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Covenant Reformed News - March 2022
- Published in Covenant PRC Ballymena, Northern Ireland
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Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news for this thirteenth Sunday of our Lord's year 2022, March 27. We praise and thank the Lord for these weekly spiritual oases on our pilgrimage through this weary world on the way to our heavenly home. May our worship this day be a sweet incense before our faithful God through Jesus Christ our Savior.
O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. ~ Psalm 47:1-4
If you are new to this website and are interested in the PRC, we invite you to join us at any of our services (morning and afternoon/evening). For congregations, locations and times, visit this page.
Rev. R. Kleyn (First PRC-GR) spoke for the seminary's chapel this past Wednesday.
PRC Seminary Notices:
Beautiful Castlewellan, location of this year's BRF Conference in N.Ireland, July 9-16 (see more details under Covenant PRC news)
Listen to the Reformed Witness Hour each Sunday - on a radio station near you, on Sermonaudio, or on your favorite podcast - wherever you are!
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See the special news items on the Reformed Book Outlet below!
This Week's Thought for Contemplation
“The very fact that in his coming to Jesus the sinner experiences the drawing of the Father is his guarantee that he will surely be received. In the will to come and the coming the sinner experiences the drawing power of God’s grace. God convicts him of sin, and he repents; God enlightens him by His Spirit, and he beholds the Christ in all His beauty of salvation; God allures and attracts, and he longs for the God of his salvation; God seals him, and he appropriates the Christ and all His benefits. How then could he ever be cast out? They that thus come to Jesus shall never be ashamed!” (No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. John 6:44)
~ Herman Hoeksema, Whosever Will, ch. 10
Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news for this twelfth Sunday of our Lord's year 2022, March 20. We praise and thank the Lord for these weekly spiritual oases on our pilgrimage through this weary world on the way to our heavenly home. May our worship this day be a sweet incense before our faithful God through Jesus Christ our Savior.
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 46:4-7
If you are new to this website and are interested in the PRC, we invite you to join us at any of our services (morning and afternoon/evening). For congregations, locations and times, visit this page.
After the Friday brat lunch at seminary this past week, Prof. R. Cammenga interviewed author Steve ("P.M.") Kuiper (SW-PRC member) about his new book Through Many Dangers. He also displayed for the audience his musical talents on the guitar.
PRC Seminary Notices:
Beautiful Castlewellan, location of this year's BRF Conference in N.Ireland, July 9-16 (see more details under Coveant PRC news)
Listen to the Reformed Witness Hour each Sunday - on a radio station near you, on Sermonaudio, or on your favorite podcast - wherever you are!
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See the special news items on the Reformed Book Outlet below!
This Week's Thought for Contemplation
"Those who know God have great contentment in God. There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with the full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God's favor to them in life, through death, and on for ever. ...Do we desire such knowledge of God? [Then] we must recognize how much we lack the knowledge of God. We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this level. Let us ask the Lord to show us."
~ J.I. Packer, Knowing God
March 18, 2022
Dear saints in the Protestant Reformed Churches,
Church Visitation
Due to Covid-19 and its regulations, the CPRC did not have church visitation by a delegation from the PRC for the last two years. Thus it was especially good to welcome back Prof. Barry Gritters and Elder Sid Miedema (5-14 January). Like all arriving in the UK in January, the two men had to quarantine on arrival until they got back a negative Covid test on day two. We had planned to have our congregational dinner at a local restaurant while our American visitors were here but, sadly, we had to cancel it because of the hassle with Covid rules for large group dining.
Prof. Gritters brought the Word of God at both the Sunday services on 9 January, led a Bible study on Exodus 19 (cf. Heb. 12:18-29) on the Tuesday morning and gave a lecture on “Being the Hand of God: Godly Parenting in an Ungodly World” on the Wednesday night. His excellent instruction was much appreciated by the congregation.
Advertising for the speech on child-rearing included an article written by Julian Kennedy which was published in the Ballymena Guardian. We were very pleased with the attendance, and the parents in the church found the lecture especially helpful (www.cprc.co.uk/sermons/being-the-hand-of-god-godly-parenting-in-an-ungodly-world).
Prof. Gritters and Sid Miedema visited a number of families in the congregation. Mary and I took them for some lovely coastal walks in the north of County Antrim and forest walks in the south of County Down, where there was snow on the mountains.
Church Activities
Alfonso and Salome Mansona and their two adult sons, Chester and Dale, were gladly received as confessing members on 21 November. Jeremy Watterson, the fifth covenant child of Sam and Anga, was baptized on 23 January.
Charlotte Higgs arrived in Northern Ireland from Brisbane, Queensland in the middle of February and is staying in our province for a few months. She is a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia, and a daughter of Pastor David and Sue Higgs. Charlotte has settled into the life of our congregation very well.
We were finally able to have our church dinner at the Ross Park Hotel on Friday, 11 March. William Graham, our organizer and quizmaster, booked the venue soon after all the Covid regulations for such events were removed. This left us short of time to contact friends outside our own congregation and get together all the orders for the three courses. Thus we decided simply to invite members and attendees with their spouses, etc. It was a very enjoyable evening of fellowship.
Michelle Lou-Hing, a niece of Marie Kennedy, and her son, Liam, were able to make it to Northern Ireland for the congregational dinner, since Michelle and her husband are buying a house in Broughshane. It is great to have them back in our midst again.
Besides the Lord’s Day preaching of the Word, the four Monday evening catechism classes, and the Tuesday morning Bible study on “Saving Faith: A Biblical and Theological Analysis,” we have a Wednesday night doctrine class on the Belgic Confession. We are currently on Article 37, which deals with the end times. We have covered Scripture’s own eschatological time periods: the two ages (“this age” and “the age to come”), “the last days,” the 1,000 years (Rev. 20), and the 1,260 days, 42 months or 3½ times (Rev. 11-13).
In our Wednesday classes, we recently concluded a series of 9 studies on “The Nearness of Christ’s Coming,” explaining the 7 major ways in which the Bible teaches that our Lord comes (3 in the past, 3 ongoing, and 1 climactic), the things which must happen before His glorious bodily return, and Scripture’s full testimony to both its “soonness” and its “delay.” All these doctrinal audios are not only available in CD box sets (www.cprc.co.uk/product-category/cdsdvds/belgic-confession) but can be listened to free on-line (www.cprc.co.uk/belgic-confession-class).
Currently, there are 3 families and 3 individuals in 3 membership classes. During the week, I meet with Billy and Anne, Grace and Kerryann Gould in Antrim; Joe and Lisa McCaughern in Portglenone; and Ivan Ortu and Colm Ring at the manse in Kells. We go through (the positive articles of) the Canons of Dordt, and then various distinctive Reformed doctrines and practices, so that new members join the church with a solid grasp of the truth, a good conscience, and joy.
On-Line Witness
Our main website (www.cprc.co.uk) is doing very well. Around 17 November, 2021, its number of daily page hits suddenly tripled. Things continued around this level for a few weeks before growing by 50%. Thus we are now receiving about 4.5 times as many page hits on our main website as we were at the time of my last letter (5 November, 2021).
We recently created an “Election and Reprobation Resources” webpage, containing links to audios and/or videos of doctrine classes, sermon series and lectures, as well as articles, pamphlets, books, etc. (www.cprc.co.uk/ election-and-reprobation-resources). This is our 35th handy resource page (www.cprc.co.uk/topical-resources).
Since my last letter about 4 ½ months ago, we have added 112 translations to our website. Thus, we have been receiving about 6 translations per week—a good rate! Many of these are short pieces, such as Covenant Reformed News articles (www.cprc.co.uk/covenant-reformed-news) or chapters from Doctrine According to Godliness by Rev. Ron Hanko. We now have some 3,368 articles and creeds in more than 200 foreign tongues (from Afrikaans to Zulu) on our website (www.cprc.co.uk/languages).
Thanks to Nic, a Reformed elder in S. Africa, Afrikaans has grown most, increasing by 35 to 175 translations. Polish has seen 33 additions through the work of Marcin in Norway, Sebastian in Poland, and Robert in the Republic of Ireland. For our Polish translations, now totalling 88, Mary has created a specific Polish webpage (www.cprc.co.uk/languages/polish), to add to the other nine individual language webpages (Afrikaans, Burmese, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish).
We also received a good number of translations in Hungarian (13 by Balint) and Russian (12 by Viktor). The others are 6 Spanish (by Jorge in Peru), 5 Portuguese (including 2 pamphlets on drama by Revs. Dale Kuiper and Richard Smit), 4 Swahili (the last 3 of which were by Lilian, a new translator from Nairobi, Kenya), 3 Dutch (by Gerben in the Netherlands), and 1 Latin (the Belgic Confession, so that we now have all 4 of our ecumenical creeds and all 3 of our Reformed creeds in this language).
In the last month or so, Sam Watterson has been placing paid ads on Facebook on behalf of the CPRC, targeting people within 30 miles of Ballymena. So far, he has advertised the video debate on Calvinism (www. Youtube.com/watch?v=G5B_UknPtFM)) and an article on the real healing miracles in the Bible (www.cprc.co.uk/articles/healings). We have been receiving positive feedback and intend continuing this means of advertising.
British Reformed Fellowship (BRF)
The first British Reformed Journal with Sam Watterson as editor was sent to subscribers and BRF members in January. These are the titles of its five articles: “New Editor!” “Editorial: It’s Too Complicated,” “The Destructive Teaching of Hypo-Calvinism in Common Grace Scripturally Exposed,” “Two Men from Trier: Karl Marx (and Communism) and Caspar Olevianus (and the Heidelberg Catechism)” and “Doctrinal Doublespeak.” The cost is just £10 (or $20US) for 4 issues and new subscribers are very welcome (www.britishreformed.org/journal/subscribe).
At this summer’s BRF Family Conference in Castlewellan Castle, County Down, Northern Ireland (9-16 July), Profs. David Engelsma and Brian Huizinga will unfold the glorious truth of our “Union with Christ” (www.cprc.co.up/articles/brfconference2020). The booking forms for the conference (including its low prices) and the contact details for the booking secretaries are available on-line (www.brfconference.weebly.com/booking.html). We hope that many of you will be able to join us for a wonderful week of Reformed teaching and fellowship!
As of today, the UK has ended its Covid travel rules. This means that people arriving in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales no longer need to get tested or write a passenger locator form. This is good news for people flying in for July’s BRF conference or those wanting to visit the CPRC in Ballymena!
May the Lord bless and keep you all,
Rev. & Mary Stewart
Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news for this eleventh Sunday of our Lord's year 2022, March 13. We praise and thank the Lord for these weekly spiritual oases on our pilgrimage through this weary world on the way to our heavenly home. May our worship this day be a sweet incense before our faithful God through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. ~ Psalm 45:5-11
If you are new to this website and are interested in the PRC, we invite you to join us at any of our services (morning and afternoon/evening). For congregations, locations and times, visit this page.
Monday morning, March 7, greeted seminary with a fresh coat of snow, a reminder that winter is not quite over in west Michigan.
PRC Seminary Notices:
Photo from January 2020 showing pastors C. Haak and Paulraj leading a Sola Gratia class in Vellore, India
Listen to the Reformed Witness Hour each Sunday - on a radio station near you, on Sermonaudio, or on your favorite podcast - wherever you are!
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This Week's Thought for Contemplation
"There are huge economic disparities around the world and even within individual countries, such as South Africa and Suriname. There are the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor, and the First World and the Third World, though there are, of course, many degrees between these extremes.
"Material poverty and economic disparity are also found in Christ’s blood-bought church, considered both globally and in individual congregations. Our Saviour Himself said, “For the poor always ye have with you” (John 12:8).
"Christ Himself opens the third seal and sends forth the black horse! This teaches us that agriculture and trade, failed crops and inflation, empty bellies and famine relief agencies, etc., are included in God’s counsel and governed by the Lord Jesus seated at His right hand. “For promotion [or material prosperity] cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Ps. 75:6-7).
"Jehovah is sovereign over the distribution and inequality of foodstuffs and wealth, determining whether we own or rent property, live in a mansion or a hovel, are employed or unemployed, have empty or full larders, etc. Even man’s sinful responses—the snobbery and condescension of the prosperous, and the envy and resentment of the poor—are not outside of the eternal decree of our heavenly Father."
Rev. A. Stewart on the running of the black horse in the February 2022 issue of "Covenant Reformed News."
Below you will find special highlights of PRC and sister-church news for this tenth Sunday of our Lord's year 2022, March 6. We praise and thank the Lord for these weekly spiritual oases on our pilgrimage through this weary world on the way to our heavenly home. May our worship this day be a sweet incense before our faithful God through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. ~ Psalm 44:4-8
If you are new to this website and are interested in the PRC, we invite you to join us at any of our services (morning and afternoon/evening). For congregations, locations and times, visit this page.
Hope PRC, Redlands, CA, hosted this past week's Classis West meeting and officebearers' conference (see note below)
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!
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This Week's Thought for Contemplation
"Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17
"What place should prayer have in a Christian's life? Should we pray little or much? Should we confine our praying to certain days—Sundays, for example; or to certain hours or moments of our days—mornings, for example, than evenings? Should we pray only about certain things, certain affairs, certain portions of our life? Are there things we have no permission to take to God in prayer? Should we pray only in certain places—in our accustomed closet or room at home, or in places set apart for divine worship? Is there any place, where we may not pray?
"There is a verse of Paul's which seems to answer all these questions. "Pray without ceasing." That means, pray always and everywhere. There is nothing we may not take to God in prayer—asking for His help. There is no hour of the day when we may not turn to God—and find Him ready to hear and bless us. The gates of prayer are never shut, by day or by night. There is no place where we may not pray. God is as accessible to us on the street, in the desert, in the midst of a great storm at sea, or in the most debased spot of the earth—as He is in our own sacred closet of prayer, in a consecrated building, or at the Lord's table.
"Pray without ceasing."
J. R. Miller (1903) - found in Covenant of Grace PRC's bulletin today
Upcoming Broadcasts for March March 6 |
2021 Message Statistics in Review
In 2021, we had 15,862 downloads of our messages. August was our best performing month with 1,858 downloads. Our August featured message, I Am Your God by Rev. Spriensma, performed well with 351 downloads, and it appears to have increased attention to our messages for the next several days.
On September 5 we had the year's most downloads in one single day with 266 downloads. This was the day we featured Rev. Kleyn's message Certainty in Prayer. Certainty in Prayer continued to perform very well and finished the year as the most downloaded message of 2021 with a total of 432 downloads.
We continue to see about an even distribution between App downloads, Podcast downloads and Web downloads.
Top Downloads of 2021
The top 5 most downloaded messages for 2021 were:
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Favorite Message from January 2022
Our listeners’ favorite message from January was Joseph's Command Concerning His Bones by Rev. Bruinsma:
Joseph’s life was colorful. The Lord led him through sore trials of his faith... All the while he was strong in his faith. He refused to be taken in by the temptations and allurements of Egypt.
Yet, the writer to the Hebrews does not call our attention to any of these acts of faith. He focuses our attention on the end of Joseph’s life on earth ... He desires to point us to the fervent hope the patriarchs possessed that the promises of God would indeed come true. This Joseph reveals when he gave his family commandment concerning his bones.
We read in Genesis 50:25, "And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." Joseph firmly believed that God would, according to His promise, lead his people Israel from the land of Egypt to Canaan. This faith of Joseph was rooted in what God had promised Abraham many years before.
In Genesis 15 God informed Abraham that He would give Canaan to the nation of Israel - but only after they would remain for a long time in a strange land. Abraham did not know what land that strange land was....Joseph now did... the land of Egypt
This promise of God to Abraham was passed down orally to Isaac, and then to Jacob, and then to his sons.… God promised that not only would He deliver the people of Israel from the bondage of Egypt but He would also bring them to Canaan so that they could possess the land. And Joseph believed these promises... He viewed himself as an Israelite to whom God made His promises just as to the rest of his brothers in their generations.
In this, Joseph’s faith was revealed! You know, it was not as if it would matter to Joseph where his bones would end up. Joseph expresses in his command that he did not desire to be numbered among the Egyptians. Neither did he wish to be with the Egyptians in his death. He represented the cause of God in this world. God’s people were his people. He was a pilgrim and stranger in Egypt.
Listen to the full message at reformedwitnesshour.org
Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches met on March 2-3, 2022, in Hope PRC (Redlands, CA). This isolated congregation did an outstanding job of hosting the delegates.
The day before the meeting, an officebearers’ conference was held on the timely subject of the church of Christ. The first two speeches dealt with the government of the church, with Rev. M. Kortus speaking on “A Delicate Balance: The Relationship between Office of Believer and the Special Offices in the Church of Christ” and Rev. E. Guichelaar speaking on“The Autonomy of the Local Congregation and the Authority of the Broader Assemblies.” The two other speeches dealt with a proper view of the church’s sinfulness, with Rev. R. Hanko speaking on “A Proper View of the Church - Mother or Whore?” and Rev. J. Langerak speaking on “The Church’s Self-Reflective Response to Chastening.” Between the last two speeches the male chorus of Hope congregation sang several beautiful numbers. A very enjoyable day of instruction and fellowship was had by all!
The following day, Classis began with opening devotions led by the chairman of the previous meeting, Rev. E. Guichelaar. After Classis was legally constituted, Rev. S. Key assumed the chair.
Routine reports of the stated clerk, classical committee, and reading sermon committee were read and approved. The church visitors also reported on their work over the last year and the presence of unity, peace, and love prevailing in the churches in spite of the hardships of the last year.
After recessing for the committees of pre-advice to prepare advice, Classis addressed matters brought from First PRC Edmonton relating to Rev. J. Marcus. Classis concurred with the decision of First Edmonton to approve Rev. Marcus’ request to remain eligible for a call in our churches, concurred with the decision of First Edmonton to approve Rev. Marcus’ request for partial support for the next year, and concurred with the decision of First Edmonton to grant Rev. Marcus’ request to transfer his credentials to Grace PRC where he is currently a member.
Classis made a schedule of pulpit supply for the vacant congregations of Doon (IA) PRC, First PRC Edmonton, and Peace PRC (Dyer, IN). Due to the number of vacancies in Classis West, it was decided to ask Classis East for assistance in providing three 2- week classical appointments to Edmonton for the months of June through October.
Classis had before it a protest of decisions taken at the last meeting of Classis regarding not seating delegates from the former consistory of First PRC Edmonton and regarding the approval of the work of the church visitors with respect to First PRC Edmonton. Classis did not sustain the protest.
Having met until about 8:00 PM on Wednesday, Classis decided to reconvene until the following morning to give several committees of pre-advice time to work.
The next day, Thursday, March 3, Classis met at length, not finishing its work until 9:30 PM.
Classis treated in closed session an appeal of the discipline work of a consistory. After lengthy, careful deliberation, Classis did not sustain the appeal.
Classis also treated in closed session another appeal of the discipline work of a different consistory. After lengthy, careful deliberation, Classis did not sustain the appeal.
Classis approved the subsidy requests for 2023 for three churches and forwarded them on to Synod for its approval.
Classis also voted for various classical functionaries. Rev. A. Brummel was reappointed to a three-year term on the Classical Committee. Rev. J. Engelsma was appointed to a three-year term as a primus synodical deputy, Rev. E. Guichelaar was reappointed to a three-year term as a secundus synodical deputy, and Rev. M. De Boer was appointed to a one-year term as a secundus synodical deputy to fill a vacant position. Classis appointed Revs. A. Brummel, R. Hanko, S. Key, and J. Laning as church visitors, with Revs. H. Bleyenberg and J. Engelsma as alternates.
Ministers delegated to Synod 2022 were Revs. R. Barnhill, A. Brummel, J. Engelsma, S. Key, and J. Laning. Alternates are Revs. H. Bleyenberg, E. Guichelaar, M. Kortus, J. Langerak, and S. Regnerus. Elders delegated to Synod 2022 were Keith Bruinsma (Peace), Loren Gritters (Hull), Chester Hunter, Jr. (Edgerton), Peter Smit (Hope), and Phil E. Van Baren (Crete). Alternates are Robert Brands (Loveland), Luke Griess (Loveland), David Poortinga (Loveland), Keith Van Drunen (Crete), and Ryan Van Overloop (Crete).
The expenses of this meeting totaled $18,052.18.
Classis will meet next in Doon PRC on September 28, 2022, the Lord willing.
Rev. Joshua Engelsma
Stated Clerk, Classis West
Classis East
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Classis West
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