Archives for July 3, 2021

Right after leading the memorial service of Orie VanderBoon yesterday, Mary and I flew to Sioux Falls, South Dakota via Charlotte, North Carolina. (Two rows in front of us, a large dog filled the aisle of the plane for most of the flight—see picture.) We are enjoying our time today with Mary’s sister and her husband, who live in eastern South Dakota. Tomorrow I hope to preach twice for the Heritage Reformed Church in Hull, Iowa. Many of the older folk in this church were members of my first pastorate here in northwest Iowa 43 years ago which then consisted of nearly 700 farmers and their families. It is always good to see these friends of decades ago.

Every blessing to you and your loved ones for the Lord’s Day tomorrow. Don’t forget to pray for our very needy, sinful, and divided country this weekend as we commemorate our 245^th birthday. Pray for national repentance, national revival, national reformation, and national renewal.

Yesterday was the memorial service for one of our oldest church members, Orie VanderBoon, who passed away at the age of 95. In a very real sense he was the patriarch of his large family of numerous children, grandchildren (49!), and great-grandchildren (85!). He often struggled spiritually, but did have times when he was able to trust in Christ alone as his only hope and righteousness. His walk of life gave abundant testimony of God’s grace in him. His tangible hunger for God and His righteousness, his astonishing generosity to his family and employees and hundreds of others, and his noteworthy integrity in every area of his life were evident to all who knew him. Close to 500 people attended his funeral and many more listened on line. I preached on Isaiah 38:14b, which in many ways was a summary of his life, “O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me,” and Dr. Kuivenhoven gave the committal address at the cemetery. It was particularly touching how close his grandchildren and great-grandchildren were to him. Please pray for this large family as they mourn their loss. Pray that they may be, as my father often prayed of our own family, “an undivided family reserved for the heavenly mansions above.”

I am excited to draw your attention to a unique and new publication by Reformation Heritage Books entitled, The Puritan Path. My friend Dr. Michael Haykin says this is “A superb piece of work.”

If you already love the Puritans, or if you would like to learn more about them and see with your own eyes where they lived, ministered, worshipped, and even were imprisoned or died, then you must have this treasure which you will want to go through time and time again. It is a book to benefit your soul and all those whom you share it with.

During the filming of our documentary, Puritan, the talented production team toured major sites that were significant to the Puritans across Europe and North America. As well as shooting film, they took amazing high quality photographs for this beautiful coffee-table style, cloth-bound book. Alongside the photography is commentary, and an exposition by myself of the wonderful and classic explanation of the ideal Puritan by John Geree who was a Puritan himself.

If you have ever met me in person you know that one of the joys of my life is to recommend good books to people. Well, this is a stunning book you will not want to miss, and RHB have allowed me to offer it at half off the retail price, that is just $30. To get that special deal, all you need to do is enter this code when you reach the checkout at heritagebooks.org – ‘BEEKEHALFOFF’.

I pray that you will enjoy this journey with the Puritans, enjoy these amazing photographs with your friends and family, have your heart warmed by the stories they tell, and be encouraged in your walk with our God and Father in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-puritan-path-from-the-reformation-to-the-modern-era-a-pictorial-witness-beeke-and-mccaskell.html