Archives for December 2012

Read A Puritan Theology in One Year

Jeff Pollard of Mount Zion Publications is publishing a little brochure this week that provides a reading program for A Puritan Theology to get through the book in one year, averaging four pages a day, five days a week. If you would like a hard copy, contact Reformation Heritage Books. Click here to download your own copy of the reading plan!

Two New Books

Two books arrived at RHB today. Godefridus Udemans’s The Practice of Faith, Hope, and Love (500 pages; translated from Dutch by Annemie Godbehere; introduced and edited by me; available for $15) is a great book that beautifully explains the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, using them as standards and guides for cultivating faith, hope, and love in our hearts and lives. This is the concluding volume of eight spiritual classics from the Dutch Further Reformation. All of these books, which represent the cream of the Dutch “puritans,” are freshly translated, so they read in a contemporary way. RHB is presently running a special on the entire set to celebrate their completion. Retail for set=$125; special price=$75 (40% discount).

Brian H. Cosby’s Suffering and Sovereignty: John Flavel and the Puritans on Afflictive Providence (176 pages; available for $15) is an excellent book that examines Flavel’s teachings on suffering and how that theology translates into practical application for suffering believers. I edited this book pleasure and spiritual profit. Enjoy!

If you order the 8-volume set of Dutch Further Formation books, RHB will send you Arie de Reuver’s Sweet Communion: Trajectories of Spirituality from the Middles Ages through the Further Reformation for an extra $10 (it is a $30 book; only 60 copies left), which is a great tool for understanding the Dutch Further Reformation as a parallel movement to English Puritanism.

Last week I had an opportunity to counsel a dear couple in Ontario who recently lost a child. Afterwards, they asked me to write out the thoughts I gave them that God could use to comfort them. Perhaps these can be of help to others as well:

1. Think of the eternal destiny of your child. By God’s grace, the child will not return to you, but you will return to the child.
2. Consider all the sin that your child was spared from by being taken home at a very young age.
3. Consider how this affliction matures you. We learn more in adversity than in prosperity.
4. You will be able to comfort others better when you go through deep ways.
5. Deep afflictions such as this can greatly strengthen the love between you as husband and wife.
6. You will appreciate future children far more than others who have never faced heavy afflictions in child-bearing.
7. You will learn submission far better than those who don’t face such trials. Remember what Luther said: “Letting God be God is more than half of all true religion.”
8. You learn to walk more by faith and less by sight, which brings great glory to God.
9. You learn to be more weaned from this world more.
10. You learn to be more conformed to Christ.

On Sunday, I preached twice on the preciousness of Jesus Christ—“precious blood” and “precious offices”—for the Burgessville, Ontario Heritage Reformed Congregation, and administered the Lord’s Supper in the morning. Four new communicants attended. That evening, I had a wonderful meeting with 25 young adults, who are studying The Pilgrim’s Progress. Their spiritual astuteness and maturity were most encouraging.

Oxford Reformed Christian School

The following morning I gave a chapel message on following God fully (Num. 14:24) to 220 K–12 students at the Oxford Reformed Christian School in Oxford County, Ontario. We then went to the Woodstock, Ontario hospital to visit the father of one of our Grand Rapids church members who recently suffered a stroke. He poured out his soul to us about how the Lord converted him two years ago. It was good to be there.

We also had a great time with our hosts, Andre and Shelly Timmerman (Shelly is one of my newly married nieces), and a wonderful meal of fellowship with Jason and Heather Beeke and their children (Jason is my nephew). I also had an opportunity to evangelize a dear couple and to pastor another couple who recently loss their first-born child. This was a special weekend indeed— the worship and service of God and the fellowship of the saints are such a delight!

My Relatives, with Victoria in Pink on the Front Row

Last Saturday, my wife and I drove with our daughter Lydia to Ontario. That evening we gathered with a few dozen of our Beeke relatives—including our precious 5-year-old Victoria. Despite the condition of her legs, we were amazed at how fast and energetically she was walking, albeit with a limp. It was a great joy not only to see her, but also to hear from her parents, Jen and Gerald, how the Lord is sanctifying her affliction to her. Of the many stories we heard, here are the three most memorable comments I recall her saying to her mother:

Gerald and Jen DeHaan Family

1) Reflecting on a Buddhist boy who was in the Toronto hospital with her, Victoria said, “Mommy, I would rather have all my owies and God than have no owies and no God.”

2) Once she said reflectively, “All these owies are OK, Mommy. Jesus had owies much worse than mine, and He did nothing wrong but I have sinned my whole life.”

3) “Will my legs be shiney all the time?” she once asked her mother. “What do you mean, Tori?” Jen replied. She said, “I mean, will my legs be shiney for Jesus?”

Five-year-old Victoria DeHaan was attacked by dogs two months ago. She suffered severe wounds, doctors considered amputating her leg, and at times her life hung in the balance. But the Lord has heard the prayers of many and she not only survived but is much better. I post this to keep faithful and loving prayer warriors updated on her condition.

Victoria had her first appointment at a therapy clinic yesterday. She is doing remarkably well; hopefully as times goes on, her walk will become more normal. She can climb the stairs and hopes to start school soon, perhaps after the winter break. She is in good spirits and the nightmares seem to be decreasing. Yesterday she saw both her legs for the first time. She never wanted to see them before, so her mother always held a towel in front of her when her dressings had to be changed or when she would take a bath or shower.

If you have legs that walk, take a moment today to thank the Lord.

Question: What are the two most common names of the Mediator?

His two most common names are Jesus and Christ.

Why is the Mediator named Jesus?

The name Jesus means “Jehovah saves.” The English name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew Yehoshua, where Yeh or Yah is a short form of Jehovah’s name, and the rest of the name comes from the Hebrew verb yashah, to save. Thus the angel said to Joseph, “thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The name Jesus is essentially the same as the Old Testament names Hosea and Joshua.

How was Hosea a type of Christ?

Hosea was a prophet who proclaimed the gospel of God’s free love and saving grace towards sinful people (Hos. 14:1–5). Jesus, the greater Hosea, is the prophet who brought in unsurpassed clarity the gospel of God’s great tenderness to miserable sinners who have nothing loveable in themselves.

How was Joshua, the son of Josedech, a type of Christ?

Joshua served as high priest in the time of restoration from exile (Hag. 1:1, 12, 14). In Zechariah’s vision Joshua appeared wearing filthy clothes in the presence of God while Satan accused him. These clothes were taken from him and replaced with beautiful clothes, a picture of the justification of God’s people in the person of their representative (Zech. 3). The greater high priest, Jesus, became sin for His people, bearing their filth as their substitute, and pleaded their cause based on His obedience and sacrifice. In them they are clothed in righteousness.

How was Joshua, the son of Nun, a type of Christ?

Moses, the prophet of law, couldn’t lead Israel into the promised land, just as the law cannot save us, though it strips us of our righteousness and leads us to Christ. Moses inaugurated the rule of Joshua, who like a king led Israel to defeat their enemies and enter the land of rest (Deut. 3:28; 31:7). Jesus Christ, the greater Joshua, crushes the head of every enemy and brings His elect into the spiritual and eternal rest awaiting them.

Why didn’t someone like Joshua or Hosea hold all three offices?

God reserved the honor of being prophet, priest, and king to Jesus. All office-bearers in the Old Testament were types of Christ. They were imperfect and incomplete; Christ has the fullness. They were anointed with oil and the Spirit, but Christ is anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure to save His people (Isa. 61:1; John 3:34).

What does it mean that Jesus “saves” people?

Abraham Hellenbroek said that this saving consists “in delivering a person from the greatest evil and making him a part of the supreme good” (A Specimen of Divine Truths, 39). The greatest evil is our sin, in its defiling pollution, its dominating power, and its damning provocation of the wrath of God. The supreme good is fellowship with God. Every true child of God, whether a beginner or advanced in grace, longs to be rescued from sin and to taste abiding communion and closeness with God.

What does this mean for me personally?

Do you know Jesus? Have you met Him in the Scriptures? Is He precious to you? Is His name really “Jesus”—Jehovah saves—for you? Have you, by faith, laid your hand upon Him? Have you received Him as the prophet to teach you infallible truth, the priest to clothe you in perfect righteousness, and the king to lead you in victorious triumph over sin and Satan?

On Judgment Day, the most important question will not be, “Have you sinned?” It will be, “What have you done with Jesus?”