A club or a congregation?

A church which is crowded with people and which is a hive of energy is not necessarily a real Church.  It is possible for a Church to be crowded because its people come to be entertained instead of instructed, and to be soothed instead of confronted with the fact of sin and the offer of [...]

Marouana Fellaini strikes gold for Everton (Telegraph)

It looks like he might be conducting the choir, but he is just celebrating his second goal in two games: this one have Everton a late win at Bolton and takes them to 12th in the table, though just 2 points behind 7th.  A bit more like it.  Next challenge is to try to see [...]

Mission evening – Adopt a Child

This evening at PBC we had a presentation from the Ireland representative of Adopt a Child, a mission agency that is involved in a twin strategy of a food programme and Bible teaching among children in Guatemala and Albania.  It’s particularly good to hear about young men who were touched by the feeding programme as [...]

Paul Tripp was in Belfast last week

Paul Tripp  was in Northern Ireland last week.  As well as a family seminar at the weekend, he had some speaking events at Belfast Bible College, including a conference for leaders on Wednesday.  The theme of that was how to move members to ministry and addressed the issue of unproductive Christians.  
The first session took us [...]

Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church

On Sunday morning we were looking at the third of Revelation’s seven churches, the church at Pergamum.  The two main features of this church were that it was situated in a hard place – a centre of emperor worship, and that although it had done well to withstand persecution, it was in danger from within [...]

At last, a bit of fight from Everton

It is still a little sad to be celebrating a draw at home, but given what has been on offer at Goodison Park so far this season, most of us would settle for this.
BBC SPORT | Football | Premier League | Everton 1-1 Man Utd

A wedding sermon outline.

I conducted a wedding this afternoon at PBC.  In the message I talked about how simple statistics make parachute jumping seem safer than marriage in terms of successful endings; but people still get married.  What should a each partner look out for?

They should be ready to discover who the person really is whom they have [...]

Paul Tripp in Belfast

ESV Study Bible

Word is that the long-awaited ESV Study Bible, which has now been published in America, has proved such a hit already that it is going back to press for a second print, with a third one in the works.  We made a presentation on the ESVSB a couple of weeks ago in PBC, when I [...]

Blogging

From www.despair.com:

Achilles, Ecclesiates and flies in the perfume

Greek legend says that Achilles’ mother, fearing the death of her son, dipped him in a river whose waters were able to protect from wounding.  Unfortunately for Achilles, as his mother dangled him in the water she forgot that she was holding his heel and had prevented the water from touching it.  In battle, he [...]

Sunday morning at Portstewart Baptist

On Sunday morning I was preaching on the second of the seven letters to the churches of Revelation 2 and 3, the letter to Smyrna. Smyrna was suffering persecution and living through harsh circumstances that were set to get worse.  The Lord encourages them by reminding them that he has already faced the worst that [...]

Ecclesiastes 9

On Sunday evening we continued our journey through Ecclesiastes in chapter 9 which grapples with the futility of what life throws up.  There is particular attention given to the indiscriminate nature of death.  We thought about Ecclesiastes’ carpe diem theme as a means of coping with the way death is like the incoming tide that wipes [...]

James 3:10 – a story from Desiring God

 

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
 

Sunday morning at Portstewart Baptist

In our morning service we looked at the first of the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2 and 3).  Ephesus was a good church by most measurements.  They worked hard, they stayed tough in trouble, they were faithful to the Lord Jesus, they were doctrinally on the ball and spiritually discerning, they were serious [...]

Steve Brown in Northern Ireland

Three years ago Pauline and I heard Steve Brown speak at a conference in Philadelphia.  Steve is a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.  A big feature of Steve’s teaching is his emphasis on the freedom that comes from God’s grace.  His teaching ministry – Key Life – is available on radio and [...]

Sunday at Portstewart Baptist

On Sunday morning I began a new series that will take us through the seven letters to the Asian churches in Revelation 2 and 3.  We started in chapter 1 by thinking about the overpowering vision John had of the Lord of the Churches, noting that the Lord commands our attention, inspires our awe and [...]

I am not in Africa waiting for your money!

People have been phoning and emailing from various places over the past 12 hours after receiving a message from me detailing a sad story of theft in Africa that has left me confined to a hotel while my friends muster up enough money to pay my bills and get me home.  It is an attempted [...]

Saturday’s running mate – John Piper

It’s been wet and a bit windy today on the north coast.  But John Piper (via iPod) and I still managed to make it for a run on the beach.  It was heavy going into the wind but Piper’s talk (from the recent Desiring God conference) was fascinating.  He asked whether there can be such [...]

Au revoir, L’Europe

So that’s it for this season (and possibly for a while).  After last year’s European adventure which ended in the drama and disappointment of a penalty shoot out, this year’s version stopped almost as soon as it started.  Despite the clever strategy of buying one of Standard Liege’s best players before playing them, Everton lacked [...]