A week in my life Day 7

Well, its my day off today. Nice, frosty & sunny outside. Crisp. Quiet morning, wander to the local Co-op to get Saturday's Independent and relax, spending time with the kids & washing the car.

When I was a teenager in the 80's, young people could be divided into two mutually exclusive categories: Air headed trendies who liked Duran Duran, Aha and maybe Abba and earnest ban the bombers who followed The Smiths, The Jam and U2. Yep, I belonged to the second lot. Why some Christians think that its OK to like Abba, but other pop stuff is wrong, I'll never understand. Money, money, money - how materialistic is that? Dancing Queen - since when have the godly approved of dancing? Waterloo - a senseless glorification of war and imperialism! Anyway, the music I liked seemed to ring more of a chord with me than some of the escapist nonsense that was around back then. In The Jam's Going Underground Paul Weller expressed a disillusionment with corrupt, warmongering politicians that still has relevance in the UK at the moment,

You choose your leaders and place your trust
As their lies wash you down and their promises rust
You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns

And the public wants what the public gets
But I don't get what this society wants
I'm going underground, (going underground)

I still listen to Weller and U2 but I also enjoy some of the newer bands, Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol etc. Being patriotic, I listen to a bit of taff-rock. The late 90's witnessed the emergence of a crop of Welsh bands: The Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Feeder. That's enough ramblings on music.

Spent this afternoon watching Six Nations Rugby. Italy lost to France 3-39 in a one-sided lacklustre game. But England vs Scotland was a thrilling match that heralded the return of Jonny Wilkison. Final score E 42 - S 20. Wales will play Ireland tomorrow, which is a pain. I'll have to tape the match and watch it on Monday. See here for match reports / highlights etc.

We watched ITV's Dancing on Ice on the tele this evening. After family ice skating last week, I can apprecitate the skills involved even more. Kids to bed after family worship. Then time of prayer & meditation to prepare for tomorrow moring's service. Read Mark 6 - for evening devotions.

This brings my series of blog diary entries to an end.

A week in my life Day 6

My internet service is now working again. My son couldn't do his homework last night because the connection was down. When I was in school, computers were pretty rare. But now kids can't get by without them. My first computer was an Amstrad. I bought it while studying at the London Theological Seminary in the late 80's. Compared with a modern PC, it had a ridiculously small memory and was basically a glorified word processor. In the end, the floppy drive broke making the thing unusable.

I've been blogging since October 2005 and this is my 189th post. I enjoy writing for the blog and visiting other sites. Most of my favourites can be found in my links. Blogging is good for shortish artcles, newsy stuff and discussion. One of the biggest theology sites is Faith and Theology by Ben Myres. He writes with a Barthian slant and I often don't agree with some of his stuff. But he is always stimulating & generates lots of discussion. Byron Smith's Nothing New Under the Sun is helpful & moving as he charts his battle with cancer. Gary Brady, new to blogging is pretty prolific at Heavenly Worldliness. He's an ex-LTS student and an old friend. Check out his reports on the recent Affinity Conference. There are several other sites I like to visit. But that's enough plugs for now.

On Friday mornings I usually prepare for Sunday evening's ministry. I'm preaching through Hebrews and we'll be looking at 12:12-17. Consult Guthrie & Brown (BST & Geneva). I've found Hughes the most helpful commentary over all. Sound, up-to-date exegesis with a good sense of history. Chose hymns and text them to church sec. We use Praise! and the new Christian Hymns.

After lunch, Sarah & I visit an elderly church member. My wife often comes with me on pastoral visits. I try to visit our people pretty regularly, especially those who can't get out much or are unwell. I never cease to be encouraged and challenged by the resilience of mature, afflicted saints.

Pick up the kids and off to the shops / recycling centre. Have evening meal. In between main course & sweet, play table football and win a dad/son "tournament" 2 games to 1. Yesss! Friday is "family film night". We watch Home Alone 2. Very funny slapstick & oodles of sentiment.

We get the kids off to bed, watch the news then read a chapter from Romans & pray together before bed. Friday is the end of my working week as I try to take Saturday off. Sat will be the final day of my little blog diary.

A week in my life Day 5

Began Is the Reformation Over? Interesting intro setting the scene for recent evangelical & catholic rapprochement. Christianity Explored course DVD format in evening. CE is based on Mark's Gospel. Last night focused on sin and hell in Jesus' teaching. Rico Tice, the presenter doesn't pull his punches. Good time of discussion with searching questions. Internet server down, so I had to post this via mobile phone & tidy it up a bit online Fri morning. Even with predictive text, e-mailing by mobile is a bit time consuming! Technology eh?

A week in my life Day 4

On Wednesday mornings, I usually prepare a sermon for Sunday morning. I wouldn't want to prepare weeks or even months in advance as Jay Adams suggests we should. To me, that would rob preaching of its immediacy. But I couldn't leave preparation until Saturday evening either. My brain would melt under the pressure. I'm preaching through John's Gospel on Sunday mornings and I hope to preach on 6:37-47 this Sunday. I tend to work out a rough outline that arises from my own reflection on the text and then consult the commentaries. Don Carson's is the most helpful, followed by Leon Morris. Hendriksen is worth a look as of course is John Calvin, especially on this passage. I find that consulting more than 4 commentaries for sermon prep does my head in anyway. That done, I develop the outline until I have about A4 pages of handwritten notes. That's the sermon on paper. But how it will work out in the pulpit, I can never tell. I preach extemporary, but writing the basic sermon helps me to think through the meaning and application of the text & hopefully gives the message some structure. Sermon prep until lunch.

After lunch my friend Tim Serjeant of the Door to Door Mission pops in for a chat & time of prayer. He's been doing outreach with our churches a day a month for around a year. He is usually accompanied by a deacon from Ebenezer in the morning and Penknap in the afternoon. Some promising contacts have been made. But spiritual apathy is widespread.

Visit unwell Church member. She's on the mend. Nice time of fellowship. Home. Finish preparation for tonight's Prayer Meeting. Write a letter to accompany three month prayer diary. Printer plays up. Oh dear!

Prayer meeting at Ebenezer. Focus on mission. We had several encouraging updates from societies and organisations we support: Barnabas Fund, Grace Baptist Mission, Wycliffe Bible Translators, London City Mission etc. Good to hear of what the Lord is doing in the UK and overseas. Some good feedback from today's door-to-door outreach. A few people seemed really open to the gospel. Had e-mail from a chap who edits a local newsletter & received our literature this morning. Wants to put info about Ebenezer in the paper. Nice to have some encouragements like that. Oh that our area would be really captivated by the gospel!

A week in my life Day 3

We use the Robert Murray M'Cheyne's calendar for daily Bible readings. This scheme enables us to read the whole of the Bible once a year, Psalms and New Testament twice (see here). Four daily chapters are divided for use morning and evening in private and family devotions. The scheme is flexible enough to allow a little chopping and changing of which chapters are read at different times of worship. I think that it is good to spend the early part of the morning in prayer and meditation before the rush for breakfast and getting the kids to school. This morning I read Esther 7. Oh the irony that wicked Haman was hanged on the gallows that he built for Mordecai. Esther is so well written. God's name is not mentioned, but his guiding hand is everywhere. For family worship we are reading through Genesis. I usually read the chapter and comment or respond to questions from the children, then we commit the day to the Lord in prayer.

I work part time for the Protestant Truth Society and I'll be taking some of meetings for them in the next few weeks. Most of my time today was spent working on an address entitled, Is Protestantism History? Also finished Gaffin's excellent Resurection and Redemption. I cannot recomment this little book too highly (155 pages - P&R, 1987 reprint). Now I really need to get stated on Noll and Nystrom's Is the Reformation Over? The book is an evangelical assessment of contemporary Roman Catholicism. Noll is involved in the Evangelicals and Catholics together movement. I need to get to grips with this book for my forthcoming PTS meetings.

For Christmas I was given Byron Rogers' biography of R.S. Thomas, The Man Who Went into the West (Aurum, 2006). The tragicomic life of the Welsh poet makes for a diverting post-lunch read. I'll probably post a review when I'm done.

Began preparation for our Wednesday's Bible Study/Prayer meeting. We'll be reflecting on Psalm 130. Helpful comments in Kidner, Leopold & Spurgeon. Wish I had time to read John Owen, but his exposition is over 300 pages! Do we only want our sins forgiven (vs. 4) or do we really long for the Lord himself as the watchman longs for the morning (vs. 5 & 6)?

In the evenings, I'm reading C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle to the children. We are nearing the end of the book. Lewis is a very descriptive writer and I enjoy reading him out loud. I try to make up distinctive voices for each character. The children can often spot Lewis' allusions to the life and work of Christ in the Chronicles of Narnia. The way Aslan judges the Narnians and divides them to his right hand and left is redolent of Matthew 25. We're hoping to read The Hobbit next. Story time is followed by Bible reading, discussion and prayer.

A quiet, relaxing evening with Sarah watching film of John Grisham's Runaway Jury that we taped from the TV the other week. I read Grisham's The Testament during the summer hols & I'm reading his latest King of Torts in fits and starts.

Read Mark 2 as part of evening devotions before bed. What words from Jesus! "Your sins are forgiven", "Follow me" "I came to call sinners", "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath".

A week in my life Day 2

Get up, brekkie, family worship, Genesis 25 & prayer. Son leaves for school. Check blog & BBC News website. I later walk daughter to school & buy paper - The Independent. Give Sarah a lift to Penknap Chapel for our toddler group, The Good News Club. Get home and prepare for this evening's Know the Truth, a basic Christian Theology course that takes place once a month at our house. This evening I'll be speaking about the resurrection of Jesus. I know that Christ's resurrection does not usually figure much in the standard works of Systematic Theology - but it should! (See here).

After preparation for KtT, did some admin work & had lunch. Then off to West Lavingon to visit a member of the congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church who has just come out of hospital. I'm in the unusual position for an Evangelical Nonconformist in the UK of pastoring two neighbouring churches. I preach for two consecutive Sundays (am & pm) at Penknap Providence Church, then for one Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church. We alternate between venues for Wednesday Bible Study/Prayer Meetings. The joint-pastorate arrangement enables two small churches to pool their resources for gospel ministry. This arrangement had been in place for some years before I came along in 2003.

Get home after visit and read some more of Richard Gaffin's Resurrection and Redemption. I wish that I'd read this book before I did my thesis in the resurrection. How did I miss it? I came to broadly similar conclusions to RG on the significance of Jesus' resurrection, but his work is so full of helpful insights and stimulating exegesis. His interpretation of Romans 1: 3 & 4 is outstanding. Gaffin follows Gerhadus Vos, who questioned traditional reformed exegesis of these verse. He taught that Paul's flesh / Son of God with power contrast refers to the pre and post resurrection stages of Christ's incarnate life rather than his human and divine natures considered in the abstract (see here). What I hadn't realised until reading Gaffin is that George Smeaton got there first in his The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

At Know the Truth we considered the resurrection of Christ under three main headings:

I. The resurrection of Jesus as an historical event, II. What Jesus' resurrection meant for him (Son of God with power, Lord, Last Adam, resurrection & Trinity) & III. What Jesus' resurrection means for you (union with Christ, new life, justification, holiness, future resurrection hope). The meeting takes an interactive format with questions and discussion, followed by tea & biccies.

That's all for today.

A week in my life Day 1

I don't know how this will work out, I'm going to use my blog as a kind of online diary for a week. The experiment begins today.

Got up. Breakfast. Prepared for Sunday morning service. Preaching all day at Penknap Providence Church. I led the service & preached on John 6:22-36. My headings were: I. Do not work for the food that perishes, II. Work for the food that endures to everlasting life, III. Jesus said "I am the bread of life". The main emphasis of the message was that only Jesus, the bread of life can satisfy our deepest longings. Service was followed by a nice after church fellowship.

Had lunch. Visited church member who has been unwell. Relieved to find her feeling much better. Prepared for 6.00pm meeting, had tea. Led the service and preached on Hebrews 12:3-11. Headings: I. Running the race requires discipline, II. Discipline is a mark of sonship, III. The purpose of discipline. The burden of the message was that God disciplines us to run the race of faith via trials and afflictions that we may partake of his holiness.

Came home, played Uno with family, followed by family worship, reading from Genesis 24. We all prayed. Kids to bed. Blogged. Now I'm off downstairs to read Lloyd-Jones on Romans 9 & have a cup of tea.