Archives for August 2021

Reformation Heritage Books just released our daughter’s first major book, “Transformed: How God Renews Your Mind to Make You More Like Jesus” by Esther Engelsma. May I humbly and objectively state that if you truly desire to be more conformed to Jesus Christ, this is a really good book that God can use to help you walk in that way? As David Murray writes, “This fascinating book is the Christian answer to the cultural craving for a holistic spirituality. Avoiding the pitfalls of intellectualism, emotionalism, and legalism, Esther guides us to a Christ-patterned and gospel-fueled renewal of our minds, feelings, and lives.” Please pray that God will bless this book to thousands.

https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/transformed-how-god-renews-your-mind-to-make-you-more-like-jesus-engelsma.html

The Lord Jesus taught that the key to a fruitful, God-glorifying life is abiding in His Word (John 8:31–32; 15:7–8). If this is true for disciples of Christ in general, how much more is it necessary for pastors and preachers! In this hour-long video, I explore the benefits of a life of meditating on the Word day and night (Ps. 1:2), with insights from the Puritans on how to most effectively feed ourselves and our flocks with the Holy Scriptures.

https://churchandfamilylife.com/resources/20795

I am excited to announce that RHB is publishing a second, improved 2-volume edition of Jim Beeke’s popular series of books on Bible Doctrine.
I received the first volume today, “Bible Doctrine for Younger Children” (300 pages in hard cover). This volume, geared for grades 4 and 5, replaces the former 2-volume paperback series by the same title. It contains numerous improvements in content, in editing, in artwork, and in typesetting. You can order this first volume here: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/bible-doctrine-for-younger-children-second-edition-beeke.html

Presently, our typesetter is working on the second volume, “Bible Doctrine for Older Children” (which my brother Jim has already edited and which is designed for grades 6 and 7 in one hard cover volume rather than the present 2-volume paperback). We hope to have this available by early next year.

Meanwhile, Jim Beeke is now working on reducing the 3-volume set of “Bible Doctrine for Teens and Young Adults” (for grades 8 through 12 and for young adults) which contains about 1500 pages down to about 800-900 pages. That too will be published in one volume. Publication date for this substantively revised edition will be 2023, D.V. I am grateful to have the privilege to serve as one of the editors of my dear brother’s fine books again.

This set of books has already sold tens of thousands of volumes, especially to churches, Christian schools, and home-schooling families throughout North America and beyond. There is nothing quite like it on the market. Please pray for God’s benediction upon this large undertaking so that these improved volumes would sell hundreds of thousands, and also be translated into a number of languages. Pray that children and young people will profit from them for their own conversion and spiritual maturation all around the world.

Just home safely with the Queen from Pella, Iowa—an 8-hour trek by car. Before leaving, we visited with some of Mary’s relatives—Nick and Lynn—who own a flower shop/greenhouse (picture #1). We took a break for an enjoyable dinner this evening at Clementine’s in St. Joseph, situated by a peaceful marina (picture #2), for perch and walleye (we always split our meals—try it—it’s fun). Thanks for your prayers!

Yesterday was encouraging. In the morning, I preached the installation service for Rev. Greg Lubbers into his new charge at Covenant Reformed Church (URC) in Pella, Iowa from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 on “Paul’s Trinitarian Apostolic Model for Ministry” and gave him a personal charge following his vows (picture 1: with Rev. Lubbers and his wife Jennie). The interim pastor, Rev. Ralph Pontier, led the liturgy and gave a personal charge to the church. Church was full—close to 500 people were present for this special occasion, including a good number from neighboring churches. (The occasion was extra special as Pastor Lubbers had come through serious brain surgery only several weeks ago and the Lord made all things wonderfully well.

After the service, we visited with numerous people and then had a noon meal and good fellowship with the Lubbers family and all the relatives who drove from Michigan. Later in the afternoon, we spent a few pleasant hours visiting with Rev. Ralph and Lois Pontier at their home, and then headed back to church for the evening service. Rev. Lubbers preached his inaugural sermon on the theme “Ready to Preach” from Romans 1:15.
After the service, we again fellowshipped with a variety of people, including some whom I had met on previous visits to this church, some who had gone with us on past tours that I had the privilege of leading, and some whom we had not met before, including some children of a good friend, Dr. Stuart Kanis, who passed away some months ago. We closed out the day by going to the new Lubbers home where we fellowshipped with the Lubbers family (picture #2) and relatives from Michigan.

Please pray that God will uphold Pastor Greg Lubbers in his large new charge at Covenant Reformed Church (picture #3) and bless his family and his labors there abundantly to the glory of His name, the maturation of His people, and the salvation of the lost.

Due to our first flight out of Grand Rapids being delayed so that we could not make our flight from Detroit to Iowa, Mary and I decided to drive 7-1/2 hours in order to arrive in time for my installing of Rev. Greg Lubbers in the Covenant Reformed Church in Pella, Iowa tomorrow morning. Here we are driving on the way just crossing the Mississippi River. We hope to arrive by 10:45 this evening.

We had the privilege this evening of attending the Christ-centered wedding and reception of one of our theological students, Ken Kiambati, from Kenya, with Elizabeth VanderWall, from Grand Rapids. By God’s grace, they are a very God-fearing couple—and both the wedding and reception abundantly showed that.

In the three pictures shown, we are first with the wedding couple; second, with Ken’s mother and sister who surprisingly and providentially were able to make it safely from Kenya, Africa despite Covid restrictions; and third, Pastor Mark Raines, one of our PRTS alumni who serves a Reformed Baptist church in Connecticut, delivering a beautiful message from Psalm 34:3 on magnifying the Lord together as husband and wife.

Please pray for Ken and Elizabeth that God will use them mightily for the coming of His kingdom.

We rejoice that one of our Brazilian students, Pastor Breno Macedo, just unanimously passed his Comprehensive Exams this afternoon for a PhD degree he is pursuing at Puritan Reformed Seminary. Now, he will move on to his dissertation. Breno is pictured third from the left here, together with his examining committee, chaired by Dr. Greg Salazar, two of his elders, and me.

The picture is taken in true Brazilian style where men customarily put their arms around each other—especially on joyful occasions like this!
Please pray for Breno that God will continue to carry him through the long and challenging process of writing an in-depth dissertation in the next few years and that he will be greatly used for the furtherance of God’s kingdom.

It is a new month, so we have a new e-book to giveaway at Reformation Heritage Books! This month we are giving away “Living Zealously” by James La Belle and me. Christian zeal is an often overlooked topic in our day. In this book, we aim to mine the riches and depths of Puritan literature on this topic and boil it down for a modern audience. Read this book and ask God to deepen your Christian life with a burning and holy zeal.

You may signup for this free e-book through the link: https://bit.ly/AugustEbookG

Yesterday morning Mary and I took at 5 mile hike through the woods with our niece, Maddy, at First Landing Park in Virginia. Here is a picture of some of the beautiful moss among the roots on the trail.

In the evening we went out for a Mexican dinner with pastor Dr. Josh and Christina Henson and their two sons. The dinner turned into four hours of great fellowship. Tomorrow we are flying back home to Grand Rapids, D.V. Please pray for fruit from our ministry in North Carolina and Virginia over the past week.