After being able to sit back and listen to others, with guest speakers at church and the marvelous teaching at the Convention and New Horizon, I was back in the pulpit for two sermons this Sunday. After our 9.30 family service led by Colin McIlvenna, we had another large congregation for our 11 a.m. service, though not [...]
Entries from July 2008
July 29, 2008
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
July 26, 2008
New Horizon – that’s it for another year
New Horizon 2008 ended last yesterday. The tent should be down by this afternoon. It has been a good week: the level of much of the teaching has been exceptional; as was the music in the evening celebrations. People have been encouraged to see that the Christian faith remains trustworthy and credible, even in a [...]
July 25, 2008
New Horizon Thursday
John Lennox continued his Daniel series by looking at chapter 3 in which Daniel’s companions are thrown to the fire for failing to worship the king’s image. They acknowledged that the powers that be are not absolute and need not be obeyed when they attempt to cut across a prior command. It is God who [...]
July 24, 2008
The Feed Trust – Lennox resources
A new website has just been launched featuring teaching and resources from John Lennox and his brother Gilbert. While John has become well known through his engagement of the new atheism, Gilbert has been leading an effective independent church just on the north edge of Belfast. Reading and studying the Bible is a significant theme [...]
July 24, 2008
New Horizon: Revelation and Conversational Apologetics
Two main themes from the platform yesterday at New Horizon. To begin with the second, Michael Ramsden addressed it in his evening talk, raising the theme of questions in the life and ministry of Jesus. He gave an example, from his own experience, of the difference between conversational evangelism and “preaching”. It had to do [...]
July 23, 2008
Half way through New Horizon
New Horizon week is about half way through. There are still three full days to go, but four evenings are behind us. Michael Green has left, having brought his two evening messages. On Monday evening he explored several things that make Jesus unique. His evening place has now been taken by Michael Ramsden, Europe Director [...]
July 21, 2008
New Horizon Sunday
The opening weekend of New Horizon consists of two evening celebrations before the full programme with all its activities gets underway on Monday morning. Last night’s meeting replaced evening church for most people (it used to be an after church meeting) and there seemed to be a more or less capacity attendance. After a stirring [...]
July 20, 2008
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
Just ahead of Easter Sunday, this is the biggest Sunday morning of the year for us as our congregation is boosted by the presence of people in the area for New Horizon. This morning the SU team from New Horizon led a family service on the theme of disappointment. Carl Ellis from Tennessee was the [...]
July 20, 2008
New Horizon
No sooner has the Keswick at Portstewart event taken down its tent than New Horizon has got underway. New Horizon runs on the campus of the University of Ulster at Coleraine and provides several thousand people of all ages with a week of teaching, celebration, seminars etc. The event kicked off last night with John [...]
July 17, 2008
A book for pastors (and those who want to help them)
A few weeks ago some good friends from our old church in Switzerland sent us a book they had come across during a seminar at New Word Alive. It’s written to help people in ministry to “go the distance” (as the title says). Peter Brain is an Australian Anglican and he writes with great clarity [...]
July 16, 2008
Keswick at Portstewart
To the uninitiated it might sound as though part of the Lake District in the north of England has been transplanted to Northern Ireland, but this week sees the annual Portstewart Convention – a week of Bible teaching under canvas – which is connected to the famous Keswick Convention that runs for three weeks at [...]
July 15, 2008
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
We have now arrived in the busiest holiday time of the year here in Northern Ireland and, along with two large Bible conventions (Keswick and New Horizon) in the area this week and next, this brings a lot of people to the north coast. This means that we are now having some of our busiest [...]
July 13, 2008
Who sets the agenda for the church
The Archbishop of Wales has been weighing in on the Anglican homosexual debate.
“It is contrary to the ministry of Jesus and damaging that in the Church, we’re still fighting battles that have already been won in society.”
It all depends on how you define winning battles. He seems to think that whatever steps “society” (I think [...]
July 10, 2008
Joshua and Jesus
Yesterday I spent a good part of the day under the teaching of David Gooding as he set out some of the significance of the book of Joshua. A highlight was how he connected the book with Romans 8. Joshua’s God-given task was to bring the people into their inheritance in the Promised Land. It was something [...]
July 10, 2008
Sunday at PBC
I am a bit late getting round to it, but here are last Sunday’s sermons from PBC. The morning was on faith and works from James, and the evening was on “friends in the rat race” in Ecclesiastes.
James-faith
Ecclesiastes-rat race
July 6, 2008
Summer Sundays at Portstewart Baptist
This weekend we start our summer schedule at PBC. The first service is a short service aimed at families with small children. This suits holiday-making families who attend the service before heading to their activities for the day. It also helps spread the attendance as we are getting to a point where it would be [...]
July 4, 2008
An Interview with Paul Tripp
Justin Taylor interviews Paul Tripp on the release of his latest book – a series of meditations on Psalm 51.
Between Two Worlds: An Interview with Paul Tripp
July 4, 2008
A few reflections on time
I preached last Sunday from Ecclesiastes 3. The first eight verses are some of the most famous in the Bible, helped on their way by a popular folk song from the 1950’s.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time [...]
July 4, 2008
How badly do we need forgiveness?
From a book by John Ensor, The Great Work of the Gospel, comes this quote (highlighted on his blog by Thabiti Anyabwile from Grand Cayman):
Ask a hundred people if they want forgiveness, and a hundred people will say, “Yeah, sure. And can I have fries with that, and a large Pepsi?” They have no great [...]
July 4, 2008
The C of E and women bishops
These are troubled days for the Church of England and the wider Anglican Church. Coming up is a vote by the Synod on whether to allow female bishops. The Daily Telegraph sets two opposing viewpoints together today. The first, by its Religion Editor, takes a few lines to dismiss any reasons (social, traditional, theological) to [...]
