All Articles For Spriensma, Audred

And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come...

What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And the Lord said unto him…Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” I Kings 19:13, 14, 18 These were verses from the pericope of Scripture that...

The title is a misnomer. Would our children truly be educated, we would ask? The state would really like to indoctrinate them to the current secular and antichristian worldview. Public schools have, by and large, become temples of atheism. The Christian Renewal issue dated August 15, 2020, carries a book excerpt by Gene E. Veith. The article is entitled, “The Death of Education.” It begins with the paragraph, The consequences of the politicization of ordinary life and a constructivist view of reality are evident in what is happening with education. Postmodernism and its offshoots are not worldviews that promote learning....

The 2019 Synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) received the interim report of a committee of ten individuals that was tasked to write a “theology of human sexuality.” This is a committee that was appointed at Synod 2016 “to articulate a foundation-laying biblical theology that pays particular attention to biblical conceptions of gender and sexuality” (Acts of Synod 2016, pp. 917–19). A final report is to come before the Synod of the CRC in 2021. The reason for coming to Synod 2019 was that delegates of this past year’s Synod might give feedback for the committee in its ongoing...

In this article, we will look for a while at those closely around us, our mother church, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) and their synodical meeting this past June. The July/August issue of the Banner reported decisions taken at this year’s synod. I write this not at all to look down our nose at those churches, but rather in a great lament for the people in their churches, and as a warning to ourselves. When I sought to become a pastor in the PRC, a person said to me, “those churches are only 25 years behind us in their practice.” In...

Notice the title of the article, “What are we doing?” Missions is the work of the church. In the year 2001, we had three home missionaries, working in three different declared fields with church plants: Northern Ireland, the eastern United States, and the Western United States. The calling of the church was to pray for our missionaries and, of course, financially support the work with their offerings. In the year of our Lord, 2019, we have one home missionary, with no declared field of labor, except of course, the whole of the United States and Canada. Are we doing anything?...

The year 2018 has come to an end, and the year 2019 has begun. So also it is with some of the mission work done in 2018 and work now begun in 2019. The calling of the missionary is to “work to develop a field of labor and then preach and teach on any field that the Spirit gives through that work.” My wife and I were in St. Petersburg, Florida for three weeks at the end of March and the beginning of April. It was a group of folks from many different Christian backgrounds and expectations of what church...

In Isaiah 43:10 and 12, God says to His people, “Ye are my witnesses.” That witness is in contrast to the false witnesses of the nations regarding their gods. That witness is that there is one true God who saves. He saves through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. We are not only forgiven our sins but delivered from slavery to sin. We are new creatures recreated in the image of God. Our lives are to be lived in thankfulness, shown by obedience to our...

“Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days” (Eccl. 11:1). A figure is used in this text, the figure of a farmer scattering seed upon the receding flood waters. The seed floats on the waters and slowly sinks into the muddy soil left behind. The seed is apparently lost! But not so, for our text promises that you shall find it after many days. This figure of sowing seed is used often in the Bible for the spiritual sowing of the seed of the gospel. The soil is the hearts and lives of individuals...

The question that has been asked many times of me is, “What are you supposed to do?” What is the work of your new home missionary? What am I doing? What do I hope to do? The home missionary is a preacher. The Reformed faith should always emphasize the great urgency of the preaching of the Word. Romans 10:15 asks, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” Christ gathers His church through the preaching. And that preacher must be sent. On September 17 I was installed in Byron Center PRC as a preacher who is sent by my calling church...