Articles

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh. — Romans 9:1-3 (ESV) […]

It has long been observed that the eye sees all else but not itself. As a preacher, I am sometimes called upon to use a translator. Issues like accents and mannerisms are raised, and my default position is that I have none. It is everybody else who has an accent and some unusual mannerisms. As […]

‘…having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia … they were trying to go to Bithynia and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.’ –Acts 16:6, 7 If you are a church planter, or have been in a new church plant as a church member, then you have probably […]

Sidney Joseph Hickman, a beloved deacon at Hope Chapel, Blackboys and Ebenezer Chapel, Horam, for over fifty-one years and a member of the church for over sixty-four years, passed to his eternal rest on Lord’s day evening, March 19th, 2017, aged 97 years. He served on the Committee of the Gospel Standard Societies for fourteen […]

We must not forget the self sacrifice of one man who on March 23, 2018, gave his own life so that one particular person might live. It happened in the old French town of Carcassonne, and many have prayed for the gospel church in that town for decades. Then on Friday 23rd March an Islamic […]

Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. –Acts 2:38 Perhaps this heading takes you by surprise. You have come to know, over many years from my writing and preaching, that this is not […]

It is worth asking the question: What difference does it make to believe in the resurrection of Christ, as opposed to not believing it? Death is clearly the great reality and the great leveller of life. Fools die and wise men die – as do kings and paupers, celebrities and nonentities. Princess Diana dies, and so too Kerry Packer […]

In John 10:17–18, Jesus teaches the relation between God’s eternal decree to save and Christ’s work on earth: ‘For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay […]

It’s January 24th 1975, and pianist Keith Jarrett is scheduled to play a concert in the city of Köln. It will go down in history for two reasons: the fact that it is a hopeless failure, and that it will be a roaring success. Let me explain. Everything that could have gone wrong with regard to […]

Everywhere we turn it is evident and inescapable that something is definitely and desperately wrong with us as human beings. We need only to look at the papers, turn on the television, or browse internet news sites for a short while and we will see that day after day tragedy follows upon travesty, with sickening […]

The previous article, in February, discussed some ‘aspects of the Church’: its twofold character as visible and invisible, and its twofold character as catholic and local. All references in the text are to James Bannerman, The Church of Christ, Banner of Truth Trust reprint, 2015. * * * When we come to discuss the actual […]

‘God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.’ — Acts 17:30 A few weeks ago I raised the question of why there is so little preaching of repentance in the modern, western church when the Scriptures are replete with references to it. I suggest three reasons for this. The first has […]

Around 245 years ago, something significant happened in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. A large granite stone marks the spot where the event took place. Sad to say, people walk by this historical marker every day without knowing its significance. They do not know that God did something special in their town on September 29, 1770: […]

Tuesday 20th February was a crisp winter day in Seoul and my body clock was slowly adjusting to a new place. I left London at 10.30, taking the bus and then the tube to Heathrow Terminal 5. Everything went swiftly. I never spoke to anyone, even when attaching my baggage label to my suitcase and […]

If we had access to an ordinary Christian’s bookshelf in nineteenth-century Scotland we would perhaps be surprised at what we would see. In addition to a well-used Bible, we would see books such as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Richard Baxter’s The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Memoirs and Remains […]