Save The 8th

Last week saw the historic vote in Ireland to repeal the 8th Amendment which guaranteed both the live of the mother and the unborn baby that she was carrying. Part of the argument for the repealing of the 8th Amendment was that it would create a more fair, more equal society. A society where women have freedom over their own bodies, a society where the Catholic church doesn't hold sway.

I mention this in passing only to set the context, yesterday's Times newspaper in Scotland carried the headline figures on abortion 12,212 abortions carried out in Scotland last year, 12,212 babies who never had the chance of life, 12,212 boys and girls with untold potential to bring joy and happiness who never got to take their first breath.

The most shocking statistic for me was the rise of mothers who already have children who have decided not to have any more children who become pregnant and then decide to have an abortion. This was the most heartbreaking paragraph I think I have ever read:

"In Scotland, as in England and Wales, we see that the women choosing to access services are increasingly those who already have children, who tend to be slightly older and who may feel that they have already completed their family. This is not a story of irresponsibility or failure to understand what having a child would mean; this is about women who are making a grown up decisions about the shape and size of their family." (Times Wednesday 30th May 2018)

Here it is in all its reality this is not about creating a more liberal, more tolerant society this is about using abortion as a contraceptive, this is about people who decide that they dont want another baby. To me this breaks my heart, when we move away from God we become not a more caring society we become less caring.

We become a society wherein it is ok to abort an unborn baby because we dont want her, by all means have abortion on tap if you want but lets call it what it is, lets call it a convenience, lets call it a contraceptive but please dont dress it up as a liberalisation, dont dress it up as helping the weak and the vulnerable in society..because it plainly isn't and the BPAS comments above show that the mask is slipping.

Understanding The Times

I took this photo of the River Nith which flows through Dumfries town centre a few months ago at the height of "The Beast From The East". I love walking along by the river bank through the town firstly because it is a beautiful walk and secondly because you never know who you might meet.


On any given day you could meet one of the local people who is struggling with addiction problems, you could meet a young professional who is on her lunch break, you could meet a retired man who has sat on that same bench at the same time for the past 5 years, you could meet the tourist who was pulled up in their motorhome beside the river, you just never know.

Why am I telling you all this? What does it have to do with anything? I was reading a book recently and in the book it contained the story of Henry Frost who was involved in the setting up on the North American component of the China Inland Mission (C.I.M). The book makes this observation about Frost "Despite Frost's long-continued passion for mission to China and to the Chinese, there is not a single sharply focused picture of an individual Chinese in all his memoirs, nor any passage showing critical understanding or culturally sensitive sympathy with Chinese practices and customs." (The Message Of Mission pg.135)

Whilst Frost was deeply concerned with the mission to the Chinese people he didn't take time to get to know a Chinese person they were always at arms length, a project. Whilst Frost was deeply concerned with the mission to the Chinese people he didn't take time to understand or sympathise with what made the nation tick what their preconceived ideas where. The people were just a mass of people waiting to be converted.

How often do we apply the same principle to ourselves? We preach in Dumfries but if you read my diary how many individual people would come accross? How much time am I spending understanding the culture of Dumfries and what makes the people tick? How often are we happy to see the people as a mass needing converting rather than individual people with individual problems.

It is possible to do all this while still having a burning vision and passion for the people, Frost's passion for the Chinese was undeniable, he longed to see them come to Christ but that perhaps didn't come across in the way he went about his work.

If we want to see the gospel spread lets get to know people, lets talk to them as human beings, lets see what makes them tick, understand their presuppositions and then we can answer life's big questions that they will have with the gospel.

If people in years to come were to read our memoirs (or our tweets) what would they find? A passion for the lost? I hope so but more than that men and women who spoke and prayed and laughed and loved individual people.

Walk along the river stop and chat to the people who are there because you never know just who they might be.

Moderator...Ready

So begins every session of the General Assembly of the Free Church Of Scotland...well not quite but it would certainly be entertaining if it did. As a first time commissioner of the General Assembly I thought that I would offer my reflections on the week that has just been.

Firstly what a joy it was, I can honestly say that, to come together with some of the other ministers and elders from the denomination, to sing praise, to pray together and discuss the future of the church together was a real pleasure for me. It was so encouraging to see everyone pulling in the same direction and to have conversations about gospel growth throughout Scotland.

It was good to catch up with some old friends and hear of their encouragements within the work and their problems, to meet new men and find out about places that I had never heard of before such as Plockton, im still not sure where it is but it was a delight to meet their minister Roddie Rankin.

Secondly I learned the importance of speaking when you think something is important, in a strange way I learned this from not saying anything. One of the reports I read I thought about an amendment to it for ages but I lacked the courage to actually propose the amendment only for it to come out that many people had the same idea but didn't propose an amendment.

Thirdly I learned the importance of disagreeing well, over the course of the week there were some disagreements but in all of that time I don't feel that the tone ever turned nasty, the toned never wandered into vindictiveness. This is so important in church gatherings we can disagree but we must disagree well, we must debate well with respect and honesty. I am glad for the wisdom and guidance of our moderator Angus Macrae and I am grateful also for the men with whom I personally disagree. I am not always right and it is good to have those other voices there as a corrective.

Fourthly I learned the depth of feeling there is within the church, when as an assembly we had to deal with difficult circumstances I can honestly say that I felt the sadness of the whole assembly, there was no joy only deep deep sadness which again speaks of a denomination that cares for one another.

The general assembly doesn't always get the best press but I can say with my whole heart I had a great week that I am thankful to God for the assembly and I am thankful to God for the Free Church of Scotland.

A Cause Worth Dying For

I have recently been doing some reading on mission, in particular The Message Of Mission in the BST series by Howard Peskett and Vinoth Ramachandra which is an excellent book. The book is really a series of expository thoughts on key passages in the bible about mission.

One of the chapters contained a quote from John Hick's A Rainbow Of Faiths "Absolutism in religion, preaching the superiority of ones own tradition over against others, continues to motivate young men to be willing to kill and be killed for what they regard as a sacred cause." (pg. 61 of The Message Of Mission.)

That fits in well with todays message doesn't it? If only Islamic extremism wasn't so...well extreme. If only evangelicals weren't so dogmatic, if only everyone could recognise that every religion has elements of truth in them and blend the religions together then the world would be a much happier, much less violent place.

The only problem with that is that none of the world religions leave that option open to us, all of the major world religions make some ultimate truth claim or other. For example Muslims quote that Allah is one he neither begets nor is he begotten. (Qur'an 112)

Straight away this puts Muslims at odds with Christians who teach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, logically God cannot both not beget and be the Father of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself teaches that "I am the way, the truth and the life and that no man comes to the father but through Him." (John 14:6)

Blending all of the religions together is not simply an option that the religions themselves leave open to us. Yet what about this statement that it is religious dogma that motivates young men to kill and be killed? As we look through history we see religious wars being fought, the crusades of Christian church and the advance of Islam in Europe.

Christianity is at its heart a message of peace, peace with God and peace with one another. We see that as he was being betrayed Peter drew his sword and cut off a servants ear. Jesus response was to calm Peter and his revolutionary spirit and to heal the servant.

At times the church has lost sight of this truth and has used millitary might to advance the kingdom of God yet that was not what Jesus has in mind for the church. Rather we are always to be resident aliens in a strange land.

The gospel is a message of peace but it is also a message of self denial and even willing death. Jesus as the crowds where coming to him said "If anyone wants to come after me let him take up his cross and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

The call to carry a cross is not some insignificant travail that we have to endure in this life, the call to carry a cross is a call to come and die. Young men and women have gladly laid down their lives from the earliest days of the church right through to today? Why precisely because they believe the truth of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ as the only way to God are worth laying down their lives for.

Far from being something to be avoided we should seek to arrive at the truth because it is the truth that shall set you free.

Book Review: Made For His Pleasure by Alistair Begg

I loved this book...could not put it down. The book has a fairly basic premise but one that we would all agree with that in our lives we are made to enjoy the pleasure of God.

In 10 chapters the author highlights various ways we can enjoy the good things that God has made for us and how we can glorify God in all of the good gifts that he gives to us. These chapters cover a surprising array of topics such as sports, prayer, relationships vocation and suffering.

One of the great things about this book is that it need not be read sequentially if you want to do that (and I did) then thats great but at the same time its easy to dip into a chapter about sport leave the book and come back and pick up at perhaps chapter 10.

The whole book ties together but each chapter also stands on its own. I loved the stories that the author intertwined throughout the chapters reflecting his own experiences and also of people whom he knew this really helped show how the chapters and topics might apply to your life.

I would recommend this book to all Christians, the author also states that he hopes some non Christians would enjoy reading it and whilst I think they would in our day which lacks peace and pleasure, or often seeks them in the wrong places. I don't think too many of them would read this book. But get this book read it you won't regret it and hopefully by the end of it you will truly see what it is to live to God's pleasure and to take every thought and activity captive to God.

I am grateful to Moody Publishers and net galley.com for generously making this book available to me for review.

Free Books...Well Kind Of

I only discovered this resource recently but it is brilliant. It is a website called netgalley which provides advance copies of books for review by professional readers. When I read this I was a bit skeptical as I dont consider myself a professional reader but registered none the less and was pleasantly surprised when I was approved.

Sounds too good to be true right? Thats what I thought but it really is as simple as that. Maybe the question in your mind now though is what books can I get? Well to be perfectly honest there are plenty of books on there.

This year I have read for free:

Steve Lawson- The Moment Of Truth
Jonny Bairstow- A Clear Blue Sky
Mark Dever- The Affectionate Theology Of Richard Sibbes
John Macarthur- Good News.

My advice would be the register on net galley.com as opposed to net galley.co.uk as publishers such as Crossway and P & R publish on the .com website but not on the .co.uk website. If like me you love reading then this resource is for you, books you would read anyway but at a fraction of the cost.

Book Review: The Minister And The Murderer by Stuart Kelly

I have been intrigued by this book for a long time before I actually stumped up the cold hard £12 to buy an electronic version of it. This book covers an interesting part of the Church Of Scotland's history telling the story of James Nelson a murderer who was seeking ordination as a minister of the church.

The author had clearly done his research in terms of church polity and whilst not everyone's cup of tea chapters on things such as the Barrier Act did make interesting reading for me. As an ordained minister who sits on a presbytery now this book did challenge me as to what I/We would do in a similar situation. Some in the church felt this his crime was beyond the pale whilst others felt that forgiveness was the heart of the gospel and that forgiveness should be extended to all.

I have to say that throughout I felt myself siding with Nelson that as Oscar Wilde said "every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Not all in the church saw it that way and for many that attitude still exists even today. A parishioner often tells me "the LORD may forgive you for what you have done but the church won't." This book is a good introduction to many things, Scottish Ecclesiastical History, Church Polity and it does make one question the nature of forgiveness.

However there were some drawbacks to the book, firstly the book did come across as someone setting out to prove how intelligent they were and how well read they were. This came across with the authors constant harking back to how murder was perceived and portrayed in various ancient texts which the ordinary reader (me most of all) are unfamiliar with.

Secondly I found the authors constant looking to attribute various things to Nelson as infuriating. I wonder the author often quotes if this was on Nelson's mind as he did a deed or said a thing. Whilst this may be interesting it is ultimately futile as we will never know what was on Nelson's mind.

Thirdly whilst the author is clearly well read in theology and able to engage in discussion one of the most disheartening things was a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He states that Nelson's Christianity had not made him a better person, whilst this may be true that is not the nature of the gospel or the nature of our redemption.

Christ did not come to make us better people, Christ came to bring us to God, Christ came not because we were people of great potential but precisely because we had no hope. Nelson's Christianity may not have made him a better person but it did if his faith was truly in Jesus Christ change his standing before God.

Read this book for its interesting subject matter it is not an easy read but it is a fascinating read.