Joel part 1

Today I started a short seris in Joel. Joel chapter 1 is a pretty depressing chapter which starts with the message of the 4 swarms of locuts coming one after another after another after another. What a hard message to bring. Joel was faithul in bringing it.
The mesage was to be pased through generations. This is an encouragement and instruction to us.
We looked at  some of the verbs awake , lament, be ashamed, and sanctiy a fast, and considered how they applied today.
For all the depression of the of the message there was still hope. God says it is my land, my fig tree, my vine. God still took took responsabilty for them as his. This points forward to the encouraging message of this book.

2014 happiness

An excellent start to 2014, as we were reminded of the essential happiness of the Lords people from Deut 33.
One notable sentance the sun is always shining beyond the clouds.
A happy new year to you all.

God blesses but does that mean he approves?

I ask this question because I have been studying Jacob this week in preparation for Sundays ministry.
The situation is this Jacob deceives his father - that's right he lies to him, in order to obtain the family blessing. He then subsequently has to flee from home, and as he spends the night with the stone for his pillar, he has that tremendous dream of the ladder from earth, to heaven. In that dream the LORD blesses him. This is no ordinary blessing but is the blessing of Abraham.
So do we take it that Jacobs actions in deceit, in sin, were approved of by God. We must not. As Paul will later write "shall we abide in sin that Grace may abound?"
The answer he gives is an emphatic no.
Abraham's sin is not to be excused because God blesses him, neither Joseph's brethren because that is the way they were naturally saved from the famine. We can think of those wicked hands that crucified Jesus. Some of them later believed.
It is not the sin but the grace of God. God blessing in spite of our wickedness and unworthiness.
I have heard this being used to justify all sorts of anti biblical and extra biblical practices in services of worship and church life.
So to answer the question. We can not take the blessing of God as an approval of our actions, especially when they go against his revealed holy standards. All we can do is be amazed at the grace of God towards us, upon which we depend.

We will remember them

A good number gathered to remember the fallen.

From the going down of the sun to the rising of the same

We will remember them

50 years

Not for me. We were invited to a 50th birthday party. Meet some old friends and had some good. Nice time had - the time went so quickly.
Nice plate of food.

Our days are like a tale that is told.

Ready steady Cook

My good wife set me this challenge

And this is what I produced

Not my best

Noah at the John Owen Centre

Appropriately it was raining on the first day of the Annual John Owen Centre conference, as the subject was Noah.
The first lecture by Steffen Jenkins was excellent in content and delivery. It lead us through the early text of Genesis building up to Noah. Our attention was drawn to the the two genealogies, Seth's and Cains line, or as Steffen called them the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The crossing of these two line was noted in Genesis 6.
Noah was compared to Adam, Abraham, and Jacob. It brought the threads of family, land and food to the fore.
The next section was not for the faint hearted. Some integrate distinctions in covenant theology were drawn by Dr Gary Williams. For me personally I struggled to always see the flow of the argument and some of the distinction were semantic, but some good points were made. I look forward to re-listening to this when the MP3s are made available.
The Martin Lloyd Jones Lecture was delivered by Stephen Clarke, on Noah and the future, and was heart warming and challenging. Are we living for the future? Are we prepared for it?
The second day Tuesday brought better weather. The morning session, Delivered by Ian Hamilton from Cambridge was again excellent. He spoke on Noah and Faith. He was very careful to stick to what the text actually says, rater than what has been surmised from it. The particular focus was on Hebrew 11.
The afternoon season was a recorded lecture, followed by questions on skype by Dr Mark Garcia. All I will say about it was that the lecture was an exercise in theological vocabulary and obscure sentence structure, and I wouldn't have missed it if it hadn't been there. - Sorry it that offends but talking to others I am not alone in this.
The final lecture by retired pastor Geoff Gobbett was practical- Noah a preacher for preachers. I want to listen again to the five lessons he drew out. Interestingly he looked at what success at preaching is. A good end to the conference.
Overall it was good to meet up with friends and meet others who are in the ministry and discuss various issues. Discussions are always in good spirit, and that which unites brought to the fore, without compromising on the truth. It was well organised. Food was usual LTS standard. Price was too cheap.
Next years topic is Abraham. Looking forward to it already.