Archives for September 2021

Today was an intense but good day at the G3 conference here in Atlanta, Georgia—which is focused on Jesus Christ—being attended by close to 7000 people. We took in all five addresses on Christ which were delivered to the entire audience in this order: Dr. Josh Buice on “Who is Jesus?” (Mark 8:27-31); Dr. Conrad Mbewe on “Christ as Head of the Church” (Eph. 5:22-27); myself on “The Utopian Marriage with Christ in Heaven” (Rev. 19:6-9); Dr, Steve Lawson on “The Darkness of Golgotha” (John 19:19-31); and Dr. John MacArthur on “The Suffering Servant” (Isa. 52:13 through 53—see photo).

We also spent several hours today selling several thousands of dollars worth of books at the RHB table. People here are hungry and eager to learn. It was particularly exciting to introduce scores of people today to the Puritans (or to see them already excited by Puritan material such as the three young ladies with us in picture 3 below) and to see them walk away also with family worship resources that can both change their lives and transform their families.

We met with dozens of old friends and new friends today, and were deeply gratified and humbled by their encouragements. Pray that God will continue to bless this conference mightily as we look forward to five more addresses on Jesus Christ tomorrow.

I just took my dear wife out for a nice dinner here in Atlanta to commemorate her birthday yesterday and the restaurant gave her a special dessert! God is so good to us.

We are at the G3 conference in Atlanta, which is being attended by close to 7,000 people. The pre-conference is today. Mary participated in a Table Talk Event for Pastors’ Wives with Kari Buice, Erin Coates, and Jennifer Buck. About 100 pastors’ and elders’ wives attended, as the ladies shared wisdom and advice about the challenges and joys of serving the church alongside their husbands. I am scheduled to speak tomorrow afternoon. Your prayers are appreciated.

Today is my Queen’s 62^nd birthday. By God’s grace, she is my better ¾, my tender-hearted, God-fearing, help-perfectly-meet for me wife. She packs our days, weeks, and months with love, kindness, understanding, and pleasure. Next to Christ Himself, she is God’s very best gift to me. She is so lovable that loving her becomes an automatic joy that cannot be restrained rather than a duty to be given.

All our friends and our whole church knows Mary models integrity, godliness, and kindness. Her simple, child-like humility of which she is not even aware is a fresh joy all over every day—in the home and among the church family. I thank her often for a peaceful, open relationship, 32+-year argument-free marriage.

Her unflagging support and undying loyalty are beyond words. She is the sunshine of my life in winter’s cold blasts. In her tongue is the law of kindness (Prov. 31). She is far and away my best friend and confidant. I love her more than yesterday and less than tomorrow. And my ministry would be far less effective without her. To this special woman, I wish a truly blessed birthday and many more years with her grateful husband and cherished and loving children and grandchildren.

In the picture below, we are standing on our front porch. An hour ago, during supper, six children rang the doorbell, and presented my dear wife with a candled cake for her birthday. She was touched—deeply!

Here are the five addresses on “Union with Christ, Unity, and Holiness” that I gave a week ago in Forest Falls, California for Abide—an adult camp for ages 18 to upper-30s.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=92721157173341 https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=92721158131348 https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=92721158502776 https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=92721159266698 https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=92721151057642

“True Revival” is the subject of Westminster UK’s annual conference next month, 14-16 October. As a speaker from previous years I can recommend this conference.

More details here: https://youtu.be/rSuY9UQiKQo

The Puritan paperback series published by Banner of Truth Trust over the last 60+ years have had a huge impact in my life, leading me to liberty in Christ as a teenager. At a recent conference, Pat Daly, who is in charge of Banner of Truth in North America, spontaneously asked me to recommend one of these titles and to comment on their influence in my life, and then encouraged me to post the video he made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqDK3pFce-U&list=PLUNl3x537t5IclSh-gEp4fTnNPo855C43&index=29

Excuse the conference noise in the background please. All of the Banner titles you can order at steeply discounted prices from www.heritagebooks.org.

If God will be pleased to bless these books to your soul as he did to mine, you will be greatly blessed.

This evening the women of our church prepared a delicious meal for about 150 men, fathers, and sons of our congregation, and they asked me to give a testimony of the Lord’s work in my life together with some concluding lessons for men. It was the first time I have done something like this in 34 years of serving this dear church family. It was great to fellowship with the men. Pray for God’s blessing upon it so that He would receive all the glory.

Yesterday Mary and I visited four more families in California, and enjoyed each one, before heading back to Grand Rapids today. We just arrived home minutes ago after completing our 11-day trip with three conferences and three days of visits. God is good.

During one of the visits yesterday with a young couple who are expecting their first child, the father of the young woman backed a very long flatbed trailer into their driveway. All that was strapped onto it was a tiny kids’ tractor. He bought it at an auction for a prison ministry the evening before, and thought it would be a good pre-birth gift for his first grandchild! In the picture below, the father is just unstrapping the little tractor while the delighted daughter is in the background, so very grateful for her father’s thoughtfulness. After she got over her surprise, he then followed one serendipitous moment with another by bringing from his cab twelve large roses. It appeared to us that he was as excited to have his first grandchild as his daughter and her husband were to have their first child—which is quite understandable!

Yesterday, we had a full day of visiting friends in the Visalia, California area. We began with a visit to the “coffee shed” of a dairy farmer at 9:00 a.m. when, every morning except the Lord’s Day, family members and friends—most of whom are dairy farmers—gather at their parents’ farm for coffee. After coffee, a son-in-law gave us a tour of the family farm, which included impressive Friesian horses (picture #1) and old carriages (picture #2). We then had an enjoyable visit with the parents, who are 93 and 94 years old respectively; the father nostalgically explained to us how he was instrumental in getting Friesian horses from Europe, which opened the way for these special horses to be shipped to eighty countries all around the world.

Next we had great fellowship over lunch with our hosts both of whom live busy lives on their dairy farm and serve the church in a variety of capacities. This brother is chairman of his consistory and also serves on a number of committees for various ministries in the community. They had much practical wisdom to share with us and we felt enriched by our conversation. From there, we had a pleasant, interesting visit with a new friend who is an engineer in a company that he co-owns which works to create technology related to dairy sustainability.

We then enjoyed a delicious steak dinner with two couples we knew from the past. One brother is involved with a fascinating ministry that reaches political leaders around the world with the gospel and is also involved in various agriculture ventures. He showed us some old, beautiful vehicles, and let Mary and me sit in one of them—an old Duesenberg (picture #3). The other brother, a retired hoof trimmer, and his wife serve as high school youth leaders. The four hours of great fellowship we had with these dear couples just flew by.