ARTICLES 1: PEOPLE

GOD STILL SPEAKS PERSONALLY TO HIS CHILDREN

As you go through your Christian life, you may meet people who tell you that God will never speak to you. Once you have responded to his call and come to Christ in your conversion, that is the last time you will hear from God till you die. All you have is the printed Bible, which you must study and on the basis of which you must make your own decisions. The most you can ask God for is wisdom in making your choices.

Other people will tell you that God is always speaking to them – by words, dreams, visions, prophecies, impressions, coincidences.

Who is right?

Well, obviously God spoke to his children in both the Old and the New Testaments. If God never speaks to his children, as some will tell you, then he has changed from how he acted in the Bible. And if He is not the God of the Bible, how can we guess what his current ways or character are? And didn’t Jesus say, “My sheep hear my voice”? He didn’t say, “My sheep read my book.”

And God calls our heavenly Father. What father reading only ever communicates with his children in writing? If you speak to your children, are you a better father than God?

some writings I have produced for my children and their descendants

There are people who worship gods who do not speak – false gods. Psalm 115:4-9 speaks about them, saying:

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but do not speak … Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord!”

Don’t let anyone make a strange, silent god for you and tell you that you should worship it. The Bible shows us a God who speaks to his children.

So what about people to whom God seems always to be chatting away? People have prophecies which don’t come true, promises from God which are not fulfilled, words which sink you into misery, uncertainty, guilt and fear, and statements which are so trivial that – without being irreverent – if God has nothing better to say it might be as well if he did not speak on some of those occasions.

No: when God speaks, I believe it is quiet, weighty on your spirit (in a holy and joyful way), serious, helpful – and true. Even when the communication speaks of your sin and guilt, it can be characterised in the words of Hymn 9 in Wesley’s Hymns:

The godly grief, the pleasing smart,
The meltings of a broken heart,
The tears that tell your sins forgiven,
The sighs that waft your soul to heaven;

The guiltless shame, the sweet distress
The unutterable tenderness,
The genuine, meek humility,
The wonder, “Why such love to me?”

And usually, when God speaks, I believe it is not sudden or hasty, but comes with slowly growing conviction and lots of confirmations.

Let’s look at what happened at Anathoth, in Jeremiah chapter 32.

Jeremiah was a prophet of God, and the people – including the King, Zedekiah – did not like the things he was prophesying. So they imprisoned him in the “court of the guard” in the capital city, Jerusalem.

Then God spoke personally and secretly to him. He told him that his cousin, Hanamel, would come to the prison and ask him to exercise his right to redeem a certain field in Anathoth which belonged to Hanamel. The family came from Anathoth. Of course, Hanamel wasn’t daft, and perhaps he reckoned that he might be better off getting what money he could for the field before the expected invasion robbed of it all further value.

That was probably what was in Hanamel’s mind, but God put something else into Jeremiah’s thoughts. God told him to buy the field, as a sign that after all the coming disaster the Jews would one day come back to Israel from their exile and regain their land. Fields would again be bought and sold. “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” (32:15).

The Bible doesn’t say how long it was before Hanamel came, but if it was some while, we do not read that Jeremiah went round telling everyone what God had said to him – not that he could “go round” anyway, for he was a prisoner. What he did do was receive God’s message in his heart; think about it; dwell on it; and doubtless pray about it too. He also realised that even after all his years of knowing God, he could still make a mistake; he might be wrong; he might have misheard God’s voice. You can be sensitive to God’s voice, and still make a mistake sometimes, or not be perfectly certain about what you believe He has said to you.

If God speaks to you, don’t go round boasting about it, or making a big “song and dance” over it. And don’t force the fulfilment of God’s promises in a strained way. Rather, quietly wait and pray, keeping it as much as you can to yourself, and let the Lord bring it to pass in His time and way.

And just as God had predicted, Hanamel came and made his offer to Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, “Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord” (32:8). That was when he knew he had not misunderstood God’s word to his heart. When God has spoken, what happens confirms what He has said, and it leads us to obey Him with the next step. That is how Jeremiah knew he had got it right; that is how we shall know too.

So he went ahead and bought the field.

Field where the village of Hamsteels was (not at Anathoth!)

Sometimes you will act in faith, and then look at what you have done and be astonished, and worried. “What have I done?!” You feel that maybe you have overstepped the mark; maybe you have got it all wrong and set out upon a pathway to loss or disaster. Well, Jeremiah was just as human. Once he had paid for the field, he began to wonder just what he had done; see his long prayer in verses 17-25: “O Lord God, thou hast said to me, ‘Buy the field for money and get witnesses’ – though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.”. The field was devoted to the invaders and would not be able to be re-possessed by Jeremiah once they were there. And God had told him the invasion would happen. Would the purchase be able to fulfil its symbolism, to express assurance that one day the land would be restored and with it the Jews’ national life?

Faith and guidance are like that. They can involve risk. After all, without risk, is it not faith? If you step out knowing that you cannot go wrong, knowing in advance from circumstances or surroundings that you must succeed, where is the faith in that? Faith often includes taking a risk, believing we can trust our heavenly Father when we step out. If a man has no beliefs, he can have no doubts about them either! But trusting obedience can lead us to questioning and to doubt, for sometimes when God commands we cannot see how it can happen.

We are allowed to come into God’s presence and tell Him all about our worries and fears. Do not try to hide them from God: He knows your heart anyway, before you speak to Him. That is what Jeremiah did: he began to pray about his alarm, and stated to God in prayer his sense of the difficulty of what he had done. But one sentence early in his prayer says, “Nothing is too hard for thee.”

God replied, and reassured him, re-expressing the words of Jeremiah’s prayer in the form of a question: “Is anything too hard for me?” God had heard his prayer; God knew and understood the things that were swirling round in his mind and troubling him. He showed He knew and understood by replying in the same words.

The Jews did come back. Their return began in 538 BC, and by 515 they had rebuilt their Temple and were also re-establishing their national life.

It was faith that made what Jeremiah did so valuable. It is always faith that pleases God as we walk with Him. Jeremiah’s faith was obedient, but allowed room for doubt and enquiry. Ours may often be similar.

If you want to learn to be guided by God, copy Jeremiah. He maintained intimacy with God over a long period and became sensitive to His voice. And when God spoke, he obeyed, carefully, seriously and correctly.

You see, I am not suggesting, as I put it earlier, that God seems always to be chatting away, always speaking – by words, dreams, visions, prophecies, impressions, coincidences. I am writing about special times when God takes the initiative and quietly, inwardly and lovingly conveys something to my heart and mind.

Finally, is there already an “Anathoth” in your life? Has God spoken to you in the secret of your heart, and there is a step of obedience you must take, with all its risks? Remember what God has said: obedience is better than sacrifice.

OFERGOEL YN FY MYWYD

Mae rhywbeth swynol ynglŷn rhai mathau o ofergoelion gwladaidd, ac mae’n bosib cael hwyl ar eu hymylon.

Er enghraifft, pan dw i’n casglu aeron ysgawen, dw i byth yn cymryd unrhyw bren yn fwriadol, ond weithiau mae’n torri i ffwrdd pan dw i’n estyn fy llaw am yr aeron. Wedyn, dw i’n hoffi dweud y fformiwla gywir i’r ddraiad, gwraig y goeden:

Rho imi beth o’th bren, Hen Ferch,
ac fe rof finnau beth o’m pren iti pan drof yn goeden.

Ond os ydw i yn Lloegr:

Give me some of your wood, Old Girl,
And I’ll give you some of mine when I turn into a tree.

Mae hyn yn olygu na fydd ysbryd y goeden ddim yn troi ei malais yn fy erbyn i.

Enghraifft arall. Unwaith gollais fy ffordd yn yr eira gyda’r nos ar lethrau Moel Tŷ Uchaf. Nes i ddim llwyddo dod o hyd i’m ffordd nac i’r cyfeiriad cywir. Roedd y nos  yn agosáu. Es i i fyny ac i lawr, yma ac acw. Yn ddiweddarach, yn ôl i’r tŷ, ysgrifennes i yn fy nyddiadur yn fy iaith frodorol, “I thought I was being pixie-led.” Hynny ydy, “Ro’n i’n meddwl fy mod i’n cael fy arwain ar y gyfeilion gan bicsïod.”

Trydded enghraifft, unwaith eto gyda’r nos. Ro’n i ar fy mhen fy hun ar ucheldir Rhosili uwchben y traeth a’r môr. Ro’n i wedi bod yn sâl gyda chanser. Tybed o’n i’n mynd i fyw neu i farw? Ro’n i’n meddwl am Lothlórien, am “Gyrn Annwn” yn ôl geiriau Tennyson (yn The Princess), ‘the horns of Elfland’, sef, am awyrgylch o sancteiddrwydd dirgel, am Wlad yr Ellyllon, am y deyrnas dragwyddol. Roedd fy nghalon hanner yn y byd hwn, hanner yng ‘Ngwlad yr Ellyllon’, lle â rhyw sancteiddrwydd anhysbys ynddo.

Wel, dw i’n gobeithio na fydd y darllenwr yn meddwl fy mod i’n credu mewn dreiadon, mewn picsïod, na mewn ellyllon. Nag ydw, wrth gwrs! Ond dw i’n credu yn y profiad a elwir yng nghredoau gwerin Cernywaidd ‘cael eich arwain dan hud y picsïod’: mae’r profiad yn real.

Ymhellach, mae ’na fyd anweladwy, teyrnas sydd o’n gwmpas – y maes dan ni weithiau’n teimlo ei atyniad, y lle dan ni’n ‘clywed y cyrn yn chwythu’ – y lle bydd rhaid i bawb ohonym ni fynd iddo ar ddiwedd ein taith ddaearol.

Dw i’n credu bod y rhan fwyaf o blant ym Mhrydain yn clywed ‘cyrn Annwn’, yn hawdd ac yn glir. Mae’r sŵn yn llifo yn rhwydd i mewn i’w bywyd, wedyn, yr un mor gyflym, yr un mor hawdd, mae’n dod yn dawel rhwng gêmau a diddordebau’r byd. I blant, mae’r rhyfeddol, y nwmenaidd, y symbolaidd, a’r llythrennol yn cydfodoli heb gywilydd. Mae eu byd yn dal i belydru.

Ond efallai erbyn eu hugeiniau maen nhw dod yn fyddar i’r cyrn, i alwad y byd goruwchnaturiol, ac ella mae rhai byth yn eu clywed eto trwy weddill eu hoes: ni all Wendy hedfan mwyach; nid oes gan Arthur Excalibur; nid yw Siôn Corn yn dod yn y nos; does dim lle fel Lothlórien; dim Aslan a elwir gan enw arall yn ein byd ni. Fel Gehazi, mae’n nhw’n anymwybodol o luoedd tân ar y bryniau o’u cwmpas. Mae gofalon y byd hwn a hudoliaeth golud a chwantau am bopeth o’r fath yn dod i mewn i’r galon ac yn tagu sŵn a galwad y cyrn.

Wrth gwrs, mae rhai yn clywed y cyrn hyd eu henaint; mae rhai yn eu colli’n ifanc ac yn dechrau eu clywed eto yn annisgwyl yn ddiweddarach yn eu bywyd.

Dw i’n credu bod y byddardod yn dechrau tuag yr oed un ar ddeg neu ddeuddeg: mae cywilydd yn mynd i mewn i’r meddwl; maen nhw’n dod yn ymwybodol o gael eu gwylio. Mae rhyfeddod yn dechrau ofni gwawd.

Tuag oed un ar bymtheg mae llawer o blant Prydeinig eisoes wedi dysgu gwers fawr yr oes fodern: sef, mae’r byd modern yn ceisio peidio rhyfeddu: mae dadhudiad yn angenrheidiol.

Erbyn eu hugeiniau mae “gofalon y byd hwn a hudoliaeth golud a chwantau am bopeth o’r fath yn dod i mewn” – gwaith, gwraig, tŷ, morgais, plant, pleserau, iechyd a salwch – ac mae’r dyn yn cymhwyso ei hunan i fyd ac i fywyd heb y realrwydd go iawn. Ac erbyn eu tridegau mae’r byddardod  hwn wedi troi’n arferol.

Ond mae ’na rai sy dim yn colli  byth clywed ‘y cyrn’. Mae’n nhw’n teimlo, yn hytrach mae’n nhw’n gwybod bod ’na fyd arall, yn uwch, yn  anweladwy. Maen nhw’n clywed “cyrn Annwn yn canu’n wan o bell”. Yng ngeiriau Tennyson:

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!

Dyna pam mae llenyddiaeth ffantasi (yn enwedig Tolkien), adfywiadau llên gwerin, pererindod, hiraeth fynachlogaidd, diddordeb mewn mytholeg, tirweddau cysegredig, yn parhau i fodoli. Mae ar ddynion hiraeth am le dydyn nhw erioed wedi ei weld, achos bod Duw wedi “rhoi tragwyddoldeb yng nghalonnau dynion.”

Mae’r cyfan yn cyfeirio at y byd go iawn, lle mae Iesu Grist yn byw yn nhragwyddoldeb.

First Day down the Mines, age 14

A true story briefly told

Click here to read a true story of my father’s first day down the coal mine in 1917 as a boy of 14 YR HER (The Challenge)
Click here to read the same narrative in English: The Challenge

WULFSTAN OF WORCESTER, the last English Bishop

Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, died in 1095, the only English bishop still in place following William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066. Click here to read a brief article about his life, character, work, and influence: Wulfstan of Worcester (article)

Narrative: Young, Gameson, and Miles

The long history of my family, as I have been able to research it so far, especially Young, Gameson, and Miles; their evangelical faith; and their lives in the iron, steel and coal-mining area of Blaenavon, of South Wales more widely, and of Quebec (County Durham). The original title was drawn from Isaiah’s words, “Look to the quarry from which you were digged.”

I have not tidied yet the pagination, or checked the style for repetition or better arrangement, as I hope – maybe with your help – to add more information as it becomes known.

Click here to read: QUARRY expanded

If you have questions, or further information, or would like to discuss this genealogy, please use the website contact to reach me.

WHERE DID THE GAMESON FAMILY OF MONMOUTHSHIRE COME FROM?

An active Wesleyan and Salvation Army family surnamed Gameson (sometimes spelled Gamson) moved to Monmouthshire around 1800. But where did they come from? Click here for an 18-page pdf which explores this mystery. And get in touch if you have further information or suggestions! where did the Gamesons come from

Ælfric, first Abbot of Eynsham

Ælfric was a man in whose heart burned a steady, unextinguished love for God and man – the sort of ardent desire to serve God and bring others to have faith in Him that has stamped itself on every sincere Christian heart for many hundreds of years.  The love and zeal which moved and activated Ælfric a thousand years ago may move us as we read and ponder his life and his writings. Click here to read about him Ælfric, first Abbot of Eynsham

Ælfric, weekly readings from his sermons

Here in just under 9000 words are extracts from the homilies of Ælfric, translated into modern English and arranged under date to provide a reading for each week of the year. Click here to read them, and feel free to download them for ease of future access: Ælfric extracts (Eng.)

ARTICLES 2: CHURCH AND CHURCHES

Should Evangelicals preach in compromised churches?

Back in 1973, when I was accredited as a Strict Baptist minister, I was invited to preach at the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in Borough Green, and I accepted the invitation. It was brought up at a church meeting at the chapel whether it was right for me, as a SB minister, to preach in such places.

SB chapel, Borough Green

Years later, in North Wales, I have encountered a very similar attitude: that we who are ‘sound’ should not preach in churches which are compromised, which have accommodated their practices and teachings to reduced morals and skewed doctrines, following society’s winds of change, or have become downright apostate.

I have preached in many denominations over the: Anglican, Waldensian, Pentecostal, Methodist, Congregational, Salvation Army, Evangelical, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, Nazarene, Brethren, Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion years (and in churches not affiliated to any denomination). Doubtless some of the congregations were well within the category of ‘compromised’, or had accepted leaders who were who had capitulated to, and embraced, modern unbiblical beliefs about truth and morals. Was I right to go among them?

I suspect one reason why I am ‘persona non grata’ in some ‘sound’ circles is that I do just that and always have. Should I have come out from among them, and been separate, worshipping and ministering only in pukka congregations?

There may be no exact parallel in the New Testament to tell us, for the sort of church we are urged to avoid had not yet developed by the time the Bible writings were complete. But are there principles?

We read in 2 Chronicles 30:17-8 that “there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites had to kill the Passover lamb for every one who was not clean, to make it holy to the Lord. For a multitude of the people … had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover lamb otherwise than as prescribed.”

Were the Levites wrong to minister to unsanctified people “otherwise than as prescribed”? When we reach verse 27 we find that “the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.”

Three Gospels (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-48) mention a woman who “came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his garment; for she said, ‘If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well.’” Jesus said to her, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” Hers was not a clearly shaped faith doctrinally; she did not seem to have grasped the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, the doctrine said to be stantis et cadentis ecclesiae.

She only touched the hem of His garment
  As to His side she stole,
Amid the crowd that gathered around Him;
  And straightway she was whole

as George Frederick Root’s hymn says.

I have often thought there are many like that suffering woman in compromised, unfaithful churches: people with a simple but true love for God, and for Jesus God’s Son – ill taught, misled, not fed week by week with the truth of the Scriptures, and yet, as one might say, they have ‘touched the hem of his garment’.

But maybe there is a New Testament example. In Revelation 3, you find the Lord speaking to the church in Sardis: “I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death. … Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white…” A few names… I suspect many of the shunned churches “still have a few names”.

Am I right to go and attempt, asking of course for God’s guidance and help, to feed them, to strengthen them, to awaken them? in some measure to counter-balance the effect of the teaching and leading they often receive? And to set the way of salvation before those who meet among them but do not know the Lord at all?

I believe I have been right: and if you also are doing so, then I believe you too are. Others may be led differently by God’s Spirit, and I am in no mind to dispute with them. But, as Sam Gamgee once said (J R R Tolkien, Lord of the Rings):

“it’s a pity that folk as talk about fighting the Enemy can’t let others to their bit in their own way without interfering. He’d be mighty pleased … Think he’d got a new friend, he would.”

HADLOW Baptist Chapel: call, ministry, failure, questions

“There was a very very strong feeling that God had let me down. I had no full-time secular job to provide for my family and no sense of direction . I reckon there must be other ministers who have tasted a similar bitterness, and I would love to assure them that they are not alone“, and I hope that my experiences in this article, originally published in Grace magazine, will speak to someone who is in a similar time. Click here to read the article (the words by me, the title by the magazine editor): Hadlow call and closure

Cam-yr-alyn (Rossett), Mollington, Saughall

Reading the history of the origin of these three Churches of Christ, I felt I was learning about a quiet work of God’s initiation. Cam yr Alyn, Mollington, Saughall

SMALL CHURCHES: is it worth bothering?

In hundreds, thousands, of towns and villages in Britain there are small congregations often struggling to keep their chapels open and hoping that their churches have a future. Is it worth bothering to put the time, effort and finance into sustaining them? Click on the link to read some serious thoughts on the matter. SMALL CHURCHES: is it worth bothering? (This article also appears in the ‘page’ about Methodism, but it is about small churches generally.)

Churches of Christ in the Wrexham/Chester area

A small cluster of Churches of Christ came into being the Wrexham/Chester area from the 1790s onwards, and as I researched the story, I felt that I was seeing God himself beginning the creation of a local work. Here is a short history of the movement (61 pages). Click here to read: Bethel Rhos history Or you may scroll down to the article below which focuses only on the causes at Cam-yr-Alyn, Mollington, and Saughall.

Is it ever right to leave a Church?

Here are some written words, and a short (ca 3½-minute) YouTube video on coming to the decision to leave a church where one is a member. The video consists mainly of an extract from a sermon preached by J C Philpot, entitled Divine Separation, on Exodus 33:16. Philpot, Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, resigned his Anglican curacy and became a Baptist minister. After the extract in the video, he adds:

“But to separate will often be a hard conflict: and I confess I like to see a hard struggle, for I know I had a strong contest about it myself. In these hard struggles we are brought to see and feel things which we never saw or felt before; and when, at last, the cord is effectually cut, you are much surer of your man, and the work is clearer in his conscience than if it had been done in a hurry. … We ought, then, to weigh well what is the ground of our separation, whatever it be, and feel well convinced that it is God’s work on the conscience, and has sprung from His own teaching in the soul.”

ARTICLES 3: DEVOTIONAL

Some Thoughts on Easter – and Greece

Click here to read a brief illustrated meditation on Easter, the resurrection – and Greece: Easter thoughts

A Dysfunctional and turbulent Family

I wonder if any of you identify with the seriously dysfunctional and turbulent family of whom part of the story of two generations is related in Genesis 27. The main characters are a father, a mother, and two sons. We will look at them in that order:

The Father

Isaac showed favouritism between his twin sons. He loved the older one more than the other, and he let it be known. When his life was nearing its end, and he was almost blind, he asked his favourite son to go hunting, prepare a sacred meal for him from what he caught, and as part of the meal he would bless the son. The blessing included, “Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.” He reserved no blessing at all for the younger son.

The Mother

The mother was also guilty of favouritism, loving the younger son, Jacob, more than the older. When she overheard Isaac giving the instructions regarding the hunting and the meal, she quickly told Jacob, her favourite son, to kill a couple of two young goats from the flock, from which she herself would prepare the sort of meal Isaac loved. She then helped Jacob disguise himself as Esau, his brother, so that he could get to Isaac before Esau had time to get back from hunting and to prepare the meal. Thus she led her son into a major act of deception, had a hand in deceiving her husband, and deprived her older son of the sacred blessing his father wished to impart before he died.

The older Son

Esau had a tendency to be flippant and shallow concerning important matters. One day when he was hungry from his outdoor activities, he recklessly and promptly sold his birthright to Jacob for some lentil stew: the birthright included spiritual blessing, preeminence in the family, and an enhanced inheritance.

He also married two foreign women who made life bitter for his parents, to such an extent that his mother, Rebekah, said, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.”

The younger Son

Jacob broke several commandments during the course of this deception. He took the Lord’s name blasphemously in vain, for when Isaac asked how he had managed to hunt and prepare a meal so quickly, he replied, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” Another commandment has this requirement: “Honour your father and your mother.” Another forbids the bearing of false witness against one’s neighbour, yet Isaac claimed to be Esau in answer to Isaac’s question, “Are you really my son Esau?” Another commandment says, “You shall not steal.” And the last one says, “You shall not covet … anything that is your neighbour’s.” The Ten Commandments had not yet been written on stone tablets, but the righteous principles were – and always are – valid.

* * *

Not one of these characters comes out well from these events: none could say, “I was guiltless.” But here is an amazing and merciful thing: through this family God was at work, carrying forward the blessing he had planned for all the world, to bring through them the Messiah, the Christ, and the blessings of faith, forgiveness, and eternal life to all the nations of the world. Do not despair of experiencing God’s blessing within your own turbulent, dysfunctional family: his mercy is over all that he has made.

God had promised Isaac in the previous chapter: “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven … And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” And so it came about that many years later, through the descendants of Isaac and Jacob, Jesus was born, Son of God and Son of Man, to give his life a ransom for many, to rise from the dead, to impart eternal life freely to all who come to him in true repentance and faith.

Resisting Doubt

This small book of about 100 pages was originally written for translation into Albanian, and was published in Tirana under the title Mposht Dyshimin. It explores various doubts about God and our salvation which often afflict sincere Christians. Here is the English original, newly prepared for publication on-line or on paper (or both). Click on the link for some advice on how to ward off or counter the doubts that trouble you about God, his love for you, your sin or forgiveness, your inadequate service, your eternal salvation. Click on the link to read on. And please feel free to download and keep this pdf file, and to pass it on to others, unaltered and with its source acknowledged.

doubt

Studies in Immortality: Shall we be re-united in the Beyond?

by Rev. William E. Farndale, Aldersgate Magazine, 1919

A persuasive argument from Scripture, by a former Primitive Methodist minister, President of the Methodist Conference in 1947, that those who die in the Lord will know one another after death, and will be reunited, albeit without resumption of the earthly family relationship.

Click here to read the article

The Lord of the Rings: a richly Christian book

In 1920 J. R. R. Tolkien became a “reader” in English at Leeds University, and in 1925 a professor at Oxford. In 1997, polls for Waterstone’s chain of bookshops, the Daily Telegraph and the Folio Society all put Tolkien as the century’s most popular writer.

It was largely a conversation with Tolkien and Hugo Dyson that brought C S Lewis to faith in Christ, and Tolkien’s diary later referred to “Lewis… a lover, at least after a long pilgrimage, of Our Lord.”

Tolkien’s major writings are “mythopœic” – invented myth. He wrote that his nature “expresses itself about things deepest felt in tales and myths,” and he saw myth as a way of expressing truth which is hard to convey in more mundane terms.

He was a devout traditional Roman Catholic, and took care to ensure that his grand-scale myth was consonant with Christian orthodoxy. There is delight in life, and lively appreciation of the beauty of creation – of water, trees, mountains – and of friendship. His view of evil was strong and uncompromising, and his writings explore how evil enslaves, and how we cannot use its methods to defeat evil. The constant working of an unseen Providence underlies the story, and is conveyed to the reader’s own heart; and Tolkien explores its relationship with our free agency. We see personality shaped through tribulation and sacrifice, and small and insignificant people caught up, as Christians are, in a Quest vaster than themselves. Life is portrayed as significant, making readers more eager to offer and spend their own for a divine calling. The sense of exile, felt by all whose citizenship is in heaven, is achingly conveyed, and he has much to say about a good death, which scripture sets before us “precious in the sight of the Lord”.

My seven readings of The Lord of the Rings have enriched my appreciation of God in creation and providence, of Christian friendship, of virtues such as loyalty, commitment, sacrifice, truthfulness, of the significance of our service, and of the fact that Christians are exiles and sojourners until the world is cleansed and renewed at the Coming of Christ for which we wait. Questions of soteriology, transubstantiation, purgatory, or Mary, never intrude, and thus do not spoil the book for an Evangelical. It has been asked why there is no Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote: “The incarnation of God is an infinitely greater thing than I would dare to write”; and the story is set in an age long before the coming of Christ.

The Lord of the Rings, enjoyed with a receptive heart and perceptive mind, can help to point you, or bring you, nearer to God. There is a short YouTube video which is the closing four minutes of the longer talk under “Talks and Videos” on this website. Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/eeQ-YowQOYA .

Thorin Oakenshield: some thoughts on his death

Thorin is a leading character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s story The Hobbit, who dies a heroic death in the events the story relates, and utters some deeply meaningful words at his death scene.

Click here to read this short article

Some Thoughts on Ossian in Tir na nOg

…rhoddodd dragwydoldeb yng nghalonnau pobl (Y Beibl)

Gwlad hyfryd oedd Tir na nOg yn y chwedl. Fan ’na doedd neb yn heneiddio; roedd yr awyr yn lân ac yn glir, y blodau yn wastad yn dlws, y tywydd yn gynnes ac yn heulog, y bywyd yn hapus, teuluoedd yn heddychol, cyfeillion yn ffyddlon, ac y pobl heb ymyrraeth yn fodlon. Roedd y wlad yn gorwedd y tu draw i’r môr gorllewinol. Ond roedd mynediad yn oruwchnaturiol.

Sut gafodd Osian fynediad? Trwy gariad Niamh, merch brenin y wlad – ac hi ei hun yn frenhines yr ieuenctid. Ar gefn march hud aeth Osian gyda hi i mewn i’r wlad, ac byw yna mewn hapusrwydd am dri chan mlynedd gyda hi fel ei wraig. Doedd o ddim yn heneiddio o gwbl.

Ond mi ddaeth y dydd pan oedd o isio ymweld â’i ffrindiau yn Iwerddon lle oedd o wedi cael ei eni ac ei fagu, ac isio gweld y wlad unwaith eto. “Ti’n gallu mynd,” meddai Niamh, “ond mae’n rhaid i ti beidio a chyffwrdd â’r ddaear, nid hyd yn oed dy droed.”

Mi ddychwelodd o i Iwerddon am yr ymweliad hwn, ond pan welodd o ddyn mewn anhawster gyda’i waith, disgynnodd oddi ar y march i’w helpu – ac ar unwaith aeth Osian yn llwyd ac yn hen iawn, sef tri chan mlynedd oed. Diwedd ei fywyd buodd hyn, ac roedd yn amhosib iddo fo ddychwelyd i Niamh, i Dir na nOg, nac i’r bywyd bythol.

Beth allwn ni ei ddysgu oddi wrth y chwedl ’ma? Beth ddylai bod ein meddyliau wrth ei darllen? Oes gwlad yn unrhyw le fel Tir na nOg, lle mae’r pobl yn byw am byth, heb henaint, na chur, na thristwch, na marwolaeth? Wedi’r cyfan, mae’r Beibl yn dweud bod Duw wedi rhoi “dragwyddoldeb yng nghalonnau pobl”. A wnai Duw hynny pe na byddai yn wir?

A nid yw’r Beibl yn dweud hefyd, “Gwelais nef newydd a daear newydd: oherwydd yr oedd y nef gyntaf a’r ddaear gyntaf wedi mynd heibio … a bydd Duw ei hun gyda hwy, yn Dduw iddynt. Fe sych bob deigryn o’u llygaid hwy, ac ni bydd marwolaeth mwyach, na galar na llefain na phoen. Y mae’r pethau cyntaf wedi mynd heibio”? Ydy! Mae’r Beibl yn siarad yn yr union eiriau hyn. Dyna addewid Duw i bob credwr!

A ydyn y geiriau ’na yn farddonol? Efallai, achos mae’n rhaid i ni rwan defnyddio geiriau a disgrifiadau sy’n gyfarwydd i ni yn yr oes hon, ond nid yw o bwys os nac allwn ni ffeindio’r geiriau na’r disgrifiadau gwir am yr oes a ddaw. Nef newydd a daear newydd bydd hi, wedi’r cyfan.

Ond sut mae’n bosib i ni ddod o hyd i fynediad i’r ddaear honno? Does dim brenhines yr ieuenctid gyda cheffyl hud a all ein harwain ni i mewn. Ond mae un (neu Un) sy wedi dweud, “Yn wir, rwy’n dweud wrthyt, heddiw byddi gyda mi ym Mharadwys.” Mab Duw ydy o, Iesu Grist, a “ganddo ef yn unig y mae anfarwoldeb”. Mi ddaeth o yn y byd hwn “er mwyn i bob un sy’n credu gael bywyd tragwyddol ynddo ef.”

Gwlad fel Tir na nOg – lle bydd hapusrwydd, iechyd, heddwch, a bywyd tragwyddol – bydd y ddaear newydd. Bydd Duw yno, a Iesu Grist, a phob Cristion.

Ond bydd y bywyd yno yn wahanol i’r bywyd yn Nhir na nOg: gallai’r bywyd yn Nhir na nOg gael ei ddinistrio a’i golli, ond yn Nheyrnas dragwyddol Dduw mae’r bywyd yn wir dragwyddol. All o ddim cael ei golli na’i ddinistrio.

Dywedodd Iesu: “Pwy bynnag sy’n credu ynof fi, er iddo farw, fe fydd byw; a phob un sy’n byw ac yn credu ynof fi, ni bydd marw byth. A wyt ti’n credu hyn?”

Some Thoughts about the Coronavirus Epidemic 2020: two short articles

As the coronavirus spreads from China across the world and kills people in Britain, many may be asking “Where is God in all this? What is God doing? And why? Can I find him?

Click here to read two short articles offering some thoughts about the Coronavirus Epidemic 2020

“Providence”: how God often leads us

I have often pondered on the ways of God in leading us through our lives, if we wish to serve him, and I am aware that people worry in case they miss their providential way (to borrow Charles Wesley’s phrase (Wesley’s Hymns 326). This short meditation is intended to help readers find peace and trust that God will always fulfil his purpose for those who sincerely desire to serve and follow him. Click here to read it:
“Providence”: how God often leads us

ARTICLES 4: ALBANIA

Ruby Violet Oakley-Hill, a little-known English Christian in 1940s Albania

Ruby (1916-2007) left missionary training college at the outbreak of World War 2 and in her own words: The war broke out during my last term at missionary training college… I was called up to the SOE branch of the Foreign Office Balkans section to set up a new department for operations in Albania.” She married Col. Dayrell Oakley-Hill who served under King Zog from 1929, during the War with the Albanian Resistance, and after the War with the United Nations. To read Ruby’s story, with some of Col. Oakley-Hill’s story as well, click here: Ruby Oakley Hill article enlarged

The Founding of the Albanian Evangelical Mission

AEM was founded in April 1986 to promote Evangelical life and ministry among the Albanian people. This article, written to mark the 35th anniversary in April 2021, relates the events leading to it foundation: the why, who, where, how. Click here to read:  founding AEM corrected