The church mug

Yesterday, Saturday September 29^th, Mary and I went back to Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. From 1966-1994 I was the pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Hanley – the Stoke city centre. The mug in the picture – the only church mug I’ve ever seen, at least in the proper sense of the word! – shows the old church, originally Congregational, that dates back to its foundation in 1812. So yesterday there was an exhibition and lecture by Gervase Charmley, the present pastor, on the 200 years of gospel witness on the site. Going back brought back many memories, as well as the opportunity to meet many old friends. Over the years God has blessed his Word and brought many to faith in Jesus Christ. I was interested most of all to learn that in the early 1800’s three men went out to India as missionaries. In the nineteen fifties and sixties a number also went out as missionaries whom we knew well. One, David Mead, who laboured in Italy for many years, was present yesterday. We trust and pray that the church will prosper by God’s good grace.

After the Olympics

The Olympics and Paralympics are now over and many of us have enjoyed the sporting exploits that we have seen. Without wishing in any way to denigrate these events or sport itself I think there are some things that Christians ought to consider. It may be that young people will be enthused to go into sport but only a handful are ever going to take part in the Olympics, let alone win a gold medal. We need to emphasise the value of taking part and not just winning or becoming famous. Moreover, sport is not the most important thing in life; many other employments and activities are more necessary and more valuable to society as well as to the individual. I hope sport is not becoming the new religion. As far as the Paralympics are concerned while this summer may spur numbers of people with disability to take up sport, there are likely to be many disabled people who are not able to; these need to be respected and valued too. While our attitudes often do need to be examined and changed there will always be a need for thoughtful and understanding compassion. More worrying is the apparent trend to revert to a pagan approach to sport – after all that was the milieu of the original games. The Daily Telegraph spoke of the pagan style closing ceremony of the Paralympics, and the picture above is of the face of a fiery pagan god that appeared in that ceremony. The closing Olympic ceremony had a children’s choir singing Lennon’s Imagine, but maybe he wouldn’t have been too bothered about pagan religion. I look forward to hearing what fruit there has been from all the evangelistic activity that churches and Christians, especially those in the London area, were able to engage in.

'I Stand for Truth'

While preparing to write the biography of Ernest Kevan I found a reference in Ian Randall’s book on the history of London Bible College to an autobiographical book entitled ‘I Stand for Truth’ by Donald Guthrie, one of the tutors. However, I could find no mention of this book anywhere else. Just the other day I found it on the website of Ian White; www.whites.me.uk under the heading Donald Guthrie. There is also a brief description of how these chapters came to be discovered after Donald Guthrie’s death. I found it most interesting, which is why I am writing this post. At LBC I greatly appreciated Donald Guthrie both as a Christian man and a lecturer and I am very glad his book is available. Incidentally, ‘I Stand for Truth’ is the motto of the Guthrie clan.

The Self-avenger

I came across these words while reading John Owen on ‘The Glory of Christ’. They occur in a chapter in which he is contrasting seeing the glory of Christ by faith in this world and seeing it by sight in that to come. Here he is speaking about the heavenly vision: ‘The mouth of iniquity shall be stopped for ever, and the voice of the self-avenger shall be heard no more. Wherefore, the vision which we shall have in heaven of the glory of Christ is serene, - always the same, always new and indeficient, wherein nothing can disturb the mind in the most perfect operations of a blessed life.’ Although I have quoted these two sentences, to add the positive to the negative, what struck me forcibly were the words ‘the self-avenger’. Who or what is this? It can hardly be the devil, though he may involved somewhere in encouraging what the self-avenger says. It cannot surely be conscience pure and simple. Conscience, however, can be over-scrupulous; it can condemn where no condemnation is required, it can trouble where it ought to be satisfied. Conscience is affected by sin, just as every other faculty is; it is never perfect in its judgements, and while it can be too lenient and too easily quietened in some, it can also be over-zealous and trouble a believer unnecessarily. What a blessing it will be to find the self-avenger silenced for ever.