A security alert was triggered last night as soldiers intercepted a truck conveying no fewer than 700 explosives in Abuja.
Daily Sun gathered that the vehicle escorted by two unarmed policemen was intercepted at the Abuja City Gate at about 8.00 p.m.
The serving policemen had successfully beaten all security checkpoints at all the entry points into the Federal Capital Territory with their deadly consignment until they got to Lugbe on the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Road, where soldiers on routine duty stopped them.

It was gathered that the soldiers demanded to know what was in the truck and ordered the policemen to alight.
The policemen were said to have refused the order, insisting they were doing the same kind of work with the soldiers.
The soldiers, it was further learnt, insisted on searching the truck and found the explosives packed in 700 cartons.
Commander, Brigade of Guards was promptly alerted to the discovery and he dispatched a team of soldiers to arrest the policemen.

The policemen were whisked to the Mambilla Barracks where, it was gathered, they were being detained.
Daily Sun further gathered that the Brigade Commander informed the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim who rushed to the Barracks and confirmed that the policemen were not fake. He also ordered that they be kept in the custody of the military.

As at the time of filing this report at about midnight, the Director of the State Security Services (SSS) and other top security chiefs had visited the Mambilla Barracks to inspect the explosives.
The arrest immediately sparked a wave of security activities, including the deployment of soldiers in various parts of the Federal Capital Territory as well as government establishments.
It could not be immediately ascertained the source of the explosives and where it was coming from.
Only on Wednesday, the Islamist group, Boko Haram, which had been terrorizing the country revealed that it was planning to attack the Aso Villa, the seat of the Presidency in Abuja.

Charles Raven

Fulcrum has a new ‘chair’, the Revd Stephen Kuhrt, and in last week’s Church of England Newspaper, he took the opportunity to review Fulcrum’s history and restate its vision in his article ‘Remaining at the Centre of the Church of England’. To readers outside England unfamiliar with its tribes, I should explain that Fulcrum is a grouping of self styled ‘open’ evangelicals which operates under the slogan of ‘renewing the evangelical centre’.

Unfortunately, Fulcrum is open towards just about anyone except those fellow evangelicals who are aligned with Anglican Mainstream, the GAFCON movement and of course the newly formed Anglican Mission in England (AMiE). Kuhrt ascribes Fulcrum’s origins to the ‘reactionary’ nature of the 2003 National Evangelical Anglican Congress (NEAC), but fails to mention that it met against the backdrop of the attempted consecration of gay champion Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading and the actual consecration of the actively homosexual Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire earlier in the year. It has become clear that this group is really energized by what it is against and that opposition not infrequently takes on a visceral quality, such as Bishop Tom Wright’s bizarre attack on the GAFCON leadership in 2008 as false teachers, akin to the ‘super-apostles’ of 2 Corinthians 11:5.

The centre to which Fulcrum is committed is not in fact an evangelical centre at all, but an institutional centre, as the title of Kuhrt’s article suggests. Indeed he sees Fulcrum as ‘a positive and confident evangelicalism remaining right at the centre of the structures of the Church of England’. This does not simply mean being engaged. It is an ecclesiology which works on the naïve assumption that the institutional church is for all practical proposes the ‘body of Christ’ and so Kuhrt writes of his hope for ‘A renewed commitment to ecclesiology as the Body of Christ, including the commitment to remain together with others in the Church of England despite our differences and work through the issues upon which we disagree.’

Read here

Rev Dr John Stott CBE, Chaplain to the Queen, died this afternoon a few weeks after his ninetieth birthday. He was described by David Edwards as “the most influential churchman of our day”.

For tributes by Dr David Wells and Rev Ted Schroder see here

David Wells reports that his funeral will be in St Paul’s Cathedral, and he will be buried at the Hookses.

JOHN STOTT (1911-2011)

By Ted Schroder
July 27, 2011

I have just received word from England that John Stott died this afternoon. An old friend, George Cassidy, retired bishop of Southwell, emailed that John’s secretary, Frances Whithead, his niece, Caroline Stott, his former study assistant, Matthew Smith and Philip Herbert were with him. They read a few Psalms and his breathing became very shallow and he slipped away. George commented: “End of an era; and gratitude to God for his wonderful life.”

Antoinette and I were hoping to visit him later this year in his nursing home. He celebrated his 90th birthday in April, and was very frail. He was ready and eager to go on to be with the Lord he so loved and served.

In his commentary on 2 Timothy: Guard the Gospel, John wrote these words on chapter 4, verses 6-8:

“The apostle uses two vivid figures of speech to portray his coming death, one taken from the language of sacrifice and the other (probably) of boats. First, ‘I am already on the point of being sacrificed.’ Or ‘Already my life is being poured out on the altar.’ He likens his life to a libation or drink offering. So imminent does he believe his martyrdom to be that he speaks of the sacrifice as having already begun. He goes on: ‘the time of my departure has come’. ‘Departure’ (analysis) seems to have become a regular word for death, but we need not necessarily conclude from this that its metaphorical origin had been entirely forgotten. It means ‘loosing’ and could be used either of striking a tent or of ‘release from shackles’, or of untying a boat from its moorings. The last is certainly the most picturesque of the three possibilities. The two images then to some extent correspond for the end of this life (outpoured as a libation) is the beginning of another (putting out to sea). As the anchor is weighed, the ropes are slipped, and the boat is about to set sail for another shore.” (p.113)

After further exposition of having fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith, John concludes.

“This then is ‘Paul the aged’…His little boat is about to set sail. He is eagerly awaiting his crown….Our God is the God of history….He buries his workmen, but carries on his work. The torch of the gospel is handed down by each generation to the next. As the leaders of the former generation die, it is all the more urgent for those of the next generation to step forward bravely to take their place….We cannot rest forever on the leadership of the preceding generation. The day comes when we must step into their shoes and ourselves take the lead. That day had come for Timothy. It comes to us all in time.” (p.116)

I owe more than I can tell to John Stott. He took a callow youth as his assistant and mentored him, then launched me into ministry. Over the years he kept in touch by letters and visits. His books have been a constant inspiration. My testimony can be echoed by hundreds or thousands of others all over the world.

Thank you Lord, for the privilege of knowing him personally and for being recipient of his brotherly affection and fatherly care. May his legacy continue to bear fruit. May his influence grow. May he ever be remembered as the Prince of Preachers of his day, and the friend of believers of all races throughout the world.

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Cor.2:5)

Ted Schroder
Amelia Island, Florida