In Scripture, being with the people of God implies being in the presence of God. David had been living away from both for some time. It seems clear that his relationship with God was weaker as a result. Certainly no mention of God is there for a few chapters. The fugitive David never looked less like a future king than at the beginning of 1 Samuel 30. He was resigned to sitting out the next great battle between the Philistines who... Read more
I found this quote in the Jonathan Edwards online library. It is rather apt as my American friends prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving. This week we are focusing on Edwards here at the Patheos Evangelical channel. As part of that my friend Frank Viola posted a great contribution “The Shocking Beliefs of Jonathan Edwards” that is well worth a read. Here then is Jonathan Edwards on thanksgiving. The godly, those who have that inestimable blessing, have cause to bless God which cannot... Read more
More from E. M. Bounds. I found this personally challenging as I prepare to preach tomorrow at Jubilee Enfield. Please pray for me that I will preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. If you are preaching tomorrow too, then join me in “urgent prayer for Gods presence.” We may excuse the spiritual poverty of our preaching in many ways, but the true secret will be found in the lack of urgent prayer for God’s presence in the power... Read more
I came across the following two quotes about Spurgeon’s view of prayer on a website I was reading. They both struck me so strongly that I wanted to check the sources. Thanks to Logos Bible Software I was able to find the source of the first. But the second quote eludes me, as although it is often cited online and even in books, I’ve not been able to corroborate the veracity of the story. Anybody know where it comes from? A certain... Read more
Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday. We find it hard to imagine the devastation caused by two World Wars separated by just two decades. But we must remember. We must appreciate the horrors of war and be thankful for the relative peace in our time. And we must think of those who do not know peace. Small tokens like buying a poppy, or placing the symbol ن on our social media profiles may seem insignificant, but such acts make us think. They should... Read more
I have been very slowly working my way through E. M. Bounds’ Complete Works On Prayer. It is packed full of passages which, like the quote I will share below, challenge me profoundly. But Bounds has a way of convicting me without leaving me feeling condemned. We have a choice when we read passages like the one that follows. We can either dismiss them, saying the authors lived in a different time, and that the pace of modern life prevents us... Read more
When I read 1 Samuel 29 I have a number of unanswered questions. At the top of the list is “Would David really have fought against King Saul alongside the Philistines he had been hiding with?” It is hard to imagine that the answer would have been yes. David told the Philistine king he would have been a loyal subject and fought his fellow Hebrews. The king believed him, but others reminded him of David’s long-forgotten past as a slayer of... Read more
A few days ago I connected with Janet Mefferd and she interviewed me about the need for a greater understanding of the gospel, even in church congregations. I really enjoyed the conversation. It is clear that Janet loves the gospel and understands the problem of the gospel gap, which led to us wanting to write Hope Reborn. You can listen here: Read more
I know what some of you are thinking. You see this as a UK-only problem. Well, all I can say is that the strategies that are being utilized over here will surely be utilized in the USA also. In fact, perhaps they already are. Equality legislation sounds innocuous enough, but it seems that, at least according to one article I found online, perhaps it is already beginning to be used in some cases against US education establishments. The concern is that... Read more
I am absolutely candescent as a parent that any stranger would think it was appropriate to go into a classroom and ask young children what they thought about sexuality, and for that matter their personal religious views. This article, which I excerpt from below, was pointed out to me to on Twitter. It got this issue correct over a month ago. How the inspectors involved are not being visited by the police and asked questions themselves about what makes them think... Read more
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