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Covenant Reformed News - January 2023
- Published in Covenant PRC Ballymena, Northern Ireland
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Today is the third Lord's Day of this year of our Lord 2023. Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news. It is our hope that these reports not only inform you but also give you opportunity to pray for the needs of these churches and mission fields throughout the world.
As we enter this new year, we do so in glad and grateful worship of our sovereign, saving God and King. To Him we owe our all and to Him we commit our way in 2023, day by day.
If you are new to this website and the PRCA, we invite you to join us in worship today or on any of the Sunday's of this year at one of our local congregations near you, or listen online.
Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: ...Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth. ~ Psalm 83:1-5; 16-18
Rev. W. Langerak (Trinity PRC-Hudsonville, MI) plans to answer the call from Hosanna PRC (Edmonton, AB) next week.
Grandville (MI) PRC, host of Classis East meeting
Classis East met for two full days Wednesday and Thursday (Jan.11,12) at Grandville PRC.
Foreign Mission News: (from Doon PRC's bulletin, calling church for the Philippines): "Caleb Woiwood and Doug and Lisa Brands leave this week Wednesday [Jan.11] as the annual FMC delegation to the Philippines. We pray God’s blessing on their travels."
Home Mission News: On Nov.20 Rev. J. Laning (Hull PRC) accepted the call from Zion PRC (Jenison, MI) to serve as denominational home missionary. From Zion's bulletin today we learn that the Council has set Feb.5 in the evening for the installation of Rev. Laning as home missionary.
A good number of visitors are attending the 2023 Interim course on Reformed-Christian Ethics
PRC Seminary Notices:
Listen to the Reformed Witness Hour each Sunday - on a radio station near you, on Sermonaudio, or on your favorite podcast - wherever you are!
Are you a Standard Bearer subscriber and reader? Read the meditation from the second issue of this year and learn how to subscribe!
"That peace which is God’s peace in Jesus Christ is the glad tidings of the gospel. It is God’s great work of grace, which God has established with His people in Jesus Christ that He should be our God and Father. Man did not earn it. Man cannot make such a peace. This peace alone abides. It is God’s gift in Jesus Christ, imparted by His Spirit, the Comforter. By the power of that peace with God we are born anew, called out of the world that perishes into a new and abiding relationship with God -- to know Him in His love through faith in Jesus Christ. In the light of that peace of God, the world’s peace and its labor for a peace of its own without God is nothing but the false and proud attempt of sinful man to obtain his own peace and salvation by his own works. Against it the Word of God declares, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast,” Ephesians 2:8.
"God’s Word therefore commands all men to repent of their sin, to turn from the false peace of this world which cries, “Peace, Peace,” when there is no peace, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To such who by His grace repent and believe, He promises forgiveness of sins and life eternal, even His everlasting peace. “Peace I leave unto you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27."
~ Taken from the resource "An Abiding Peace" by Rev. T. Miersma
Dear saints in the Protestant Reformed Churches,
At the start of this new year, we thought it would be good to update you on the Lord’s work in our midst, and to thank you for your prayers and support. We appreciate the cards and e-mails that some of you have sent us, though we are not able to respond to all of them. We trust that this letter to all will also serve as a satisfactory reply to those who have contacted us.
Members
Since our last letter, two covenant children have been baptized in the CPRC: Elsie (9 October), a daughter of David and Kristin Crossett, and Jude (11 December), a son of Joe and Lisa McCaughern. Elsie’s grandparents, Bob and Carolyn Prins, and her uncle Andrew from Trinity PRC in W. Michigan were present, as were many of Jude’s relatives, on these respective blessed occasions.
Billy and Val McCaughern, Jude’s grandparents, were received as members on 25 December, when they were able to join the rest of the confessing congregation at the Lord’s table. Billy had been an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. It is lovely to have them with us.
Some of the saints pointed out that there had been times when the volume of the audio of the Sunday services pumped into the cry room was too low. A technician fitted an amplifier control button in the room in time for the worship services on 16 October, so now those with small children in the cry room can hear well.
On 19 October, Timothy Spence left for Australia, stopping off for a few days in Singapore to enjoy fellowship and worship with the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church, our sister church. Tim is working as a doctor in Australia for a year or so and has settled in well with the saints in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Launceston, Tasmania, pastored by Rev. Mark Shand.
This year, there are 26 children in five catechism or pre-confession classes. The mid-year tests took place last week (18 December) and the kids did well. Last Friday, we held a games night at church, which was well attended by both adults and children (30 December).
Teaching
In the late summer, we completed an 11-sermon series on Psalm 69, entitled, “The Most Avoided Messianic Psalm.” Psalm 69 is appealed to thrice in the Gospel According to John (2:17; 15:25; 19:28-30), twice in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (11:9-10; 15:3) and once in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles (1:20) regarding Christ’s ministry and cross, and those who betrayed and reproached Him. Why then does most of the church world avoid this inspired messianic song? Because it includes imprecations, teaches particular atonement, and opposes both a desire of God to save the reprobate and a universal or common grace. Moreover, Psalm 69 clearly records the sovereign will and prevailing prayers of our Lord Jesus Himself, especially from the cross (www.youtube. com/playlist?list=PL2Y5Eq5r6y2EbmQYH8fHr1kU0khongBB6)
“Faith or Works” is the title of the series of 10 sermons on Galatians 3. Over against all Judaizing, Galatians 3 contains powerful teaching on justification in Christ (13), the Seed of Abraham (16), and by faith alone without works (1-14). It explains more clearly than any where else in Scripture the relationships between the Abrahamic covenant promise, the Mosaic law and the New Testament faith (15-29).
Our Tuesday morning classes on “Saving Faith: A Biblical and Theological Analysis” have been progressing well. In the last few months, we considered faith in connection with, first, authority and, second, reason. Many err by placing the authority for their faith in the wrong place: the Roman magisterium, science, a charismatic minister, political correctness, fallible tradition, one’s own intellect, etc. (cf. I Cor. 2:5). We looked at Scripture’s teaching on natural revelation, natural theology, natural religion and natural law, and contrasted this with Thomas Aquinas and Roman Catholicism, before turning to John Calvin’s biblical theology regarding the sensus divinitatis and the semen religionis, namely, the ineradicable sense of divinity and seed of religion in every human being, as well as man’s conscience as an essential part of his humanity under God—things that the spirit of our age is trying desperately to stamp out!
The Ballymena Times onine version carried a short article I sent in regarding our Wednesday night “Classes on the End Times” (16 September). In our seven classes on “The Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9,” we presented and critiqued Dispensationalism’s literalist view of Daniel 9:24-27, considering the first 7 weeks, the middle 62 weeks, and the 70th week. Then we explained the correct and historic teaching of this powerful passage in terms of seven key words, all of which begin with the third letter of the alphabet: Christ, cross, covenant, chronology, coming, counsel and comfort in Daniel 9:24-27.
Then we had six classes on “The Signs of Christ’s Return,” considering them collectively or as a group. We introduced, identified, and classified the eschatological signs spoken of in Scripture, before turning to their idea and characteristics, as well as people’s responses to them. We also looked at the Old Testament and the signs of Christ’s second coming, and we compared and contrasted them with the signs of the end of the world in Judaism and Islam (www.cprc.co.uk/belgic-confession-class).
Prof. Engelsma’s two volumes on The Church’s Hope were published at a good time for these classes on the last things and many attendees have bought them. Stephen Murray, our audio-visual man, has produced box sets of the two sermon series (on Psalm 69 and Galatians 3) and the two topics in eschatology (“The Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9” and “The Signs of Christ’s Return”). All the Lord’s day sermons and the Wednesday night doctrine classes are recorded and placed on our website (www.cprc.co.uk), but not our more informal Tuesday morning meetings.
Others
In the 153 days since our last letter (5 August), we have added 125 translations in 11 languages (www.cprc.co.uk/languages). All of The Reformed Worldview book by Profs. Hanko and Engelsma is now on-line in both Polish and Russian. Through the fine work of Lilian from Kenya, our new translator into Swahili, the major African language in eastern parts of that vast continent, we now have 37 articles in her native tongue. Of the 207 languages on our website, Spanish is the one that receives most hits. In the last year or so, the Covenant Reformed News has gotten a lot of translations. Now for every English article in the News, we average more than two translations.
Lilian and her daughter
Here are the translations that Mary has put on our website in the last 5 months or so: 35 Polish, 23 Russian, 22 Hungarian, 21 Swahili, 12 Spanish, 5 Afrikaans, 2 Chinese (by a new translator in Malaysia), 2 Telugu (Apostles’ Creed and Heidelberg Catechism), 1 Tagalog, 1 Italian, and 1 Arabic (Canons of Dordt).
Late in the summer, Mary and I visited places in and around the historic border between England and Wales (22-26 August). We had two major purposes: first, to meet friends and give a lecture in South Wales on “The Two Ages in Eschatology” (25 August), and, second, to check out possible venues for BRF conferences and places suitable for the day trips that would occur during such conferences. We visited three possible conference sites, and spoke with managers and staff. We toured abbeys, aqueducts, battlefields, bridges, canals, museums, Roman remains, interesting towns, etc., so as to make recommendations for the BRF Council.
In our last letter, we mentioned the subject and speakers that were chosen for the next BRF conference by the attendees at July’s BRF conference in Northern Ireland. Now we can also announce the BRF Council’s decision regarding the venue and dates. The BRF has booked Cloverley Hall in Shropshire, England, near the border with Wales (www.cloverleyhall.org) for a week (3-10 August) in the summer of 2024. We are looking forward to Prof. Brian Huizinga and Rev. Ronald Hanko unfolding to us wonderful truths in the area of eschatology concerning the glorious return of our Saviour! The conference is now less than 19 months away.
Cloverley Hall
May the Lord preserve and bless you in this coming year, as we look “unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).
In Him,
Rev. Angus & Mary Stewart
Today is the second Lord's Day of this year of our Lord 2023. Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news. It is our hope that these reports not only inform you but also give you opportunity to pray for the needs of these churches and mission fields throughout the world.
As we enter this new year, we do so in glad and grateful worship of our sovereign, saving God and King. To Him we owe our all and to Him we commit our way in 2023, day by day.
If you are new to this website and the PRCA, we invite you to join us in worship today or on any of the Sunday's of this year at one of our local congregations near you, or listen online.
God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. ...Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations. ~ Psalm 82:1-4, 5
Rev. W. Langerak (Trinity PRC-Hudsonville, MI) is considering the call from Hosanna PRC (Edmonton, AB - received Dec.25).
Classis East will meet this Wednesday, Jan.11, at 8:00 am at Grandville PRC. The agenda has weighty matters; let us be in prayer for the delegates as they deal with Christ's work in the churches. May they be given the grace and wisdom of His Spirit.
Contact Committee Notices: On behalf of the Contact Committee of the PRCA, Rev. and Mrs. Bill Bruinsma and Mr. and Mrs. Dave Kregel plan to visit the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore from January 11 - 24, 2023, D.V. They will be conducting Church Visitation with the session of CERC. Rev. Bruinsma will be leading the worship services on January 15 and 22, and giving two speeches. May the Lord make this a fruitful visit and grant traveling mercies to this delegation.
Home Mission News: On Nov.20 Rev. J. Laning (Hull PRC) accepted the call from Zion PRC (Jenison, MI) to serve as denominational home missionary.
In a recent Zion PRC's bulletin was this update from her special committee: "Update from Zion DMC committee: We have been very busy coordinating the move and the work for Rev Laning. Tentatively, the plan is for Rev. Laning to preach his farewell at Hull PRC on January 1, 2023. After that he will be going to Randolph PRC so that he can keep his classical commitment to that congregation for January 8 which will include the baptism of his grandchild. His arrival into our area will be the week of the 16th of January. We are presently coordinating a moving company to move all his belongings to his new home in Jenison from Hull, IA. We have secured a place to live in Glen Eagle condos in the 14th Ave and 44th St area in Georgetown Township. We are also working with him to identify the mission work that he will be doing and coordinating a plan moving forward. We anticipate him taking some classes in regard to this mission work which we believe will take most of his time for the first 6 months of his being here. He is scheduled to preach for Zion PRC on Jan 29 AM and Feb 12 PM. As far as the committee is concerned, we have had regular monthly meetings up to the time that Rev. Laning accepted the call and now that the Lord has answered our prayers and sent us a missionary, we are working hard organizing the work for him and also entering into conversations with him in order to search out the Lords will for him and our congregation. Missions are an important work for the church, and we continue to ask for your prayers for Rev. Laning and his wife as they settle in to our congregational life and take up this great work to the glory of God, the ingathering of the church and also to the coming of Christ when He shall take His completed church home to live with Him forever. We look forward to that day."
Foreign Mission News: (from Doon PRC's bulletin, calling church for the Philippines): "Caleb Woiwood and Doug and Lisa Brands leave this week Wednesday as the annual FMC delegation to the Philippines. We pray God’s blessing on their travels."
PRC Seminary Notices:
See the mission news from India below
Listen to the Reformed Witness Hour each Sunday - on a radio station near you, on Sermonaudio, or on your favorite podcast - wherever you are!
Are you a Standard Bearer subscriber and reader? Get a preview of the first issue of this year and learn how to subscribe!
"This eternal God will be our guide even unto death. The text, correctly translated, reads, "He will shepherd us." This means God will nourish and feed us. No man does this. Our eternal God does this by His grace and Holy Spirit through those whom He calls. God does this chiefly by means of the preaching of His inspired, infallible Word and by the use of the sacraments. That God shepherds us means as well that He rules us by His grace so that we willingly serve Him in love. God protects us from all our enemies, preserves and sustains us through every trial, every suffering, and through all of our sorrows. God gives us grace sufficient for our every need and guides us every step along our way, the way which He in His wisdom and love has determined for each of us.
"Our eternal God will shepherd us even unto death. This means simply that from the moment of our birth to the moment of our death God will shepherd us. He never leaves or forsakes us, not for a split second. God cares for us to the very end.
"And because this is true, nothing can be against us, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. All things are for us! Even death is for us! O, I know, death is horrible from every human point of view. Death is often preceded by terrible sufferings. We saw that with our dear one the past weeks. That strong body became so weak and that booming voice became barely a whisper. Death is the end of all our earthly relations. We have lost a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother in the Lord, and a co-worker in the ministry. What is worse, death is the expression of the wrath of God against sin. Death is part of the, curse! It is no wonder that the apostle refers to death as the last enemy (I Cor. 15)!
"But all that has been changed! Death has been swallowed up in the victory of the cross and resurrection, of Jesus Christ. No longer is death the end. Death is the beginning of perfect joy, of fellowship with our eternal God in glory. God will be our guide; He will shepherd us even unto death, and through death take us to the glory of His presence.
"And that is absolutely certain. Our eternal God will beour guide. There may be no doubt about this! Our eternal God will surely be our shepherd even unto death. Therefore, God's church shall surely stand."
~ Taken from the SB article "The Eternal God: Our Guide" by Robert D. Decker
News from the Reformed Witness Hour
January 2023
For January, we have five new messages from Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma. Rev. Bruinsma is the pastor of Pittsburgh Protestant Reformed Church of Pittsburgh, PA.
January 2023January 1 Jehovah Sees the HeartI Samuel 16:6-13January 8 Making A StandI Samuel 17:38-51January 15 Israel Rebels Against David’s HouseI Kings 12:16, 28-30January 22 Halting Between Two OpinionsI Kings 18:20-39January 29 God Sends Ahab Strong DelusionII Chronicles 18:4-34 |
PO Box 1230, Grand Rapids MI, 49501 | reformedwitnesshour.org | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Today is the first Lord's Day of this year of our Lord 2023. Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news. It is our hope that these reports not only inform you but also give you opportunity to pray for the needs of these churches and mission fields throughout the world.
As we enter this new year, we do so in glad and grateful worship of our sovereign, saving God and King. To Him we owe our all and to Him we commit our way in 2023, day by day.
If you are new to this website and the PRCA, we invite you to join us in worship today or on any of the Sunday's of this year at one of our local congregations near you, or listen online.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. ~ Psalm 46:1-7
Home Mission News: On Nov.20 Rev. J. Laning (Hull PRC) accepted the call from Zion PRC (Jenison, MI) to serve as denominational home missionary.
In Zion PRC's bulletin last week was this update from her special committee: "Update from Zion DMC committee: We have been very busy coordinating the move and the work for Rev Laning. Tentatively, the plan is for Rev. Laning to preach his farewell at Hull PRC on January 1, 2023. After that he will be going to Randolph PRC so that he can keep his classical commitment to that congregation for January 8 which will include the baptism of his grandchild. His arrival into our area will be the week of the 16th of January. We are presently coordinating a moving company to move all his belongings to his new home in Jenison from Hull, IA. We have secured a place to live in Glen Eagle condos in the 14th Ave and 44th St area in Georgetown Township. We are also working with him to identify the mission work that he will be doing and coordinating a plan moving forward. We anticipate him taking some classes in regard to this mission work which we believe will take most of his time for the first 6 months of his being here. He is scheduled to preach for Zion PRC on Jan 29 AM and Feb 12 PM. As far as the committee is concerned, we have had regular monthly meetings up to the time that Rev. Laning accepted the call and now that the Lord has answered our prayers and sent us a missionary, we are working hard organizing the work for him and also entering into conversations with him in order to search out the Lords will for him and our congregation. Missions are an important work for the church, and we continue to ask for your prayers for Rev. Laning and his wife as they settle in to our congregational life and take up this great work to the glory of God, the ingathering of the church and also to the coming of Christ when He shall take His completed church home to live with Him forever. We look forward to that day."
Foreign Mission News: Rev. D. Kleyn and his wife Sharon left the States this past week and returned to the Philippines on Dec.29. We thank the Lord for safe travels and pray for renewed strength for the busy work there.
PRC Seminary Notices:
Listen to the Reformed Witness Hour each Sunday - on a radio station near you, on Sermonaudio, or on your favorite podcast - wherever you are!
On this first day of the new year, you will find this resource to be a means of comfort and hope for all you may face in 2023.
"But if we are to give thanks to God for all His spiritual and material blessings, then we must be freed from anxiety. Jesus, in Matthew 6:19-24, has been speaking so beautifully and profoundly of our relationship to the earthly things. He has taught us that it is our relationship to the earthly, our perspective and our attachment, that is so often, at bottom, the cause of our spiritual problems. Our inability to see Father’s wonderful grace and our failure to thank Him is created so often by the relationship in which we stand toward the earthly things. If we hoard, we become covetous and greedy. Then we are governed by those things, and we are filled with anxiety that we are going to lose them. And we do not thank God for them. Or, if we do not hoard, then we worry. “Is it going to turn out? Will I make it? Will I have enough?” We become filled with anxiety over those earthly things. And when we are full of anxiety, then too we cannot praise God or give Him thanks.
"A trumpet cannot blast stirring notes of praise if it has been filled with dirt. A piano cannot play clear notes if the keys are sticky with molasses. So also, our hearts cannot thank God if they are choked with anxiety.
"Our Savior says to us, “Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Our Savior says, the cure for anxiety is to realize that God will always give us grace for today, so that we may live thankfully and contentedly before Him.
"As I say, our Lord is warning us that we must not fall into the grips of anxiety over earthly things. “Take no thought,” He says. “Do not be seized by anxiety.”
"We are anxious about everything. The Lord knows that. We are anxious about our health, about ourselves, about our inadequacies, about our jobs, about our looks, about getting married, about the church, about the schools, about our children, about our burdens, about money, about possessions, about bills, about payments, about tomorrow. If we would write a list of all the things over which we tend to worry, the list would go right out the door of our homes. And, at bottom, we would write, we worry that we are worried so much. And anxiety or worry chokes not only peace in our hearts, but thanksgiving to God. We say, “Yes, I suppose I should be thankful today. But I really can’t because of the load of anxiety, of trouble, of all the problems that I see coming tomorrow. How can I be thankful today?”
"To begin the life of thanksgiving, the Lord says we must not only be free from greed, the love of money, but we must fight anxiety. And His main point is this (Matt. 6: 33), “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Lord is saying, “Instead of anxiety over your life, over your child, over yourself, make the kingship of God real by faith. Every moment, hand all over to His Kingly power. Seek to do His will, in the confidence that He has promised that He will meet all of your needs.”
~ Taken from the radio message "Grace for Today" by Rev. C. Haak
Classis East
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Classis West
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