All Articles For Bekkering, Wayne

Rev. Bekkering is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa. The mission field is a very difficult place on which to work because the missionary may encounter people from many different backgrounds and with many different theological presuppositions and views. The missionary must be as open and undefensive as possible. That is not easy because people may throw all sorts of questions at him, which may cause him to feel threatened, vulnerable, and insecure. The missionary must be very sure of the foundation upon which he stands, so that if someone asks a question for which he has...

Rev. Bekkering is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa. The mutual supervision and the mutual censure of all the officebearers is a necessary and desirable thing. If it is lacking, some serious consequences will result. The first danger is that nothing will be done with respect to the question of faithfulness in carrying out the duties of the offices. This is the natural direction of things and this is the general trend that we see in the church world today. We as Protestant Reformed Churches are not immune to laxity in this area, and therefore need to...

Rev. Bekkering is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa. Grief is the keen suffering that one goes through because of an affliction or loss. It can be looked at as God’s way of healing a broken heart. Grief is universal and natural. Sooner or later everyone has a time of grief in his life. We want to explore the pattern in grief, our dealing with grief as Christians, and God’s work in our grief. Most people who are hurting, no matter what the cause, go through a similar grieving pattern. On the other hand, each person’s loss...

Rev. Bekkering is a minister of the Word of God in the Protestant Reformed Churches in America. Once a year a committee from Classis West arranges an office bearers conference to be held in connection with the meeting of Classis. On February 28, 1989 such a conference was held in South Holland, Illinois. Two worthwhile papers were presented. The morning session dealt with a paper presented by Rev. Ken Hanko on The Psalms, Metrical Psalmody, and The Psalter, and the afternoon session dealt with a paper written by Rev. Dale Kuiper entitled, The Congregational Prayer. These conferences provide not only spiritually...

The calling of the child of God to live a holy and a spiritually separate life is very difficult. There are the extremes on either side that must be avoided. On the one hand there is the extreme of living along with the world in its lusts. On the other hand there is the extreme of seeking to flee the world in the physical and local sense of the word. After we have identified the two extremes we still have the rugged and toilsome way in which most of our battles are fought. The way to which God calls us...

A few months ago the “News Editor” for the Standard Bearer reported that our congregation in Houston, Texas was using a “question and answer” approach to try to acquaint people with the truth as we know it, love it, and try to live it.

In the previous article under the title “Liberty and Maturity” we showed the principle of freedom for the Christian through the work of Jesus on the cross from the viewpoint of Galatians 5:1. The believer is free from the curse of the law because Christ is the end (goal) of the law for righteousness to every one that believes (Rom. 10:4). This does not mean that the believer is lawless.

Let us look at this truth from the point of view of Galatians 5:1. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” The apostle Paul was the minister of God to the Gentiles. Through Paul and his helpers God was bringing to the Gentiles the glorious gospel, the gospel of liberty. Paul first proclaims unto them bondage. That is one emphasis of the message that he comes with. You are in bondage, he teaches them. There is a universal bondage that grips all mankind. The apostle deals...

It has been remarked to me that Protestant Reformed ministers do not discuss together very well. I believe that this is true of all of us generally. To be able to discuss things together profitably is a good gift that God gives His people. It is a gift through which we can learn things from each other. It is also a good means of fellowship and encouragement. It is important that we use this gift correctly.

The pressure on the Christian home in our day is tremendous. That the institution of the Christian home still stands is a wonder of God’s grace. Satan has raged and wooed, and yet the Christian home still stands and will stand until Christ comes again. Yet the pressure mounts. Satan has organized and mobilized an army of female soldiers ready to batter the fortress of the Christian home. The beauty of Satan’s military is that it is “all volunteer” and that you can stay at home and fight. In Satan’s army there are both active and reserve troops. The active...