The last few weeks have been quite chaotic for us in several ways as I have finished my ministry with Aim International and am now on the staff of the Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh. This has entailed major changes for us on a number of fronts; not least the need to move my study and library from home to the College, about 35 miles away. Still, I’m well settled in there now and already enjoying the surroundings which are very conducive to study and preparation - mind you, there are no students around at the moment!

I’m really out of sync with my reading, writing and blogging but expect to get back to normal very soon. Next week Caroline and I are away on holiday to the peace and quiet of Loch Lomond so there’ll be no internet or blogging during that time. However, I am looking forward to resuming regular posting when I get back and catching up with my book of the week reviews. I’ve got a number of things related to preaching that I am keen to write about and to get your comments on.

It’s been some time since I did a www - weekly web watch so I thought I’d round off with one today because I have come across some really excellent stuff this week.

Christianity Today has a tease of an article by my good friend Colin Smith,formerly of Edinburgh and London but now ministering in Illinois. I say a tease because to get the full article you need to subscribe. Colin is a great Bible teacher and communicator and you can access his sermons online.

Over at Expository Thoughts Randy McKinion has done a very useful two part ‘Hermeneutical and Homiletical Musing on the Psalms’.

Steve Camp has a tribute to John MacArthur and the text of a powerful sermon by him on 2 Timothy 3:1-4:4

Redeeming the Time has a piece called ‘The Sword of the Spirit’ which includes this great quote: “I have never been able to understand preachers and teachers who abandon the proclamation of the Scriptures for the proclamation of anything else, like the latest findings of the social sciences, or clips from the latest Hollywood movies. While all of life needs to be discussed in light of what the Scriptures teach, there is no power like the power of God’s Word brought home to the human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. No amount of cleverness or contemporary relevance will make up for the absence of the faithful proclamation of the Word.”

Dan Dumas of Grace Church presents a comprehensive case for expository preaching

Peter Mead consistently posts insightful and stimulating material at Biblical Preaching and it’s always worth a visit

I’m picking up again the series ‘The Preacher and…..’ looking at different aspects of the preacher’s life and work. For the next few weeks we are going to consider ‘The Preacher and…..his study’. This is not so much the place as the practice - though we might unearth some helpful comments on the former. Having just relocated my study and library some 35 miles to the College where I am about to start work, I was amused by this quote I found some time ago. In his book, The Puritan Hope, Iain Murray recounts how David Bogue, who was greatly used in the preparation of mission workers in England around the turn of the eighteenth century, included in his issues to be considered, “What proportion as to expense ought a minister’s library to bear to his furniture?”

However, my main quote for this new theme comes from a biography of John Henry Jowett who ministered at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York and at Westminster Chapel in London.

“I am learning to resist almost every hour of the day the tremendous forces that would push me here and there. I do not know what time ministers spend here in their studies. They are evidently engaged in a hundred outside works which must leave them very little time to prepare their message. I am going to stand steadily against this pressure, even at the cost of being misunderstood. When I get into my own home I shall allow nothing to interfere with my morning in the study. If the pulpit is to be occupied by men with a message worth hearing we must have the time to prepare it. I feel the preaching of the Word of God is incomparably my first work in New York.”