I'm not dead

My life has just changed quite a lot over recent months and weeks.

I miss blogging but life is good and God is good to me.

Read Glen's blogs instead.

PS Mike Horton's Systematic Theology is worth a read.

Why blogging is light

The reason my blogging is limited and pretty low-grade at the moment is that I've just moved cities and started a new and challenging job (Trainee Solicitor).

Time will tell whether blogging can continue in a meaningful way. I'm thankful for my new job but at the same time I found the following quotation from Luther, on the Shepherds outside Bethlehem, encouraging today:

Next to faith this is the highest art — to be content with the calling in which God has placed you. I have not learned it yet.

It's good to know you're not alone.

HT Steve

New design

Denise, has very graciously designed me a new banner to give my blog a fresh look. I hope you all like it as much as I do.

Somehow she seems to have got the impression that I like Martin Luther...

I encourage you to check out her very pretty blog, Paper Angels. Great graphics and a beautiful faith.

Thanks Denise!

What I am up to

I'm off to the Lakes for a week with friends where I'll enjoy this view from our sitting room.

Unfortunately the weather will probably be slightly less pleasant in November and I've got to bring some law to study because I'm so far behind, but please pray it will be a good break and time of 'fellowship'. I'm confident it will be both.

Blogging will probably be light even when I get back though as things are busy, busy.

Things I would appreciate you praying for if you ever feel like it would be time to do Training Contract applications and organisation of a carol service for York lawyers, and then fruit from both (in particular: on the practical front we need a choir for the carol service and more importantly, with or without a choir, we'd like to see people come and then come to Christ).

Thank you everyone.

On special request

Pretty pictures without a concluding theological reflection.

For other readers, I apologise for the lack of blogging. I am really busy, other than when I'm going for lovely walks up the Thames from Oxford.... honest.

It may be a little while before I return to proper blogging.

What I've been up to

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. I've been busy, not reading enough weighty books and simply not in the mood. But I'm still alive and well so don't worry. Here are a few things I've been thinking about that may possibly interest you.

• Just finished What Kind of God? Responding to 10 popular accusations by Michael Ots and it is really great book. Winsome, brief and thoughtful. I now finally have the giveaway book for non-Christians with moral objections to the Christian faith. It can go alongside Real Life Jesus: meaning, freedom, purpose which is my book for non-Christians interested in what Christianity is all about. Now 'all' I need is a giveaway book for people with scientific/historical objections to Christianity. Any thoughts welcome.
• The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God by Greg Beale has picked up on reaching the NT, and if I was in the mood I'd be blogging loads of reflections on it.
• I've been reminding myself how great Lesslie Newbigin and Martin Luther are.
• Daniel Montgomery of Sojourn Community Church has been thinking about exactly what Tim Keller was talking about in my last post on triperspectival application and communicates it nicely in this video:
• I've said it before, but listen to these Tim Keller/Ed Clowney lectures if you are thinking about applying the Bible to people's lives in a Christ-centred, grace-filled and culturally sensitive way. Counterfeit Gods is a good example of the principles being put into practice.
• This may also be a good point to remind people that I keep trying to keep a post with links to Mike Reeves MP3s up-to-date. I've just added links to talks on Aquinas. Mike Reeves' passion for the Gospel, God and historical theology is infectious. He is a uniquely gifted man.
• Oh, and I had the honour of doing a couple of blog posts in Glen's Exodus series on Bezalel and Oholiab and the Priests' Garments.

Hopefully things will get more interesting around here soon.

Snowed under in September

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd give you all an explanation of why the blog has been a little quiet recently, and how it is likely to get even quieter for a while.

Last month I purposely had a break from reading theology books and tried (largely unsuccessfully) to spend more time reading fiction and the bible itself. This month I have started a two-year part-time course at the College of Law, as part of my never-ending quest to be a solicitor one day. Having now seen my timetable and the teaching methods it is clear that I'm not going to have much time to do anything other than study and earn the money to live off. Consequently blogging and reading theology is going to be much lower down my to-do list. I'm sure you will all live, but at least you now know I'm not ill or something.

In case you care, when I do get time to read I'll be aiming to read:

• Till We Have Faces (CS Lewis)
• Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
• The Christian Doctrine of God (TF Torrance)
• War of Words (Paul Tripp)

And I'm reading most of those because I've been told to!

While I'm here though I'll also let you know how much I've been enjoying listening to a bit of Dick Lucas recently. I heard an American introduce him before one of his sermons by saying that he had been told by a British pastor that 'John Stott taught our generation what to preach, Dick Lucas taught us how to preach'. At first you struggle to see how he came to have so much influence. But soon you realise it is his absolute confidence that it is the bible, and not his ideas or rhetoric which has power to change people. In contrast to Dick Lucas you wonder how much you, and many preachers, really believe that the bible speaks today.

Here are a couple of series I've enjoyed:

• Romans 8 Re-Examined at St Helen's Bishopgate (5 talks)
• The Charles Simeon Sermon series (2007) at Taylor University (5 talks)

Why am I not blogging?

To be honest I'm not really sure. Perhaps it is because I'm busy... but that has never stopped me before.

I think it has to be due to the fact that I'm doing a decent amount of reading. I've recently read, or I'm in the middle of:

• The Work of Christ by PT Forsyth. Amazing to read an entire book on the atonement again. He is an engaging writer who thinks really deeply and originally. I don't think I really got it till the end, but he is very thought-provoking. I greatly enjoyed it, although I wouldn't agree with all of it.
• The Shack by William P. Young. The book of Job if it had been written by a 21st century Christian who has a problem with authority.
• Dogmatics in Outline by Karl Barth. Beautiful, moving, massive yet concise. Lots of questions but I'm beginning to understand why his impact was so huge.
• Faith in a Hard Ground: Essays on Religion, Philosophy and Ethics by G E M Anscombe. Interesting lady, but crazily hard to understand. Is she right or wrong... I simply can't compute.
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A dying world with a total lack of hope and humans that lie to themselves about their future and their present. Wonderfully written. I read it in a single evening. Thanks Steve.
• Cur Deus Homo by Anselm. A clear and simple walk through reasons why the atonement had to be substitutionary, with less weird asides than I'm used to in ancient Christian books.

Next on my list: Rowan Williams, TF Torrance, and John Murray.

What I'm trying to say is that because of my request for recommendations and other factors I've been reading more widely than usual and I feel like I am so far from getting my bearings that I cannot manage even my usual half-baked thoughts which I pass of as posts.

I'm sure you are not missing me.

As an aside I have just come across a bunch of excellent looking MP3 lectures by some top-notch scholars from a recent conference on 'Reading the Decalogue through the Centuries'. I've listened to Timothy Wengert on Luther's view of the Decalogue which was very good. I'm looking forward to listening to some more.

... I'm away at the moment

Sorry for the lack of blogging people. Unfortunately this is likely to continue till 13 October when I have my final law exam. Not much time for reading and even less time for blogging.

On the bright side I get to listen to lots of good music while studying.

Problems with comments

Sorry to all of you who commented in the last few weeks and I didn't respond. Usually Blogger emails me to let me know if someone has commented. It hasn't recently. I don't know why.

This blog

This blog seems to have turned into my notebook. I don't know if this a good or a bad thing. It must make reading it intolerable though. My lack of readers may be due to this, but on the up side my lack of readers also ensures that it doesn't matter.

Back to life

Yes, I'm blogging again. The reason why I haven't been is because I've been very busy and the internet was taking up too much of my life. I think it's good for me though, and you never know it may be appreciated by others as well.

But I'm going to determinedly keep all posts as short as possible, which I'm sure any readers will be thankful of as well. This means there will be a lot of unexplored thoughts.