Vol 87 Issue 15

Young People’s Activities The Young People’s Society of the Doon, IA PRC hosted a Seniors Game Night the evening of March 22 for all the members of their congregation 60 years old and older. All “senior” members were invited to join together for a night of fellowship, Psalter singing, and games. The Young People of the Kalamazoo, MI PRC hosted an ice cream social as a fundraiser for this summer’s young people’s convention following their Prayer Day service, March 9. The Young People’s Society of First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI sponsored a Second-Best Sale on March 25 and 26...

Love for God’s law as the rule of obedience and gratitude does not produce legalists. Nor does it produce a self-righteous spirit toward our fellow Christians who fall into sin. We know that all our attempts at law-keeping—our righteousnesses—are as filthy rags. We know that we are either justified by faith alone without the works of the law, or we stand utterly condemned! The whole book of Galatians drives that home to us. Being justified by faith alone, we have a new way of living! In Galatians 6:1-5, the apostle Paul is applying justification by faith alone into the life of...

Previous article in this series: March 1, 2011, p. 247. The last aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is the virtue of temperance. Temperance is more commonly known as “self-control” or “self-discipline.” Another word similar to temperance is “modesty.” This virtue is not mentioned often in the Bible, in comparison to some of the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit that we have considered. It is mentioned seven times in the New Testament. Included among the seven references is its use in Acts 24:25, where it refers to how a governor should rule well and live in view...

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2011, p. 306. The almighty Creator has spoken to us, and we have in Scripture a perfect record of what He has said. God began revealing Himself to His people already in the Garden of Eden. But later, beginning with Moses, God began His work of guiding holy men to write down the word that He had revealed. The Spirit of God guided these men as they wrote, so that they made no mistakes as they recorded for us what God had spoken. The Scriptures that God has given us are infallibly inspired,...

It is time again for a report of our work here on “Seminary Hill.” We recently passed the mid-point of second semester; next week is Spring Break; after that there are only five more weeks of class until exams. Exams for the returning students, that is. Not for graduating students. The rule in the Theological School Constitution states that the final examination of graduatingstudents will be oral. At synod. In public. No one is more conscious of that than our three senior seminarians. Since they have returned from their internships in January, they have been keenly anticipating the three days of public exams...

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2011, p. 284. (Ecclesiastes 2 – Part 2)  We saw last time that Solomon directs our attention to the passing joys of this life that come to us through our labor and industry. These joys are our part or portion in this life. They are not the end of our life, nor are we to find our treasure in them. Having described all his labor and the joy of his heart in it, he then turns to its transitory character and its vanity. He puts this rejoicing in perspective. “Then I looked on all...

Of the five senses, the eye is the most significant in Scripture. The Old Testament word eye (ayin) is the 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, originally a circle symbolizing the eye. It can refer to eyelike objects, such as pools of color (Ezek. 1:4); springs or fountains (Prov. 8:28); facets of a jewel (Zech. 3:9); broad daylight (II Sam. 12:11); or surface of the earth (Exod. 10:5). And eye in Old Testament and New Testament (ophthalmos) refers both to the bodily organ itself and, by figure of speech, to seeing and many related actions, such as knowing, perceiving, and...

Greetings from Northern Ireland. It’s always good to receive the Standard Bearerfortnight by fortnight. It makes priority and blessed reading on Sunday afternoons! I very much appreciated Rev. Rodney Miersma’s article, in the March 15th issue, entitled “The Work of the Lord.” He quite rightly states that this Psalm is a prayer of Moses that in effect is saying “Thy Kingdom come.” It is a prayer that all we Reformed people need to echo because, to quote him, “All our churches…Sabbaths, and feasts mean nothing unless the Lord bless it….” As Reformed people in true churches we may wrongly assume God...

Fifty years! We rejoice with our friends and fellow believers on the other side of the world, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Australia, as they commemorate fifty years since their churches were organized. Fifty years of contending for the faith; fifty years of preaching sovereign, irresistible, particular grace; fifty years of maintaining, by God’s grace, the theology of the Reformation, especially that of John Calvin, as embodied in the Westminster standards. How many readers remember the fifty-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformed Churches? The “old fashioned Field Day” at Douglas Walker Park in Byron Center, MI, attended by over half...

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:16 The church of Christ! There is no cause on the face of the earth that is a more sure cause than the church of Christ. The kingdoms of this world may grow until presently they present a united front of almost unbelievable power. The church at the same time will seemingly dwindle down to almost nothing, so that Jesus Himself asks, “when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Yet, as Daniel saw in...