Archives for February 2023

I am excited to announce that Reformation Heritage Books’ second documentary (the first was on the Puritans), a 2-hour presentation, “Revival: The Work of God,” is now available: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/revival-documentary-dvd-streaming.html
This moving, high-quality, 2-hour documentary stresses the amazing outpourings of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost to the present day in terms of the great revivals throughout church history. Visit with the narrator, Jeremy Walker, key places and periods such as England during the Reformation, America in the Great Awakening of the 1730s and early 40s, Wales in the Evangelical Awakening, Northern Ireland in 1859, and the island of Lewis, in the Scottish Hebrides, in 1949. The documentary also features Sinclair Ferguson, Steve Lawson, Stuart Olyott, Geoff Thomas, Ian Hamilton, and others, and includes several hours of bonus interviews, as well as a conference session on revival by Iain Murray. You and your family will love watching this, and I pray that it will stir you up to pray for revival all the more in our dark and needy day!

That is certainly the impact this documentary had on many of us when we watched it last Friday evening as a church family. O Spirit of God, let revival begin with us and our families and our churches and spread throughout our cities and states and nation and world to the glory of the triune God!

I was blessed by the opportunity to speak at the 2023 Founders Conference on the topic of biblical anthropology. You can listen to all of the sessions and panel discussions here: https://founders.org/livestream

I am excited to announce that Reformation Heritage Books has released a new, easy-to-read book: “Samuel Rutherford of Anworth: A Study in Pastoral Care” by Bruce McLennan (170 pages). Here you will meet an introduction to the life and times of the famous Christ-loving Rutherford, together with the bulk of the book focusing on him as a caring pastor and shepherd, counseling souls with a variety of spiritual and natural ailments. A great, insightful, edifying read: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/samuel-rutherford-of-anwoth-a-study-in-pastoral-care-mclennan.html

Douglas Bond and I have just finished writing “Evangelical Heroes”—a two-volume set of a few dozen godly leaders—pastors, missionaries, etc.—in church history from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Written for young people and adults, it will now go to typesetting and then to printing and should be available sometime this summer. Meanwhile, Caffy Whitney (Dr. Don Whitney’s wife), who does great artwork, did two stunningly beautiful oil paintings for the front covers—one of George Whitefield preaching (photo 1, for the first volume) and the other (just received!) of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his classic pose (photo 2, for the second volume). A very big thanks to Caffy for all her hard work on these magnificent paintings!

And pray with me that God will use these volumes mightily (especially for Christian schools and homeschooled children and young people) and that He will again send revival to our needy land and world—a great awakening greater than the original Great Awakening!

P.S. Henk and Margaret, a BIG THANKS TO YOU for transporting this!

Yesterday morning I was privileged to preach again for The Master’s University, 1,100 students in California (photo taken just before chapel)—this time on “Following God Fully” (Num. 14:24). Immediately afterward, my faithful and kind chauffeur, Jonny Ardavanis, who became a new friend this week, drove me to the Los Angeles airport as my scheduled flight from Burbank to Dallas and then on to Grand Rapids had been canceled.

I managed to catch my new flight to Denver on time, but then we got stuck in Denver for six hours as mechanics tried in vain to get a faint green light on one wing to shine brighter. After assuring us three times that the problem was fixed (or nearly fixed?), we were asked to leave the plane after three hours, taking our luggage with us. A few hours later, they told us that every attempt to get the green light to burn brighter had failed, but another plane was arriving in less than an hour that we could swap with. By the time we were finally able to board that plane, the Denver airport had a rare security breach, which shut down the entire airport, so the people who had already boarded our new plane had to disembark from this plane as well.

Meanwhile, the pilot told us that if the airport personnel didn’t catch whoever had caused the security breach very soon, our crew could no longer fly due to federal aviation laws as the crew would have then been working too long. Our wheels had to be off the runway by 11:50 p.m. sharp, he said. By God’s grace, just in time, they did catch the culprit, the airport re-opened, and we rushed onto the plane faster than I’ve ever seen a plane board before. The pilot sped down the runway, getting the wheels of our plane off the ground ten minutes before the deadline!

The plane landed at 3:15 a.m. in Grand Rapids and was I ever glad to see my Queen again (she had arrived in Grand Rapids from Alberta about seven hours before me, as she had been helping our daughter in Alberta for the last ten days after the birth of our grandchild). Meanwhile, I had spoken to a needy Christian mother in Denver who was flying with us to Grand Rapids to visit her 31-year-old son, who had been diagnosed with a severe form of brain cancer. I had spent time counseling and praying with her, but since she had no ride to her son’s house at this time of the morning, Mary and I took her to his house. We finally arrived home, dropping into bed at 5:00 this morning. So, by God’s grace alone, I was able to make my teaching commitments at PRTS today after all. God is so good!

Yesterday morning I had a first-time experience of preaching a chapel message for The Master’s Seminary (TMS; photo 1, about 200 theological students present) at Grace Community Church, where Dr. MacArthur serves as pastor. Afterward, I had an enjoyable lunch with several faculty members and students of TMS. After lunch, I had a good meeting with Joey Mejia (photo 2; Dr. MacArthur’s right hand for planning future events).

Next, I had a very edifying meeting in the parking lot with a student from Columbia, Esteban Gaviria (photo 3), who was randomly shot at close range several years ago by an unknown assailant. The bullet went through him just one inch from his heart, and by God’s grace, he miraculously survived. The Lord used that event for his conversion, and he is now studying at TMS for the ministry—and recently married Dr. MacArthur’s granddaughter!

After visiting the campus’s well-stocked bookstore (photo 4—a treat for me), Dr. Brian Biedebach, who labored for 19 years in Malawi before coming to TMS as professor and dean of students, interviewed me for about 1.5 hours in his Pastoral Theology class, giving me a wonderful opportunity to speak to 30 ministerial students about how to live godly and in a biblically balanced way in the ministry. Afterward, Brian took me to his home for supper, where I got to meet his lovely family (photo 5—Brian in the back, and his wife on the right, with their four children), and then fellowshipped with about 20 guests the Biedebach’s had invited over (mostly theological students and their wives). It was a rich, rewarding, and full day. God is good.