ACM Creation update August 2010
Upcoming change of role
After my last email to you in June, I am aware that not all of you will
had seen the last paragraph of my past missive, so I am repeating some
of this here. After much prayer I am shortly at the end of September
changing my role at the University. I have decided to accept the offer
of early retirement but rather than stop completely at the University, I
am re-engaging in a different role as Research Professor. Some of the
research work (including the bombardier Beetle) will continue but I am
freed up to control much more my own time so that I can concentrate more
on what the Lord would have us do with what both Juliet and I feel that
we have left of active service. I am very conscious that none of us can
predict our days and we need to strategically consider the times that
we have to be used for the Saviour. We have thought through the issues
financially and see that we can readily manage as the Lord has
graciously provided for all our needs at every stage of our lives.
Recent meetings
Since June I have been doing mainly Christian Answer missions in the UK
which all have been very blessed. They are very intense times of
evangelism where the emphasis is very much on direct Gospel preaching in
the open air with a team of people witnessing to those who stop. As you
can imagine the response is very varied and at times antagonistic but
in Cambridge (14th –16th June ), in Canterbury (14th – 17th July) and
just recently in Bournemouth (11th – 14th August) it has been greatly
blessed. Often the theme of Creation comes up as young people opposed to
the Gospel seek to justify their opposition using Evolutionary ideas.
What has been particularly thrilling has been seeing young men join me
for the first time and come back again and beginning to speak on their
own, and to have those with me who particularly feel drawn to personal
work. The combination of such dedicated teams spending 5+ hours on their
feet for 3 successive days speaking to scores of people among whom are
serious enquirers, is a time of great blessing indeed. I enclose at the
end of this letter the report I shared recently of the Bournemouth
mission. At Cambridge and at Bournemouth we ran Creation meetings
alongside and it was a privilege to speak to those who were seeking as a
result of seeing that the real science does not contradict the
straightforward understanding of Scripture.
Lastly can I recommend to you a book that I have recently read called
Amazing Conversions by John Ashworth who opened a chapel for the
Destitute in Rochdale in the mid 1800s and saw recounts the poverty and
desperate condition of many and yet the remarkable effect of the Gospel
on some. How much we should remember that the Gospel is indeed ‘the
power of God unto salvation’. The book was recently edited by Alun
McNabb (past pastor of Dudley Baptist in West Midlands) and can be
obtained from the web site –
http://tentmaker.org.uk/content/?page_id=54&category=2&id=217
That same Gospel is closely attached to the matters of Creation and the
Fall which faithfully preached are the key to unlock the relevance of
the Gospel to today’s generation. Theistic evolution so much breaks this
connection and is a serious departure from the Biblical Gospel. There
may no longer in the West be such poverty as Ashworth saw on such a
large scale (though there is for some cities the communities gripped by
drugs or the increasing numbers of asylum seekers to which some churches
are reaching out to). What grips many of our young people in the West
is blatant hedonism and accompanied deep emptiness to which only the
Gospel of God’s holiness and our fall from being created in that image
can make sense of the utter degradation we are in by nature. But what a
glory it is then to preach the Cross and salvation by grace. May we all
burn with that glorious truth. In Christ we are sons and daughters of a
soon coming King.
Report of Bournemouth Christian Answer Open Air Mission August 11th – 14th 2010
Thank you for praying for what was initially a small team – In then end
it was one of the strongest teams we have had at this superb open air
site. It was a remarkable 3 days with 25+ serious conversations each
day. Examples were a man who was under some conviction and had just
stolen an item, and who went back to the shop and paid for it and was
invited to a local church. Pray for the ongoing email contact with the
couple from Poland contacted on the Open air and who came to the
Creation meeting and who are looking for a church in Manchester. At one
of the OAs two teenage girls who had never understood the Gospel wanted
to know more and took much literature. Another lady from the Caribbean
had never grasped what the Atonement meant until it was explained to
her. Many Moslem students studying English took Gospels in Arabic with
keen interest being shown. This is but a small snapshot of what was
going on all the time as we had OAs from 11 till 4pm. We also had one
evening open air at which we met a backslidden youth leader who had
sadly got into the grip of alcohol. Many passers by of course scoffed,
but the consistent bold preaching of Christ and the Cross at the front,
which was often conducted by the keen young men on the team , coupled
with faithful contacting, was an immense witness. We were very grateful
for the support of faithful Open air Missioners – pray for them as they
witness each Saturday at Bournemouth throughout the year.
