A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

ATCT [A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®] : Sorry you are masked from your audience today. What is a typical week in your life like?

Sunday, preaching and pastoring. Monday, chilling and chores. Tuesday, study and administration. Wednesday, pastoral visiting, study, and church meeting. Thursday, household shopping and study, Friday, very unpredictable. Saturday – family day. Throw in three or four trips to the gym and some tropical fish maintenance along with far too much net surfing, some reading, and a little television, and that is about it. Oh, apart from prayer, eating and sleeping.

1. ATCT: Did you have any Christian influence in your youth or childhood?

Yes, both my parents love the Lord, and so do all my uncles and aunts, and of course, the wider church family.

2. ATCT: What is the gospel in one sentence?

God is Holy, and man has sinned against God, but He has sent His only Son Jesus Christ to pay the price for sin for all who repent and believe on Him, so that we can be reconciled to God and have everlasting life.

3. ATCT: If you woke up this morning and found your self transported back in time, which preacher in the last 500 years would you like to listen to? Why?

Spurgeon. I am just so curious to know what his accent was. Sorry it isn’t more profound.

4. ATCT: How would you like to be remembered by your wife and closest family?

I wouldn’t. I want to outlive my wife. OK, if I have to, then I suppose I would say I would like to be remembered as a follower of Christ.

5. ATCT: How easy (do you think) is parenting?

It is not easy, but it is certainly easier if you follow God’s wisdom rather than man’s in the early years.

6. ATCT: Your teenage daughter comes weeping to you and tells you she is pregnant. She doesn’t know who the dad is. (Yup, it’s that bad). She feels she has let you down and feels disillusioned about her walk with God. She got a phone number from a friend who can arrange to “sort out” this inconvenient unplanned pregnancy. It’s all a big shock to you. What do you do?
A) Pretend you didn’t hear her and continue reading your news paper.

Tell her to dial the number REAL QUICK!
C) Let her know in no uncertain terms she has brought shame to you and your testimony. And she has therefore left you with no option but to disown her.

D) OTHER:

You are making me feel happy that I don’t have a daughter right now. But are you serious? Anyone who answers A, B or C needs their head examining. D, Other. First, I would tell her that I love her whatever she has done. Second, I would urge her to repent of her sin and to be reconciled to God. Third, I would offer her my support in honouring the Lord by carrying the child to term and in raising the child.

7. ATCT: What major theological shifts have happened in your life as a Christian?

Nothing major at all, really. Only minor adjustments. Pretty much 1689 confession all the way!

8. ATCT: We are sending you to a desert island. You can only take one book aside from the Bible. Which book would you take and why?

Matthew Poole’s commentary. Because, as Mr Spurgeon said, ‘If I could only have one commentary, it would be that of Poole’.

9. What attribute of God do you struggle to understand?

His omniscience. That is, that He knows everything, all the time. He always has. He always will. I just wonder ‘how?’ and my tiny mind boggles. I know it is true, but… wow.

10. ATCT: What are the words of your favourite Hymn?

Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father’s only Son;
God manifestly seen and heard,
And Heaven’s belovèd one:

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.

In Thee most perfectly expressed
The Father’s glories shine;
Of the full deity possessed,
Eternally divine:

True image of the Infinite,
Whose essence is concealed;
Brightness of uncreated light;
The heart of God revealed:

But the high mysteries of Thy Name
An angel’s grasp transcend;
The Father only—glorious claim!—
The Son can comprehend:

Throughout the universe of bliss,
The centre Thou, and sun;
The eternal theme of praise of this,
To Heaven’s belovèd one:

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.