Vol 57 Issue 20

“In harmony with the decision of this year’s synod that our church in Lynden resume calling a missionary for the Monroe-Mt. Vernon Washington area, Lynden has composed the following trio: Revs. Bekkering, Koole, Joostens.” That bit of information was taken from the “News from our sister churches” section of a Hull bulletin. We have since learned that Lynden has extended their call to Rev. Joostens. We have also heard that Rev. Joostens is considering another call from the west coast, this one from our Redlands congregation. 

In faithfulness to his calling Joseph gathered the surplus food in Egypt for seven years, and built up a huge store of food for the seven years of famine that were coming. Most likely he bought the food from the farmers, and it was not commandeered by the government. And I say that he did this in faithfulness because once again in servitude he does his calling in the fear of God’s name. In Potiphar’s house he was faithful, even though Potiphar thought otherwise of him. In prison his faithfulness was noticed and commended.

Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings in the name of our great God and Savior. It has been quite some time since we have written a report about the work of the Lord in Singapore, a work which God has been pleased to give us as Protestant Reformed Churches to do. We rejoice with thanksgiving to the Lord that He continues to prosper and bless our work in spite of our own many weaknesses. The Lord causes the G.L.T.S.

In the previous issue we discussed a bit of the history, the setting, and the audience to whom the Apostle Paul preached on Mars’ Hill in Athens (cf. Acts 17:16-34). In this issue it is our intention to examine the content and the fruit of the Apostle’s preaching (cf. verses 22-34). 

Denied Admission to the Ministry Several accounts have been presented in church papers about the recent action of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in denying admittance of a candidate for the ministry in the C.R.C. The action was certainly unprecedented in recent years in that denomination. This candidate questioned the literal character of the first chapters of Genesis. The account of what happened is interestingly presented inCalvinist Contact of July 3, 1981.

In the opening statement, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up” (Acts 1:1-2), Luke makes obvious reference to the Gospel that he had already written. Now he proceeds to write about the things that Jesus continues to do. The Holy Spirit was given to the church, and in His strength the apostles went forth to teach and preach.

Regular, daily, family devotions ought to be a habit among us. We ought to be in the habit of reading the Scriptures and praying. We should not think that because something is a habit it is necessarily bad. To be sure, there are bad habits. But there are also very good habits. In fact, because we are the kind of creatures that we are, because of the way in which God Himself has made us, habits are unavoidable. We have the habit of eating breakfast every morning, for example. That’s a good habit.

No Key Power—No Kingdom of Heaven  (This chapter in Rev. Lubbers’ series has been placed out of order. Chapter 8 appeared in the August issue. Our apologies to the writer and readers alike.)

September 1, 1981 Dear Timothy,

We received the following letter from the Rev. Rolf Veenstra under the date of August 4:  Standard Bearer, Grand Rapids, Mich.