which is that God often uses unlikely people as his servants when he chooses to advance his cause. If reading this book was to help create many praying churches and groups in Scotland, then we could begin to look forward to a revived church all around us before we go very far into the twenty-first century.

Description of a Preacher

2009-10-12T18:30:00.005+01:00

Murdo Mackenzie, a former minister of the Free North Church in Inverness and who had refused to go into the United Free Church in 1900, made this tribute about a former colleague, Murdoch Macaskill, who had joined the United Free Church. While Macaskill had his failings and you can read about him here if you wish, the description does point to a level of ministry to which all preachers should aspire. This is what Mackenzie said of Macaskill:

'He felt the power of what he was preaching to others. He early came under the power of the truth, and from his own experience of the saving power of the blessed Saviour he could commend Him to others. He was an earnest preacher. He did not flatter sinners, but he earnestly pleaded with them to betake themselves to the Saviour. It was his delight to set forth the glory of Christ as the Redeemer and the efficacy of His work and blood for the salvation of the vilest and filthiest. He was an impressive preacher. He made a deep impression on the people, often with tears trickling down his cheeks…. He was an accomplished preacher. He was a student all his days, and he brought the result of his extensive reading to bear upon his preaching, so that he was always fresh… He was a scriptural preacher; he was eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures.’

From Ferintosh Free Church Manse to Keswick Speaker

2009-10-09T10:41:00.002+01:00

Recently I began reading the life of George MacGregor (born 1864), a well-known Presbyterian preacher in the last decade of the nineteenth century, particularly known for his regular ministry at the Keswick Convention and similar conferences (he died in 1900, at the age of 36). There are several reasons for looking at his life: for example, (a) despite the common idea that Keswick at that time stressed a form of Christian perfectionism, Macgregor was an ardent admirer of John Owen and, as far as I can see, was committed to Calvinistic beliefs; (b) his ministry was not a long one, yet he was the pastor of two important congregations (in Aberdeen and London); (c) the reason that intrigues me is that he was the son of Malcolm MacGregor, the minister who succeeded John MacDonald (the Apostle of the North) as the Free Church minister of Ferintosh. How did someone born in a Scottish Highland manse, with all the traditional emphases connected to Highland spirituality, become a preacher acceptable to those who attended the Keswick convention in the 1890s? His biography make give some answers, and my assessment, for what it is worth, will be found here.

What was Jesus like?

2009-10-02T11:21:00.002+01:00

I suppose most Christians find it easier to understand the deity of Jesus than his humanity. Last night I attempted to preach on his humanity, and here are some ideas that came to me about him.

First, his humanity was a real humanity. Although the conception of Jesus was miraculous, his birth was normal. He was a baby boy, dependant on his mother. He went through all the stages of human development, as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult. He learned by asking questions, both as a teenager and as an adult. Jesus grew socially, in favour with his neighbours. He engaged in manual labour, involved in the building of houses. He enjoyed friendship with others. If he stood on a stone, he felt pain. When family members died, he knew bereavement. He participated in family celebrations, such as weddings (John 2:1-11). Throughout his life on earth, he lived as a real man.

Second, the humanity of Jesus was a religious humanity. This was the case outwardly and inwardly. He attended the public meetings in the synagogue and went to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. Inwardly, he kept the law of God with all his heart and developed in a consistent and balanced manner the fruit of the Spirit. In Jesus there was perfect response to very situation: sorrow when needed, joy when appropriate, anger when required. He delighted in prayer and meditating on the Scriptures, and it was through them that he discerned how to live for God. Every moment of every day he lived by faith in God. His sinlessness was not only an expression of grace, it was an achievement of faith (David McIntyre). It was by faith Jesus endured the cross and despised its shame.

Third, the humanity of Jesus was a representative humanity. All that he did, throughout each stage of his life, he did on behalf of others. His entire life was a life of obedience, whether as a child in the home, as an inhabitant in his village, as a travelling teacher instructing his disciples, or as a suffering victim on the cross. In every moment he obeyed God lovingly and thought of his neighbours lovingly. When the rich young ruler walked away, Jesus loved him. On the cross, he showed his love for his neighbours by praying for the soldiers, assuring the penitent thief of heaven, and providing for his mother. That beautiful life becomes ours, imputed to us when we believe in Jesus.

Fourth, the humanity of Jesus is a risen and glorified humanity. There are differences between his appearance before his death and after his resurrection. It is not always clear why his disciples did not recognise him. The two on the way to Emmaus were prevented from recognising him, by God presumably. Mary Magdalene may have been blinded by her tears, although she recognised his voice, which the two from Emmaus did not. He was capable of doing things, such as disappearing from sight or coming into a room with a locked door, which humans usually cannot do. As a man he was able to ascend through the sky, defying the laws of gravity.

But leaving these differences for the moment, let us rejoice that Jesus is alive in the fullness of his humanity, and that he has risen as the firstfruits from the dead, the guarantee that all his people will rise as well. He has entered into heaven as a man, he has been glorified with divine blessings and favour. And in heaven he sympathises with us in all our needs.

Fifth, the humanity of Jesus is a royal humanity. This is connected to his glorification, for he has taken his seat on the throne of God. Today, he is not only risen, for he also reigns. His reign involves control over all things, but it is helpful to divide it into two areas. First, there is his reign of grace, as through the gospel conveyed into the hearts of sinners by the Holy Spirit, he brings people into his kingdom and rules over them in grace. Second, there is his kingly role over the rebellious world, which will climax at the end of time when he will judge that world and assign to every individual who has ever lived their eternal destiny.

Sixth, the humanity of Jesus is a rich humanity. He is the heir of all things – everything is his, in time and space, for eternity. But his riches he shares with his people, and although there are millions of them his possessions do not decrease. The word used in the Bible for his riches is glory, and all the wealth and power of this world is inadequate for giving any conception of the riches of Jesus.

These six aspects of his humanity should cause us to regard Jesus as our hero. He is a real man with nothing sham about him, he is a religious man who loved on earth to serve God and still delights to do so today, he is a representative man who did for me what I could not do for myself, he is a risen man who has gone through death and travelled to heaven in order to guarantee our inheritance, he is a royal man who rules over all things on behalf of his church and defeats all her enemies, he is a rich man permanently full of grace. What a man!

How do I know if I truly admire him? Heroes are those about whom we want to discover more and whose characters and deeds we wish to copy. I know that Jesus is my Hero when I imitate him as my role model. He has left us an example of humble service for us to imitate as we follow in his steps. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Jesus. That is our destiny, says Paul in verse 29, as far as our future is concerned; it should be our delight as far as our desires are concerned; but it is also our duty, what we owe to him for coming to our aid.

Spiritual Gifts

2009-09-25T17:26:00.001+01:00

In answering the question, What is a Spiritual Gift?, perhaps the first thought that comes to mind is whether or not a spiritual gift is the same as a natural talent or ability. The answer I think the Bible gives is that gifts are not the same as natural talents because spiritual gifts are given to those who are ‘in Christ Jesus’, whereas natural talents are given to every person.

To say that gifts are different from natural talents does not mean that our talents are not to be used in serving Christ. It is possible that some spiritual gifts can be complemented by natural abilities. An obvious example is that of a good speaker who becomes a pastor; in such a situation his natural abilities in speaking will aid his spiritual gift of instructing God’s people.

Having said that, it is also the case that God may not want to use our natural talents in the church but instead to use them in a non-church calling. A person may be a skilful sculptor or painter, but the Bible does not indicate that God wants to use such talents in a church meeting.

So while we have to use our natural talents to serve God in our daily living, when it comes to the growth of the church we need to use spiritual gifts. And I suspect that is one of the crucial differences between natural talents and spiritual gifts. Our talents are given primarily to help us live in our society and make a contribution to it; our spiritual gift(s) are given in order for the church to grow.

Another area of overlap is that between gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Every spiritually-healthy Christian will have each aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, in some measure at least. Sadly, it is possible for spiritual gifts to be exercised in the church by believers who have stifled the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. It is possible for the Bible to be taught by a minister who has lost his love. It is possible for the church to be led by those who have no current experience of peace. It is possible for acts of mercy to be done without joy or compassion. The reality is that the fruit of the Spirit, and not spiritual gifts, is the clear sign of the presence of God.

But what is a spiritual gift?
The well-known author, Jerry Bridges, says that a spiritual gift is an ability given by God to a person who is empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform the specific function within the church that God has assigned to each [believer]. While no definition is 100% accurate and contains all that can be said, I think his definition highlights several important aspects of spiritual gifts.

(1) A gift is given by God and is an evidence of his grace towards us as individuals in that he assigns to each of us a particular function in the church. As our sovereign he decides what each of us is to do. His choice of who does what may be surprising. It is not always the most intellectual Christian that he gifts to teach his people. It is not always the successful Christian businessman that he gifts to lead the church. It is not always Christians with the most possessions that he gifts with the outlook of mercy and helping others. In any case, we need to recognise the grace of God in involving each of us in the growth of his church.

(2) Although the gift is given by God, the exercise of it is not automatic. Each person needs to be empowered by the Holy Spirit continually in order to function. This goes as much for the less public gifts as for the gifts that are more easily seen by others. I think this point is worth repeating because it is possible for all the gifts to be done in a way that is not spiritual. So we need to pray that God would empower us to function in the church.

(3) Further, although each believer has been given a gift, he or she has not been given it for their own benefit or self-fulfilment. God was not primarily blessing us as individuals when he gave us our gifts; rather he was blessing the church. If we keep our spiritual gift to ourselves then we fail as believers. The point of exercising our gift is that other Christians will grow in grace as a result. The goal of spiritual gifts is mutual edification (1 Cor. 14:3-5, 12, 26; Eph. 4:12, 16).

But how does each of us know what our gifts are?
I think we should begin by assuming that God has not given us a high-profile gift. This seems to me to be an essential aspect of humility. Of course, if we discover that our gift(s) does require a public role, then we need to exercise it in a humble manner.

Secondly, we have to pray for God to indicate to us what our gift(s) are? I suspect that God will do this by giving us a servant heart in these particular areas of gift. A person gifted to teach does it to help those he is teaching, not to show off his knowledge; he teaches because he wants his hearers to become like Christ. A person gifted to lead cares passionately for those he leads; he longs to remove from their paths any obstacles to them being like Christ and serving him. A person gifted to mercy does it because he is driven by the love of Christ to care for others.

Thirdly, God will also answer this prayer by giving opportunities in his providence. If a person has been a Christian for a while it is very likely that God will open doors for service, and these opportunities in themselves will point to roles in the church.

Fourthly, an important factor in discovering our spiritual gifts is the advice of others, particularly the leaders of the church. Elders should discern what gifts are in the congregation and be ready to advise people concerning their roles. But each of us needs to contribute spiritually in order for the church to mature.

Thinking as we read

2009-09-22T20:24:00.003+01:00

I have begun reading Bruce Gordon's biography of John Calvin. I like to be given new insights in biographies, but I don't usually receive one three lines into the preface. This is where the author says that Calvin was an 'outstanding hater'. Given that the adjective usually has a positive meaning, I was a bit surprised to see it connected to the noun. In case you are interested, what he hated was the Roman church, Anabaptists, and 'those people who, he believed, only faint-heartedly embraced the Gospel and tainted themselves with idolatry' (surprisingly, at least to me, the author refers to these three groups as 'things').

The question that came to mind was, 'Why did Calvin hate them?' Perhaps it was because he took the Psalms seriously (26:5; 31:6; 101:3; 139:21-22). So I looked up what Calvin said about these verses in his commentary on the Psalms.

Whatever. The point that I am making is that this biography forced me to think, which is what any good biography should do. So I am looking forward to reading the entire work.

Aspects of the Lord's Supper

2009-09-14T10:58:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we celebrated the Lord’s Supper in our congregation. What did it involve? One answer is to focus on externals and say that it required a sermon, a table, and the elements of bread and wine. Each of these are necessary for a biblical enacting of the Lord’s Supper. Yet we should also focus on other essential features, some of which take place before the Supper and some during it. Here are four aspects.

First, the Lord’s Supper is a communion. It is not only a communion between an individual believer and Christ, it is also communion between his people as they meet together. This means that they cannot come to the Lord’s Table with wrong attitudes towards other believers. If they do, they will not receive spiritual blessings. For example, it is important for any believers who are not speaking to one another to sort out the matter before they come to the Lord’s Table.

Second, the Lord’s Supper is a confession. Those who sit at the Table are confessing many things and here are a few of them: (1) they are confessing that they are sinners who have trusted in Jesus for salvation; (2) they are confessing that they are sorry for their sins and desire to forsake them; (3) they are confessing that they have chosen the children of God to be their friends and companions; (4) they are confessing that they are looking forward to heaven.

Third, the Lord’s Supper is a channel of grace; believers go to the Supper in order to receive spiritual benefits. If a believer chooses to stay away from the Table he or she will miss out on spiritual blessings. There is no point in pretending otherwise. Obviously if their absence is caused by legitimate reasons, then the Lord will provide them with other spiritual comforts. Yet it is the case that Jesus expects and commands all his followers to make attendance at the Lord’s Supper a priority. This applies both to those believers who have not yet made public their trust in Christ as well as to those believers who have professed for a period of time.

Fourth, the Lord’s Supper is a sign of commitment. By coming to it, a person is stating that he is determined to continue following Jesus. Such an individual is also saying that he is committed to the spiritual life of a local congregation and will show that commitment by attending its other services. He is also saying that he is committed to living for Jesus day by day in the community, in the workplace, in the family, in fact everywhere.

Induction to Greyfriars

2009-09-10T12:49:00.010+01:00

Last Friday (4th September), I became the pastor of Greyfriars Stratherrick Free Church of Scotland (Greyfriars is in Inverness and Stratherrick is to the south of Inverness). I have added a couple of pictures from the reception that followed the service.

A good sermon was preached by Farquhar Renwick and appropriate advice was given to the congregation and to me by Sandy Sutherland. The most serious part of the service was when I took the vows connected to ministerial service. I listened carefully to each as it was read out and answered each with a whole-hearted agreement. None were superfluous: indeed an unconverted relative, who does not attend a church and has never had a church connection, commented that the impression he received from the vows, as he listened to them, was that we regarded our loyalty to Christ as very important. They were the part of the service that spoke most to him.

The reception was held afterwards in an hotel. Speeches were made by Angus M. Macleod (an elder in Scalpay), Rev. John Maclean (Staffin) and William Mackenzie (Christian Focus).

On the Sunday morning, I was 'preached in' by Rev. Calum Iain Macleod (Barvas) and his sermon was based on John 3:16. I preached my first sermon as the congregation's pastor on Sunday evening from Revelation 19:9.

Last Sunday in Scalpay

2009-08-24T00:04:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I preached my final sermons in the Free Church in Scalpay. In the morning service I completed a series on 1 John and in the evening I preached from Joshua's sermon (Joshua 24) about life after he was gone.

I have been their pastor here for almost five and a half years, and I learned far more about the Christian life from watching them than they would have learned from listening to me. I have had the pleasure of knowing individuals who prayed daily for the entire community, going from house to house (in their minds) as they interceded for it. I also had the privilege of watching believers make the transition from earth to heaven, full of faith in Jesus Christ as they did so. I learned from others that we can go through distressing trials leaning upon God. In fact, I could make a long list of helpful experiences I encountered here.

Others had such a hunger for the Word of God that their interest compelled me to study very carefully before I preached my sermons. I also sensed the urgency in their prayers for me that my sermons would be blessed to God's people and to the unconverted. So while I cannot say what the benefits were that Scalpay received through me, I am very thankful to God for the spiritual benefits I received through them.

Induction in Point Free Church

2009-08-22T02:05:00.004+01:00

Last night was the occasion of the induction of Dr Iain D. Campbell to the Point Free Church of Scotland congregation. The church was full (about 800 people in my reckoning) and the congregation heard a good sermon on Jesus as the bread of life by the Presbytery moderator, Calum Ian Macleod from Barvas. Both the new minister and his congregation received appropriate advice from those appointed to address them. Afterwards there was an enjoyable time of fellowship in a local school.

The occasion was nostalgic for myself as it was the last occasion for me to meet with the Western Isles Presbytery before my move to Inverness. Yet the event was much more. As Dr Campbell took the usual vows for ministers, I was reminded of the links the contemporary church has with the church of previous generations who fought doctrinal battles in order to preserve biblical truth for the church of today. The vows also reminded me of the importance of worshipping God in public according to the requirements he has specified in his Word, and it was very pleasant to participate in a large congregation singing psalms from the heart as well as with the lips. Further the stress laid on preaching the gospel was a powerful reminder of the priority we have to take the gospel to the lost.

Of course, all present wish Dr Campbell well as he begins his new work. The parish in which he now serves knew great divine blessing in the past, and hopefully even greater times will be seen under his ministry.

Psalm 19 – Two Divine Revelations

2009-08-06T12:19:00.001+01:00

This psalm concerns divine revelation. The author considers two ways by which God makes himself known: in the creation and in the Scriptures. In verses 1-6, the psalmist describes how God is revealed in the created order (this is called general revelation because it is displayed to every person); in verses 7-11, he considers how God is revealed in the Scriptures (this is called special revelation because it is only revealed to some); then in verses 12-14, the psalmist prays that he would benefit from God revealing himself to him.

General revelation is comprehensive (it includes the heavens as well as the earth), consistent (it occurs every day and every night) and clear (everybody can understand it even although they speak different languages and cannot understand one another). The creation continually says that God is pre-existent (he existed before he made the universe), wise (he designed the universe) and powerful (he maintained it in existence). It also tells us that God is good (he provides what his creatures need).

Nevertheless, creation also says that something is wrong because not everything that takes place is good. There are earthquakes, famines and other disasters, and all of creation is marked by death. General revelation is silent as to the cause of these problems and does not hint whether or not the Creator intends to solve them. In order to know these details, we need special revelation.

The various nouns that the psalmist uses for this special revelation – law, statutes, commands – indicate that it contains precepts to be obeyed, which informs us that God is a sovereign King. One of the terms used for special revelation is the ‘fear of the Lord’ (v. 9), which stresses that it is to be approached with reverence, with the same respect that we would give to the King himself.

Each noun is also accompanied by an adjective such as clean, righteous, and perfect, and they state its moral quality. After all, it is possible for a ruler to have unrighteous or irrelevant laws, but not God. There is not one unrighteous law or one unnecessary command in the Bible.

Each of the six descriptions of special revelation has a statement summarising its effect: it revives, gives wisdom, gives joy, gives illumination, is eternal and righteous. Because of these features, the Bible is both beyond price in value and sweet to a believer’s soul. A Christian learns more about God and receives more from God in the Bible than he could learn about him or receive from him in the creation. Climbing a hill to see the view is good for your health, but the resultant vista does not teach us more about God than is revealed in the Bible. For example, the greatest display of divine power is not the upholding of the universe in existence; rather the greatest display of divine power is the resurrection of Christ.

Finding rubbish at removal time

2009-08-05T10:55:00.004+01:00

At the moment we are in the middle of packing boxes because we are moving to another address. My study has been turned into a storeroom, as have several other rooms in our house.

One detail we have noticed is the amount of pointless stuff we have collected over the years. In isolation, none of the stuff is very big, but together it amounts to many bags of rubbish. Yet when we first decided to keep these items we imagined that they would be of some use (that goes for some of the books I have purchased and am holding on to with great determination).

Of course, this imminent change of address is not the ultimate removal ahead of me. One day I will be taken away from this world. In a spiritual sense I am wondering how much pointless stuff I will have accumulated by then in my life and in my ministry (if I can separate them). Perhaps even some current activities which I think are very important today will then be tossed into the equivalent of a rubbish bin.

Anyway, back to packing boxes, or perhaps to find more pointless things!

Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching, PT Media/Christian Focus, 2009.

2009-08-01T17:48:00.001+01:00

Christopher Ash is Director of the Cornhill Training Course in London, a course designed to train preachers and Bible teachers. In this book he considers the role of preaching today. Aware that some regard preaching as outdated, he begins by considering the alternatives to preaching that can be found in evangelical churches (for example, Bible studies, discussion groups). What these alternatives usually lack is authority, whereas biblical preaching comes with authority, based on God’s Word, to a gathered congregation listening to what God has to say to them through a Spirit-filled preacher.

The effects of such preaching are explained in two subsequent chapters. First, such preaching transforms the church. It brings to listeners an awareness of the reality of God, an understanding of their sins (which implies that the preacher knows his listeners), it aims for a response of faith (to obtain this response, the preacher must preach with clarity, urgency and passion), and is accompanied by confidence in the sovereign grace of God.

Second, such preaching mends a broken world. For a number of reasons, society has been and is fractured. In the church God is in the process of regathering people, a goal that will be achieved in heaven. Meanwhile he deals with many of their problems through regular listening to biblical preaching as he reshapes their lives in a community, which in turn enables a congregation to witness to the communities around it.

The book also contains an appendix detailing several blessings of consecutive expository preaching. They have been stated many times, so I will not list them. He also has perceptive comments on three demons (his word) that hinder or frighten many preachers: they are relevance, entertainment and immediacy, but you will have to buy the book to find out what he says.

This book is not long, but why read a long book if a shorter one can tell you what you need to know? Sometimes those who preach need encouragement as they persist in declaring God’s Word to small gatherings of people. This book reminds such of the task to which God has called them. Indeed the author reminds them that their regular preaching in ordinary local churches has great significance for the development of God’s kingdom. If you need a boost as you serve the Master as a preacher, this book will give you one.

Christ’s Victory Over Evil (Edited by Peter G. Bolt), Apollos, 2009.

2009-08-01T17:45:00.001+01:00

This volume of collected essays, sub-titled Biblical Theology and Pastoral Ministry, is based on the 2008 Moore College School of Theology. As its title indicates, the book is concerned with aspects and consequences of Jesus’ victory over the powers of darkness that was evidenced in his resurrection. We know that evil exists in many forms in today’s world and it is unavoidable that pastoral interactions will reveal contact with a variety of expressions of evil. Further in several branches of the worldwide church there is an absorption with demonic activity and how to overcome their opposition to the gospel and the church, and the spread of such teachings has caused confusion and disappointment in many churches.

It is not possible in a book based on conference addresses to consider every aspect of evil. Nevertheless, in the areas covered by the various contributors we are given helpful insights into how the church should approach evil. Tony Payne appraises various roots and developments of contemporary deliverance ministries that dominate much of contemporary charismatic practice; Bolt surveys the biblical teaching on the evil powers; two contributors (Salier and Jensen) consider the contribution of the apostle John in his Gospel and in 1 John respectively; Mark Thompson addresses the benefits of the doctrine of justification in silencing the accusations of the evil powers against God’s people; Constantine R. Campbell explores the link between union with Christ and victory over the evil powers that Paul describes in Ephesians and Colossians; Anderson and Lilley focus on evil powers confronted in cross-cultural mission, particularly among the Aboriginal people of Australia; Donald West deals with prayer and the powers of evil; finally, West and Bolt look at several aspects of the power of evil that will be faced in pastoral encounters and give advice on how to deal with them.

Each of the above chapters deserves careful study, especially by pastors and other church leaders. One thing that can be guaranteed is that such will have to respond to evil influences and attacks on their congregations as well as themselves, and the more information and advice they have the more ready they will be when the problems arise. Of course, some elders may not understand the occasional technical terms in the book, so they can get a copy for their pastor and ask him to explain such language for them.

The Abiding Presence by Hugh Martin

2009-07-30T11:39:00.008+01:00

Christian Focus Publications have republished The Abiding Presence by Hugh Martin (1822-85), one of my favourite Scottish theologians. The book was originally published in the nineteenth century under the title Christ's Presence in the Gospel History (of which I have a copy, signed by the author) and republished in the twentieth century by the Free Church of Scotland, with the title changed to The Abiding Presence (of which I also have a copy, but not signed by the author). The new edition has a biographical introduction by Sinclair Ferguson.

Martin's book is concerned with how Christians should read the Gospels (they are more than mere historical records providing information). In order to read them correctly we need the presence of the Spirit to make the Gospel narratives personal and precious to us as we meditate on them. We need the Spirit's help in order that the stories about Jesus becomes means of communion with Jesus. Martin takes several instances from the Gospels -- the baptism of Jesus, the temptation of Jesus, his sermon in a synagogue in Nazareth, his work on the cross -- and helps us regarding how we should read these accounts for our spiritual benefit. Such experiences by us reveal to us the divine origin of the Bible and also enable us to have what Martin calls 'real religion'.

In 1865, John (Rabbi) Duncan of the Free Church College, Edinburgh, wrote regarding this book:

‘I am charmed with your work Christ’s Presence in the Gospel History. I have perused it with intense delight, and I trust not without profit, which I hope will be increased by a new and oft-repeated perusal. In a treatise so suggestive, there are of course some thoughts which would require to be more thoroughly pondered before they be either received or rejected.

‘I think its republication peculiarly appropriate at the present time, as leading the reader at once to the centre of questions which at present engage the eager, and in some cases the anxious thoughts of many minds. The attention is immediately directed to, and steadily fastened on, Emmanuel -- the only-begotten Son of the Father who hath declared him -- teaching “by his Word and Spirit the will of God for our salvation”. From this centre, light and life are seen and felt to radiate in every direction. The Word given by inspiration of the Spirit harmonizing with the life communicated by the Spirit in conversion, sanctification, and consolation, which he, the Spirit, applying the Word, communicates, maintains, and perfects; the continued presence of Christ himself with his Church by the Word and Spirit; the indwelling of Christ in believers and their indwelling in him, by his Word and Spirit, and their consequent conformation and conformity to him; the baseless rationalism or fanaticism of all claims to spirituality not accordant with and founded on the testimony of the Spirit of Christ (of Christ by his Spirit) authoritatively speaking in holy scripture; the utter incredibility to any one who knows by experience what it is “to believe on the name of the only-begotten Son of God, and believing to have life by his name”, that this blissful communion could be enjoyed through a medium less sure and perfect than the Word, all given by inspiration of God; these and similar trains of thought are beautifully brought out, and presented in a way fitted to promote soundness in the faith, i.e. both the doctrine which is according to godliness, and the godliness which is according to doctrine.’

Unanswered prayer!

2009-07-30T11:29:00.001+01:00

A fortnight ago saw the beginning of a Sunday ferry service from the Scottish mainland to Stornoway (about forty miles from where I live in the Outer Hebrides). The press saw it as the possible beginning of the end of the so-called Lewis Sabbath (we will have to wait and see if that will be the case).

Prior to the beginning of the Sunday service, there were various meetings connected to it, including public prayer meetings that God would prevent the ferry sailing on Sundays. It is evident that God chose not to give a positive answer to these prayers, and it must be appropriate for Christians to consider possible reasons for this outcome.

It is often suggested that if Christians come together in unity, then God will answer their prayers. This issue did bring Christians of several denominations together (if not physically, at least in spirit) to pray that the ferry would not sail on Sunday. Yet their unity did not bring about the desired result.

Of course, others will say, correctly, that we should pray in submission to the Lord's will, and many will have concluded that, for reasons connected to his own purposes, he chose to allow the ferry to sail. Others will say that his allowing of the Sunday ferry is an indication of divine judgement on a community that is despising their spiritual heritage, and that may be true, although it is also the case that judgement often begins with the church.

Whatever may be the reasons for the current situation, my concern is with the reality that earnest prayer was not answered according to the desire of the petitioners. Further we know that it is not the only earnest prayer that has not been answered. Christians in Scotland have prayed for years for God to send revival, have prayed for churches to grow, have prayed for converts. Sometimes such prayers are answered, and we are grateful for these occasions, yet in the main we see little spiritual progress as far as our communities and country is concerned.

Denominations have weekly public prayer meetings, and some of their members also have private prayer meetings etc. The problem is not, as far as I can see, in a lack of prayer meetings. Yet I do notice two differences between what happens now and what happened thirty-five years ago (when I became a Christian). One is that then the prayer meeting was a priority for all Christians and the other is that many intercessors I heard prayed with tears of concern for those for whom they prayed.

Obviously we are in a serious situation as churches when prayer, a reality to which many divine promises are connected, does not get answered. God has not lost any of his power or any delight in keeping his promises. So why are our prayers not being answered? If anyone has any advice on the matter I would be grateful for it.

Derek Tidball, Signposts (A Devotional Map of the Psalms), IVP, 2009

2009-07-29T15:11:00.002+01:00

The Psalms have been a major part of the basis of the devotional life of Christians for centuries, particularly in my own historical background. Yet it is often the case that, apart from a few psalms such as 23, 100, and 121, their meaning is not on the surface and we need help in understanding them.

Derek Tidball, the former Principal of London School of Theology and author of many helpful books, has provided a very useful manual for enabling Christians to work through the Book of Psalms and enrich their devotional lives. His comments on each psalm usually contain an Orientation (introduction), a Map (outline of the psalm) and a Signpost (suggestions for the reader concerning how to respond). Occasionally he includes a Links section in some psalms. After every fifth psalm, the author also provides a short reflection on a variety of topics, including several on Jesus and the psalms and on God and the psalms.

The author testifies that the book grew out of a difficult period in his life when his regular use of them helped him greatly. This book can be used as a daily Bible reading plan for a few months, and we would be spiritually enriched as well if we did so.

Martin Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, Banner of Truth.

2009-07-29T15:00:00.001+01:00

Martin Bucer (1491-1551) led the Reformation in Strasbourg for over twenty-five years, and during his time there produced this manual on pastoral theology in which he aimed to help God’s children during a difficult historical period. Although it was published in 1538, this Banner hardback edition of 240 pages is the first time it has appeared in English, having been translated by Peter Beale, a retired pastor living in England. The late Professor David Wright provided an historical introduction.

The first half of the book considers the nature of the church, the rule of Christ over it, and the requirements expected of those who serve him as pastors, elders and deacons. Bucer’s method is to take several important Bible passages connected to each of the above topics and explain these texts.

He follows the same method in the remainder of the book in which he explains how such shepherds are to care for Christ’s sheep. Christ’s sheep are usually in one of five categories: lost (unconverted), straying (backsliding), inwardly injured, weak in faith or healthy. Because there is such a variety of cases, it is inevitable that pastoral ministry in a congregation will be extensive. Bucer gives an extensive chapter to each of these conditions, and in each provides biblical instruction regarding how such cases should be dealt with.

These five categories will be found in each of our congregations and this translation of Bucer’s manual will be of great help to any church leaders who will consult it. It is evident that pastoral care is very demanding, and sometimes the size of the task can be so daunting that shepherds are drained even before they begin attempting to help the sheep of Christ. Bucer’s book gives straightforward, biblical counsel to those engaged in this essential aspect of healthy church life.

The Unquenchable Flame

2009-07-25T23:26:00.007+01:00

I enjoyed reading this book, subtitled Introducing the Reformation. The author Michael Reeves is the theological adviser of UCCF. He gives a chapter to each of the following: the background, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Reformation in Britain (despite it not really existing at the time), the Puritans, and a final chapter dealing with the question of whether or not the Reformation is over. The text is easy to read, contains humour, and also includes additional information in shaded boxes, some of which are over two pages in length. It is certainly a useful tool to give to a person who wants an idea of what the Reformation was all about.

The personal profiles of Luther, Zwingli and Calvin are well done. I was delighted to know that Luther put on weight after he had embraced Reformation doctrines (in this regard I confess to being a Lutheran). The author deals well with their courageous determination to reform the church and also explains the contexts of issues about which they are often criticised (Luther for his attitude to the Jews, Zwingli for getting involved in military battle, and Calvin for his involvement in the death of Servetus).

I do have a couple of criticisms. Scotland, in which the Reformation was more effective than England, only gets four pages. The chapter on the Puritans skims over a period in which many important events for the church took place (and while Richard Sibbes may have been an important Puritan, I was surprised that he was given a large section and some better known ones such as John Owen don't get much attention).

The closing chapter, dealing with whether or not the Reformation is over, discusses the relevance to the present day of the doctrine of justification, the most important of the many issues on which the Reformers majored. We are reminded that the Protestant doctrine of justification is still rejected by the Roman Catholic Church and is also under attack by several prominent Protestant theologians.

Connected Christianity

2009-07-23T21:41:00.010+01:00

My friend Art Azurdia has a new title published by Christian Focus Publications called Connected Christianity.

To show that we are friends here is a picture from last year's (2008) Aberystwyth Conference. Ignore the date on the photograph because it's wrong, proof that the camera lies.

Art has also written one of the best books on preaching, also published by CFP, called Spirit Empowered Preaching.

Several of Art's sermons are available here and he is also involved in publishing an online journal for The Spurgeon Fellowship.

Four things life has taught me

2009-07-23T21:17:00.002+01:00

1. I will not reach the age of seventy any quicker by rushing about for no reason.

2. Looking back, I can see now that the most important spiritual things I did were the activities I did not think at the time were worth telling others about.

3. Regarding preaching, I have discovered that the advice of Griffith Thomas is true: ‘Think yourself empty, read yourself full, write yourself clear, pray yourself keen, then into the pulpit and let yourself go.'

4. It was said of Henry Smith, a Puritan preacher, that he had the ability to reprove without insulting, to admonish without forcing, and to correct without debasing. I have discovered this description should be the goal of all preachers.

Calvin and prayer

2009-07-23T12:12:00.001+01:00

I have been reading a recent biography of John Calvin by Herman J. Selderhuis. He discusses many features of Calvin’s life which I have found interesting, challenging and very moving. Today I read this paragraph on the prayer life of Calvin:

‘Calvin began each day with prayer. He prayed a lot because he expected so much from it. Thus a fact unknown to many also speaks for itself: the longest chapter by far of the Institutes is devoted to prayer. The Bible calls us to pray continually, but in Calvin’s opinion nothing would come of this if you did not establish a regular regimen. Prayer too ought to be done in good order and, as with so many other things, with moderation and directly from the heart. Calvin thus established what was virtually a monastic rule: “we pray when we get up in the morning, before we being our daily work, when we come to the table to eat, after we have eaten under God’s blessing and when we get ready to go back to bed again.”’

Reading about Calvin’s description of a biblical prayer life makes it easy to understand why he was able to accomplish so much in his lifetime and influence thousands of other people in subsequent generations. Those who pray less than others or haphazardly will have more time but do very little. In contrast, those who pray often and regularly may have less time but they will achieve a lot more because of God’s help.

Geneva for Calvin 500

2009-07-18T21:42:00.004+01:00

I have just returned from two weeks holiday: one week was spent in Geneva attending the Calvin 500 event and the other week was spent in the south of England (Calvin went with me there as well because during it I read Selderhuis' recent biography of the Reformer).

The Calvin event has been detailed elsewhere, so I will not say too much about it except to say that I preferred the sermons to the lectures. It may also be bias on my part but among the preachers I preferred those with a Celtic background. This does not mean that the others were not very good -- in fact, I enjoyed all the sermons I heard and most of the lectures.

It did me good to meet persons from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Uganda, Europe and elsewhere gathering together to give thanks to God for using John Calvin to give them an understanding of the Bible that has gripped their thinking since they first understood what he was saying.

It was also very pleasant to be with Christians who did not accept the common caricature of Calvin as having a fatalistic view of predestination in which God is depicted as unfair. Of course, anyone prepared to accept without qualifications the contents of the Bible soon discovers that its writers say that God has an eternal plan, conceived before the universe was created, which includes his choice of an innumerable number of sinners as his people. It is not surprising that Calvin discovered the Bible teaches predestination. What is surprising is that some can say they have read it and not seen any reference to God's sovereign plan.

While an obvious emphasis was placed by various speakers on topics such as Calvin's teaching on the authority of the Bible, on the Lord's Supper, and on sanctification, I was challenged especially by three aspects of his thought that several speakers mentioned.

First, along with other Reformers and pastors, Calvin's preaching of and writing about the doctrine of justification by faith alone through Christ alone brought spiritual liberty to imprisoned souls. It struck me that a sermon which does not mention this wonderful doctrine may leave some hearers in a cell of spiritual imprisonment, no matter how many listeners are helped by other doctrines referred to in a sermon.

Second, Calvin realised that God was involved in every circumstance of life. For him, divine providence was very real and he observed that God was never inactive but always working for the benefit of his people. I should always remember this reality.

Third, Calvin anticipated the wonderful future that belongs to God's people, that whatever the difficult circumstances of life, those who trust in Christ should look ahead to the inheritance their Father has planned for them.

It seemed to me that forgiveness took care of Calvin's past, providence took care of Calvin's present, and glory occupied Calvin's thoughts of the future. Why should anyone be ashamed of being a Calvinist?

Accepting a Call

2009-07-01T23:17:00.003+01:00

Two days ago, I accepted a call from Greyfriars Free Church in Inverness to become its pastor. Of course, this is only half the story because acceptance of the call also means an end to pastoring the congregation of Scalpay where I have been since early 2004. I trust that those who have been praying for me over these last few weeks will continue to do so, and also for the congregations of Greyfriars and Scalpay.

During the period in which I was thinking about the call, a parcel of books was delivered to my home. This is not unusual because I am the Review Editor of the Free Church of Scotland magazine, The Monthly Record. Among the books was a short one with the title Handle that New Call with Care by David Campbell (Day One Publications). Although I have many books in my library I do not have one that deals with this subject, and I cannot recall even reading an article or a chapter about it. So I was very grateful to receive the book.

The contents are very easy to read. Much of the material is taken from biographies and other writings connected to ministers who received a call to leave their congregations and it was very helpful for me to discover that many of my considerations had been known by them. Of course, the book did not make up my mind for me, but it did show me how others handled the various aspects of such a call. So I would recommend the book to any who want spiritual input in assessing a call away from a congregation to another one.

Encouragement from a General Assembly

2009-06-19T21:11:00.004+01:00

I am currently in Boston on my way home from Orlando where I attended the PCA General Assembly. This is the third ecclesiastical gathering I have attended this year (the others were a meeting in South Korea and the General Assembly of the Free Church in Edinburgh). The PCA Assembly was the biggest by a long way.

Although each of these gatherings is connected to the government of Christ's church, there is not an obvious link between the decisions of each denomination. Yet behind the activities and decisions of each is the Head of the church, Jesus Christ. I'm not saying that he always approves of the decisions of church courts, merely that he guides his church as it makes progress in different parts of the world.

Leaving aside the official tasks I performed at the PCA Assembly, what events made an impression on me? Three different experiences have done so.

First, one of the striking messages from the PCA Assembly came from the report of Brazilian delegates from a Presbyterian denomination there. The growth of the church there is evidence of the activities of King Jesus enlarging his kingdom. If you want to know more about this growth, I'm sure a search of the internet will give plenty information. I later met both men on several occasions and they always had big smiles on their faces (the joy of the Lord).

The second was connected to the part of the Assembly where I spent most of my time -- the Exhibition Hall. There were many booths represented, and each of them was connected to the development of Christ's kingdom in one way or another. Among them were Bible seminaries and colleges looking for theological students (or as I prefer to call them, future servants of Christ), missionary agencies looking for workers, representatives of groups concerned for the persecuted church, and Christian publishers offering their titles. Each of them is being used by Jesus to build his church. Perhaps Exhibition Hall is the wrong title for what was going on. Rather it was an expression of the many ways Jesus is served in today's world. (Why was I in the exhibition hall? Presenting our Sing Psalms material, and explaining to many visitors to the booth how they could use the psalms as a (the best) means of expressing praise to God.)

The third was meeting American friends and acquaintances who continue to assure me that they are praying for my ministry regularly, for the Free Church in its work for Christ, and for Scotland that it would soon experience great spiritual blessings. Working together for Christ is taking place, and being reminded of it again was a great encouragement to me.

Going to General Assemblies can be good for the soul.

Preaching is God reaching out to us

2009-05-08T16:29:00.003+01:00

In Isaiah 53:1 the prophet uses an interesting image when he connects divine revelation to the arm of the Lord. Three interpretations are given of this illustration. One suggestion is that it is a divine title, whether of God or of the Messiah, depicting him acting in power on behalf of his cause. The second suggestion is that the illustration depicts God’s divine attribute of omnipotence which he uses on behalf of his people. Obviously both suggestions are similar.

I prefer a third suggestion, which I read in John Brown of Edinburgh’s work on Isaiah 53 – he said that the illustration ‘arm’ of the Lord is the same as the prophet’s report mentioned in the first half of the verse; in other words, in the act of delivering the message the human side is the words of the prophet and the divine side is the arm of the Lord active as the sermon is delivered.

What truths does this picture indicate we should want the Lord to do during a sermon?

Firstly, an arm is used to indicate an action of reaching out towards another person. So in a sermon we want God to reach out to us; indeed a true definition of a sermon is God reaching out to the listeners.

Secondly, we should desire the Lord to reach out in power during a sermon. A weak person is very grateful when a strong person stretches out his hand to help, who shares his strength with another. Whenever we listen to a sermon we are weak for a variety of reasons – our sinfulness, our current temptations, our difficult providences. We come to listen to God and receive his power.

Sometimes we wonder in what ways God can display his power. Amazing miracles come to mind. Yet I would suggest that the most awesome display of God’s power is a sermon, not because of the eloquence or brilliance of the preachers, but because of what God is doing in a sermon. Often a sermon is an occasion of salvation, but we must not forget that also it can be a place of divine hardening (2 Cor. 2:14-17). In a sermon, people are being prepared for heaven or hardened against the gospel.

Thirdly, we should desire the Lord to reach out in tenderness and love. Coming to a sermon, we remind ourselves that we deserve his judgement. If he were to use his power in that way, we would have no hope. But we realise that he can use his power tenderly in order to express his love. We long for God to caress our souls in a sermon and this he often does as he warms our hearts with the sweet story of the Saviour’s love or by reminding us of the many gracious promises of the Bible or by assuring us of the glories connected to his eternal purpose.

Fourthly, we should desire the Lord to reach out, pointing out to us where we should go. In other words, a sermon is often the occasion when the Lord stretches out his arm in guidance. We come to the sermon in a confused state, puzzled by what is happening, whether in the world, in our country, in our denomination, in our community, in our congregation, in our lives. We need the Lord to give his assessment of where we are. It is good to get the wisdom of friends, or even to recall the insights we may have received from God in the past. But when we come into the presence of the Lord we get a fresh word from himself in a sermon.

Therefore, during a sermon we should encounter the arm of the Lord reaching out to us in power and tender love, giving us guidance concerning our lives. The sermon is always his Word for the present situation in our lives.

Preaching that is painful

2009-05-08T15:58:00.007+01:00

I spoke recently on Isaiah 53:1 ('Who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'). The verse gives interesting insights into Isaiah's understanding of his calling as a prophet and therefore provides help for preachers who preach God's Word today.

Sometimes we imagine that preachers with a special calling will have significant success. Isaiah had a very impressive calling by God to function as a prophet and its details are recorded in Isaiah 6. Yet God informed Isaiah that he would not see wide acceptance of his ministry (Isa. 6:9-13); instead only a few would listen to what he had to say, and the remainder would become increasingly blind in a spiritual sense. Isaiah had been called to serve God during a time when the Lord was about to bring judgement on Judah because of their sins, a judgement that was fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity.

This verse indicates that Isaiah had three comforts in addition to knowing that he was obeying the will of God. First, he proclaimed a great message about the future Deliverer who would come as the Substitute of his people and suffer divine judgement in their place before restoring the prosperity of Zion. Both the suffering and the prosperity are described in this Servant Song found in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Second, Isaiah was aware, along with other prophets, that he was in fact serving a future generation of believers who would appreciate his message; Peter states specifically that God revealed this aspect to the prophets (1 Pet. 1:10-12), surely an encouragement that their work would not be in vain.

Third, Isaiah appreciated the company of his colleagues in his calling (note the plural pronoun ‘our’); in the schools of the prophets there were those who shared his outlook. To that company can be added all other proclaimers of the good news; indeed Paul cites this verse in Romans 10:16 when he explains various features of true preaching.

Although Isaiah had received a divine commission that stressed God’s judgement, the prophet was not a stoic, unaffected by the rejection of his message by his listeners. He felt in his heart the disappointment of such few converts, he longed for his listeners to receive God’s mercy, and he regretted how little success he saw. Of course, he was faithful and he will receive God’s commendation for serving in this way. Yet we can ask an important question: ‘Who is there who can understand the prophet’s pain?’ One obvious answer is that his fellow prophets would. Yet we can move beyond them to later times.

This combination of awareness of divine judgement and powerful concern for those facing it is also seen in the heart concern displayed by the apostle Paul for his own people, the Jews: ‘I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit – that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh’ (Rom. 9:1-3). It would have been easy for Paul to have responded by saying his opponents deserved to receive divine judgement or that their fate was all part of God’s plan. Both answers are true, but neither of them is appropriate. It is not a godly attitude to be indifferent concerning the state of the lost.

Even more wonderful is the fact that Jesus, the one who commissioned Isaiah in Isaiah 6, would also experience this strange spiritual dilemma. Recall his response concerning Jerusalem, a city which he knew would yet receive divine judgement: ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”’ (Luke 13:34-35). The facts that they had rejected God’s servants and experience divine judgement did not prevent the Saviour from desiring that his contemporaries would receive spiritual blessing.

Like Isaiah, we who preach can have similar spiritual comforts and experiences.

In Pastor Kim's study

2009-05-05T19:14:00.002+01:00

What did we do in Korea? We often posed for pictures. If I tell you that I don't have a beard, you will work out who I am.

More on Korea

2009-05-05T13:40:00.003+01:00

Since I visited Korea a few weeks ago, I have paid more attention to references to the Korean church. I was reading the other day about Paget Wilkes, a missionary to Japan, who visited Korea in 1910. His description of the Korean Church was very interesting to me, a Scottish Presbyterian. After saying that the Protestant church had gone from zero to 200,000 in twenty-four years, he gave five details of the Korean Church that impressed him. This is what he wrote:

The love for, and earnest perusal of the Scriptures everywhere, and among all classes -- men, women, children. The Bible is undoubtedly the book of Korea.
Their wonderful observance of the Lord's Day. All Christians close their shops, and abstain from every kind of work--like Scotland in the old days.
The remarkable way in which the Koreans give to God's work. Almost all the churches are built with Korean money, and the pastors and workers are similarly supported. This is especially true of the Presbyterian church.
The personal service and desire to spread the Gospel among the people. Many of the leaders, who in the early days were taken up with Evangelistic work, are now called upon to teach, and instruct, and train workers.
The expectation and hope (especially in the Presbyterian Church) of the coming of the Lord. The majority of the missionaries also in the country teach it plainly to the people.

Wilkes also pointed out the harmony and love that existed in the church in Korea even although there was a variety of doctrinal views and national backgrounds. In addition, at that time, the destructive and devastating effects of higher criticism had not yet appeared in the church in Korea.

My first response to Wilkes' description was a sense of amazement. But a couple of seconds later I realised that his description was of normal, biblical church life. I'm still amazed and still looking for biblical normality.

More About Calvin Would I Know

2009-05-05T13:29:00.005+01:00

Last week I went to the Banner of Truth conference in Leicester. I was glad to meet up with old friends, including some Free Church ministers, and meet several new ones. The lectures were interesting and helpful (one motivation for going was the quality of the speakers -- Lindsay Brown, Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Johnston, Derek Thomas, Garry Williams). It was also an opportunity to purchase some books. Further it was good to sit and talk and learn from one another.

As with many conferences this year the main focus was on the life and ministry of John Calvin. I think all the delegates knew he was a great man of God, and no doubt he has contributed to their Christian understanding through his varied writings.

Most people who read theological literature will know about Calvin’s emphasis on the majesty of the sovereign God. Five other details from Calvin’s ministry challenged me as I listened to the various lectures.

First, there was his commitment to preaching the word of God in a regular, consecutive, expository way. Second, there was his determination to help the church of Christ throughout Europe and elsewhere (I found the lecture on his interest in mission fascinating). Third, there was his awareness to defend the truth of the gospel by courageous involvement in disputes and by careful analysis of the writings of his opponents (I found this lecture very moving). Fourth, there was his conviction that theology had to be accompanied by piety. Fifth, there was his pastoral heart, concerned for the spiritual state of his listeners/readers.

If all I remember eventually from the conference is these five details, I will be satisfied. But in the unlikely event of any of the speakers reading this blog, please be assured that at present I can recall a lot more of what was said.

Of course, attending a conference has its obligatory good intentions. Mine at the moment is to try and read Calvin’s commentaries over the next few months (I have consulted some of them already when preaching through Bible books). They have been looking down at me from my bookshelves for several years now. They are also on my computers. I have a plan on how to proceed (twenty or so pages a day), but as usual time will tell.

A week in Seoul

2009-04-21T00:03:00.012+01:00

We arrived back in Scotland from Korea last Friday evening and reached home on Saturday morning. Although we were only in Seoul for a week, I suspect it will turn out to be one of the most important weeks in my life. Time will tell!

It was a busy week. I had to preach four sermons, take part in other services, attend meetings of the hosting presbytery, and give a lecture on the spirituality of the Free Church of Scotland to one of the classes (about 300 students) in the denominational theological seminary. I also said a few words at the seminary's chapel service at which 1,600 students were present. Of course, a Korean pastor put my efforts in perspective when he casually remarked that he preached nine sermons a week and has not had a day off this year. Later, I asked him if he had heard of ministerial burnout, and he looked at me with that strange look one gives to those who refer to theological novelties.

It was an informative week. In addition to the above activities, we visited some of the historical sights in Seoul: palaces and other important buildings where leaders once held sway. I like wandering around such places. Doing so in Seoul was slightly different because in it the ideas of the past have been replaced by the Christian faith in the outlook of a large proportion of its inhabitants (the opposite of what has occurred in Britain).

It was a tasteful week. Every day I was introduced to a different feature of Korean cooking, and I can assure you it was all wonderful. Those that know me will respond by saying I would say that about any meal I have eaten. Whatever! The next time I see a Korean restaurant, I am heading into it.

It was a realistic week. I should not have been surprised to find in one museum bookshop a book on display detailing the suffering of the Christian church during the Japanese occupation connected to the Second World War. Needless to say, I bought it. Mentioning that period of suffering is also a reminder that the church in Korea has known martydoms during the last 120 years. It was very moving to visit the special memorial building to those who gave their lives in Korea in modern times for the Christian faith.

It was a spiritually challenging week, especially in three ways. First, there is the emphasis on prayer by the churches. I don't know why I used to wonder why the church in Korea has had such blessing. Once I saw their emphasis on prayer and their practice of prayer, the answer to my puzzlement is obvious. Second, there is the attentiveness of the congregations to the ministry of the Word. They listen to what is said. Third, there is the overflowing kindness of both the pastors and the people. I was made to feel as if they had known me all my life.

Will I be different Christian, more devoted to Christ? Ask my wife in a year's time. But I certainly hope so.

Reflections on a Visit to South Korea

2009-04-07T16:43:00.003+01:00

A colleague and I are going to Seoul later this week as delegates from our Presbytery to a Korean Presbytery. As is generally known, the church in South Korea in the last few decades has experienced large growth in church attendance, with this growth covering a wide divergence of denominations with various theological beliefs. This will be my first visit to South Korea and I am looking forward to observing the goings on in a country that has seen so much evidence of the Lord's gracious power in recent years.

One obvious difficulty for me is that I am not able to understand Korean. I will be dependant on a Korean translator for what I will hear and for what I will say. While this may prevent me fully grasping what is taking place in the various services in which I will participate, I don't think it will mean I cannot enjoy the services. A few years ago, my wife and I were walking through the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem when we came across a group of tourists from the Far East singing a song of praise to Christ in their native language. Although we did not understand the words they were singing, their joy was contagious and their devotion to and delight in Christ was obvious and overwhelming. We knew in our hearts that the singers were our brothers and sisters. I am sure that we will experience something similar in the Christian gatherings we will attend in Korea (my wife is coming with us).

The Sunday that we will be in Seoul is Resurrection Sunday, the day of the year on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. For some reason, the day is passed unnoticed in the churches in Scotland which I have attended. I am aware that we are not told in the New Testament to focus on an annual commemoration of his resurrection, but instead to do so each Lord's Day. I have been told that it is different in Korea, and that this coming Lord's Day is very important for the churches there. So I am looking forward to watching and hearing large Korean congregations singing joyfully to the Conqueror of death.

It will also be a time for reflecting on the contribution made by a fellow Highlander whose name is largely forgotten today. John Ross from Nigg (near Tain) is known as 'the father of the Korean church'. He was a missionary in Manchuria in the last decades of the nineteenth century, in an area that bordered Korea. Because many Koreans were living in that area of Manchuria, he resolved to translate the New Testament into Korean (unlike me, he knew eleven languages), which he did by 1886. His translation was taken into Korea (it was then a closed country to Westerners) by Koreans and the outcome was that groups of Christians appeared in various parts of the country. Ross' own estimation was that several thousand Koreans were converted in this way. Eventually Ross returned to Edinburgh in 1910, where he is buried. But the seeds that were sown through his translation of the New Testament are still producing a harvest.

Apparently thousands of Koreans have followed Ross' example and taken the gospel to other countries, including ones to which access is denied for Westerners. I have met some Korean missionaries in Scotland. I don't know if Ross ever imagined that one consequence of his work for Korea would be Christians from there coming to his own country to evangelise it. But God knew. And Ross' story is a reminder that God can do through us, as well as for us, much more than we can even imagine.

Power in Preaching

2009-03-29T22:30:00.003+01:00

In a letter to a friend John Love laments the lack of spiritual power observable in his own ministry and in the preaching of others. In doing so he makes insightful comments concerning himself.

It is peculiarly hard for public teachers to be pure from the blood of all men, in this great shipwreck of immortal souls. There appears little of the genuine light and fire of the Holy Spirit of God in most of our preaching. The awakening and conversion of a single soul is now become a wonderful scarcity....

That preaching which will awaken and save souls must be a strong and felt anticipation of the great day of the Lord, when the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. But how can I awaken others while I am asleep myself? How strange a thing is the spirit of slumber; how long must I cry against it!

I beg the help of your prayers for the awakening influences of the Holy Ghost.

John Macdonald on keeping a spiritual diary

2009-03-27T22:58:00.002Z

Glancing through the biography of John Macdonald of Ferintosh, I noticed his comments on the value of keeping a diary. This is what he wrote:

'Among the many omissions of my past life [he was about 36] which I have to lament, that of not keeping a diary, containing some account of the Lord's dealing with my soul, and of the work of my ministry, is not the least. I was chiefly prevented from this by a false humility, and was not thinking anything done in me or by me worthy of being recorded; and as reckoning myself so far behind those who usually kept such diaries that it would be presumptuous on my part to attempt anything of that kind. I now find, however, that this was a mistake, and I have no doubt that Satan was at the bottom of it; for if the Lord wrought in me and by me in any measure, however unworthy I am -- and none is more so, as He knows, on the face of the earth -- His work deserves to be recorded, and some account of it might be serviceable to myself, useful to others, and conducive in some measure to His glory. I would, therefore, in future endeavour to keep some account of my labours, with anything in my own soul, in providence regarding me, or in my success in the vineyard, which may be deserving of notice. And I begin with this year (1816).'

Jesus Revealing the Glory of God

2009-03-26T12:27:00.006Z

In John 1:14, the author tells us that he beheld the glory of God when he looked at Jesus Christ. God’s glory was seen in a man. But it was seen in a man who was marked by humility. The places where John saw Jesus’ glory was not only in the halls of fame (such as palaces of rulers), not only in the religious buildings of significance (such as the temple), not only at the banquets laid on for the prominent and the important (although he did show grace to persons when they asked him to a meal). Jesus often did not have where to lay his head. His glory was revealed on the hillside where he used the provisions of a poor boy to feed the hungry multitude, in little villages in talking to poor men and women and children, in the synagogues where the common people gathered.

Leon Morris has summarised it well when he writes of Jesus: ‘When people needed help he helped them. Where they were sick he healed them. Where they were ignorant folk he taught them. Where there were hungry people he fed them. He was not found in the high places of the earth. All of his life he was among God’s little people, those who in one way or another felt their need. And wherever there was need he was found doing lowly service. And that is glory.’

Remember it is John who describes the incident in which Jesus stripped himself and put on a towel and washed his disciples’ feet (John 13). He did not have to do it; he could have asked Peter and John to do it. But it is glory when the One who did not have to do it did it.

God’s glory was also seen in a forgiving man. In 1:14 John says that Jesus was full of grace and truth. Throughout his life Jesus had shown grace and truth: to Nicodemus, the pompous teacher, who became his loyal follower when others abandoned him; to the woman of Samaria who became an effective witness; and to many others. And after his resurrection he showed grace and truth to Peter, who had been cowardly and fallen into using improper language.

God’s glory was also seen in a man who was their friend. These disciples had lived with him for three years. He had called them his friends. In John 1 we are told of how some of these friendships began (John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel). Jesus entered into their lives and things became different. As they watched him, listened to him, and followed him their lives were changed.

We too can know the glory of God that is revealed in Jesus. Although now exalted and glorified, he still reveals the glory of God in humbling himself to meet with us, in conveying grace and truth to us, and initiating and developing personal friendship with us.

Jesus and Difficult Trials

2009-03-21T00:03:00.001Z

When the Saviour heard of the report of the murder of John the Baptist he found a solitary place (Matt. 14:13); he did the same after the feeding of the 5,000 (Matt. 14:22). While the Bible indicates the consequence of these two solitary times (miraculous provision for the multitude and miraculous experience for Peter and the apostles on the sea), it seems that Jesus went by himself to strengthen himself in God no matter his situation, be it a harrowing one or a triumphant one. The obvious lesson is that we can only cope with and benefit from every situation, whether it be pleasant or sorrowful, by going to God about it.

As Jesus was praying to his Father he saw his distressed disciples in the storm (Matt. 14:22-33). Since they already had experience of being rescued by him in a storm at sea (Matt. 8:23-27), it could be argued that their previous experience should have helped them cope with the current storm. Perhaps it did, but they also needed a fresh experience of Jesus for the new situation, no matter how similar its contents were to previous ones. It is clear that Jesus wanted to help them and the ferocity of the storm could not keep him away from his disciples.

This incident is a picture of many occurrences in the Christian life. The disciples were in the storm because Jesus had sent them on their journey. They were in the path of obedience when the storm came. It is a mistake to think that obedience to God will remove difficult times in providence.

But just as Jesus had his eye on his disciples, so he has his eye on us. From the heights of the mountain he had the best overall picture of the situation that his disciples were in – they may only have seen what was near at hand but Jesus saw everything. It is the same with us – we can only see the immediate effect of the trouble but Jesus sees where it fits into his overall plan of blessing for our lives.

He came to the disciples at the right time. He wants to help us too. Just as the ferocity of the storm could not keep him away from the disciples, so the troubles that we face are not too big for Jesus to deal with. It is not the strength of the troubles that prevents Jesus coming to our aid; rather he knows best when to come and calm the storm that we may imagine is raging out of control. And when he does come, we will see that his timing was best.

Gethsemane

2009-03-21T00:00:00.001Z

As Jesus approached the most trying time in his earthly life, he did as he had done before; instead of doing something unusual, he went to a location that was familiar to him and his disciples. Having arrived, he took Peter, James and John along with him as he prayed. As he walked with them, Mark tells us that Jesus began to be ‘sore amazed’. The word has the idea of ‘utterly surprised’ and ‘stunned with astonishment’. The Saviour had known previously that he was going to die, but now he received a fresh sight of it and he was overwhelmed.

He became ‘very heavy’; the word has the idea of being exceedingly distracted with terror. What a shock the disciples must have got! Never before had they seen their Master in such a state. Up till then, he had been strong and robust, facing opponents without fear. But here he was in great anguish.

Jesus turned to his disciples and informed them of the internal agony he had: ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ What was happening to cause such distress to the almighty Saviour? He was getting a foretaste of Calvary – and it filled him with terror.

Yet we can learn much from the way the Saviour prayed at that time. He had a childlike approach to his Father: ‘Abba’ is the term that Jesus taught his disciples to use in prayer. It reveals the attitudes of love, dependency and devotion. Jesus, in his hour of deepest trial, in this moment of previously unexperienced degree of distress, with a terrible future fast approaching, went to his Father.

This event is referred to in Hebrews 5:7. Jesus was putting all his energy into his prayers, for he uttered loud cries. Luke tells us (22:44) that ‘being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground’. Three times Jesus prayed. The imperfect tense in Mark 14:35 indicates that he was repeatedly falling down and rising up. He was not staying static but was physically indicating the intense anguish he was experiencing.

Yet he was determined to proceed, which is why he prayed that God’s will be done. He decided to do God’s will, no matter the cost. Fear of being separated from God on the cross was not a reason for him to disobey God.

Surprisingly, an angel came to strengthen him. What an honour was given to that angel! Various suggestions have been made as to how the angel fortified him. Some suggest he bowed in worship or that he told Jesus of his future exaltation. Another says that the angel brought a word of encouragement from the Father. Still another that the angel sang to him the praises he had heard in heaven before he came into the world. One suggestion that appeals to me is that the angel repeated to Jesus the words of Psalm 102:25-27 (which follow a prayer for help in verses 23 and 24). These verses are interpreted in Hebrews 1:10-12 as referring to Christ. And if these were the words, what encouragement they would have been to Jesus.

Jesus’ prayer was answered, not only by the presence of an angel, but by divine help given to him. Therefore, he left the garden, not as a victim helpless in the hands of his enemies, but as a king advancing to the field of battle. His words, ‘Rise, let us be going’ are not a command to run away; rather he is going to face the oncoming band who have come to arrest him. And John describes a most unusual incident when that band of soldiers and dignitaries fell down before Jesus after he had revealed who he was. They went backward and fell to the ground as he revealed to them that he was the eternal ‘I am’. But they still persevered in arresting him!

Letters of John Love on the Ministry (4)

2009-03-20T23:22:00.001Z

Glasgow, 25th December, 1781

Dear Sir

As I supposed you would soon hear of my having communicated to Mr T_____ my acceptance of his offer, I have been the less anxious at the delay of my writing you, occasioned by various circumstances.

I ought to be ashamed that so much regard hath already been shown in your place to one such as I am. And when I compare the greatness of the work which I have undertaken to attempt, with my spiritual poverty and insufficiency, I have the sentence of death in myself; nor can I be relieved otherwise than by trusting in God who quickeneth the dead.

The motives which have determined my acceptance, I hope, have been, in some measure, pleasing in the sight of God. And it is comfortable to me to think that it is the way of God in his grace to choose the weak, foolish, and base things of the world, to be instrumental in the advancement of his kingdom, and to make his wisdom, power and glory to shine through these.

I greatly need and earnestly desire the prayers of the pious people in your place. And the things which I would wish to be prayed for on my behalf are chiefly these:

1. A more pure, fervent, and heavenly zeal for the glory of God and for the souls of all sorts of people among you, old and young, godly and profane, rich and poor.

2. Wisdom to insinuate the truth of God into the hearts and consciences of every sort of persons – the truth of God in his law and in his gospel.

3. Indefatigable strength of spirit to continue unweariedly in private and public labours for the salvation of every one among you, according to my measure and opportunity.

4. A great measure of the spirit of supplication to produce a character corresponding to Isaiah 62:6-7: ‘I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.’

5. The revelation of the arm of God gloriously to attend and to succeed whatever poor endeavours, in public or in private, I may be enabled to make.

Our moments are flying away, and our eternal Judge is at the door: whatever is to be done for ourselves or others, must be done quickly and with our might.

May the salvation of God eminently come to your house! In this I shall greatly rejoice. J.L.

Letters of John Love on the Ministry (3)

2009-03-20T23:20:00.002Z

Dear Sir

I ought to take it very kindly that you are pleased to make any enquiry after such a one as I ought to reckon myself. It is no great humility for me to think that I and my preaching deserve to be buried in oblivion and infamy, that is, with regard to what I am in myself, and what of my preaching comes properly from me.

However, it is no part of true humility to speak evil of what is wrought by the Spirit of God in us or by us. I wish I had much more of that kind to speak of than I have; which I might have if it were not my own perverseness and unbelief. It is the sad effect of unbelief to prevent Christ's doing many mighty works.

So far as I can judge, it does not appear that the Lord is at present using me as an instrument of doing great execution as to the work of conviction and conversion. The principal effect of my present labours seems to be with regard to some of the people of God, in their instruction, direction, and consolation, particularly in perplexed and distressed cases. But I think, so far as I am an instrument at all regarded by the Lord, he is rather preparing and polishing me than using me. Though he has had such bad materials to work upon in me, that it seems to require more pains at his hand than is taken with some, the more that this is the case, the greater glory will appear in him who is the great artificer in the kingdom of grace, who is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham; nor is it vain for a poor creature to wait upon him in that empty, hungry, distressed way in which it is ordinary for me to wait upon him. He with whom we have to do is one who brings the blind by a way that they know not, and who makes darkness light and crooked things straight. And, though it is a great thing to us, yet it is not also a great thing in his eyes, in a short time to make a rich compensation (I mean not in the way of death but of grace) for the on-waiting of many years.

I do not think it presumption to comfort myself with such expectations, as that though I may be allowed to seem to toil long to little purpose, yet he may train me up for being at length used as an instrument in an acceptable time, when the wind of the Spirit shall blow with more apparent quickening power than at present, and when trembling at the word of God shall not be so much out of fashion as it now seems to be.

The Lord can soon give such a draught of souls as will be matter of astonishing triumph through eternity. Surely it is worth while to wait long upon the possibility of this, and, with such hope, ‘in the morning to sow our seed, and in the evening not to withhold our hand.’

I have said enough as to myself; I acknowledge myself obliged to have a deep concern for the success of the gospel in your hands, and am desirous of acting much more up to this obligation in the way of earnest prayer than the wretched prevailing of spiritual death will frequently allow. None ought more especially to thank God through Jesus Christ than I, for the ample treasures of sin-conquering and fruit-producing grace.

It will be good news to hear of there having been much of the presence of God with you at your sacramental solemnity, which will probably be over before this comes to hand.

I humbly beg to be remembered in your prayers, JL.

Revival in Lewis (1820s)

2009-03-20T22:32:00.005Z

I was reading tonight about the initial revival in the Western Isles during the ministry in Uig, Lewis, of Rev. Alexander Macleod (he was ordained there in 1824). The account is found in a short volume, published in the nineteenth century, that refers to several different revivals that took place in Scotland. The following are some details, including features of the revival highlighted in the account, as well as a couple of paragraphs from it.

1. When Macleod arrived, most of the congregation, although unconverted, attended the Lord’s Supper (there were between eight and nine hundred of them). He delayed holding one for a year because he suspected few discerned the Lord while taking part in the Supper. When he did arrange an occasion, only a few participated and that with silent tears.

2. Signs of approaching awakening included inquirers wanting private instruction, an extra lecture on Thursdays, and increase of prayer meetings. Over the years, many who were converted did not come to the Lord’s Supper, a common response elsewhere in the Highlands, but also a defect in the religious life of the church. In 1828, over 9,000 attended the communion in Uig. One of the preachers was the well-known evangelist, John Macdonald of Ferintosh. A sea captain observed of this revival: ‘One hears of religion elsewhere, but one sees it here in everything.’

3. Five natives of Uig lost their sight in the army while in Egypt. They were converted on their return to Uig. Three of them became ‘active fellow-helpers in the extension of Christian truth and consolation’ and one was ‘a most efficient and effective elder’.

Some effects of the revival

1. The prayerfulness of the people. People prayed frequently on a daily basis, especially in the evening. Because their houses contained only one room, the people prayed where they were working (on land or at sea). Morning and evening devotions were held in their homes.

2. The uprightness of the people. This was illustrated in a year of famine. A boat carrying meal was forced ashore by the weather. The people did not raid the boat; instead they waited until each received a legitimate share. The minister gave a promissory note, based on his assumption that the landowner would not let him be impoverished.

3. One form of restitution was this: ‘It is a rule in this and other isles of the Hebrides that when a man meets a stray sheep on the moor, he is entitled to carry it home as his own, and obliged to make an equivalent offering in the collection for the poor on the Sabbath day. After the commencement of the revival in the Lewis, many came to confess to their minister the trouble of conscience they experienced by reason of what they called a black sheep in their flocks -- some having had them for several winters. The minister always directed them to make restitution now in the appointed way; and in one season, the sum of £16 was deposited in the plate. The number of sheep annually lost has wonderfully diminished since the commencement of the revival, leading to the conclusion, that the loss imputed to accident arose from dishonesty.’

4. The Christian liberality of the people. A collection was taken every Thursday for the needy people of the parish. They collected funds annually for the Gaelic School Society of £13 and above for many years. A poor man told the minister that he would part with one of his cows before parting with the teacher. One of the blind men (named Norman Macleod) mentioned above was converted through a combination of the Bible taught in the school and what he heard in church. He regularly gave a substantial amount from his army pension to help maintain a teacher. On another occasion (in 1835), the congregation noted that after a substantial collection (£20) for church extension work, they were favoured with a bountiful fishing harvest which more than repaid what they had given.

5. The revival affected old and young. Catherine Smith was observed to engage in voluntary prayer from the age of two. Malcolm Macleod was 95 before he repented. He was unable to attend church because of infirmity. In October or November 1834, his pious daughter repeated to him what she had heard in church. He became interested and eventually he developed spiritual practices, and praise and prayer became his principal food. His minister gave him private instruction and also preached at his bedside on the man who was 38 years at the pool. Four friends carried him to an occasion of the Lord’s Supper, where ‘with tears of sorrow for past profanation of that privilege, coursing each other over his furrowed cheeks, and of grateful love for present blessings. The whole multitude were moved, every eye glistening in sweet sympathy with his feelings.’

6. Revival continued in Uig for over a decade. In 1835, Macleod visited other islands in the Hebrides to see their state. He found that Tiree opposed the gospel. On reporting this state of affairs to his people in Uig, he noticed that those who were Christians increased their devotion, whereas others were brought under a state of concern for their souls and repented for having harboured the same outlook as the people of Tiree. In November, he observed much religious impression (silent tears) in the church, a feature which had been common previously when they met outdoors but which had subsided after the church had been built. ‘It is a fact worthy of observation, that during ten years in which this work of grace has made a steady progress, there has not been one outbreaking of enthusiasm, or delusion, or false doctrine, so that their minister expressed great astonishment and thankfulness, after reading Dr. Sprague’s work on American Revivals, that they have been so graciously preserved from the extravagance and error which has in some few instances broken in to injure the integrity of the work in America.’

Assessment of the author of the account

‘In considering the state of things in the parish of Uig, we are disposed to rejoice over it more than over any other Scottish Revival. Its calm, and deep, and prolonged flow, and its sincerity, may be imputed to some natural and obvious causes. God has vouchsaved to them for ten years the ministrations of a man, whose method is consistent, and now well understood by them. He has been preserved in prayerful humility as their watchman, and saved from in any way casting a stumbling-block in their way.... Though Uig be the most enlivened spot, the revival is by no means limited to that parish. There has been no variety of sects introducing controversy or strife, or withdrawing men’s minds from the essentials that concern their own souls, to fix them on the less weighty forms of church government, or questions of no profit. In this respect, truth has had fairer entrance to the mind, and prayer has not been hindered. At Arran there seemed to be a tendency in some to yield to bodily excitement and nervous emotions, which their results proved not to be genuine workings of the renewed heart. In Glenlyon, the spirit of controversy met and drove back the spirit of contrition. At Moulin, the removal of the faithful instructor left the sheep to be scattered. But in Lewis, hitherto the Lord hath upheld and sheltered his flock from such dangers, and the spirit of faith and prayer and a sound mind is preserved amongst them. May it never die away, but from this distant spot of our empire may the blessed wave of salvation swell and rise, till it shall overflow the land, and gather in every county, every parish, and every soul to the kingdom of our God and of his Christ!’

4. Highland Revivals (Rogart and Rosemarkie)

2009-03-19T18:59:00.002Z

This post follows on from 3. Highland Revivals (Golspie)

Rogart
A weekly lecture at the request of the converts was held on Wednesdays, and a day of solemn thanksgiving was kept for the good work of grace vouchsaved to the parish. In the neighbouring parish of Rogart, where Mr. John Munro was minister, fifteen persons were awakened in 1740. In the following year these and other serious persons felt themselves ‘fallen under sad decays of soul’; and sorrowed over the indifferences that prevailed around them. Thereupon ‘they associated for prayer, and at their meetings mourned and wept over the cause of the Lord’s withdrawings from their own souls, and prayed earnestly for powerful days of the Son of Man.’ In 1743-44, about fifty more were awakened, who, in 1745, continued in a hopeful way.

Rosemarkie
In several parishes in the Black Isle there were showers of blessing at this time. Rosemarkie, eleven miles north-east of Inverness, was the site of a Columban church Romanised by Boniface in the eighth century, and there about the year 1128 the bishopric of Ross was founded by David I. Several worthy ministers laboured in the parish after the Revolution. In 1734, Mr. John Wood, chaplain to Sir William Gordon of Invergordon, received a call to the benefice, and for forty-one years laboured with signal faithfulness and success. On the 1st May, 1744, he wrote to Mr. Robe:

‘The least [last?] gracious revival is the more remarkable to me, as I had been groaning under the burden of labouring in vain as to any considerable appearance of success for several years before. Of the few professors of serious religion in the place, the most lively and judicious were removed by death. In such melancholy circumstances it must be peculiarly refreshing that the Lord, of His own mere goodness, should in any measure have visited us. His coming was not, indeed, with observation, being attended with none of those more extraordinary circumstances, as in some other places, but in a gentle, gradual way. Since the communion here in July last, the bulk of the congregation seem to have a desire after instruction and the knowledge of the Gospel much greater than formerly. And this holds with respect to the more private as well as more public ordinances; for in the course of my examinations (catechisings) last winter and spring, I never had so little reason to complain of absentees, being crowded wherever I went by persons from other corners of the parish besides those assembled to be catechised. There are now about thirty persons of different ages and sexes who have come to me under convictions and awakenings of conscience through the Word. Upon conversing with them, I found several had been under some gradual work of this sort for a good time before -- some of them for two years -- though they never disclosed it till now. There are now four praying societies in the parish.’

He goes on to tell of other fourteen or sixteen persons who have given promising appearances of spiritual concern, but like the rest of the awakened, they were reluctant to make known their convictions ‘so long as they were able to conceal them’. He trusts that present appearances, owing to the intense and increasing earnestness manifested throughout the congregation, give promise of greater blessings to follow in the parish. He begs an interest in ‘the prayers of the friends and children of Zion’. He then refers to the revivals in Nigg, Logie-Easter, Kilmuir and Rosskeen in the presbytery of Tain. In the presbytery of Dingwall, Alness and Kiltearn -- so greatly blessed in the days of the Covenanting struggle under Hog and M’Killigan -- ‘revived as the corn, and grew as the vine.’ In his own presbytery of Chanonry, he writes that ‘there is at Cromarty as good number of lively, solid, and judicious Christians, gathered in by the ministry of their godly, judicious, and now aged pastor, Mr. George Gordon, and their number has considerably increased of late. The work of the Gospel is also advancing in Kirkmichael (Resolis). I hear likewise of some promising stir beginning in the parish of Avoch.’

The movement thus described by Messrs. Sutherland and Wood proved to be a genuine revival by the truly abundant and enduring ‘fruits of the Spirit accompanying’. The wave of blessing passed over a large part of the North, and the districts surrounding Inverness, Dingwall, Tain, Dornoch, and Thurso were pre-eminently favoured. A high-toned morality, a strict observance of the Sabbath and of family religion prevailed. Prayer and fellowship meetings sprang up everywhere, and in almost every parish there were many ‘men’ of fervent zeal, prayerfulness, spirituality of mind, and deep Christian experience, ready to take part in religious conference, and ‘speaking to the question’ with remarkable ability, and to the undoubted edification of the hearers. Of some of the ministers who carried on the work thus happily inaugurated, we hope to write in succeeding papers.

3. Highland Revivals (Golspie)

2009-03-19T18:55:00.003Z

This post continues from 2. Highland Revivals (Rosskeen)

The blessed influence of the awakening extended northward into Sutherlandshire and southward into the Black Isle. It was powerfully felt in Golspie, a parish signally favoured in the ‘Far North’ for vital religion. In the seventeenth century, the Earls of Sutherland might be said to rival those of Argyll in unflinching devotion to Christ’s cause and covenant, and many were the devout refugees who found a quiet resting-place in the reign of terror, under the shadow of Dunrobin Castle, in Golspie.

In 1690, Mr. Walter Denoon, a native of Easter Ross, was inducted to the parish. He is more than once honourably mentioned by Wodrow in his history as a notable Covenanting preacher. On the 3rd September, 1678, he had the honour of being accused as a keeper of conventicles in his native county. On the 12th February, 1679, he was seized by the young Earl of Seaforth, and ordered to be transported from sheriff to sheriff till he arrived at the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. Six days after, Lord Brodie enters in his Diary: ‘This day Mr. Walter Denoon passed by, being taken by the Earl of Seaforth on the 12th, and sent from shire to shire. My soul grieved that this should be the first act of that young man’s life. Lord!, overrule and turn it to good.’ On arriving at the south ferry of Dundee, worthy Denoon was rescued by his friend, ‘that excellent young gentlemen, Andrew Ayton, younger of Inchardie,’ who, when little more than seventeen years of age, was an intercommuned fugitive in Moray, and so soon to win the martyr’s crown at Cupar.

In 1680, Denoon was so obnoxious from holding conventicles that the Privy Council on 6th March, wrote a virulent letter to Alexander Mackenzie, Sheriff-Depute of Ross, to suppress conventicles in that shire. After referring to the king’s care to suppress such meetings, and to Ross-shire as a district purged of infection, they add, ‘Yet some bold and presumptuous persons, setting aside all fear of God and respect to their sovereign and his laws, have adventured to intrude themselves in a pretended ministry, and thereby to debauch weak men and silly women, drawing them into those rebellious methods, particularly one Mr. Denoon and Mr. Hepburn; we cannot expect but you will use all diligence to apprehend them or others, and dissipate their meetings with all severity.’

So determined were the Council to create a solitude and call it peace, that in less than a week (12th March) they sent another peremptory letter to the Earl of Moray, urging him ‘to use all diligence to preserve the northern shires from this infection’. Mr. John Hepburn, mentioned by the Council as the coadjutor of Denoon, was the son of a persecuted Covenanter who lived in the neighbourhood of Forres. Father and son are often mentioned as guests at Brodie Castle. After the Revolution, Mr. John Hepburn became minister of Urr, Dumfries, and was a noted and persistent contender against defections in Church and State. Denoon was a member of the Assembly in October 1690, and one of the Commission of Assembly for visiting on the north side of the Tay. ‘His last appearance,’ records Dr. Scott, Fasti, ‘is on the roll of Synod, 19th June, 1728, when he is said to have been nearly a hundred years old, and in the 76th of his ministry, having been for many years the oldest minister in the province.’

He was succeeded in Golspie by Mr. John Sutherland (son of Mr. Arthur Sutherland of Edderton) in 1731. Sutherland was a devoted Gospel minister, a zealous champion of the rights of the people in opposition to the moderatism that was beginning to poison the life of the National Church. ‘He greatly encouraged opposition to the settlements of those ministers who did not have the popular voice in their favour, and gave sealing ordinances to such as withdrew from their regular pastors; so that he exercised the office of universal bishop in their bounds.’ He was eager to join in ‘the concert for prayers’, entered into on the part of leading ministers in America and Scotland in 1744.

On the 8th August, 1745, he wrote an interesting letter to Mr. Robe, which was published in his Monthly History of that year. He begins by bearing testimony to the piety and patriotism of the noble Sutherland family, in serving the interests of true religion in the parish. The Covenanting fugitives, instead of returning to their old homes after the Revolution, evinced their gratitude and attachment to the family of Dunrobin by remaining for ‘the rest of their days in their respective callings under the wings that covered them in their distress’. They and their children became a blessing to others. ‘At my admission in 1731,’ he tells, ‘there was a goodly number of devout Christians in the place, but in a few years sundry of them were called to the joy of their Lord; whilst we who survived them found cause to bewail that but few were wrought upon to fill up their places.

‘In this uncomfortable state of things, and amidst my greater fears than hopes, I took care to notify to the people the blessed and wonderful sense of the Gospel in the British colonies of America, so soon as I had certain accounts of it by the printed declarations of Messrs. Edwards and Cooper and others. I likewise communicated to them the display of Divine mercy and grace, your congregation, that of Cambuslang, and sundry other congregations in the west and south of Scotland were so highly favoured with, immediately after I found that blessed work so well attested by you, by Mr. Willison of Dundee, Mr. Webster of Edinburgh, and sundry more of our brethren of unquestionable credit. After my return from the Assembly of 1743 I also reported to them what with great joy I had myself observed of the Lord’s work with you at Kilsyth, Methil, and Cambuslang, in my way to that Assembly; if by these means I might provoke the people to emulation, yet no success was observed.

‘In August 1743, after the administration of the sacrament of the Holy Supper at Nigg, at which I assisted, I lamented to our dear and worthy brother, Mr. Balfour, the wretched security of the people of my parish, and my unsuccessful ministry among them. He thereupon reported how much cause he had to bless the Lord for the success of the Gospel among his people from the time he had constituted societies for prayer in his parish. Immediately I resolved to essay the like means in imitation of his successful example, and on my return home communicated this design to some of the serious people of the parish, and directed them to meet in three separate societies on Saturday evenings, with earnest recommendations to them to pray for the influences of the Spirit of God to accompany the ministration of Gospel ordinances in the place. This number called the rest of the communicants together, and soon set about the duty according to recommendation, but no remarkable change could be observed on any for the space of a year thereafter.

‘But when our hopes were almost gone, the great and bountiful God, who ever does wonders, was mercifully pleased to breathe upon a number of dry bones, and to visit them with His salvation; for from the beginning of November last to the date hereof, upwards of seventy persons came to me under various exercises of soul. A few of this number, who had visited me in or about November last, told, among other things, that they had been for sundry months bowed down in spirit under a sense of their aggravated guilt, but, for reasons they mentioned, could not get themselves prevailed upon to disclose their sad circumstances till then. Soon after this hint I showed to the congregation, in a doctrinal way, that it was the duty of awakened sinners, next to their application to a throne of grace, to lay open their sense of sin and misery to ministers and experienced Christians, lest through want of appointed helps Satan and lusts might get advantages of them. This public notice so far encouraged such as were awakened before or after that date that they afterwards resorted to me frequently as their occasions required.’

After describing the exercises and temptations of the awakened, he proceeds: ‘With regard to their conversion I may affirm that the change to the better is evident in their lives, as their neighbours testify of them. This work was advanced in some by quicker and in others by slower degrees; yet in both a decent, grave and solemn deportment, or shedding abundance of tears, which they concealed as long as they were able, were all the visible signs we had in time of hearing of the inward concern of their minds. And by reason of the silence and calmness that accompanied this work in its beginning or progress hitherto, we have heard of none that returned to reproach it. About forty of them have with weeping eyes and trembling hands received tokens for the Lord’s Table at the late solemn ordinance here, and it is hoped the rest will be encouraged to follow their example in a little time. With respect to the effects produced on their bodies, some have told me that they had been deprived of many nights’ rest, others of many hours of almost every night, in which they were deeply exercised with apprehensions of the wrath of God, or much comforted. Some for a time lost nearly all appetite for food, or forgot to eat at their set meals. Others felt their bodily strength and health much impaired; and a few had tremblings on some occasions without any other effects on their bodies.

‘I must further remark that, since the beginning of this work, those of long standing in religion have been sensibly revived and enlarged, and are much comforted now with what they observe in others, and are very helpful to them. Even the secure multitude attend ordinances better, and seem to listen to the word preached with greater attention than before. Most of the awakened are between twenty and fifty years of age; few are under twenty, and only four from sixty to seventy. They are farmers or tradesmen, or their wives and servants. Seven are widows in low circumstances. The terrors of the Lord denounced in His Word against the wilful transgressors of His holy laws, and the impenitent, unbelieving despisers of His Gospel grace; the impossibility of salvation on the score of self-righteousness; the absolute necessity of the efficacious influences of the grace and Spirit of God in order to a vital union with Christ by faith for righteousness and salvation; that all the blessings of the New Covenant freely given by the Father to the elect, and purchased for them by the sufferings and death of Christ the Son, are effectually applied to them by the Holy Ghost -- these were the doctrines insisted on to the congregation. Those wrought upon have told me that a course of lectures on the Gospel according to Matthew, especially the conclusion on the sufferings, death, [and] resurrection of Christ, together with sermons on Deuteronomy 31:21, 22; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Peter 4:17-18; 2 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 5:14; [and] Matthew 12:4; were the means the Lord had blessed to their edification.’

2. Highland Revivals (Rosskeen)

2009-03-19T18:49:00.003Z

This post follows on from 1. Highland Revivals (Nigg)

The parish of Rosskeen, referred to by Mr. Balfour, lies on the north shore of the Cromarty Firth, a few miles west of Nigg. The curate, Mr. William Mackenzie, never conformed to Presbyterianism, and a fifty years’ incumbency ‘died in the enjoyment of the benefice’ in March 1714. After a vacancy of three years, Mr Daniel Beton (or Bethune) was called by the Presbytery from Ardesier, where he had earnestly laboured for four years, and settled in Rosskeen on 25th April, 1717. Here, as in other parishes under Prelatic supervision, ‘Sabbath was profaned without remorse.’ It was the practice of the people to meet at Ardross, in the upper part of the parish, on the Lord’s Day, to play at shinty, and to this practice the faithful minister determined to put a stop.

A certain man noted for his activity and strength was the acknowledged chief and leader of the shinty players. Mr. Beton sent for the popular hero, and solemnly proposed to make him an elder! He was, of course, startled at the proposal, to which, however, after some persuasion, he consented. After duly calling him to the eldership, Mr. Beton informed him of the various duties of his new office, and very particularly of the obligation he was under of putting at end to the shinty playing on the Sabbath. The man promised to do so, and next Sabbath he was foremost on the field of action, armed with a stout cudgel. Then, addressing the assembling players, he declared that if one of them dared to lift a club he should forthwith feel the weight of his cudgel. The result was the retirement of the disconcerted players, who never more met for shinty on the Lord’s Day. Doubtless, some of them were persuaded to accompany the valiant ruling-elder to the long-deserted church.

‘As pastor of the congregation, Mr Beton was faithful, diligent and assiduous, had the happiness of seeing many good effects from his labours, and not a few benefited by his instructions. Nor were his labours confined to those only, as he had a happy knack in composing differences and animosities.’

After labouring in this populous parish for four years, he resolved to hold the Communion; but only six or seven parishioners were admitted to the Lord’s Table. Of course, all who did not make a credible profession of faith were excluded. In his statement published in Robe’s Monthly History for 1744, he tells that for nine or ten years after that first Communion ‘there was a pleasant appearance of good in his parish’. Sinners were gathered to Shiloh, and they continued growing in grace and in the maintenance of love and holiness. ‘But from the year 1732 to 1742 things were much at a stand, comparatively; though during that time some were engaged to the Lord…. But from the harvest of 1742 to Martinmas 1743 (which he reckons the most remarkable period of his ministry) there came a surprising revival and stir among the people of this parish. About six and thirty men and women felt under concern about their salvation. Some weeks thereafter they were received into the monthly fellowship meeting in the parish.

‘Several of them were admitted since that time to the Lord’s Table, and others of them are to be admitted if the Lord shall spare them and their minister, who is much broken in his constitution by sharp afflictions of different kinds. He found, by conversing with these persons, that the subjects the Lord blessed most for their awakening, drawing and encouragement (together with close catechising through his parish) were Hosea 13:13 (‘He is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children), Galatians 4:19 (‘My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you’), and John 3:3 (‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’). But especially the first of these subjects was the principal means of the first stir. In general, some of them were plunged in the deeps of fear and despondency, and are still for most part; others have attained to more courage in the way of believing; and all of them as yet walk suitably to their profession. And it is hoped the Lord has not ceased to add to the number of those; for this season some few are coming to the minister, in a private way, to communicate the afflicted case of their souls, by reason of their sin and misery; and honest people in the parish tell him that others are on the way of coming.

‘Some children, boys and girls, in the east end of the parish (about twelve in number and between nine and fifteen years of age) began last winter to meet every Sabbath evening and Monday night in the house of a poor godly widow. There they exercise themselves in prayer by turns, with singing and conferring about what they hear in public. They keep strict discipline, and admit none into their society but such as undertake to pray with them. Some of the serious people of the place overhearing them, without their knowledge, were greatly surprised and affected with their massy, sound expressions, and the savour they found with them in prayer. And now one or other of the serious people join often with them. They watch over the behaviour of each other. They are constant hearers of the Word, and examine each other about it. Their outward deportment is grave and quiet, without any childish levity. They are illiterate, but fond of learning.’

This prayer meeting held by the Rosskeen children resembles one kept about the same time in Kirkintilloch by sixteen children who ‘were observed to meet together in a barn for prayer; the occasion of which was that one of them said to the rest, What need is there that we should always play; had we not better go and pray? Wherewith the rest complied. Mr. Burnside, their minister, as soon as he heard of it, carefully enquired after them, and met frequently with them for their direction and instruction. And, as I am informed, they make progress, and continue in a hopeful way. This made much noise in the countryside, and deep impressions both upon young and old’ (Robe, Narratives).

Mr. Beton continued thus to labour in Rosskeen until his death on 15th March, 1754, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Mr David Carment (a well-known Disruption minister) was inducted into this parish in March, 1822. In 1838 he wrote of Mr. Beton that ‘he was a man eminently pious and successful in winning souls to Christ’. Mr. Carment’s regular congregation was from 1,200 to 1,400. He remarks: ‘We have no dissenters…. As for voluntaries, we know nothing about them. They cannot vegetate here. The Highland soil does not seem favourable to the growth of Voluntaryism. We do at times get a solitary importation from the South, but they do not thrive, and become quite quiescent after a few months residence in the North…. The number of communicants is about 120. We have thus fewer communicants than our southern neighbours; but we are inclined to believe that we have more religion and more morality, and are more inclined to fear God and honour the king, and less disposed to meddle with those who are given to change. But still, we must confess that there is a manifest departure among all ranks from that strictness and integrity, and genuine holiness, which in the olden time characterised the natives of our northern clime. We would pray for a revival of religion in every corner of our land.’

1. Highland Revivals (Nigg)

2009-03-19T18:37:00.006Z

The following post (first of several) is part of an account of revivals which occurred in the north of Scotland in the eighteenth century. The account is found in the magazine of the Original Secession Church.

It was well on towards the middle of the eighteenth century that the best days of the religious life of the North Highlands began. After the Revolution Settlement [1688], Church Courts struggled on amid manifold difficulties to supply Gospel ordinances, but the labourers were few. Along the shores of the Moray, Cromarty and Dornoch firths some very eminent ministers were settled, and by them ‘prayer was made without ceasing’ for a revived work, and times of refreshing.

One of the first parishes to share the abundant blessing vouchsaved in answer to united prayer was Nigg, in the Presbytery of Tain. The worthy Mr John Balfour, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Caithness, was ordained minister of Logie-Easter in 1716, and was translated to Nigg in March 1729. He found the people sunk in gross ignorance and iniquity. Sabbath was devoted to athletic games. ‘They had a leader, a strong, bold man, to whom all looked up. Mr Balfour watched for his opportunity. Having to attend the General Assembly he sent for the champion of the Sabbath sports, and told him that, as his duty called him from home, he left the east end of the parish in his charge, and would hold him responsible that the people spent the Sabbath, not in games and rioting, but in prayer and reading and hearing the Word. ‘You are surely aware, sir,’ said the athlete, ‘that of these games, I myself am the leader, and the first to begin; how then can you ask me to stop them?’ ‘I charge you before God to do so,’ said the minister; ‘let the guilt of a refusal lie upon your conscience.’ ‘Well, sir, if it must be so,’ replied the man, ‘I’ll try what I can do.’ He was as good as his word. The Sabbath games were discontinued, and the ringleader himself became a devoted Christian’ (Sage, Mem.).

With what prayerful zeal he laboured thereafter may be learned from his own words published in Robe’s Monthly History for 1744: ‘The revival of religion in the parish of Nigg has been on the advance since the year 1730, though for most part in a gradual, slow way, and with several stops and intermissions at times. As to new awakenings, the most considerable concern appeared in 1739. Then several persons awakened (and who had never done it before) applied to the minister about their spiritual interest, each day in the week, for one week, Saturday not excepted.’

He goes on to show that the awakening ‘has continued still in some desirable measure’, attended by ‘the accession of such as did not before profess or declare a religious concern’; and that there were ‘no unusual bodily symptoms’ as narrated in other places. ‘Very few, not one in forty, who have been awakened have fallen off from a religious profession, or given open scandal to it. The general meeting for prayer and spiritual conference, which sometimes consisted only of the members of session, and a few others, became at length so numerous that, about three years ago, it was necessary to divide it into two, each of which is since considerably increased.

‘Besides these general meetings (which convene in two places in the parish at a proper distance every alternate Monday, and presided over by the minister) there are ten societies which meet in as many places in the parish every Saturday for prayer, and other religious exercises. Care is taken that, in each of these societies, one or more of the elders, or some Christians of distinguished experience, be always present; and nothing as yet appears about them but what has a tendency to promote the most valuable ends and interests of religion. Besides those who have applied for access to the meetings, and who are not admitted till after giving some account of their concern to the minister and also to some of the elders, and other Christians in their neighbourhood, the body of the parishioners seem generally to be under serious impressions of religion.

‘Worship is kept in all the families in the parish, except three or four. The Lord’s Day is very solemnly observed. After the public worship is over, there are meetings in all parts, where neighbouring families join in prayer, reading, and repetition of sermons; and yet care is taken that such meetings and exercises do not interfere with, nor hinder the more private exercises of religion in each family apart. Ordinances are very punctually attended on the Lord’s Day; and diets of catechising, in whatever part of the parish they are kept on weekdays, are much crowded by people from other parts.

‘The civil magistrate has had no crimes here to animadvert upon for many years; and the kirk session has very little else to do, but to inform and consult about the religious concerns of the parish, and to concert how these may be looked after and managed to greatest advantage. And it is specially to be remarked that the people are very diligent and industrious in their secular callings, and more forward in the business of their husbandry that their neighbours in other parts of the country.

‘There is the like appearance of success to the Gospel in other parishes in this country, particularly Rosskeen and Kilmuir-Easter, of which the ministers may give information, as they are known to have the advancement of the great interest of the Gospel much at heart…

‘As notes have not been taken in writing of past occurrences and cases, it is judged the safer way to give this general account of matters only at this time; though it is not doubted if particular cases and instances were recollected, with their special circumstances, a narrative of them would be entertaining and edifying to all that have a relish and value for such subjects.’

In the following summer (June 20, 1744), Mr Balfour writes: ‘Since February the work of awakening has proceeded upon subjects more currently that in any former period, and still continues to the praise of free grace. With several it appears to be more distinct and lively than formerly. The far greater number that profess religion in this parish are illiterate, and understand only the Gaelic language. All that I shall say of this language is that it is no disadvantage to their education and instruction in religion. I never conversed with more intelligent, savoury, and distinctly exercised private Christians than some illiterate men in this district, or that challenged and got more respect on a religious account from all sorts of persons of their acquaintance. It is surprising to observe with what industry many, especially of the younger sort, endeavour to acquire reading. Some read the Psalms in Gaelic metre, and teach others in the same way, without knowing or attending to the power of letters, or the use of syllabication, by considering words as complex characters which are always to be pronounced in the same way. Some of the elder sort likewise recover their reading which they had been taught young, but neglected and forgot afterwards. But as the generality are still illiterate, that disadvantage is much made up to them by hearing others read the Scriptures and other good books, which they translate currently as they read, and without any stop.

‘This ready way of reading is one of the exercises performed in the several weekly meetings for prayer, as also in many families. By these means the knowledge of the Scriptures and practical religion is greatly increased. It is really astonishing to me to observe what a copious and pertinent use of the Scriptures many illiterate persons have acquired, and with what a readiness and fluency they pray in Scripture language. I love not to make comparisons nor at all to exaggerate things, but I must be allowed to declare ingeniously, they often make me blush when I am among them and hear them praying, as well as speaking to religious cases. Thus in the most literal sense “faith comes by hearing”. The unlearned rise and take heaven by force. The men of letters dispute heaven -- these live it.’

The almost universal change produced in the parish -- evidenced in high-toned morality, strict Sabbath observance, earnest desire for instruction, unwearied attendance upon ordinances, and hungering and thirsting for the bread of life -- contrasts marvellously with the old prevailing barbarism. The worthy Mr. Lewis Rose, who wrote the statistical account of Nigg in 1836, bears striking testimony to the undoubted genuineness of the revival under the ministry of the godly Mr. Balfour.

‘A chosen generation then appeared, men of God and of prayer. These were a Donald Roy and an Andrew Roy, a John Noble and a Nicholas Vass, and others, whose names may be forgotten on earth, but whose record is on high. Vital godliness prevailed, the Day and House of the Lord were revered, the commandments of God were obeyed, and the character of the people afforded a wonderful contrast to the common abominations that characterised the preceding generation. The records of the kirk session for the thirty years succeeding 1705, while they afford abundant evidence of the zeal and faithfulness of ministers and elders in checking vice of every description, are disgusting in the extreme, as exhibiting a frequency and a grossness of vice among the people, which the succeeding generation would shudder to contemplate. And yet, be it added, the favourable change was produced by the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon the heaven-appointed means, which an authoritative ministry and eldership were indefatigable in employing.’ As Mr. Rose was the highly respected minister of the parish from 1818 to 1835, when he was called to Glasgow, he had full and accurate knowledge of what he described.

Letters of John Love on the Ministry (2)

2009-03-13T14:29:00.005Z

Dear Sir

I ought to take it very kindly that you are pleased to make any enquiry after such a one as I ought to reckon myself. It is no great humility for me to think that I and my preaching deserve to be buried in oblivion and infamy, that is, with regard to what I am in myself, and what of my preaching comes properly from me.

However, it is no part of true humility to speak evil of what is wrought by the Spirit of God in us or by us. I wish I had much more of that kind to speak of than I have; which I might have if it were not my own perverseness and unbelief. It is the sad effect of unbelief to prevent Christ's doing many mighty works.

So far as I can judge, it does not appear that the Lord is at present using me as an instrument of doing great execution as to the work of conviction and conversion. The principal effect of my present labours seems to be with regard to some of the people of God, in their instruction, direction, and consolation, particularly in perplexed and distressed cases. But I think, so far as I am an instrument at all regarded by the Lord, he is rather preparing and polishing me than using me. Though he has had such bad materials to work upon in me, that it seems to require more pains at his hand than is taken with some, the more that this is the case, the greater glory will appear in him who is the great artificer in the kingdom of grace, who is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham; nor is it vain for a poor creature to wait upon him in that empty, hungry, distressed way in which it is ordinary for me to wait upon him. He with whom we have to do is one who brings the blind by a way that they know not, and who makes darkness light and crooked things straight. And, though it is a great thing to us, yet it is not also a great thing in his eyes, in a short time to make a rich compensation (I mean not in the way of death but of grace) for the on-waiting of many years.

I do not think it presumption to comfort myself with such expectations, as that though I may be allowed to seem to toil long to little purpose, yet he may train me up for being at length used as an instrument in an acceptable time, when the wind of the Spirit shall blow with more apparent quickening power than at present, and when trembling at the word of God shall not be so much out of fashion as it now seems to be.

The Lord can soon give such a draught of souls as will be matter of astonishing triumph through eternity. Surely it is worth while to wait long upon the possibility of this, and, with such hope, 'in the morning to sow our seed, and in the evening not to withhold our hand.'

I have said enough as to myself; I acknowledge myself obliged to have a deep concern for the success of the gospel in your hands, and am desirous of acting much more up to this obligation in the way of earnest prayer than the wretched prevailing of spiritual death will frequently allow.

None ought more especially to thank God through Jesus Christ than I, for the ample treasures of sin-conquering and fruit-producing grace.

It will be good news to hear of there having been much of the presence of God with you at your sacramental solemnity, which will probably be over before this comes to hand.

I humbly beg to be remembered in your prayers, JL.

Letters of John Love on the Ministry (1)

2009-03-12T16:59:00.003Z

Dear Sir (written in 1779)

I hope it is from a good design that I trouble you with this letter; which it will be worth your while to read and mine to write, if thereby you are led to think more seriously than ever on these three things.

1. The vast difficulty of the work of the ministry. I know something of this now by experience. I feel how difficult and supernatural a thing it is to feel in my heart holy love to God and man, so prevailing as to keep self-seeking as to applause etc. in its proper distance from such holy work.

2. How glorious a thing it is to be enabled to preach the gospel from divine supernatural views of it, and from divine supernatural ends, that God may be glorified in the salvation of sinners! If it had not been a glorious thing, Christ would not have been engaged in it, nor would he have made such promises to those who attain to it!

3. How full and free are the treasures of grace in Christ!

I have been preaching as an assistant in R_____ for some time, and have continued for eight Sabbaths past, with a view to the public state of matters, on Habakkuk 3:16: 'When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.'

I beg your help at the throne of grace in the work in which I am engaged.

Scottish Puritans (two volumes), edited by W.K. Tweedie, rpt. 2008, Banner of Truth

2009-02-26T11:30:00.002Z

This hardback set was originally published by the Wodrow Society in the nineteenth century with the title Select Biographies; the contents were edited by William K. Tweedie (1803-63), a Free Church of Scotland minister in Edinburgh who not only functioned as an editor but was a popular author on various topics.

The volumes contain accounts of the lives of several well-known Covenanting ministers (John Welsh, Patrick Simson, John Livingstone, David Dickson, William Guthrie and James Fraser of Brae) as well as shorter items, some by outstanding women, which indicate the high quality of Protestant spirituality that was found during that period in Scottish history.

While each of the various items has its own significance, the records of two individuals highlight the importance of these volumes. Volume 1 is largely taken up with John Livingstone (autobiography, letters, sermons, addresses, and an intriguing collection of incidents experienced by several ministers) and Volume 2 by the Memoirs of Fraser of Brae (written by himself, and a recognised masterpiece of spiritual self-reflection that is comparable to Bunyan’s Grace Abounding).

Livingstone was a Lowlander and Fraser a Highlander from Ross-shire, but whether that distinction mattered at the time is doubtful. While some readers find self-analysis by others a difficult genre to read, the writings of these men, and others in the volumes, should lead us to ponder the life of God in the soul of man (to use Scougal’s well-known title).

Of course, there is much more than self-analysis in these volumes. In addition we read stirring accounts of men and women who suffered much for Christ, yet retained a deep attachment to his cause. Moreover, the preachers whose ministries are recounted saw powerful movements of the Spirit, and much can be learned from their emphases.

The volumes are a reminder that profound spiritual experiences, movements of the Spirit in conversions, and powerful opposition to the true church, which today we tend to identify with other parts of the world, was at one time the lot of the church in Scotland. Although at times written in a manner difficult for modern readers, the volumes are worth persevering with, and are recommended for those who wish to read spiritual classics from Scotland’s privileged past.

Christmas Evans -- No Ordinary Preacher, Tim Shenton, Day One

2009-02-23T17:15:00.003Z

Wales, in the past, has experienced spiritual revival and produced outstanding preachers of the gospel. One such preacher was the one-eyed Baptist pastor Christmas Evans (1766--1838) and in the years of his ministry he was involved in periods of spiritual awakening when churches of which he was pastor were blessed with occasions of great gospel blessing. Evans was naturally gifted in many ways, especially in oratory and a creative imagination (he was known as ‘the John Bunyan of Wales’), and these gifts combined to make him a very attractive preacher in his day.

Like all other servants of God Evans had defects: some seem to have been the consequence of inadequate theological training (which appeared when he became involved in doctrinal disputes) and others were connected to his personal traits (at times he could be severe with those who disagreed with him, and sometimes he let his penchant for humour come out in inappropriate situations). He had a tendency to place far too much reliance on dreams as a means of divine instruction, when it is possible that they were connected to his vivid imagination. Nevertheless he could sway great crowds when he took them to Calvary to observe the suffering Saviour, and a preacher who can do this on a regular basis is worth his weight in gold (and Evans was a big man physically).

This paperback is an abridged version of a previous biography of Evans by the author. It contains thirty short chapters and is designed to make the story of Evans accessible for ordinary readers. The account informs contemporary readers of some of the great things God did in the past in days of spiritual awakening, and should cause them to long for similar, even greater occurrences today.

In addition to highlighting the God-given abilities of preaching that Evans possessed, the book also stresses the importance of prayer in his life. Two quotations from Evans himself reveal the reality of prayer that he knew: on one occasion he said, ‘A thousand prayers bubble up from the fountain of my soul’; on another occasion he stated, ‘I never succeeded in anything for the good of others without making it a matter of prayer.’

Since Evans was noted for his quick wit and humour, here is an example of it. One day, while travelling across some hills on a summer’s day, he met a preacher with the surname Herring. Herring greeted Evans by saying how unusual it was to meet Christmas in the middle of summer. Evans replied that it was not as surprising as meeting a live herring on top of a mountain.

The story of Christmas Evans is one with which Christians, especially preachers, should be familiar. There are several biographies of him, and this one is a good choice with which to begin.

My book on the Lord's Supper

2009-02-17T21:30:00.006Z

Since I mentioned my book in the previous blog, further details about it can be seen here.

In this post, I will include the foreword by Douglas Kelly and the endorsements (in alphabetical order) on the cover.

Foreword by Douglas Kelly (Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA)

It is my pleasure to write this foreword for my long-time friend, Malcolm Maclean, both out of high esteem for him and his ministry, and also out of excitement over this much-needed volume on the meaning and practice of the Lord’s Supper.

Over my many years as a theology professor, I have longed for a clearly written volume of modest size on the subject of the Lord’s Supper. My desires have been that it would start off with fair-minded Biblical exegesis of crucial passages; that it would look honestly (while avoiding bitterness or exaggeration) at the different (and competing) understandings of the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper among the major Christian traditions; and that finally it would state attractively, but humbly (with awareness of conceptual limitations of any viewpoint), the insights of John Calvin on the spiritual presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

I have wished for something like this, not only as a professor, but also as an ordinary church-goer. For at times, I am disappointed at being told at communion services what is wrong with the non-Presbyterian views, and then there is a ‘full stop’ before the elements are passed out. I wonder, do these ministers have no idea what Scripture actually teaches about how the risen Christ is using the Lord’s Supper to strengthen the bonds of union with himself? I will be surprised if Malcolm Maclean’s new book does not greatly help them get beyond the mere negative critique of defective views, into something beautifully positive and full of life for the congregation of believers, as well as seekers.

All of these long-desired things, I have – to my great pleasure and gratitude – been given in this work of Malcolm Maclean. I normally do not like preparing forewords to books. But this one was an exception: I could barely put it down! While it is fairly and soberly written with academic care, somehow it is beautifully and intriguingly written, so that it keeps you wanting more, and will simply not let you go until you have finished it.

Malcolm Maclean adds something in addition to the points I had for years desired in a book on communion, and I am glad he did so. He ‘earths’ the theology and practice of the sacramental life that is based upon faith in the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, in the experience of the Reformed Churches in Scotland for the last 500 years. His account of sacramental Calvinism in Scotland does not pass through rose-tinted glasses. It combines appreciation with necessary, realistic critique. But somehow, it all comes alive, and leaves one hopeful for the future of local churches, who are determined to minister fruitfully Word and sacrament in their own generation and culture.

This book will become a required text in the course I teach each year on ‘Church and Sacraments’ at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte.

Endorsement by Dr. Iain D. Campbell (Free Church of Scotland,Back, Isle of Lewis)
Malcolm Maclean’s study of the biblical basis, historical development and practical administration of the Lord’s Supper in our churches is a rich blend of scholarly analysis and pastoral insight. The question of what Jesus is doing in the Lord’s Supper rather than what we are doing challenges the subjectivism that drives much of our practice, and restores a much needed emphasis on the Supper as a means of grace. This study is highly recommended.

Endorsement by Mark Johnston (Grove Chapel, London)
Few things are more precious in the ordinary life and experience of the church than the sacramental meal instituted by Christ. Yet few things are more poorly understood and appreciated by his people. Round the Lord’s Table we not only meet with Christ and hear his voice – which is true on every occasion his people gather in his name – but we also commune with him. In the language of the Book of Common Prayer: here his people ‘feed upon him by faith in their hearts with thanksgiving.’

Malcolm Maclean has done the church of the 21st Century an enormous service by providing a resource that opens up the meaning of sacrament so helpfully. He not only unpacks its significance as he explores its theology, but by looking at the past he also makes us think again about the practicalities of how it should be celebrated. All who long to benefit more fully from the Lord’s Supper will do well to read these pages.

Endorsement by Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas (Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi)
A veritable tour de force on the theology and practice of the Lord’s Supper in Scottish Presbyterianism which will be of interest to the entire church. Maclean’s handling of the subject is comprehensive and sure-footed, delving into practical areas of frequency and observance as much as the theological principles which underpin the Communion Service. A timely and important book that will aid in the rediscovery of importance and function of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in the life of the church.

1.9 Revelations and Scripture

2009-02-17T20:41:00.003Z

In responding to persons he calls Libertines Calvin gives further insight into the witness of the Spirit and the Bible. The Libertines assumed that their opinions were revelations of the Spirit and superior to the Word of God. In my travels I have met some of the spiritual descendants of these people who informed me that the direct guidance they received overrode some plain statements of the New Testament. Despite their enthusiasm I had no compulsion to believe them.

Calvin asks a very simple question: is the Spirit likely to bear witness to his own Word or to the statements of an individual who claims to be the bearer of divine revelation? The answer is obvious: he bears witness to his Word.

I found two emphases of Calvin in this chapter very challenging:

First, in dealing with the relationship between the Word and the Spirit Calvin provides a graphic illustration of real fellowship with God through his Word: 'For the Lord has so knit together the certainty of his word and his Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the word when the Spirit shining upon it enables us to behold the face of God.' Reading the Bible and meditating on it are not ends in themselves -- they are means of bringing us into contact with God. Where does my Bible reading take me?

Second, the Reformer connects the Spirit's witness to the act of preaching when he refers to Paul's description of it in 2 Corinthians 3:8 (the ministration of the Spirit): 'the Holy Spirit so cleaves to his own truth, as he has expressed it in Scripture, that he then only exerts and puts forth his strength when the word is received with due honour and respect.'

Recently I had a book published. While my book is not of much consequence in the big picture of things, I would be annoyed if an individual was to misquote it or misapply it, and disappointed if a reader made no effort to understand it. If I will react in such a way regarding my book, should I not then be careful how I treat and use the Spirit's Book, making sure that I make every effort to understand a passage or verse, then explain it accurately in my preaching, and encourage others by such an example to do the same? Surely I want my preaching to cause listeners to have due honour and respect for God's Word.

The Credibility of Scripture (1.8)

2009-02-12T21:41:00.002Z

In this chapter Calvin says that those who already have the witness of the Spirit regarding the divine inspiration of the Bible can also then appreciate various other evidences of its origin. I think he mentions four evidences.

First, Calvin states that the ordinariness of the words of Scripture are an evidence: ‘Our hearts are still more firmly assured when we reflect that our admiration is excited more by the dignity of the matter than the graces of the style. For it was not without an admirable arrangement of Providence, that the sublime mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have for the greater part been delivered with a contemptible meanness of words.’ This choice of style prevents the wicked from arguing that the Bible’s powerful effect comes from eloquent words and elevated descriptions.

This does not mean that Calvin did not recognise there were beautiful passages in the Bible. Yet even when the writings were homely and rustic, they as well as eloquent passages revealed the ‘majesty of the Spirit’. Because they have this divine source, the Scriptures are full of ‘sentiments which it is clear that man never could have conceived’.

Second, Calvin considers the contents of the Old Testament. He lists several ways by which the writings of Moses reveal divine inspiration (faithfulness to previous divine revelation, accuracy of records involving his own family, ability to perform miracles, and predictive prophecy). For example, Moses does not describe a new god; instead he speaks of the God of his fathers. He includes a prophecy that predicts disaster for his own tribe (Levi); he details the rebellion of his brother and sister; he does not begin a dynasty; his teaching was confirmed by many miracles; he foretold the prominence of the tribe of Judah (which was not fulfilled for many centuries). Calvin also mentions the fulfilled prophecies of prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel as proofs of divine inspiration.

Third, Calvin notes that the New Testament writers display evidences of divine inspiration: some of its authors write in ‘a mean and humble style’; they record the words and teachings of the Saviour; they include in their number those who once had strongly opposed the Christian faith. The truths they proclaimed and wrote about had not been ‘learned in any human school’.

Fourth, Calvin observes the response of the church to the Scriptures. It is important that, in the main, the church has agreed to accept the various books of the Bible despite strong opposition to, and derision of, the notion of divine inspiration. Further, many who embraced the Bible as divinely inspired were prepared to die for their faith, and vast numbers have done so.

Having mentioned such evidences of divine inspiration, Calvin admits that they ‘cannot of themselves produce a firm faith in Scripture until our heavenly Father manifest his presence in it, and thereby secure implicit reverence for it’. Scripture gives a ‘saving knowledge of God when its certainty is founded on the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit.’

What does this indicate about one’s use of such proofs? Obviously they can be helps to those who have already become convinced of the divine inspiration of the Bible. No Christian would dispute this effect. The problem concerns the value of such proofs when addressing the unconverted who do not have this inner persuasion. Calvin’s assessment is easy to understand: ‘it is foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the Word of God. This it cannot be known to be, except by faith.’ His convictions have been reflected in my own limited experience of the use of apologetics in evangelism: it strengthens the Christians and bores the uninterested.

The Witness of the Spirit (1.7)

2009-02-11T23:13:00.002Z

How can we know that the Bible is the Word of God? Various answers are given to this important question; although if Calvin is to be believed, the only people who ask it are those who have not yet experienced the answer.

The assurance that the Bible is divine does not come from human authorities, such as the pronouncements of the church (common in Christendom in Calvin’s day) or from the modern discoveries of archaeologists digging in the Middle East or by research conducted by a group of scholars in our own day. This is not to decry such methods; anyone can see that they are helpful. Nevertheless, they can be disputed because they are only human authorities. As Calvin states, ‘our conviction of the truth of Scripture must be derived from a higher source than human conjectures, judgments, or reasons; namely, the secret testimony of the Holy Spirit.’

Is this an evasion by Calvin, a clever way of sidelining his opponents? Not really. Those who disagree with him assume that the highest authority is human reason in some form. In contrast to such, it can be said that, with regard to the Bible, we have an author (the Holy Spirit) who is omniscient (therefore he knows what it means), omnipotent (therefore, he can use it powerfully), and omnipresent (wherever he wills). Since this is the case, it is difficult to disagree with Calvin’s assertion about the witness of the Spirit: ‘those who are inwardly taught by the Holy Spirit acquiesce implicitly in Scripture; that Scripture, carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Spirit.’

Calvin’s contention raises the question as to why everyone who hears the Word of God does not accept it as the Word of God. Since a dimwit like me thought of such a question, it is not surprising that Calvin realised it would be asked. His answer is that God was ‘pleased to reserve the treasure of intelligence for his children’, and this divine restriction also explains why ‘so much ignorance and stupidity is seen in the generality of mankind’.

The effect of this witness of the Spirit in ordinary believers has been well summarised by Robert Shaw in his Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith: ‘Though many who believe are not qualified to demonstrate the inspiration of the Scriptures by rational arguments, yet, by the experience they have of their power and efficacy on their own hearts, they are infallibly assured that they are the Word of God; and they can no more be convinced, by the reasonings and objections of infidels, that the Scriptures are the production of men, than they can be persuaded that men created the sun, whose light they behold, and by whose beams they are cheered.’

I am going to preach on Leviticus 6:24-7:10 this evening. It helps me a great deal to know that the Holy Spirit will bring his own witness into the hearts of his people as they listen to his Word being expounded.

Affinity Conference, 'The End of the Law.'

2009-02-09T22:14:00.003Z

For three days last week, I attended the Affinity theological conference which considered the function of the law. It was good to meet with individuals whom I had not seen since the previous conference, and also to have the opportunity of listening to theologians from Britain and America.

As far as I could work out, there were two different groups attending the first day (those who accepted the traditional threefold division of biblical laws into moral, ceremonial and civil, and those who prefer to regard all of them as law); on day three, there were several more groups in attendance (such as (a) some confused as to what the role of the law is, (b) some curious to find out which theologians are on particular sides of the debate, (c) some concerned about how their congregations are going to react).

I don't want to say very much about the conference papers, each of which was good in its own way, because they will probably be published at some stage. Also some of those attending the conference have already blogged about the various sessions, and can be found by a Google search. Here are two other personal reactions.

First, there is an increasing distaste for the Sabbath among evangelicals, especially younger ones. It was evident that many attendees had no interest in obeying the fourth commandment in a Christian way, and had no intention of accepting the arguments of any who wished to defend the permanence of the Sabbath. Of course, some may just agree to differ. Yet the problem is that both views cannot be right. Either the Sabbath is an important Christian requirement, given at creation for the worship of God and the benefit of the human race, or it is not. If Sunday is not the Sabbath, then there is no necessity for Christians to keep the day as belonging to God or for them to meet together on that day. In fact, if it is not the Sabbath, then churches which arrange such services are imposing a human tradition on God's people and should be shunned by all concerned to uphold New Testament practices.

Second, there is a reluctance to accept the value of historical evangelical interpretations if they happen to go against a person's own idea of the meaning of a Bible verse. The oft-mentioned question 'What does the Bible say?' actually was used in a manner which stated, 'Do you want to know what I think the Bible says?', with the emphasis that such an individual's view was correct and everyone else wrong. No doubt, some will respond by saying that sometimes an individual has been right and all others wrong, which of course means that they regard that individual to be on a par with heroes of the faith who did stand alone.

I suspect that those who support the new emphases (called 'new covenant theology', which is just another example of a biblical description, which belongs to all Christians, being hijacked by a group) will merely repeat the many examples of spiritual movements in the past who imagined they were going by the Bible alone and somehow always deduced that the Sabbath was not for them. Most of these groups disturbed the church for a while before disappearing.

Another factor is the similarity between the new emphases and dispensationalism. This was mentioned at the Conference, and disputed. But the similarity is there in that both deny the relevance of God's law to God's people in the New Testament period. I don't want to say anything about this point except to say that I personally heard the same arguments of the 'new covenant' followers being used in Brethren groups in the 1970s. I was not convinced of them then, and I am not convinced of them now.

1.6. Divine revelation in creation enhanced by divine words

2009-01-29T20:36:00.005Z

The desire of God to reveal himself is not brought to a close by human failure to profit from his revelation in creation and providence. Instead God has communicated in words to individuals in different ways. His speech came in such a manner that the recipients knew it was the Word of God. Originally given by various means this message from God was eventually put down in writing (the Bible). We need this written revelation to explain the revelation of God given in creation and providence.

What does this indicate about God? He is determined sinners should know that, in addition to him possessing wisdom and power sufficient to create and maintain the universe, he is full of grace and mercy. Therefore I am glad that he has not limited his revelation to creation and providence. I am sometimes startled to hear Christians express more enthusiasm for a beautiful sunset than they do for Isaiah 53. Sunsets happen every evening; if I miss seeing one, I know that it is likely that I will see another. But what benefit would observing sunsets be if I did not know that the God who paints each one also told people in the Old Testament period that his chosen Deliverer would come, and has told countless millions since, through the New Testament, that he has come. And one of those millions was me.

Creation, on a nice day, tells me that God is for me; on a stormy day, what is it telling me? I recall reading about Lachlan Mackenzie (an eighteenth-century minister in the Scottish Highlands) showing fear while being rowed across a stormy sea. The sailors who were with him were puzzled at his apparent lack of faith, especially as it was common knowledge that he enjoyed times of profound fellowship with God. Mackenzie replied that although he had promises concerning his salvation from God, there were not any promises from God that he would not be drowned. The storm did not speak to Mackenzie of divine mercy and goodness. But the written Word told him in the terrifying storm that his eternal destiny was secure, even if his trip in the boat was uncertain from his perspective. Same for us all. We need the certainty of the written revelation to enhance the revelation in creation and providence.

Learning from others

2009-01-27T19:07:00.003Z

Yesterday I began reading Randall Zachman's John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor and Theologian. I read the first chapter called 'The Life and Work of John Calvin'. My first response was that it was a strange title for a chapter because not even a large volume could contain all that could be said. Nevertheless I found it a helpful chapter containing an interesting summary of Calvin's life.

One detail that the author stressed was Calvin's determination to learn from other scholars and leaders, and not only with regard to what they said and wrote. In addition to noting defects in their opinions Calvin also observed some good and weak points in their characters and resolved to imitate the good and avoid the bad as he functioned as a teacher of the church.

Without claiming any importance, I wondered what good and bad points others see in me. Also I am going to observe the good features I see in others and imitate them when I can, and will hope also to avoid copying unhelpful attitudes that others may show. Learning does come by listening to others, but it also comes by watching them as well.

1.5.10 Present providence points to the future

2009-01-27T18:47:00.003Z

Calvin's comments regarding divine providence in the present leading us to think about the future are striking. He mentions the issues of mercy and severity as examples; since they are incomplete in this life we should deduce that they point to fuller displays of them in a future state. Prosperity for the wicked and troubles for the righteous should not cause us to question God's involvement providentially. Instead these providences should remind us of the future life in which current inquity will receive its punishment and current righteousness its reward.

I see examples of the above every day in my community as well as watch them on TV and read about them in newspapers. Yet I seldom link them to the world to come. I may show pity or express anger, but rarely look at them as signs directing me to think of God's actions in the future. In effect I am timebound, even when God is calling me to have an eternal focus on current events.

I have been thinking how this outlook should relate to the current credit crunch. It calls us to have our riches in heaven, to look forward to a location where there will be no disasters, to note that current temporal disaster is a reminder from God of future eternal calamity for which we ought now to take steps to avoid.

Or when a person comes home from hospital recovered from illness it is a reminder from God that he will yet bring about permanent healing of body and soul in the new heavens and new earth. Or when a person makes a new discovery, it is a prelude of higher discoveries yet to be made by those who will live in the restored universe. Divine providence does have a lot to teach us.

1.5.8-9 God's Revelation in Creation and Providence (b)

2009-01-20T12:30:00.003Z

Calvin has a graphic description of humans around us when he says that they 'walk blindfold in this glorious theatre'. They don't see God's involvement in the removal of the wicked or in the unexplainable deliverance of his people. But all Christians should because they know that he speaks and acts.

One of the common areas of discussion concerns what God is like, and some wierd suggestions can be given. Concerning such discussions Calvin's advice is, 'in seeking God, the most direct path and the fittest method is, not to attempt with presumptuous curiosity to pry into his essence, which is rather to be adored than minutely discussed, but to contemplate him in his works, by which he draws near, becomes familiar, and in a manner communicates himself to us.'

Of course, his advice is obvious once it is thought over. If I want to know who another person is and what he is like, I will not discover any helpful information until I listen to him and watch what he does. I can imagine some things about him based only on my own notions, which may or may not turn out to be valid. When my imaginations about him happen to be valid, it is only coincidence and not a sign that I am astute. But when I learn by listening and observing, then I discover what is real. On a higher level, it is similar to my understanding of God. My reason may tell me that it is likely that a supreme Being exists, yet that is only a notion and not true knowledge. But when I listen to the God who continually speaks and observe the God who continually acts, then I learn true knowledge about him.

Spirit-Empowered Preaching

2009-01-19T21:13:00.002Z

Today a brochure came through the mail advertising the next Aberystwyth Conference (run by the Evangelical Movement of Wales in August). My wife and I went to last year's event and thoroughly enjoyed it. The speaker was my friend Arturo Azurdia III and he gave four excellent addresses on the theme of A Clarion Call to a Worldly Christianity. Art has written Spirit Empowered Preaching, one of the best books available on preaching.

1.5 God's Voice in Creation (a)

2009-01-19T20:45:00.003Z

Today I read part of Calvin's chapter on God's revelation of himself in creation. Calvin's stress that God reveals himself daily, continually and universally throughout his creation is marvellous. This revelation of innumerable proofs is not limited to deductions from science, nor is it passive in its influence. Instead those innumerable proofs 'force themselves on the notice of the most illiterate peasant, who cannot open his eyes without beholding them.'

God's revelation of himself in his creation includes the make-up of every human. Their abilities are evidences of God's power, wisdom and goodness. Therefore the refusal of any to seek God is without excuse, and is an expression of their shameful ingratitude towards him.

Calvin observes that God performs acts of power in order to urge us to contemplate himself. Two nights ago we had a storm that bordered on a hurricane, and sadly my thoughts during it did not extend to worship. Of course, if I had read this chapter by Calvin before the storm began, perhaps I would have recalled that God was acting in the storm in order to attract my attention (and that of others) to his greatness.

God's revelation of himself in the creation also includes his work of providence. While in a sense working for the benefit of all his creatures, his providence is also his means of favouring the righteous and punishing the wicked for their crimes (adversities among the righteous and prosperity for the wicked should not blind us to what God does in providence). His power and wisdom are displayed in his actions. Given that we are in the grip of a worldwide credit crunch, Calvin would tell us, I think, to view it as divine providence expressing God's power and wisdom as he deals with organisations and movements that worked against the progress of his kingdom. Yet in the midst of this providential judgement we can look for acts of divine mercy.