Archives for March 2020

RHB just published another new, very helpful title on spiritual warfare: “Waging War in an Age of Doubt: A Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Practical Approach to Spiritual Warfare for Today” by Robert Smart. This is a remarkably well-written, perceptive book that will help us all be more aware of Satan’s devices and how to fight back in the Spirit’s strength. I thoroughly enjoyed editing it. Pray that God will use this book greatly in our needy day—especially for Christians who are not sufficiently watchful and not sufficiently engaged in battling against sin and the powers of evil. http://bit.ly/SmartWagingWar 

On Saturday, Mary and I had to leave right in the middle of a very busy book-selling time at the homeschooling conference of 12,000 in Nashville, Tennessee in order to catch a flight to Fresno, California. It’s not easy for me to walk away from a book table surrounded by good book-buyers!

On the Lord’s Day, I had the privilege of preaching the ordination sermon on “The Paradox of the Ministry” (2 Cor. 6:8-10) for Joel Weaver, one of our alumni, at the Trinity United Reformed Church of Visalia, California. Rev. Weaver has been serving in this church of about 450 members as associate pastor to Rev. Adrian Dieleman for the past three years. A goodly number of people were present for this very special occasion from other churches as well. Joel has been working especially with the youth, and is a good fit for this church. They are very happy with him and he and his wife (see first picture) and children (see second picture of the children with us) are very happy in this church.

I preached a follow-up sermon in the evening, after which Mary and I had a dinner and excellent fellowship with Rev. and Mrs. Dieleman, and another URC pastor and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. Inks. We also thoroughly enjoyed our time with our hospitable hosts, Garry and Diane Riezebos. Yesterday morning, we spent a few sweet hours with Joel and Heidi and their family and were able to make it home by midnight last night.

Pray for the Weavers please that God will continue to bless them and Joel’s ministry abundantly.

What does a Christian family look like? While many aspects will vary from family to family, there should be at least one constant virtue that appears in all Christian families: they are families that worship God. In this sermon I explain that while all of life is worship in a sense, there are particular times of dedicated worship in three settings; privately, as a family, and corporately with the gathered church. A godly father is to be a role model of worship and must be diligent to impress on his children — with the help of the Holy Spirit — the importance and privilege of true heartfelt worship in each setting.