Archives for May 2013

Many of you have been asking for an update on Victoria (Tori), my niece’s daughter who was mauled by Rottweilers and wonderfully spared. I asked Tori’s mother to provide an update. She writes:

It is with extremely thankful, overflowing, and excited hearts we can say Tori is doing absolutely wonderful! Her 6th birthday was celebrated on May 16th. We watched her open her presents at her birthday party, and couldn’t help but be amazed again. Her gifts were a boogie board, tennis racquets, and a skipping rope—swimming, running, and jumping. None of these gifts are above her capabilities. Eight months ago we didn’t know if she would live; six months ago if I would have tried to picture her birthday I would have thought of gifts like coloring books, crayons, and paint sets—toys that would require sitting.

Our God has showered our little girl with His love and care. He is shaping and molding her. I see her little sensitive heart reaching out to others. Her prayer list of people who need help is so long. She doesn’t forget to make a picture or send a card to someone who is sick.

Tori has often said, “I’m not sad this has happened to me.” When asked, “Why?” she responds, “I want my legs to shine for Jesus. I can show my legs to so many different people, and hopefully they will love Jesus more.” We continue to pray that her little legs will be a pathway for someone, and that others’ faith will be strengthened as they continue to see God’s healing hand on Victoria.

Thank you once again for walking this journey with us. For being such a special part of it. For lifting our precious little girl in prayer, and placing her at the feet of Jesus. Your prayers, encouragement, and cards have defined the meaning of being part of an extended family. To be brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Last week, Reformation Heritage Books came out with Prepared by Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God’s Ordinary Way of Leading Sinners to Christ, co-authored by Paul Smalley and me, with a foreword by Sinclair Ferguson. In this book we are showing the Puritan emphasis on how God ordinarily uses conviction of sin to lead sinners to Christ.

Implicitly, the Puritans help us challenge the status quo of contemporary evangelicalism, which for the most part, tragically embraces a shallow form of easy-believism that does not result in genuine conversion.

I am convinced that many who have written on this subject did not understand the Puritans here. We aim to set the record straight. Pray with us that God will use this book mightily in our day when preaching often confuses the relationship between law and gospel.

The Lord willing, I am to preach two times for Dr. Reggie Weems in the Heritage Baptist Church, Johnson City, Tennessee on Sunday, and then address a group of ministers on Sunday evening. From Monday through Thursday I will be speaking eight times to about 150 young people from United States and Canada at the annual Biblical Worldview Student Conference at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, pastored by Brent Bradley and Steven Warhurst. Pray for God’s indispensable blessing.

Here is another report from my friend who lives in Moore, Oklahoma, about the devastation from the tornado.

Thank you very much for posting about the Moore tragedy on your blog and Facebook.  I wanted to mention another specific request: Pray for the kids and teachers of Plaza Towers Elementary. They are dealing with a lot of grief over the loss of those 3rd graders, and the teacher of that class is in the hospital with serious injuries and emotional stress over watching the children die.

Over the past few days we have heard so many sad stories, and many miraculous ones of people who were spared who gave glory to God through it. A family from church who lost their house shouldn’t be alive, humanly speaking. They were in their house when it was hit, and the only wall left was the bathroom wall that they were huddled by. It is only because of God’s grace that they didn’t lose their lives.

Some of my family have been down there, and the pictures on the news do not do it justice. It looks like a war-torn country. I have never seen anything like it. It is going to be a long, long recovery.

On Monday, a good friend from Moore, Oklahoma, wrote about her family’s harrowing experience of surviving through the F5 tornado that ripped its way through their town. Today I corresponded with her again, telling her that our staff was praying for her and the people of Moore, Oklahoma. She responded as follows (and subsequently gave me permission to post this):

Thank you so much for praying! That means a lot to me. Our family is well, but I know personally of three families who are really suffering. Two families from church lost their homes completely, and a co-worker of my father’s lost his granddaughter in the Plaza Towers Elementary School. It is overwhelming to keep hearing all of the stories of suffering, all people who live close to where I grew up. Our church is just yards away from the devastation, and we have a 24/7 supply distribution set up. Tonight some of us are going down there to help, so pray for our strength.

We feel very blessed, because we were seriously looking for a house in that area about a year ago hoping to be closer to our church. God shut the door very tightly, and now we know why. We used to live in that area and actually had a tornado come through our neighborhood. God was so merciful… we were right in its path, when suddenly it lifted, passed over our housing edition, and touched down again. The sound is so frightening… like a freight train. It breaks our hearts to hear about all the little kids who went through this! I know how scared my siblings were when we went through it, but at least we were all together. These little ones were away from their parents! The area that was hit was a poor part of town. Many Habitat for Humanity homes were destroyed.

Please pray for the suffering in Moore , Oklahoma, especially those who have lost precious children.

On Saturday I spoke on “How to Pray and Meditate” to the Indian Fellowship, which had its meeting in the chapel at PRTS. I enjoyed these dear people very much.

Ever since I heard some fifteen years ago that the average African pastor has only about a dozen books in his library, I have felt burdened to make an important part of Reformation Heritage Book’s non-profit status be connected to distributing sound Reformed  books through reliable ministries to these pastors. Their joy in receiving such books is often amazing; the potential usefulness of such books is incalculable. This week, one of our PRTS graduates, Rev. Brian Kamwendo, who is serving as a theological teacher in Malawi, sent me this picture of his theological students at Josophat Mwale Theological Institute (an official seminary for the CCAP Nkhoma Synod) receiving Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism. If you share this burden and would care to donate to this cause of distributing Reformed literature to African pastors and theological students, please send your donation to Reformation Heritage Books, 2965 Leonard N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49525 (for more information, call RHB’s manager, Steve Renkema, 616-977-0599, x 125).

At 7:00 p.m. this evening, I’ll be speaking at Baker Book House (2768 E. Paris Ave SE, Grand Rapids) on What Can We Learn Today from the Morose, Legalistic Killjoys called Puritans? A QA session and book signing will follow. I’d love to have you join us.

Yesterday the Reformation Heritage Books staff began to load a truck of books—$50,000 worth—for Ghana. Please pray that God would safely deliver this shipment to Africa, and bless these books to many souls.

With the Davis Family

I got back to Grand Rapids Tuesday morning from New Jersey. On Sunday, I preached on “True Life on Earth” and “True Love in Heaven” for the Heritage Reformed Church at Kinnelon, NJ, and baptized Emma Grace Davis, daughter of Luke and Karis Davis, the newest member of the large Davis family that hails from Brazil. On Monday, the memorial service and graveside committal for Joan Elshout were edifying. At Mrs. Elshout’s request, I preached on “This man receiveth sinners” from Luke 15:2, and Rev. Brian Najapfour, her son-in-law, spoke on John 20:24–28 at the committal. Rev. Elshout and his family were upheld throughout, being particularly encouraged by Joan’s dying cry, “Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

The drive in the car going to and back from New Jersey with five family members went well, and we arrived back in Michigan early in the morning. Then, later that day I led the funeral of Mrs. Alice Dole, who, in God’s providence, had many of the same spiritual struggles that Joan Elshout had. Thank God for upholding us and the mourning families through four deaths in ten days. Please read Hebrews 9:27-28.