Banner of truth, day 3 — Wednesday

Time is flying, and the conference is finishing tomorrow. It has been another blessed day.

It started off with Iain Hamilton trying to convince us to buy Charles Hodge’s biography (published by the Banner). He was followed by Martin Holdt who once again convicted us that we need more of the presence of the Spirit, looking especially at sermon preparation. Lewis Allen turned our eyes to our great hope: the second coming of our Lord.

I had a quick nap in the afternoon, and Skyped my family. I had a good conversation over coffee with a man who had tried to recruit me to help training Pastors in French speaking Africa. I declined the offer, but gave the names of some people who may be of help to him.

The 5 o’clock session was a the question session to the panel. There were a lot of questions on Archibald Brown, and many also on the Holy Spirit. Another hepful one was about how to start reforming a church. Two points came out of that: Preach the Word with great care, and show your people that you love them. Geoff Thomas closed the sessions with 5 lessons he’d learned (and we could learn), from Lloyd Jones ministry/ They were:

  1. The beauty of a righteous life.
  2. The importance of Evangelistic preaching.
  3. The importance of church history to inspire and enrich our lives.
  4. We should never loose confidence in preaching.
  5. We should not absolutise one man as our role model for preachers.

The day closed with a great lecture by Phil Arthur on William Tyndale, an amazing man who translated the NT in English and was martyred in October 1536. He gave his life out of Love for Christ, the Scriptures and the English people.

Tomorrow is the last morning, with one more session on the Holy Spirit in preaching by Martin Holdt, and a session by Iain Murray.