Archives for March 2022

There is an oath we must break and an oath we must take. The oath we must break is the allegiance we show to Satan when we do anything sinful. The oath we must take is to serve the Lord our God only, to live according to His word.

I am grateful for the release of Sarah Ivill’s new book, “The God Who Hears: How the Story of the Bible Shapes Our Prayers” by Reformation Heritage Books (164 pages). It is a helpful and stimulating study on prayer that can enrich your prayer life as she shows you how Old Testament prayers find their fulfillment and transformation in Christ. Highly recommended!

Two of our church’s young adults, Jordan Spaans and Hope Carlson, were married last evening at our church. It was a beautiful wedding. Dr. Kuivenhoven spoke movingly on marital love in Christ from 1 Cor. 13:4-7 and I spoke briefly at the reception on “Ten Commandments for a Blessed Marriage.” Here are my notes:

1. Put God first, each other second, and yourself third in your marriage.

2. Build your marriage solidly on the Word of God, fearing God, hating sin, loving Christ, and pursuing the King’s highway of holiness.

3. Pray often together—humbly, expectantly, and earnestly—both at stated times and spontaneously as needs arise.

4. Practice conscientious, daily, intentional family worship each day.

5. Love each other with your whole heart, mind, strength, words, affections, and actions.

6. Develop and maintain good communication skills which begins with good listening and includes understanding each other.

7. Compliment each other every day—ideally, several times each day—and aim for variety in those compliments.

8. Cultivate intimacy—spiritual intimacy, emotional intimacy, sharing intimacy, hobby intimacy, physical intimacy. 

9. Develop spiritual and natural friendship with each other. Stay best friends in your marriage and grow in that friendship by treating each other well in every area of life and by developing mutual interests.

10. God willing, if the Lord blesses you with children, develop togetherness in parenting by bringing your children up in the fear, admonition, nurture, and love of God. 

If you follow these ten commandments each day, you will be guaranteed a blessed marriage.

Please pray for Jordan and Hope that their marriage will be stamped with divine benediction in Christ.

Having a midnight snack last night of sushi—crunchy shrimp roll—with my special Queen!

“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6

My Queen did it again—cooking for 20+ people last night, as we again invited over (as we did the previous Monday evening) all the PRTS students and their spouses and children who had not yet shared a meal with us in our home. We had a wonderful time again, each of the adults (who hail from Brazil, Lithuania, Malaysia, and United States) giving testimonies of how the Lord has worked in our souls and fellowshipping in Christ with the older children listening in and the younger children quietly playing. These are truly meaningful and bonding evenings—I love them!

After church last evening, Mary and I had a great time fellowshipping in our home with our good friend, Pastor Mack Tomlinson, a dear Reformed Baptist brother with a congregation of about 300 souls in Texas. I had the privilege of doing a conference for him several years ago, and we have been building a friendship ever since. He specializes in helping pastors in small Baptist churches—and he has been a “Barnabas,” that is, an encourager, to me too over the years. Please pray for him and his dear wife Linda as she struggles with some health issues.   

Yesterday Mary and I drove to Allen Park, Michigan where we had an excellent dinner and warm fellowship with several Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary (DBTS) faculty members and their spouses at the home of their president, Dr. David Doran. Today I was privileged to deliver the biannual Rice Lectures (so named after the founder of their seminary, which began in the 1970s) on the theme of coping with criticism in the ministry for a DBTS conference in their church (across the street from the seminary).

I spoke three times on the theme from (1) Old Testament examples—David and Nehemiah, (2) the example of Christ, and (3) 10 practical lessons on coping with criticism for today. Afterwards, I did a Q&A for the conference, and then did an interview for the DBTS “Theologically Driven” podcast. There were about 125 ministers, seminary students, and elders present. Books sold briskly—all but one box of the 12 boxes that we brought! It was a very enjoyable day indeed. Pray please that God will add His blessing.