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.

This morning I preached a chapel message to 1100 students and some faculty and staff members at The Master’s University (associated with Dr. John MacArthur) in Santa Clarita, California. Afterwards, Jonny Ardavanis, who is in charge of the chapels and provides guidance for many student affairs, interviewed me on four subjects: developing a healthy prayer life, assurance of faith, trusting God, and coping with anxiety, which will reach many thousands of people. Then I went out to lunch with three of the leaders who are responsible for running The Master’s University, and picked their brains on how they provide leadership over and guidance for the students. It was a very worthwhile time.

Today I finished teaching the last four hours of my 30-hour course on Puritan Theology to 16 Doctor of Ministry students at RTS in Charlotte. It has been an intense but good week, though I missed my Queen big-time, as she is with our daughter in Alberta, assisting her with the care of their new baby, Ezra—our 9^th grandchild.

This evening I had wonderful spiritual fellowship over dinner with a friend of many years, Pastor Leo Markwat, who served as pastor here for 14 years (photo 1). It was great to be with him again.

Tomorrow morning I am leaving the friendly Hampton Inn (photo 2), where I’ve been living since Monday, and flying to Los Angeles, where I hope to serve Dr. John MacArthur’s church and ministries for four days, preaching twice on Sunday morning (and also in the evening for Pastor Paul Twiss), and then speaking at chapels for MacArthur’s university on Monday and Wednesday and for his seminary on Tuesday. Your prayers are again coveted.

Today, I had an enjoyable lunch with my friend, Dr. Kevin DeYoung, who I had the privilege of preaching for some years back when he served in Lansing, Michigan. For the last six years, he has been serving as the senior pastor of Christ Covenant Church (2,000 members, with about 1,500 attending on a Sunday morning) in Matthews, North Carolina, and as associate professor of systematic theology for RTS in Charlotte, North Carolina. After lunch, we did a quick stop to see the beautiful Christ Covenant Church building (external view: photo 1; internal view: photo 2). I look forward to preaching for him here next year, D.V. Pray for God’s blessing on his influential ministry at CCC, RTS, and throughout the Reformed world.

With God’s help and your prayers, I made it through teaching 26 hours in the last three days—24 of those being for my Puritan Theology class for the Doctor of Ministry students at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Charlotte. Just four more hours to go tomorrow morning.

I flew east early this morning to Charlotte, N.C. to begin a week’s worth of teaching my Puritan Theology class for 31 hours to 16 ministers at Reformed Theological Seminary who are pursuing their doctor of ministry degree here. After teaching 5 hours this afternoon, I went out to dinner this evening with four of them (see photo)—great fellowship. Please pray for God’s blessing on this class.

Meanwhile, my Queen flew west to Alberta to see our new grandchild Ezra today (I’m a bit jealous, though I will follow in some weeks!) and to spend more than a week assisting our daughter.

I am grateful to report that RHB has just released another book in its PRS series (Profiles in Reformed Spirituality): “Holiness and Happiness: The Piety of Isaac Watts,” edited and introduced by W. Britt Stokes. After a helpful biographical introduction on the life and godly piety of Watts, this book contains 34 daily devotions written by Watts under three headings: The Nature of Piety, The Foundation of Piety, and The Cultivation of Piety. You won’t want to miss this excellent daily devotional: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/holiness-and-happiness-the-piety-of-isaac-watts-profiles-in-reformed-spirituality-stokes.html

The final day of the Founders Conference in Fort Myers went very well, by God’s grace, and we are now winging our way home. The conference opened this morning with another enjoyable panel discussion with the speakers covering a variety of subjects (photo 1). I then gave my final address on “Glorified Humanity,” focusing on the spiritual marriage between Christ and His people in glory from Revelation 19:6-9. Voddie Baucham then gave the closing and a most enlightening address of the conference on the role of created man and woman from Genesis 2 and its implications for today (photo 2 includes most of the speakers). I caught a good photo, too, of Paul Washer speaking with Tom Nettles (photo 3). We spent the final hour selling several dozens of sets of Brakel’s 4-volume systematic theology and the 3-volume set by Paul Smalley and me. Here I am with our RHB employee, Justin Genus, holding hundreds of back orders (photo 4–in addition to selling every book we sent down to Florida). Many thanks to Justin, and praise God with me that we sold more books at this conference of 2000 attendees than any conference I have done in my life!

After the conference was over, we had lunch in downtown Fort Myers. When walking back to our car, we heard a street preacher proclaiming God’s Word from the story of the rich man and Lazarus. As we got closer, we were surprised to hear him suddenly call out my name! It was a man named Tom who had attended the conference and is a member of Tom Ascol’s church (photo 5)! We prayed for God’s blessing on his weekly street sermon.

We are thanking the Lord abundantly for the safe arrival of our little grandson, Ezra Martin. He was born to Isaac and Lydia Thursday morning. They chose his name from Ezra 7:10, and providentially, he weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces! They just moved to Alberta, Canada, and we are overjoyed that everything went well. Mary hopes to head up there on Monday and we plan to visit them together in April. Please pray that little Ezra will soon be born again and become a stalwart soldier of Christ’s living church!