A loved one has died. The spouse left behind is overwhelmed with grief. Parents who have lost a child or children who have lost a parent are crushed beneath the heavy burden of their loss. Death has left them dazed, disconcerted, and numb. It is all like a bad dream.…
The scene is familiar. A toddler lets out a loud wail because mom or dad poked him for being naughty in church. The more they try to quiet him, the louder he wails. Children of other families are turning around to see the fuss. Older saints are looking on in…
Previous article in this series: September 1, 2019, p. 473. There are various legitimate means evangelism committees and mission committees use to spread the gospel. One such means already faithfully used by the PRC Mission Committee was that of the printed page. During the years that war was being waged…
Previous article in this series: April 1, 2019, p. 306. The Synod of 1946 was pivotal. Its decisions could change entirely the direction of mission work in the Protestant Reformed Churches. First, should our churches engage in foreign mission work and, if so, should that work be done in China…
Previous article in this series: November 15, 2018, p. 91. We concluded our last article stating that a rift had developed between the eastern and western branches of the Mission Committee. The synod of the PRC had decided that in order to keep the western churches of our denomination actively…
During the first half of the decade of the 1940s, the Protestant Reformed Churches began the work of organizing its synodical committees under constitutions. In 1940 the Emeritus Committee presented its Constitution to the synod for approval. The Synod of 1941 adopted the Constitution of the Theological School Committee. The…
Previous article in this series: September 15, 2017, p. 488. The consistory of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church in Illinois was frustrated. This church was working in the Roseland, Chicago area with little results. This frustration was voiced at the June 1935 meeting of Classis: our outreach lacks personal labor.…
Previous article in this series: December 15, 2016, p. 136. The June 1932 meeting of Classis was filled with matters of missions. Not only had the special study committee defined the task of the Home Classical Committee as presented in our last article, but a couple of other matters were…
Previous article in this series: September 1, 2016, p. 473. As promised in our last article, we now print in full the study committee’s report on defining the task of the Classical Home Mission Committee, presented to and adopted by the June 1, 1932 meeting of Classis (slightly edited). “Beloved…
Previous article in this series: December 1, 2015, p. 114. The decade of the 1930s ushered in the era known as the Great Depression. The Depression actually started already in 1929, when in October of that year the stock market crashed, causing millions of investors to lose all their money.…
Previous article in this series: December 15, 2015, p. 130. This is the second article presented by the Domestic Mission Committee (DMC) encouraging local churches to be more involved in mission work in the area of their congregations. I was asked by the DMC to write because I have been…
Previous article in this series: August 2015, p. 446. The Classis of the Protestant Reformed Churches met in session on September 18, 1929. A number of recommendations were received at this Classis from the Committee on Home Missions made up of Elhart, Korhorn, and VanDellen. Among these recommendations, Classis considered…
Previous article in this series: May 1, 2015, p. 352. During the early formative years of the Protestant Reformed Churches, certain methods of domestic mission work became well established. It is important that we take note of these methods and offer an evaluation of them. We begin, however, not with…
Previous article in this series: March 15, 2015, p. 280. It was in the year 1928 that the Protestant Reformed Churches began to advance toward establishing a “Classical Mission Committee” in order to do the work of missions in this small denomination. In the three previous years, organization of churches…
Three faithful ministers of the gospel banded together, forsaken and alone. We can only imagine what the Reverends Herman Hoeksema, Henry Danhof, and George Ophoff felt when the decisions made by Classis Grand Rapids East of the Christian Reformed Church (December 12, 1924) and Classis Grand Rapids West CRC (…
Good families do not just happen. Many young men and women enter a relationship and even marriage without ever giving that a thought. They have these romantic, fairytale expectations that they will simply, without any effort, fall in love, marry, have a few children, and live happily ever after. They…
Previous article in this series: March 15, 2014, p. 278. The Form for the Ordination of Missionaries in the Protestant Reformed Churches is employed to ordain missionaries to be sent either to the heathen or to the dispersed. A mission work directed “to the heathen” has become synonymous with foreign…
Previous article in this series: March 1, 2014, p. 256. In this article we continue to examine one of the paragraphs of the preamble to the constitution of the Domestic Mission Committee of the Protestant Reformed Churches. That paragraph reads: We believe that this missionary activity includes the work of…
Previous article in this series: January 15, 2014, p. 178. In our first article on this subject we defined what church extension and church reformation were. We concluded that article with the thought that many in our churches believe that church extension (or domestic missions) may be accomplished only by…
In 1942 the first draft of the Constitution of the Mission Committee of the Protestant Reformed Churches was forged and proposed to the synod of that year. The second paragraph of the proposed preamble to the constitution carefully expressed the sentiment of many in the churches at that time. We…
It was the year 1965. The synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches met in session on June 2 at the First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. Was this a monumental meeting of synod? Probably not. But at this synod an eleven-page “new policy” for domestic missions and church extension…
The mystery! From the beginning of the world it has been hid in God. God gave all kinds of evidence regarding the mystery in the Old Testament. The pieces of the puzzle were all there. But the mystery was not solved by the sons of men then. They could not…
Previous article in this series: April 15, 2012, p. 331. This is the mystery of the church: people of many nations (the Gentiles) are made fellow heirs, and of the same body with the church of the Old Testament (Eph. 3:6). Christ has abolished the Old Testament ceremonies of…
The Ephesian believers lived during a pivotal period in the history of the church. It was that time, soon after Christ’s ascension into heaven, when God chose to reveal to His church what had been hid in Him since the beginning of time (Eph. 3:9). That which God was now…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. What is to the child of God most precious in his life? To know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. In vain one searches for the treatment of or even. a reference to the terminology “means of grace” in the writings of Anabaptist leaders. It is difficult to ascertain whether the absence of such reference is due to…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. Solomon exhibits in this passage, as always, a keen insight into human nature. He knows the pride that resides in our flesh. He knows that there is nothing that hurts our pride more than when we are shown…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Where to Search for a Spouse Jack had been wandering the aisles of a large hardware store for about a half hour before being approached by a store assistant. When asked if he needed help, Jack explained that…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The new millennium is almost upon us. Soon the 1900s will be no more. It will be the year 2000. It is natural that many in this past year have been reflecting on the old millennium and what…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. A Sure Standard. Now we face a new millen- nium. What must our call- ing be as we step over the threshold of the old and into the new? Are we called to join hands with the apostatizing…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. … and the glory of children are their fathers. Proverbs 17:6We have already considered in our last article the first part of this verse, which speaks of children’s children being the crown of old men. When the family…
Previous article in this series: March 1, 2010, p. 254. It has been some time now since our last article on this subject. We asked the question in the last article whether or not it is proper for families or confessing individuals in existing churches to move to a place…
Previous article in this series: March 15, 2011, p. 271.
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin -; and if not, blot me, I…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? Psalm 77:13 An earnest expression of praise to God! The psalmist is overwhelmed with the greatness of our God: who is…
Rev. Bruinsma is Eastern Home Missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches, stationed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Previous article in this series: February 15, 2009, p. 229. Missions and the organic life of the church What does a godly witness in our lives at home have to do with work on a…
Rev. Bruinsma is Eastern Home MIssionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches, stationed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Previous article in this series: December 15, 2008, p. 135. The church is a witnessing church. It is not just theduty of the church to witness. It is not just hercalling. The true church always leaves…
Rev. Bruinsma is Eastern Home Missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches, stationed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Goal of our work When Southwest Protestant Reformed Church called and sent me to labor in Pittsburgh it was with a specific goal in mind. I was sent to preach the gospel for the…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Where to Go on a Date In this article we are going to consider where to take a young woman on a date. What? Is this guy really going to tell us where we may or may not…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Proverbs 31:27, 28 The place of a…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. “She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. I’m a minister—a minister who is himself a parent. What makes me, therefore, think that I can give you as young people good advice on communicating with parents? It would seem that a minister is in the wrong…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. While in my teens I gave no thought to the meaning of being a teenager or just where I was in my development as a human being. I was too busy getting on with my life to worry…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. Pressure. Constant pressure. That is what the faithful church always experiences as she attempts to follow the dictates of God’s Word. The same is true as far as her worship is concerned. After lying shipwrecked for centuries in…
Understanding the New Age, byRussel Chandler. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993. 367 pp. $10.99 (paper). [Reviewed by Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma.] Scanning the shelf entitled “New Age” in the bookstore or library, one finds few books which serve as introduction to the broad scope of the New Age Movement. Most…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Marriage is an honorable state. It was instituted by God at the time of the creation of the woman. The purpose of God in marriage is to give the believing man and his wife an earthly means by…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. What you see above is a Yin-Yang symbol. Along with the peace sign and the symbol of the cross, it has become a popular ornament today. It can be found in most pop jewelry stores. It can be…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. A little over a year ago we wrote an article that addressed the fear of single life (Vol. 70, No. 11, March 1, 1994). It was an article aimed at those young people who are afraid that marriage…
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. We hear it all the time: love God and love the neighbor. We hear it from the pulpit, in the classroom from our teachers, and surely we hear it at home from our parents. The one, great commandment…