Vol 56 Issue 17

Rev. Gise Van Baren, pastor of our Hudsonville Church, has declined the call extended to him by our Redlands, California congregation.  Rev. John Heys is retiring after preaching his farewell sermons on June 1. The congregation of our church in Holland, Michigan is scheduling a program and social hour for Rev. and Mrs. Heys on Friday evening, May 30 in the church. Members of our neighboring churches were invited to attend and to extend best wishes to Rev. and Mrs. Heys. 

I BELIEVE IN THE CHURCH, by David Watson; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978; 368 pp., $4.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko) 

Dear Timothy,  In our last letter we discussed the wonderful power of confession which God works in the hearts and lives of His people, by which power God’s people escape from the vicious cycle of sin which, apart from confession, drags them deeper and deeper into sin’s bondage. Confession is exactly the great power whereby the shackles of sin are broken by which we are held captive. It is the God-given means whereby escape is effected from sin’s slavery. It is the way in which we gain dominion over sin rather than sin having dominion over us. 

The Spirit of Christ through the holy writer of the Proverbs instructs us in wisdom and understanding, the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord, according to the Spirit in Prov. 1:7 and Ps. 111:10. The wisdom of the Proverbs is at the same time simple, and profound. The proverbs give instruction in godliness and this over against wickedness and foolishness.

Having been strengthened inwardly by his wrestling with God in prayer the night before, Jacob now faces a most critical moment in his earthly life. Physically exhausted from his wrestling with the arm of flesh, in that night-long struggle until the day began to dawn, but with spiritual strength graciously given to him, he goes to meet the man who twenty years before made known his intention to kill him. 

In our series under the above heading, we have now reached the final article that I have been called upon to write for this rubric. And, therefore, that means that we will finish this series with the powerful Word of God as that is set forth for us in the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel. 

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT FULFILLED IN SARAH’S CHILDREN (Galatians 6:10) 

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: foe the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. “