The God of the Bible
We lived in England for over twenty-eight years; three in Oxford, four months in Brackley, Northamptonshire and twenty-five in London. During our twenty-five years at Westminster Chapel I was invited to speak seventeen years in a row at an annual event called Spring Harvest. It came every April, was held in at least two locations (Minehead, Somerset and Skegness, Lincolnshire). People would come for a week at a time. I did the ‘Bible readings’ – the English word for Bible expositions – or teaching. What partly made this even unusual is that it got traditional Christians and charismatics together – something never done before. This event had a lot to do with making the Charismatic Movement in England mainstream, whereas in America Pentecostals and charismatics are still largely seen as the lunatic fringe of Christianity.
I chose sixteen Bible expositions for a book which was published in the UK. We called it The God of the Bible. It went into several reprints but never I never tried to get it published in America. However, I recently signed a contract with LifeWay whose publishing arms is called LifeBooks. We gave them three books initially: He Saves (an exposition of Romans 1:16-18), Once Saved, Always Saved (a title that pretty much speaks for itself) and The God of the Bible (sixteen Bible expositions from Daniel, Romans, John and Acts). These three books are available in Christian bookstores (especially LifeWay) and our website (www.rtkendallministries.com)
There are three sermons I listened to many times over fifty years ago that shaped my thinking and preaching style – one by T. M. Anderson in 1951 on Revelation 1:17 (‘When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead’), one by Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Luke 24 (the two men on the road to Emmaus – the sad heart, slow heart and burning heart) and one by Rolfe Barnard.The theme ‘God of the Bible’ came to me because of a sermon by Rolfe Barnard (d.1967) which I first heard in 1963. I listened to it again and again. It had profound influence on me, shaped my thinking considerably. Rolfe called it ‘Your God vs. the God of the Bible’.
We are living in terrible, terrible times. If our generation is not described in the New Testament as ‘the last days’ I don’t know what is. I refer not merely to the political situation but the state of the church, speaking generally – we are in a deep, deep sleep. The next thing to take place in God’s scheme (in my opinion) is the cry in the middle of the night – as described in Matthew 25:6.
How are we to prepare for this? One thing for sure is this – we had better get acquainted with the true God – the God of the Bible. If our ‘world view’ is not shaped by the God of the Bible we will find ourselves not only sound asleep spiritually but, alas, like the five foolish virgins described in Matthew 25:1-11. I would like to think that my recently published book The God of the Bible will be a major teaching aid to prepare us to face these troublesome times.
If you would like a copy, we are offering this book at a reduced price this month.
