Doctrine for Life
Today I am grateful to receive a Chinese edition of my little book, “What is Resurrection?,” published by P&R. Pray with me please that God will bless this to many Mandarin-speaking people that they might believe and grow in our exalted Savior-King who alone can say, “I am the resurrection and the life—do you believe this?” (cf. John 11:25-26).
Here is my Queen enjoying the orchids we received as a surprise gift from some friends in Pennsylvania. If you have a wonderful, God-fearing spouse, thank God every day for him or her. Life is fragile and short; as you travel life’s pathway through Vanity Fair to the Celestial City, enjoy your spouse as a gift of God to treasure as long as you have each other, and look forward to the day when you will worship perfectly the Lamb on the throne of grace and glory sin-free forever. Soli Deo gloria!
Tonight we enjoyed a mini-golf game with a few of our children and grandchildren, and afterward Mary talked me into going on a go-cart with a grandchild, who absolutely loved it. We got three go-carts in all. What fun! Aren’t grandchildren special?
Yesterday was another day of sorrow and joy: I preached in the morning about ten lessons that Jesus wants to teach us from the death of Jordan Kamp, a dear young man in our church family who died at the age of 18 last week. Please continue to pray for the mourning Kamp family and our mourning church family, including the grieving peers of Jordan, that God will bring great good out of this past sad week for His glory.
Then, in the evening, Dr. Kuivenhoven led us in preaching from Ruth 4 and baptizing five infants. One infant was a grandson to the grandparents who had to bury Jordan the day before. It was touching to see the grandmother take the child out of church after baptism to care for him. One day she saw one grandchild buried; the next day, she and her husband witnessed another grandchild baptized. God’s ways are above our ways. He knows how to balance our sorrows and our joys. Though His ways are mysterious, faith confesses that He makes no mistakes.
Another infant baptized is a source of great joy to the couple below who tried in vain to have a child for about fifteen years, the last seven of which they have been waiting for an adopted child. One day some months ago, they received a call that a child had just been born in a local Grand Rapids hospital and they had been selected as the adopting parents but they would need to come to the hospital as soon as possible to take the child home with them. This precious, beautiful girl has brought so much joy into their lives! Pray that the children baptized will grow up in the fear and nurture of the Lord and know Him in spirit and truth.
A pastor’s life is often a mixture of sorrow and joy. That was certainly my experience in the last 24 hours. Last night David Woollin (RHB’s CEO; see picture) and I dedicated the new building (44,000 square feet) of Reformation Heritage Books (3070 29th St. SE, Grand Rapids) to the glory of God in the presence of 100 invited guests (pastors, employees, donors—some who came from far).
Then, for most of the day today was the funeral and committal and fellowship in memory of dear Jordan Kamp, a young man in our church family who died suddenly in an accident this past Monday—just five weeks after he graduated from our Christian school and eight weeks before he was planning on making public profession of faith before our church. More than 500 gathered for his funeral this morning in our church building where Dr. Kuivenhoven spoke fittingly and powerfully from John 11, especially on Jesus’s statement, “I am the resurrection and the life; believest thou this?” Most of the people also attended the committal at the cemetery where I spoke primarily on, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). From there we spent another hour or two with the mourning family and friends at our church where we had good fellowship and prayed with several of the mourning family. I was grateful to also learn a bit more in fellowship with others about Jordan’s spiritual life.
After this day full of God’s encouraging and convicting word and gospel—and with human emotion, Mary and I went back to Reformation Heritage Books for the last few hours of the first day that the new store was officially open for walk-in customers. Scores of people filled the store, I was told, all day long, and more than $5,000 worth of books were sold. By God’s grace, we are off to a good start.
Now I am back into sermon preparation for tomorrow morning when I hope to bring our church family a solemn but encouraging message on ten lessons that Jesus is teaching/showing us through the loss of Jordan Kamp. Pray with me please that this sermon, together with the funeral memorials today, might serve as a healing and strengthening balm for the mourning family and for believers, and an awakening and convicting time for unbelievers. Pray that God will grant us all the four needed “R’s” (repentance, revival, reformation, and renewal) in our lukewarm and backslidden day.
Please pray for us. We are grieving as a church family.
A young man in our church family, Jordan Kamp, was working with two friends on getting a camper into a barn Monday evening when a large commercial garage door fell on him and took his life at the age of 18. Please remember his parents, Eric and Brenda Kamp, and their children, Levi, Landon, and Savannah, the grandparents, family, and friends, as they grapple with this overwhelming, sudden loss.
As pastors, we were with the mourning family for hours shortly after Jordan died, repeatedly reading portions of Scripture, praying, crying, and being silent before the Lord and each other, as well as listening to testimonies of Jordan’s only hope for salvation being in Christ. Personally, I am grateful for a hospital visit I had with Jordan a few years ago during which he definitively affirmed that Christ was his only hope for salvation.
Visiting hours will be on Friday, July 16, from 2-4 p.m. and 5:30-8:00 p.m. at Heritage Life Story Funeral Home, Alt & Shawmut Hills Chapel, 2120 Lake Michigan Dr. NW, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The funeral will take place on Saturday, July 17, at 10 a.m. at Heritage Reformed Congregation, 540 Crescent St. NE, Grand Rapids, with the graveside service immediately following the service at Fairplains Cemetery, 2056 Diamond Ave, NE.
The funeral service will also be live-streamed through Facebook, SermonAudio, or our church website. There will be a time for fellowship and refreshments at the church immediately following the graveside service.
Please continue to pray for the family and our church in this heavy trial.
A Gofundme has been set up on behalf of the Kamp family to help pay for funeral costs and other uncovered expenses:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/funeral-and-related-expenses-for-jordan-kamp
For those who wish to provide meals, a Meal Train has also been set up: https://mealtrain.com/lz5zz4
I received a surprise package today of “Teologica Pratica: um estudo sobre João Calvino e seu legado” (350 pages; São Paulo: Editora Trinitas LTDA)—a Portuguese translation of “Theology Made Practical: New Studies in John Calvin and His Legacy” (by Michael Haykin, David Hall, and me). Pray that this book will help enlarge and mature the growing Reformed movement in Brazil.
You can order the book from www.editoratrinitas.com.br
It was great to be with our young people yesterday at our annual Youth Camp. The addresses have been excellent and the young people have been greatly blessed. Last evening several of the elders and their wives from our church joined the young people for dinner and for Dr. Jerry Bilkes’s outstanding message on gleaning wisdom from the book of Proverbs for persevering in the Christian life.
After his address, Mary and I got roped into playing an intense game of basketball with the young people (unfortunately, I missed the shot that I took below but connected on a few others; we ended up losing by one point—but not for lack of trying—and wow, are we ever sore today!). From there we went to the campfire, where Dr. Bilkes (seated below) and I answered a number of the young people’s excellent questions. After doing some counseling, we returned home by a bit after midnight.
Ministry to young people is just wonderful—what a privilege to have these opportunities! Pray for the camp as it finishes up this afternoon that God will use it for true conversions, growth in grace, and His own glory.
Saturday evening we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship at a local restaurant in Canton, South Dakota with Pete and Linda VanBeek (Linda is Mary’s sister; we are staying with them) and Rev. and Mrs. Bart and Clarice Elshout (in the foreground of the picture). Yesterday I preached twice for Bart (a very good friend of mine for more than half a century) in Hull, Iowa (second picture). It was good also to reconnect with a number of people who I had the privilege to pastor back in the 1970s in Sioux Center, Iowa.
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 245th birthday. Pray for national repentance, national revival, national reformation, and national renewal.
