All Articles For Sugg, Joel

Professor David Engelsma’s Reformation Day lecture November 2, 2012 on the Kingdom of God stirred the interest of some to re-read a series of editorials by him in the SB on the same subject. These editorials (volume 77: November 15, 2000 to September 15, 2001) were col­lected into a booklet by Southwest PRC. Reading these editorials either in the SB or in the booklet will enhance anyone’s understanding and appreciation of his valuable remarks Friday night. The first paragraph of his first editorial reads: The kingdom of God is not as well known among us as are the covenant of...

Mr. Sugg is a ruling elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Houston, Texas. Is it possible that even a great multitude of God’s people now living are guilty of real and damnable suicide, a suicide within their own hearts? How many of us are guilty, and how often are we guilty of this insidious destruction of our own living persons? Is suicide not only physical destruction, but also an inward resentment against some aspect, or the whole of one’s own person, whom God made? At this point a highly-placed churchman impressively steps forward and, diverting our thoughts for a...

Mr. Sugg was a member of the Trinity Protestant Reformed congregation. Synod was informed of the disbanding of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Houston, Texas. This terse report was given in the summary of the activities of the PRC Synod 1998 recorded in the July 1998 Standard Bearer. It was a simple epitaph to 25 years of labor in the extension of God’s Word from an outpost more than a thousand miles removed from our churches’ well-established, flourishing congregations, schools, journals, and seminary. At different times during those years, nearly a score of families were a part of this congregation....

The sabbath evening of July 18, 1993 marked a historic occasion for Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Houston. It was such an occasion, for the whole confederation of our churches as well, and at least a rare event in the church world at large. Pastor Jaikishin Mahtani, a minister of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore, was formally installed as minister of our Houston congregation, virtually an unparalleled action, but one made possible in the grace of God through the sister-church relationship which our denominations share. The Singapore church began in the 1970s as a group of largely Chinese, unmarried...

Mr. Sugg is an elder in Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Houston, Texas. Whenever the word “suicide” in its literal sense appears, it causes disquieting dread, a dread of death, of death deliberate and appalling. Suicide is always a human tragedy. It is often the cause of yet other human sufferings. It is sometimes simply unexplainable. It is occasionally seen as sin. But it is only rarely seen as a sin that can be wholly contained within the heart of a believer. This is an important focus of this paper. Thus a basic premise of these remarks is that sin...

Mr. Sugg is an elder in the Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Houston, Texas. An officebearers’ conference was held in Randolph, Wisconsin on March 5, 1991. For a number of years now, such a conference has, with only occasional exceptions, been an annual event associated with the meeting of Classis West. It came about first through the organizing initiative of a few ministers from the west. Their efforts were aided by various ministers from both east and west and from the seminary, many of whom have presented papers for discussion. Of great encouragement also is the good attendance on the...

Mr. Sugg is a ruling elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Houston, Texas. (The following essay was originally prepared at the request of a Bible study society in one of our congregations as a guide for an after-recess discussion. The writer attempted an outline but fell into a kind of provocative meditation. This work was not intended for publication, but with this caution, and some minor editing, it is offered here.) Suicide, like all sin, is not just a matter of an overt act. It begins in the heart; and although it might not be committed outwardly, it is...

In God’s providence there is a strong prospect of an essentially new situation arising in the Protestant Reformed Churches. For the next few years the denomination may well be presented with the lack of open existing pulpits or fields for newly declared candidates to the ordained ministry. Certainly, God may have changes in store that could significantly, even dramatically, affect what may be seen today as lying ahead. He has done so before. But it is possible that with this prospective case, God may be lifting the eyes of the churches to see it as their calling to consider adding...

Mr. Sugg was a member of the former Trinity PRC in Houston, Texas. Written in the teeth of Hurricane Ike, September 12, 2008. Our gracious Father in heaven, we tremble before Thy sovereign power shown forth in the blasting storm and ravaging flood and all such as the worldly call tragic, natural events. Hold before us and for all the world to see that these are not horrific destructions that capriciously fall upon men from time to time, but are in truth public displays of the directed power of Thy sovereign hand. Strengthen our courage in proclaiming this before men,...