Rev. Paulo Junior, a good friend and well-known pastor from Franca, Brazil where he pastors the Calvary Covenant Church (I have served him there frequently in the last four years), has been visiting us for the last four days together with his associate pastor, Rev. Danilo Santa Terra. For the first time in the history of our church, we had two pastors on the pulpit Lord’s Day morning—Paulo preaching movingly to us in Portuguese about the need to live the Christian life not just privately but publicly like Daniel’s three friends in Daniel 3, and Rev. Tiago Baia, a Brazilian PhD student at Puritan Reformed Seminary translating him into English. Today, the two spoke in our chapel (photo), with Paulo’s message being on the importance of preaching the gospel evangelistically, so that also the unsaved are frequently addressed. It was great to have them here. Pray for Paulo’s ministry in Brazil (hundreds of thousands livestream his messages there) and for Danilo who hopes to begin his Doctor of Ministry program with us in a few months.

The sermon from the last Lord’s day can be found here.

Another new Puritan title just arrived from Reformation Heritage Books; it has not been reprinted on its own for 365 years! This precious book by Christopher Love, “The Saint’s Advantage by Christ’s Ascension and Coming Again from Heaven,” deserves to become a classic. Helpfully introduced and well edited by Randall Pederson, it is thoroughly biblical, soundly doctrinal, warmly experiential, and beautifully practical. Above all, Love’s treatise on these underdeveloped steps of Christ’s exaltation abound with comfort and encouragement for true believers. If you would be lifted to heavenly places to treasure your Savior and Lord all the more, read this highly recommended gem.”

Learn more here.

We are winging our way home now from Los Angeles, having completed three back-to-back conferences in Tennessee, Kentucky, and California over the last 9 days. Yesterday was the last day of the Puritan Conference that John MacArthur’s team hosted for us (that is, for Reformation Heritage Books and Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) in his Grace Community Church, Los Angeles. Their hosting on a scale of 1 to 10 was an 11. That high score is applicable for all the senior people on MacArthur’s team as well as numerous staff people and 250 volunteers. In addition to the two thousand who attended, thousands more live-streamed in on three livestream numbers (the English website: from 106 countries and all 50 states of the U.S.; the Spanish website: from 42 countries, and 38 states; the English Vimeo: from 64 countries). It was an absolutely wonderful conference (photo 1–8 of the 13 speakers).

Morning sessions yesterday included “The Need for the Puritan Mindset Today” (Dr. Ian Hamilton) and “The Puritans and Victory Over Temptation” (Dr. Geoff Thomas–photo 2). At lunch, we took a picture of the French chef who provided amazingly delicious meals (photo 3). Afternoon and evening sessions included “The Puritans on the Christian Life” (Dr. Ligon Duncan), a Q&A Interview with Dr. John Piper and Dr. John MacArthur (photo 4) and the final session was Dr. MacArthur’s address on “The Enduring Legacy of the Puritans.” I closed the conference with words of thanks to various people (photo 5).

In addition to the 23 inspiring and informative addresses, great fellowship transpired throughout the conference, and literally thousands of books by or about the Puritans were sold. Many people told me that this was the most fruitful conference they had ever attended in their lives. God is good!

Yesterday was another special long and God-exalting day at the Puritan Conference in John MacArthur’s church in Los Angeles. In the morning, Mary and I had a sweet conversation with Joni Eareckson Tada (photo 1). Our friend, Dr. Michael Reeves gave the first General Session address in the morning on “The Big God the Puritans” (photo 2) which was followed by my General Session address on “The Puritans on Assurance.” Both were attended by more than 2,000 attendees with thousands more live-streaming in.

We had a good time over lunch with two brothers from Urk, the Netherlands: Jan Zeeman (my left, photo 3) who has translated several of my books in Dutch which have been published by three Dutch publishers, and Rev. Remco DeJong (my right), pastor of the Free Reformed Church in the Netherlands that has 2,000 members.

Breakout sessions in the afternoon included “The Puritans on Prayer and Meditation” (Dr. Stephen Yuille); “The Puritans on Evangelism” (Dr. Mike Riccardi); “The History of the Westminster Assembly” (Dr. Kevin DeYoung); “The Scottish Puritans” (Dr. Ian Hamilton); “The Dutch Puritans” (me). The last two General Sessions of the day were given by Rev. Jeremy Walker on “The Perplexities of the Puritans” and Dr. John Piper on “The Joy of the Puritans.”

Fellowship was great throughout the day. We met scores of new friends, and sold hundreds of Puritan books at our booth. Here I am with a group of men who are part of a Men’s Study Group in a nearby church in which 35 men are just completing a 3-year study of vol. 1 of Reformed Systematic Theology by Paul Smalley and me (photo 4).

God is good. Today is the last day of the conference. You can join us here.

The last two days have been very special. On Tuesday morning I had the privilege of following Ken Ham’s powerful message by addressing the 1,200 pastors and church leaders at “The Essentials Conference” at the Ark Encounter—first I spoke on “Leading Family Worship” and then on “How Ministers Should Lead Their Families.” I felt helped in both messages, but immediately afterwards Mary and I had to drive to the Cincinnati airport to fly to Los Angeles for “The Puritan Conference.” Meanwhile, our Reformation Heritage Books employee, Luke Ingles, stayed behind at the Ark Encounter to sell many thousands of dollars worth of books.

On Wednesday morning the long-awaited “Puritan Conference” began in John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. The conference was three years in the making (it was canceled two years in a row because of Covid) as a combined effort between John MacArthur and his large staff and me with the help of my CEO at Reformation Heritage Books, David Woollin, in conjunction with Puritan Reformed Seminary. I am deeply grateful to MacArthur and his great staff and 250 volunteers for doing all the on-site preparations for this premier conference on the Puritans.Well over 2,000 are attending the Puritan Conference (photo 1). The first day went extremely well. John MacArthur opened the conference (photo 2), after which the following plenary sessions took place: The Theological and Historical Foundation of the Puritans (Steve Lawson), The Puritans on Adoption (me), The Puritans on Preaching (Kevin De Young), and The Experiential Theology of the Puritans (Sinclair Ferguson). Breakout sectionals were: The Puritans on the Church and Worship (Stephen Yuille), The Puritans on the Sinfulness of Sin and the Greatness of Grace (Mike Riccardi), The Father of Puritanism (Sinclair Ferguson), The Puritans on the Family (Jeremy Walker), The Puritans on Handling Depression (Geoff Thomas), and The Writings of the Puritans (me).

The fellowship with fellow speakers was sweet—both at mealtime (photo 3) and informally. I really enjoyed my time with Sinclair Ferguson—a close friend for over forty years (photo 4). The appreciation of the people was superlative, the conversations with them was of a warm and high quality, and the sale of Puritan books was phenomenal—beyond anything we have ever experienced before. I said to Mary that I think this was the best and most fruitful conference day that I have ever experienced in my life.Please pray that God will continue to bless this conference abundantly today and tomorrow. If you can’t join us in person, please join us online at this link. I trust that you will be richly fed.

Today Mary and I left our friends in Maryville, Tennessee and drove up to Williamstown, Kentucky for the Ark Encounter conference for pastors and church leaders which begins tomorrow morning with Ken Ham giving the first address on “Biblical Authority and the Days of Creation” and then I am to give the next two addresses, D.V.

After arriving, we took a little hike into a bit of farm country, and took photo 1 standing in front of a round bale of hay. We then had a delicious Chinese dinner over lively discussion and fellowship with Ken Ham (prolific author, founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, AIG) and several other speakers and leaders from AIG (photo 2). Clockwise from my left is Martyn Iles (a well-known speaker from Australia), Ken and Mally Ham, Renee (daughter of the Hams and administrator of their Christian school) and Bodie Hodge (historian and author for AIG), Georgia Purdom (vice president of educational content for AIG), Lalo Gunther (conference and outreach director at AIG). In photo 3, we are with Martyn Iles and the Hams. Please pray for God’s blessing on this conference tomorrow.

Mary and I have just completed the 2022 Essentials Conference on “Worshipping Our Holy God” for the Grace Community Church in Maryville, Tennessee. About 450 people attended (photo 1) out of a congregation of 550. The congregation, pastored by Chris Riser and Ron O’Dell, has grown by about 200 in the last two years (photo 2). A number of visitors also took in the conference from the surrounding area. They hailed from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The other speakers were two good friends: Jeremy Walker (photo 3) and Brian Borgman (photo 4). Their messages on various aspects of worship were timely and powerful. I spoke six times in all: on public worship, the Puritans on worship, family worship (3x), and a concluding address on worship in heaven.

The attendees were hungry, appreciative, and great book-buyers (photo 5). Luke from Reformation Heritage Books and Mary worked hard at ringing up the sales, while I was busy selling books as I mixed with the people. It was a joy to fellowship with them and the church’s leaders who couldn’t have treated us better. We had a weekend full of good fellowship also among the ministers, and enjoyed our mealtimes with the church’s pastors and their families and friends in their homes on the Lord’s Day.

Today we are driving north to The Ark Encounter where I am to speak twice tomorrow morning to a conference of about 1,200 pastors and church leaders, and then we fly on to Los Angeles for the Puritan Conference that we helped organize to take place in John MacArthur’s church for close to 2,000 people. The MacArthur conference team has done an excellent job of orchestrating all the details of the conference on their end, for which we are most grateful. Pray for us, please, that God will bless these conferences in a mighty way and help us through this intense week so as to serve to His glory and the spiritual enrichment of all the attendees.

Find last Lord’s Day’s evening sermon, titled, “Peter’s Heartfelt Confession of Faith in Christ” from Mark 8:27-30 and Matthew 16:15-16 here.

I am excited about Reformation Heritage Books release of “Faith Working Though Love: The Theology of William Perkins,” edited by Matthew Payne, Stephen Yuille, and me. Intended to be a companion volume to the recent RHB reprint of the 10 volumes of his magisterial “Works,” this volumes contains essays on Perkins’s views of the Triune God, the work of Christ, grace and free will, the order and the experience of salvation, eschatological glory, the nature of the church, the ministry and the means of grace, the ethics of Christian conduct, the nature of vocation, the one flesh principle, and Ramism. Written for both scholars and lay people by theologians who have studied Perkins carefully, I can vouch as an editor that many of the chapters in this book are worth the price on the book on their own. Get this book to whet your appetite for Perkins, and then read through, as enabled, the ten volumes of his writings! You won’t be disappointed by this so-called “father of Puritanism.”

Find last Lord’s Day’s sermon, titled, “The Christ Will Be Crucified” from Mark 8:31-33 here.