Monthly Blog

[For the background to this series of articles see the post for May 2022, Forty years ago] John Calvin From Geneva to the world Calvin and Geneva. The two are inseparable. For though John Calvin was a Frenchman most of his adult life was spent in the famous Swiss city. First from 1536-1538 and then from 1541 till his death in 1564 Calvin served as a minister of Geneva&rsquo

[For the background to this series of articles see the post for May 2022, Forty years ago] John Knox Scotland’s great Reformer When John Knox arrived in the east coast town of St Andrews in June 1559 his friends were anxious to prevent him preaching. The reason? A threat from the archbishop that if he appeared in the pulpit the soldiers present would shoot him. But Knox was resolute

It all began on my twenty-first birthday. One of my gifts was an edition of John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It was my first introduction to church history and Christian biography. I was gripped. That was January 1982. Come June I started a summer job (I was a university student at the time) with Mother’s Pride, a factory bakery in my home-town of Ayr. Now

The happiest of disappointments “See Mary weeping”. So runs the invitation in the Townend-Getty Easter hymn, See what a morning. Mary has come to Jesus’ tomb on the morning of the first day of the week and stands outside it weeping. Why is she weeping? She gives us the answer herself: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid

[This month’s post is the text of a booklet written a number of years ago. I had been asked by several different people about the statement in the Apostles’ Creed that Christ descended into hell. What did the Creed mean by that? And was it correct? What follows is my attempt at an answer. With Easter next month it seems an appropriate time to consider the matter afresh

Revival in Rose Street is a history of Charlotte Baptist Chapel, Edinburgh, by Ian L.S. Balfour, published in 2008 to mark the 200th anniversary of the congregation. It is a massive book, extending to 515 pages, and full of fascinating information.  I bought it principally for the history of the revival (1905-1907) from which it takes its title. What follows is largely a series of excerpts from Balfour

Ever envied Titus? Perhaps not. He did after all have rather large shoes to fill when Paul left him in Crete and it was no easy task he had been assigned. There were big things that needed to be done, difficult situations that needed to be addressed, important truths that needed to be taught. And Paul was no longer there to help him. Titus did, however, have one very remarkable resource

Picture life as a journey. A journey from birth to death. We are born, we live, and we die. That’s how it was for Jesus. Life was a journey for him too. When he made our nature his own, he made our journey his own as well. Birth, then life, and then death. At both the beginning and the end of his journey, however, we find ourselves in the

[The following article was originally published in the June 2021 edition of the Banner of Truth magazine] James McCosh of Princeton College McCosh Hall is one of the many fine buildings on the campus of New Jersey’s Princeton University. Dating from 1907 it is, in the words of former US (and Princeton) president Woodrow Wilson, ‘a noble memorial to our beloved one-time leader James McCosh.’ McCosh

Hope for our Planet Apparently it’s the Bible that’s to blame. The book of Genesis teaches that humankind is to exercise dominion over the planet and its resources. Such teaching, it is claimed, is toxic. According to one writer, “all of the destruction and all of the despoliation accomplished by western man for at least these two thousand years”, is to be traced to it

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert Rosaria Champagne Butterfield The subtitle is, an English professor’s journey into Christian faith. Those of you who have read the book (as a number of you have) will know that it was quite some journey. Rosaria Butterfield is not just the author. She is the book’s subject. The ‘secret thoughts’ are her own thoughts, given to us first

[The following article was originally published in the Banner of Truth Magazine, July 2020] God is working to a plan (3) The climax of it all                                             

[The following article was originally published in the Banner of Truth Magazine, June 2020] God is working to a plan (2) To make us like Jesus Like house-builders building a house or ship-builders building a ship or road-makers making a road God in saving sinners is working to a plan. Paul gives us a glimpse of it in Romans 8:29: ‘For those whom he foreknew he

[The following article was originally published in the Banner of Truth Magazine, May 2020] God is working to a plan (1) The overview Lots of new houses are being built in the part of town where you live. You pass them every day. And as you do so you see the whole process unfolding – from the digging of the foundations to the finishing touches. Nor is there anything haphazard about

[The following article is a slightly edited version of a guest editorial for the Banner of Truth magazine, March 2021] God’s intriguing timeframes How much of your life has passed? Sixty years in my case. In Moses’ case, eighty. That’s how old he is when the LORD appears to him in the burning bush and sends him to Pharaoh to bring the people of Israel out

[The following is a slightly edited version of an article published in the December 2020 issue of the Banner of Truth magazine] William Hamilton Burns (1779-1859), Pastor of Kilsyth ‘One sows and another reaps’ (John 4:37). So it was in the Scottish town of Kilsyth. On the 23rd of July 1839 a remarkable awakening began under the preaching of William Chalmers Burns. It was a spiritual reaping

Two books that will help you What are we to believe about gender? Is it the fluid thing we are continually being told? Something that we decide for ourselves? Or is it something fixed, identical with being biologically male or female, as has traditionally been believed? Let’s approach the question in a different way. Our children are being encouraged to explore their gender; to discover what it is. The

There is a quotation on the front cover of this book from the Puritan, Stephen Charnock: ‘It is impossible to honour God as we ought, unless we know Him as He is.’ An accurate knowledge of God is utterly indispensable to thinking and living that truly honours Him. That in turn makes Behold Your God an intensely practical book for its aim is to help us to grow in

On Sunday 9th July 1815, after a ministry of twelve years, the Rev. Thomas Chalmers took a sad farewell of his congregation in Kilmany, Fife. Later that month he was inducted to the pastorate of the Tron Church in the city of Glasgow. He was to remain in Glasgow for eight years, leaving in 1823 to teach in the University of St Andrews. Shortly after his arrival in Glasgow Chalmers wrote

To listen to some people, you’d think there’s nothing easier. But with others it’s different. They think of all the bad things that are going on – in their own lives and in the world – and they wonder how a God who allows these things can possibly be the loving God that Christians say he is. Is that where you are? At the end

In last month’s article we were reflecting on how rich the Lord Jesus was in his pre-incarnate state. He was rich in his freedom from need, rich in the adoration of saints and angels, rich in his possessions, rich in the love of the Father and the Spirit, rich in all that he was as God.      We begin this second article by noting that

What’s so great about the gospel? One way of addressing that huge question is to look at the greatness of our Saviour and the greatness of our salvation. The gospel is great because it sets before us a great Saviour. And it is great because the salvation that comes to us in and through that Saviour is a very great salvation.   In this article our focus is on

William Wilberforce   In the spring of 1786, William Wilberforce, Member of Parliament for Yorkshire, returned to the House of Commons a changed man. The various evangelical influences to which he had been exposed had at last borne fruit, and now, at the age of 26, he was a Christian.  His conversion profoundly affected his political life. Young and highly talented - Wilberforce was a remarkable orator - his burning ambition had

 Jonah Two helpful expositions I will always associate the book of Jonah with the Isle of Skye and Hugh Martin. Skye was where I did a number of student pastorates during the years I was at the Free Church of Scotland College. The first of them was in 1985 and over the course of six weeks I preached my very first series – an exposition of the book of Jonah