SM Houghton's books

 

This book has been around for a while. Just a short review. Press on graphic to enlarge.

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Open Air Preaching and books

 

Been pretty busy of late, mainly doing my fair share of open air preaching with a fellow full time FPC evangelist round different towns here in Northern Ireland. I enjoy open air preaching. Like many another preacher, it is where I had to start. Here in Northern Ireland - and especially so back around 1980 - capable enough preachers are ten a penny. (Ian Paisley used to say that Ulster didn't need preachers; it needed prophets (i.e. forth tellers). Anyway, it was in Belfast City centre on a Saturday afternoon, my trembling hand raised a loud speaker to my stammering lips and tried to preach. I am still at it and enjoying every minute of it. 

Currently reading in the Scriptures: Daniel and the Psalms. Must start again into the New Testament, having finished Revelation recently.

Books on the go: 

Calvin's Sermons on Genesis 11-20. This is a massive read, but slowly but surely is the key here. 

 I had to park Augustine on the City of God. WA Criswell said that it was one of the greatest books of time and eternity. I think it could do with a massive edit. He leathers into the heathen gods BIG TIME. Which was probably needful at the time that was written. However, IMO, to give endless examples of their folly is wearisome. Sometimes "little is more" and if I were to edit his book, I would pick out about two or three of the best and keep it moving. I have little heart to return to it at the moment. It would probably fry my brain to take on the above Calvin and Augustine at the same time. I suppose Calvin has replaced Augustine in the need-to-concentrate department of my reading. Calvin is a lot easier. 

Lighter reading includes WP Nicholson on "The Evangelist." Nicholson is a bit of an enigma when it comes to doctrine. He was born and reared in the Presbyterian Church here in Northern Ireland and you get a couple of references to the Shorter Catechism which is good. However, you can see the American Fundamentalist influence upon him e.g. denying that men are chosen unto salvation, but rather unto service. For all that, he was a man who saw revival here in Ulster 100 years ago. I wouldn't be fit to lace his boots.  When I say lighter reading, I don't mean superficial, but not the same level of concentration needed.

Reading a biography on Anne Bradsheet by Faith Cooke who is a great British biographer. An interesting picture into the arrival of the Puritan pilgrims to the US Colonies in the 1620's. 

My daily 365 daily devotional reading is JC Ryle. One advantage over the other devotionals on the go including Spurgeon and McCheyne etc., is that the compiler keeps to Ryle's commentaries on the gospels and thus the life of Christ is kept daily before the reader. 

So that is that. Signing off now. Getting ready to prepare a sermon on the text, "Dost thou not fear God?" - the words of the repentant thief to his fellow malefactor at the Cross. My preaching partner preached on the Dying Thief yesterday in the open air and quoted this text. Its words came with fresh power to me and my preacher's mind set to work, gathering together the beginnings of a sermon. 

Behave yourselves....

Books

 

Every now and again  - OK it has been a while  - I give an update of my recent reading habits. Based on the vain hope that someone is even remotely interested. However, we all like to talk books. Even if no one is listening... 

Scripture reading at the moment:

OT reading: Two to three chapters every day from Ezekiel. Reading in the KJV, but using the notes from the New Geneva Study Bible which is edited by RC Sproul. You get the impression that Sproul wrote the notes, but he probably didn't. Today I read chapters 10-11.

NT reading. One chapter out of Revelation. Today's chapter was chapter 9. Using Geoffrey Wilson's small commentary. This was published by the Evangelical Press. Usually his publisher was the Banner of Truth. 

Serious theological reading: Martyn Lloyd Jones sermons on Romans 9. Nearing the end of the book. A great read. 

Lighter reading, for when I am tired: "If God spare my life" - Bio of Tyndale by Brian Moynahan. I think this is a secular effort, but enjoyable read nevertheless. 

Daily Reading: JC Ryle. Edited notes from his commentaries on the Gospels. Always encouraging.

Great Conversions by Fredrick Leahy. Short articles from his church magazine. Little samplers really. Take about 2 minutes to read. Usually lift it about 5 minutes before a meal and I have been a good boy and set the table.

The Evangelist by WP Nicholson. Started this a while back, but I need to get into it again. Nicholson's name is still greatly revered in Ulster Fundamentalist circles. 

Princeton Sermons by Charles Hodge. Fattened out outlines from his devotional sermons to his students. I have had this book on the go for a while. I dip into sporadically. Feeling guilty that I haven't finished it by now. 

The Telegraph Book of Cryptic Crosswords #6. Sometimes these are very pleasurable. Other times, a self inflicted form of self torture. My wife and I work together as a team on them. This book seems easier than the last one, with an unusual number of 100% solving to our credit. 

So that's it. 

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Book Review - Heavenly Conference

 

 Title of book: A Heavenly Conference

Author: Richard Sibbes

Publisher: Banner of Truth

Publisher’s Address or address where book may be obtained: 3 Murrayfield Rd, Edinburgh EH12 6EL, Scotland

Year of publication: 2015

Number of Pages: 167

Hdbk or pbk: Pbk

Price: £5.00

ISBN: 13: 9781848716339

 Reading a Puritan pastor opening up and expounding a text of Scripture reminds us of the Lord Jesus feeding the five thousand with just a few loaves and fishes.  Just as the Saviour dipped again and again into the physical smallness of the supply, so too the Puritan could oft return to one or two verses of Scripture and feed his flock with countless expositions of the doctrines it contains along with the practical lessons for life.

Sibbes is the classic example of the observation which we have just made. His ‘Heavenly Conference’ took place between the Risen Christ and Mary Magdalene who was first at the tomb on the Resurrection morning as recorded in John 20.  This is the occasion when she was ministered unto by the angels and on seeing Christ, supposed Him to be the gardener. However, when he addressed her by name, she responded “Rabonni” that is to say “my Master”. He forbade her to touch Him because He would be ascending to “my Father and your Father , my God and your God.”  (v16-17)

Personally, I found the doctrinal part concerning the relationship within the Trinity and its effect upon the believer a little difficult to follow at times, but the applicatory parts were good, especially seeing that Mary’s commission to go and tell the disciples is linked to their recent forsaking of the Saviour. The Puritan always excelled in ministering to hurting saints. 

The book is well presented and up to the usual standard expected from a Banner of Truth production. It is also available in Kindle (.mobi)  and EPUB for those equipped to read it in a more modern format. While the price remains the same, yet (if registered with the Banner of Truth) the book really is yours for life, even when your Kindle reader etc. goes the way of all the earth. 

Colin Maxwell. 

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CS Lewis

I had opportunity to read two books last week, with the first leading me to look at the second. The first book was Ravi Zacharias' "The real face of atheism" which I found very good and helpful. On a number of occasions, he quoted (as many modern Evangelical writers are wont to do) from CS Lewis and particularly from Lewis's autobiography "Surprised by Joy." Lewis was a hard boiled atheist before coming to embrace the Theist position. As providence would have it, I discovered the second book in a charity shop where the bargain was 3 books for £1, so the costs was negligible. I read the book last Friday evening, finishing it off on Saturday morning. Here are a few thoughts.

The only other books which I read by Lewis were "Mere Christianity" and a few chapters of his Screwtape letters, where the bookmark still lies half way through the unfinished book. Maybe that tells you something about the latter, or something about me. 

CS Lewis was not an Evangelical Christian. David Cloud characteristically digs the dirt on Lewis here, drawing partly from an article about him in Christianity Today which effectively does the same thing, even if only with less conviction. 

To be positive, CS Lewis (who taught at Oxford) is a powerful writer. He has a way with words that engages you and even, at times, leaves you filled with admiration. All is good, but only as far as it goes. It makes his books a joy to read - see above for my diminished list of books I have actually read - but the experienced reader knows that this is not enough.  To keep myself right, I certainly would not recommend the reading of CS Lewis' books to any one, but articles like this can still draw out the enjoyable parts and share them. If you feel you should read Lewis for more, then go ahead. (It is still a free country.) But do read with care, and remember that the shortcomings are not easily dismissed.  

In the first 14 chapters of Surprised by Joy, Lewis tells us how he came to embrace atheism and then reason himself out of it and into Theism. He commences chapter 15 with the words: "It must be understood that the conversion recorded in the last chapter was only to Theism , pure and simple, not to Christianity."  He had found atheistic books generally entertaining but shallow and came slowly to see how philosophy demanded the existence of a Deity. He uses some powerful word pictures to describe the journey. Near the end of his atheism, he makes powerful allusion to the "Great Angler" who he said "played his fish and I never thought the hook was in my tongue." (p.163) I assume that the Great Angler was God Himself. He uses the countryside allusion once more when, again near the end of his atheism, he likened himself to a fox being chased by hounds. The moment of the kill was surely near because the fox was out of "Hegelian Wood" (Hegel being the atheistic philosopher) and "was now running in the open" with the "hounds barely a field behind." (p175) More powerful imagery changes the metaphor to a chess game where, as he surveyed his atheistic reasons for not believing in a Supreme Deity, he observed: "All over the board my pieces were in the most disadvantageous positions. Soon I could no longer cherish even the allusion that the initiative lay with me. My Adversary began to make His final moves." (p168) (He calls the chapter describing his limited conversion "Checkmate") 

What tends to be worrying is that he describes his limited conversion as a response to the "absolute  leap in the dark" that was "demanded." Certainly no recognition here of the word of God shining its light etc (Psalm 119:105/130) That said, he does talk about his struggle with the Almighty. He had been using, in his last days of atheistic struggle, language that avoided giving the impression that he was now starting to believe in God's existence. He spoke about the "Spirit" (which, I suppose, could mean whatever you want it to be mean) and any actual references to God were qualified with the snide "the God of popular religion." However, God wasn't having it. I must admit I like the way that Lewis puts it: "My Adversary waived the point. It sank into utter unimportance. he would not argue about it. he only said, 'I am the Lord'; 'i am that I am'; I am.'"(P177) His actual (limited) conversion is described in these words: 

"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted, even for a second from my work, the steady unrelenting approach of him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity term of 1929 I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." 

After this conversion to Theism, Lewis toyed with what God/god he was going to believe in.  This is hardly the language of one who has been convicted and led into truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. He tells us that he was left with a virtual choice between Hinduism and Christianity and opted for Christianity. But, as we have referred to already, a Christianity that was sadly very defective with a chronic denial of the inspiration of Scripture and even the penal atonement of Christ. 

So that's that. Who knows, but I might restart or reread the Screwtape Letters again and see some flashes of literary genius there with some spiritual lessons? 

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Newsy stuff

Athlone St Pats Day Parade

Been a busy week this week. Usual Monday work with taking the Assembley in Clogher Valley Independent Christian School (Studying the Book of Nehemiah) and then the Lower Secondary Scripture Class where the life and times of the Apostle Paul has held our attention since September. We covered Acts 21 last week. On Monday night, I led the gospel meeting down in a community centre in Swords in Co. Dublin, but there was little interest despite a big outreach effort the previous Saturday. Two converted RC's came into the meeting, including a Hungarian man who had studied for 5 years to become a priest before getting saved. Wednesday saw me in solo outreach in Cavan Town and then I joined up with another believer from the FPC outreach work in Athlone for the St. Patrick's day parade. The picture on the left is neither me nor my friend -  You know what they say: If at first you don't succeed, then fire eating is not for you. BTW: Don't try this at home. Or if you do and it doesn't work out, don't leave any evidence that you got the suggestion from this blog :o) We gave out many copies of Dick Keogh's booklets on St. Patrick and "Easter in Ireland" which were well received. Very few were thrown away. We preached in the open air twice - once beside the 1921 IRA monument in the town at a busy traffic junction. Several people stood for a while on the balcony of the hotel opposite and listened to the preaching. One RC man in the other location got a bit nasty, but nothing beyond a few verbals. The sowing has been done - we look to God to give the increase according to His sovereign will on the matter. 

I usually take Friday's off - coffee with the missus in Enniskillen is a nice relaxation. There are a number of charity shops in Enniskillen and always the chance to pick up some Christian books at good prices. This week's hoke brought me:

William Tyndale by JR Broom (Gospel Standard Trust publications)  (available here on .pdf file)

Jesus Christ and Him crucified by Martyn Lloyd Jones (Banner of Truth)

Dialogue with a Muslim friend by James Cunningham (Open Doors)

Gideon by Jeff Lucas (Authentic Publishers)

Last night, I preached at the Parent's Open Night in the last for the season children's meeting in Fintona Independent Methodist Church. The room was packed with some unsaved parents in - including some RC's for the first time. After the children sang and recited Scripture verses etc., I used the PowerPoint and spoke on the Saviour's parable of the merchant man finding the Pearl of Great Price. There was a lovely supper afterwards. 

After I finish this article, time to get into the study of messages for a late booking for Londonderry FPC tomorrow. The booked preacher has broken his foot and cannot come. So there goes my only non preaching Lord's Day between now and the middle of May. Monday night sees another booking engagement back in Athlone again for the monthly gospel meeting in the prince of Wales hotel.

So that's it for another while. Interesting days on Twitter too during the breaks. The doctrines of sovereign grace are too unpalatable for some professing believers. But still - they are comforting to me and millions more. The Lord has decreed that His church will be built through the means of evangelism. And therefore, as the hymn writer so wondering put it: "Onward we go, no doubt or fear."  See you around. Fair faa ye!

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More Book stuff

Back to my love affair with books. Where I am at the moment: 

Currently reading Jeremiah's prophecy in the Bible in my own private reading. Using Calvin's Commentary on this OT book. I'm into chapter 12. Calvin lectured on this book in Geneva, so basically following his lectures. Will take a while but hey!  what's the hurry? Also reading in Mark's gospel with the help of John Trapp. Spurgeon said that he could read Trapp when he was too tired to read anyone else. Trapp isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy him. His commentary would have been greatly improved if he had given the English translation of the many Latin phrases he saw fit to use. In our family devotions, we just started into 1 John. 

Also got my bookmarker in JI Packer's "Fundamentalism and the word of God" which is very good. Plus "God's Bankers" by Gerald Posner (secular book on the Vatican finances) for easy reading. 

Downloaded quite a few freebie books during the past few days on Amazon for Kindle and also the app that lets you read them on the PC. I read very few books on my PC, but use it for reference purposes. 

Decided to buy the John MacArthur Study Bible on Kindle for the low price of £3.99 I haven't got round to seriously studying it yet, but it's there like many another commentary to be used when necessary. You can't go wrong, as the man wisely said. 

Limiting Omnipotence - The Consequences of Calvinism (David Dunlap) Gospel Folio Press Seems to be a Plymouth Brethren book attacking Calvinism. I can't back up this statement with facts, but I do suspect that the writer will attack Hyper Calvinism, but dress it up as Calvinism. I hope not, because such books. articles etc are 10 a penny and overpriced at that. But we will see. It set me back a mere £1 so the loss will not be great. I notice how he attacks Calvinists for interpreting the enduring to the end in Matthew 24:13 as referring to eternal salvation. Perhaps he is unaware that non Calvinist and Brethren writer HA Ironside took the same position? Sometimes I wish I had the time to really sit down and go through these type of books line by line. Let them throw at us what they will - Calvinism has been around for quite a while and (as I often tweet) they enjoy the fruits of it in their libraries and hymnbooks etc. 

Be ye holy - the call to Christian Separation (Fred Moritz) One of the very few books I own published by BJU Press. It has an index which might prove useful. 

The Fight (John White) Subtitled "A practical handbook for Christian living"  (IVF) I imagine it does what it says it will do on the tin. I have seen a few of these books about and this author's name, but he remains an unknown entity to me beyond that. 

The Scot in America and the Ulster Scot (Whitelaw Reid) Books Ulster - The Ulster Scots Academy. This is a secular book about my "ain fowk" i.e. the Ulster Scot of whom men like BH Carroll spoke so movingly here. 

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Holidays July 2015

Portstewart 

OK, some chatty stuff. I spent from Monday to Friday (today) with my family in the absolutely beautiful north coast of Northern Ireland, staying in the holiday home in Portstewart of a friend. Our trip started off by going to the most northern part of the island of Ireland (Malin Head) which (wait for it) is actually in Southern Ireland. That will confuse every one except those of us in the know. Hint: Southern Ireland as such doesn't exist. But it is the natural phrase to use for the Irish Republic if we use the term Northern Ireland. IOW: The most northern part of the island of Ireland is not in the UK, but "in the south" (to use another obvious term). Enough. 

While south of the border I picked up two commentaries (1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians) from the IVP Bible Speaks Today series which Ryan Hayden seems to like here. If I had paid full wack, they would have set me back £20.00 sterling. However, I got two pretty clean copies in a charity shop for €1.50 (Euro) which works out £1.20 sterling total. Other book buys include TC Hammond's classic little (Calvinist) theology book In Understanding Be Men (also IVP) for a few pennies. I already have some of these, but they are good to give away to young believers. I also picked up F. LaGard Smith's When Choice becomes God book on how Pro choice thinking is killing America's soul. A mint copy of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People also adorns my bookshelves now, again for a few pennies (50p) William Barclay's commentary on Galatians and Ephesians helped me up a 3 for £1 trio. FTR: Barclay was a modernist and a Universalist, so definitely not recommended. An interesting find was a nice clean copy the New Testament "Recovery version" with extensive notes from someone calling himself "Witness Lee" of whom I know nothing, but leaves me wondering. Again, mention here is not an endorsement. 

The weather wasn't kind but still, it was a time away as a family and pretty relaxing. Watched Foyle's War last night on the TV which provided its usual entertainment value. Over the week, my wife and I did a few cryptic crosswords - one full one and cleaned up a few old ones that never got completed. I really must blog on cryptic crosswords some day. 

Spent a fair bit of time (and my 3G supply) on Twitter with a few Twitter friends, mainly over Calvinism and whether regeneration precedes faith in Christ or flows from it. It is still rumbling on. 

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Bishop Hall

Bishop Joseph Hall

I first came across Bishop Hall, I suppose, about 10-12 years ago when I bought the 3 volume hard back Soli Deo Gloria reprint of "Hall's Contemplations" new for the grand sum of £35.00 (Still a lot of money) CH Spurgeon gave these volumes a great commendation in his Commenting and Commentaries. He wrote:

"Need I commend Bishop Hall's Contemplations to your affection attention? What wit! [wisdom]  What sound sense! What concealed learning! His style is as pithy and witty as that of Thomas Fuller, and it has a sacred unction about it, to which Fuller has no pretension." 

At a recent visit to John Gowan's bookshop, I picked up an odd hard back volume (1/10) of Hall's works for the grand sum of £15.00. It was printed in 1808 and is a very clean copy. It contains 43 of the good Bishop's sermons. Seeing some of these sermons run to about 22 pages, then obviously the good Bishop must have been one of those preachers who had an hour glass beside him and when the sand run done, just turned it over and let it start again. The last sermon I read, however, on Judging not according to appearance, was preached before the King (James I of KJV fame) and ran to just 9 pages in print. I suppose His Majesty wasn't going to tolerate what others tolerated. Spurgeon says it all in his comments above. In the marathon sermons, I tend to read his introduction at one sitting and then his points at separate sittings. It is all good stuff, with plenty of #RealMeat and definitely #NoFluff, although I am not sure where he was going with one sermon in particular (preached in two parts at an annual service - one half one year and the other half the next.) Even great men don't connect all the time. But I would give these sermons a good mark out of 10, taking off a little because of their length. 

Bishop Hall was a Calvinist. He was very Anglican in his views, which meant that he didn't get into the same trouble other Calvinists tended to get into with James I and his sacerdotal friend like Laud. That said, he probably wasn't over appreciated by the Presbyterians and other Non Conformists etc. James I wanted him to go to the Synod of Dort in 1618 to represent Britain in the debate with the Arminians but he fell ill and another took his place. 

The last sermon I read was on the "Deceit of Appearance" from John 7:24 "Judge not from appearance, but judge righteous judgement." After a few (OK quite a few) words of introduction, he got to his main points. If we should judge according to appearance, then we would: 

[i] Think basely of the Saviour of the World
[ii] Scornfully overlook the ordinances of God
[iii] See God's children as woeful and His enemies as great
[iv] Recognize all that glitters as gold and all as dross that does not glisten
[v] See false religion as true and true religion as false
[vi] See good as evil and evil as good

The Puritans or Puritan types regularly had great sermon titles. The next sermon I am due to read is on Jeremiah 17:9 on the heart being deceitful above all things. The first page reads like this:

SERMON IX

THE GREAT IMPOSTOR:

LAID OPEN IN A SERMON AT GRAY'S INN, FEBRUARY 2, 1622

***

TO THE MOST NOBLE, AND WORTHILY HONOURED

SOCIETY OF GRAY'S INN:

AT WHOSE BAR THIS IMPOSTOR WAS OPENLY ARRAIGNED:

JOSEPH HALL 

HUMBLY DEDICATES THIS PUBLIC LIFE OF HIS WEAK AND UNWORTHY LABOUR 

If you can get hold of any of Hall's stuff - whether the reprinted Contemplations or even his sermons and works, then be assured (unless you are paying an exorbitant price) that they will be worth the money. 

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Parking

Recently I felt the need to park a couple of books which I had started reading. One was Patrick Fairbairn on Prophecy and the other was Geerhardus Vos's Biblical Theology. I felt I was out of my depth in both and gaining little from trying to get the grasp of their arguments. I don't believe in reading for the sake of reading. The soul may be hungry but the mind needs to be engaged, and these two books weren't just doing it for me. I haven't passed or sold the books on. A bookmarker does it job in the respective page where I decided to quit for a while. I might never go back to them at all, or just rely on the contents/index pages for help in future references. 

I don't often park books, and I can't remember ever doing so with two in a row. With my confidence shaken a little, I headed for safe ground. I have started Bishop Ryle's "Upper Room" which I read in the early 1990's and feel I should read again. Ryle is always simple, enjoyable and beneficial to read. I want to return to this book again in a near blog post. 

On the secular front, I also started John Prebbel's book "The Lion in the North" subtitled, "A personal view of Scotland's History". The early pages are full of the almost mystical fog bound hills and glens of the celt and the gael. Maxwell is a Scottish surname and it always prods something deep within me when I read this kind of book. I picked this one up second hand last week. I have read Prebbles other books  on Culloden and the Highland clearances which I thoroughly enjoyed. His book on the Glencoe Massacre still lies unread on my shelf, but all in good time, if God spares. 

Enjoy your reading. 

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