Just a note to share my yesterday with you. In the morning, Reformation Heritage Books was hopping both with finalizing manuscripts and with a groundswell of book orders. Also, e-books are taking off well. In response to several Tweets, nearly 2000 e-book copies of A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life sold through Amazon in the last few days. I spent part of the morning finalizing the indexes of Andrew Woolsey’s magisterial study, Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought: A Study in the Reformed Tradition to the Westminster Assembly and Brian Cosby’s excellent Suffering Sovereignty: John Flavel and the Puritans on Afflictive Providence. We’re excited to get both books in print by mid-December. I also submitted the final minor proofing changes for a 500-page book by Godefridus Udemans, The Practice of Faith, Hope, and Love, which is a remarkable Dutch Further Reformation treatment of the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. That should be available before December 25 as well.
Then I led a student chapel for our seminary, preaching on Acts 24:24–25. I tried to model for the students how to preach a warning yet alluring sermon from a biblical story. We had a good discussion about it afterwards. After a quick lunch with my wife, I lectured for two hours on spiritual adoption to my 36 Soteriology students—what great men they are and what a great class to teach! After that, three of my colleagues and I led a “practice preaching” critiquing session following a sermon expounded by Koos Truter, one of our students from South Africa.
Late in the afternoon, I put finishing touches on my editorial, “Raising Children to be Gatekeepers,” for the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, which was due today and will be published in the January issue. Then I met with a Brazilian Th.M. student briefly about his last chapter of his fine thesis on the covenant views of Robert Rollock. He and his wife will be returning to Brazil next month, where he has already accepted a pastoral position that will probably soon entail teaching responsibilities in a seminary as well.
HNRC Sunday School Dinner
I then rushed over to our Christian school which was hosting an annual dinner for our Sunday School attendees. Every Sunday afternoon about 40 of our adults and young people are involved in teaching about 75 children from our area Bible stories and doctrine. Most of the children come from broken homes. It is a valuable and challenging ministry.
Late in the evening, I spent about an hour preparing some material for a Korean conference next February, where I hope to speak to 20,000 expected attendees on “Puritan Worship.” Then I got my liturgy ready for preaching in Monarch, Alberta, this coming Sunday, and did some preliminary packing, including four downloaded books that I need to do a final edit this coming weekend on the long plane rides: a first-ever biography on Arthur Hildersham by Lesley Row; Ryan McGraw’s Christ’s Glory, Your Good; A Faith Worth Teaching: The Heidelberg Catechism’s Enduring Heritage, edited by Jon Payne and Sebastian Heck; and Encouragement for Today’s Pastors: Help from the Puritans, coauthored by Terry Slachter and myself. I’m excited about all of these titles and can’t wait to give them a final read. Hopefully, I’ll get through at least two or three of them this weekend.
Finally, I spent a sweet hour with my wife.
As usual, I covet your prayers.
