On September 17th 1939 Martyn Lloyd-Jones- two weeks after war was announced- preached on Acts 16:25. Paul and Silas have been flogged and imprisoned in Philippi. And yet we read- “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Lloyd-Jones wrote to his wife […]
Over the weekend I was reading Iain Murray’s biography of the great 20th century preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Now that wasn’t just because there wasn’t a great deal else to do! Rather I wanted to focus on this question- how did his church, Westminster Chapel in London, cope with the war? After all, there may be […]
Once a year we consider the story of a well known Christian as part of our Sunday evening service. This is largely a chance for me to be self-indulgent and pretend that I am still studying history. The more serious aim is to be encouraged by the Lord’s work in years past and also allow […]
Tonight was our annual biography evening at church. You can listen to the talk here. However, if you do so, you might find the handout that we used helpful to follow along. It is reproduced here: Early Life Born in 1832 to godly parents in Barnsley Converted as a teenager after a period of […]
On Wednesday I had the privilege of speaking at the Chapel service for Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. We have had a number of their students as part of the church over the years. That has been enriching for us particularly to hear from brothers and sisters serving in areas with a relatively small Christian […]
We have an annual tradition at Woody Road. Once a year we devote an evening service to a significant figure from church history. This year it was the turn of Martin Luther. You can listen to the talk here. However, I like to tell people’s stories in their own words so those present were given […]
“It’s Christmas, we’ll sing any old nonsense,” is a flippant comment that I recall passing my lips a few years back. Indeed there are some notorious lines in carols that we often sing. “The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes,” may not be the best line ever written to describe the full humanity of […]
Last Sunday we finished our series in Philippians and considered the themes of contentment and generosity. I probably treated contentment in a slightly cursory fashion and limited most of my remarks to wealth and poverty given that was the context of the passage. However, I wanted to return to the theme because it is a […]
One of the things I enjoy doing most is preaching less familiar books of the Bible. Often this enables people to encounter God in a fresh way as they hear words that they have not heard before. Preaching Song of Songs over the year has given me that experience and the more recent joy has […]
A few weeks ago I posted the handout that accompanied my recent talk on John Bunyan. In that talk I focused principally on three of Bunyan’s works- Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, Pilgrim’s Progress and his Advice to Sufferers. I didn’t have much time to reflect on his Holy War that I read […]