The November/December IX Marks eJournal has some thorough book reviews on the theme of the mission of the church, including those of:

• Generous Justice by Tim Keller
• The Mission of God's People
• The Mission of God, both by Chris Wright
• Living in God's Two Kingdoms by David VanDrunen (this one looks particularly good, but is not out in the UK until January)
• Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms also by David VanDrunen
• The Priority of Preaching by Christopher Ash (a good review from Alistair Begg)

Makes interesting reading, even if you don't agree with all the conclusions. Worth a look.

I’m just finishing a teaching series on the Psalms at Cornhill and have been very struck by how God has given us the Psalms to teach us how to pray and to praise him.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his little booklet “Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible” makes the point that we need Jesus to teach us how to pray (Lord teach us to pray) and that one of the main ways in which Jesus teaches us to pray is through the Psalms which are supremely his own prayers. 

But the Psalms have fallen into disuse in many of our churches, so that we neither know them nor learn how to pray them.  It was very encouraging to hear from Greg Strain (Spicer Street Chapel, St Alban’s) that for the past 150 Sundays they have focused on one Psalm each week in their Sunday morning meetings.  They say a few words of introduction about the Psalm, and then the leader reads the Psalm, after which they all sing a paraphrase of the Psalm (often from the Praise! hymn book).  After that the Psalm is used as the basis for the main corporate prayer.  After 150 weeks, Greg tells me that they’re about to go back and start again at Psalm 1 and that this time they will all read the Psalm together aloud.  Greg has told the congregation that they’re going to keep going through the Psalms until they’ve memorised them!  Greg comments to me that they have found this very very helpful and that the Psalms “are teaching us to pray”.  And also that “(corporate) praying is shaped by Scripture every week and yet is different every week”.

Here Vaughan explains why he comes to PT conferences and books early! Our next ministers conference is in May for younger ministers (3-6 May) with Tim Chester and William Taylor and then the senior ministers conference (16-19 May) with great OT scholar Iain Duguid and Hugh Palmer. Listen to Vaughan's advice and book now! Please note that the younger ministers conference is almost fully booked. 

Untitled from The Proclamation Trust on Vimeo.

Here we are at the ministers conference and we have had two very good, thorough and challenging sessions on ministry and marriage with John and Ann Benton. For starters here are ten questions for men to ask themselves how difficult they are. Score 0 if you never do this; 1 if you rarely do it; 2 if you sometimes or often do it and 3 if you always do it. 

1. Assume that at the drop of a hat, she is willing to accommodate anybody or do anything
2. Accept an away preaching engagement on her birthday or your anniversary
3. Opt out of family life except at mealtimes
4. Omit to communicate stuff from leaders' meetings which affects her
5. Use what time you have off for personal pursuits
6. Make jokes or tell stories at your wife's expense in a sermon
7. Use headship as an excuse for selfishness
8. Say yes to any request even if it overrides family plans
9. Expect and use sex for your own consolation only
10. Ignore or belittle her behind-the-scenes work

Be honest! Under 10, well done. Over 20, you are in trouble.

David Jackman: don't just preach long passages to get through a long book. You will tend to be reductionist and preach framework. Pause on a verse or two. Mine the riches. Secure it in its setting, of course. But don't lose the detail. 

Notes from start of David Jackman's third session:

There was a time when eschatology was thought of as the last chapter of a systematic theology and the home territory of a few crankies. One of the good results of the bible overviews we have is that eschatology is the DNA of the Bible. But what do our congregations have in mind when we speak to them of heaven? What, in other words, does heaven look like? Living for heaven is very difficult to do when we don't know what we mean by it. 

We need to understand the future well if we are to know how to live in the waiting time. Isaiah 60-62 is very concerned with this issue. Isaiah 60-62 is the central section of this last chunk of Isaiah (56-66). [BTW, David says Isaiah 60-62 would make a great little preaching series on living now in the light of what is to come – much needed material.]

In chapter 60 there is a new beginning starting (and ending) with the motif of light (Isaiah 60.1, 20, 21). This is a poem of 10 stanzas which revolves around verse 12. Those who refuse to be part of the new kingdom will be utterly laid waste.

In chapter 61 a new speaker is introduced whose task is to proclaim good news and vengeance. Then verse 5-9 are about the city of God and the speaker who began chapter 61 speaks again from 61.10-62.7. 

Chapter 62 then ends with a glorious ending.

This suggests that the unit is in five sections:

1. picture of new Zion (60)
2. The conqueror (61.1-4)
3. Zion again ((61.5-6)
4. The conqueror again (61.10-62.7)
5. Zion (62.8-12)

Now we're getting into the detail. We'll post the audio and video soon; all good stuff!

David is just explaining, in response to a question, that understanding some of the chiasms (a particular structure of Hebrew literature) is about preaching preparation, not preaching! Use the chiasm to find what God is saying and understand the passage. "It is a great tool for finding the big idea and keeping it central." It is not a great tool for preaching! By and large our congregations don't think that way, so don't preach that way!

People have been asking me on this conference [Autumn Ministers Conference] about application in Isaiah now that Christ has come.

1. Make applications about God first. The Bible is God's book, not ours and any lessons about God are always true of an unchanging God. Start here.
2. There is a dotted line between the Old Testament covenant community and the New Testament covenant community. The line is dotted because the covenant is there; but there is discontinuity too because there is a quality change when the Spirit comes and indwells the believer. It is life in the Spirit (clearly outlined in the New Testament) which governs life under the better way of Jesus.

I’ve just been sent “Pilgrims, Warriors and Servants: Puritan wisdom for today’s Church” which is the transcripts of the St Antholin lectures from 1991 to 2000 edited by Lee Gatiss.  I’ve not had time to read it yet but it looks to be a feast of fascinating historical nuggets with all sorts of points of contact with issues in the contemporary church.  Lee Gatiss is a prolific, talented and immensely capable scholar and has put together these lectures including J.I. Packer on Richard Baxter, Gavin McGrath on the pastoral theology of John Owen, Peter Jensen on Puritan attitudes to combat with Satan, J.I. Packer on William Perkins, Peter Adam on the Puritan dilemma of serving within or without a church “halfly Reformed”, and others.  I’m much looking forward to reading it.

When I first started out preaching and teaching Isaiah, there were very few good commentaries on Isaiah. In the last fifteen years or so there have been some excellent new additions:

• Alec Motyer's long commentary is very detailed and requires hard work but is thorough and rewarding. 
• Alec's shorter Tyndale commentary is much more accessible and also very helpful.
• Since I started work on Isaiah, I have come across John Oswalt's two volume commentary on Isaiah (NICOT). It's good and accessible given its depth.
• Not surprisingly, he has also produced a more condensed version in the NIV Application Commentary series. His volume is an excellent contribution to this series.
• For groups and study guide Barry Webb's BST commentary is also very worthwhile.

[Editor's note – we would also include, of course, David's new volume Teaching Isaiah.]