Archives for July 2022

Our addresses on Saturday in Governador Valadares, Brazil went well, and they sold many of Mary’s and my books. Danilo, my interpreter, and I are holding three of my larger titles that are selling well here (photo 1: Reformed Systematic Theology, vol. 1; Living for the Glory of God: An Intro to Calvinism; Meet the Puritans). On Saturday evening, we went to an Italian restaurant where the cook prepared our food table-side (photo 2). She torched the cheese to warm it, then mixed it with cream on the hot plate, and heated it together with the noodles. Interesting and delicious.

On the Lord’s Day, I preached on Christ’s superiority over the priesthood of Aaron and His perpetual intercession from Hebrews 7:25 and on the only way to live and die from Philippians 1:21. Danilo did an outstanding job of translating and we both felt greatly helped in proclaiming God’s Word to this very warm, hungry, loving, and hospitable church. Some precious children tried out their English skills on us, but they were quite shy (photo 3). The Pires family hosted us for a delicious lunch, and we enjoyed sweet fellowship (photo 4). Their son, Abraham, to my left, is 16 years old and has a remarkable affinity and love for learning languages. I encouraged him in his desire to use his talents in God’s kingdom, and to pursue Biblical Hebrew and Latin.

After the evening service, we gathered at the Freitas home with several families for delicious Brazilian BBQ (photo 5). We discussed several issues confronting the church today. Their church has welcomed 200 new members since we were here last time, which was only three years ago. Pray that God will continue to bless them abundantly.

We arrived in Goverador Valadares, Brazil Thursday for a conference at the Presbyterian Church of Gra-Duquesa. God’s splendorous creation was on display from our hotel room balcony last evening in the form of a full rainbow surrounding nearby Mount Ibituruna (photo 1). It’s winter here below the equator, and yesterday it was 81 degrees.

Mary spoke to the women last evening on “Teach the Child to Work,” and today she is to speak on “Laying our Anxieties Before Christ.” Her interpreter is Tiago (photo 2). The theme of the conference is “Growing in Glorifying God in the Ministry.” I spoke on “Cultivating Prayer as a Pastor to Glorify God” last evening, and am speaking today on “Growing in Applying the Word to God’s Glory” which focuses on Reformed experiential preaching and on “Cultivating Growth in Coping with Criticism as a Pastor to God’s Glory.” The approximately 250 attendees are primarily ministers and church leaders, but there are many lay people here also. At conferences, Brazilians eat dinner late after all the addresses are over (10:30 p.m. to midnight), so here we are in a restaurant with (photo 3, from left) Christian singer Paulo Cesar, my translator and future Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary student Danilo, and Pastor Ricardo Silva Ferreira. As we were eating, just before midnight I suddenly noticed a man at the next table getting down on one knee and holding up a ring in a box to his girlfriend! She said, “Yes!” And suddenly everyone clapped!

We are honored at Reformation Heritage Books to publish Dr. Richard A. Muller’s informative and excellent essays on “Providence, Freedom, and the Will in Early Modern Reformed Theology” (290 pages) in our Reformed Historical-Theological Studies series. As Dr. Fesko writes, “No serious student of theology can afford to ignore this work.” This is a great book!

Learn more here.

After 13 hours of travel, which included 3 flights, we arrived safely in Governadore Valadares, Brazil late last night for two more conferences, both of which include many pastors and church leaders, as well as their spouses and some church members. I speak for the first time this evening, just after Mary gives an address to the women.

This morning I received a delightful letter and photo from my friend, Dr. Richard Daniels, who graduated with me 37 years ago with a PhD from Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. (A few years later I published his excellent dissertation on Christology through RHB.) For years, he has been teaching systematic theology at the African Reformation Theological Seminary in Uganda, Africa, where he is using the first three volumes of our Reformed Systematic Theology as his major text. (By the way, we just sent the fourth and last volume on the church and the last things to our editors today—and it hopes to appear in print by Crossway Books next year.) Here is what Dr. Daniels wrote:

I am writing to let you know about this past semester and the use of Reformed Systematic Theology (RST), vols. 1-3, here at Africa Reformation Theological Seminary. We used the first three volumes in 4 courses and the students, whether this was their first course in Systematics or their third and fourth, loved them. They particularly valued the way the studies applied the convincingly expounded doctrine to personal piety and to living the Christian life. We, the Principal Dr. Dave Eby and I, knew this would be a special strength of this series and were more than greatly pleased with the books and rejoice in the way the Lord used them. We have 2 more courses in our series, The Church, and Eschatology which will be offered next Spring. Also, we have at least 2 graduates who are seriously looking at participating in the PhD program at PRTS; one of them has already submitted his application.

The photo above is of Mercy, one of the ladies in our Biblical Counseling program, with RST on her head! As you know, these African women can easily carry great burdens on their heads.

We arrived in Aracaju, Brazil on Monday for the Puritan Conference. Thirty years ago, Dr. Manoel Canuto (a pediatric surgeon) was deeply moved reading Jeremiah Burroughs’ The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment and was inspired to begin “The Puritan Project.” (Photo 1, from left, is Fabio and Virginia Andrade, Dr. Canuto and his wife Telma, and on the right are the Andrade’s sons. Virginia is the Canuto’s daughter and is very involved in organizing the conference.) He was soon joined by Pastor Josafa Vasconcelos (photo 2, with his wife Graca), a crusade leader whose passionate preaching filled stadiums, but who became convicted that Reformed and Puritan teachings were biblical and that Arminian and Pentecostal teachings were not. This conference brought me to Brazil for the first time ever, back in 1995, and I have enjoyed coming many times since. I count Manoel and Josafa as very special friends.

The theme of this conference was “The Puritan Vision of the Scriptures.” My good friend Dr. Joey Pipa, who has also spoken several times for this conference, and I each spoke five times on this theme. He spoke from an exegetical perspective and I spoke from a historical perspective. I covered the Puritan view of the inspiration, clarity, authority, sufficiency, and efficacy of the Scriptures, as well as their convictions about the regulative principle of worship in preaching, praying and singing the Scriptures. I also looked at how they used the Scriptues in family worship, how they meditated on the Scriptures, and how they taught the transforming power of the Scriptures. Daniel Silveira, one of our Puritan Reformed Seminary alumni, served as my excellent and passionate translator. What a dear brother he is! Four Brazilian pastors also gave one address in Portuguese, of course. Mary spoke to the women on “Teaching Children to Work,” the subject of her book, which is freshly translated into Portuguese. Mary’s translator was Daniel’s dear wife Flavia (photo 3, with their daughters). It was wonderful to be reunited with these dear friends.

The Canutos invited us and others to lunch on Wednesday. It turned out to be a surprise celebration of their 45th wedding anniversary. Dr. Canuto sang a love song to Telma, and she joined in singing it to him. There were six ministers in attendance (photo 4). Later, back at the conference, Christopher showed me his note-taking system of his reading of three of my books that are in Portuguese (photo 5). It does my heart good to see young men being inspired by the Puritans and beginning to publish them themselves in other languages. Soli deo Gloria!Presently we are on our way to the 3rd of our 5 back-to-back conferences in Brazil. Two of our three flights today to get there are behind us. Continue to pray for us please.

Yesterday morning Mary and I had a stimulating ride to the Sau Paulo, Brazil airport with our chauffeur Rafael (photo 1), a businessman who has been greatly influenced and strengthened by the Puritans and is assisting Puritan Reformed Seminary from afar in developing digital media and marketing.

In the afternoon we flew two hours north to Aracaju to begin our 2nd of 5 back-to-back conferences in Brazil–this one being the Puritan Project, which I have served about half a dozen times over the past 27 years. It is led by Dr. Canuto with the assistance of Pastor Josapha, both of whom have become good friends over the years. This year Dr. Joey Pipa (photo 2, on the left), another very good friend, and I are the two main speakers, each of us speaking five times on the Puritan vision of the Scriptures–he from a more exegetical approach and me from a historical approach.

After we both spoke last night, I had encouraging fellowship with a number of friends, and also made a new friend in Pastor Christopher (photo 3), who loves Puritan writings and started a book publishing house called “De Nadere Reformatie” (The Dutch Further Reformation), which aims to promote Puritan material of both Dutch and English persuasion. He gave me six copies of my festschrift in Portuguese and we talked about various book projects for the future. Pray that this meeting will bear much fruit for Brazil.

A recent devotional with the team at Church and Family Life where I answer the question, “How would you explain the attribute of God’s omniscience to an 8-year-old child?”

From last Lord’s Day Sermon on 1 Timothy 1:1-17, titled “The Gospel”.

Listen to the whole sermon here.

Recently I sat down with Eric Conn of the Hard Men Podcast to discuss the importance of family worship, its theological basis, and practical ways to implement it in your household.

Listen to our conversation here.

Sign up for the opportunity to win a free copy of “Family Worship” here.