I am writing this article on what is for our family a very significant day of transition. Some months ago, after I had accepted a call to become the minister of the Seventh Reformed Church, my wife and I carne to Grand Rapids to begin a new phase in our We together. Our first several […]
Setting down certain principles for evaluating the words of songs suitable for Reformed worship is a tricky business. On the one hand, these principles can be stated so generally that they are not at all helpful in evaluating any particular song. On the other hand, we can become so rigorous in our principles, setting law upon law, […]
Key Verse: “…as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” I Peter 1:15–16 Holy—if any single word captures the uniqueness of God and His people, it is this word holy. Holiness, our theology textbooks teach us, denotes separation […]
Key Verse: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;…” I Peter 2:9 A mosaic of metaphors Christ’s church, we have been learning, is a pilgrim people, born unto […]
On the first afternoon of CRC Synod 1993, the delegates were involved in an exercise which has the potential of effecting the process of thought and decision making in the church for generations to come. The exercise involved a piece of modern art which consisted of rusty pipes on a stand. The delegates sat all around it […]
One of the greatly neglected means of grace in the contemporary church is fasting. Yet God teaches us to fast. In I Samuel 7:6, the people fasted in collection with repentance of sin; in II Chronicles 20:3, Jehoshaphat called a fast to seek the Lord’s favor and deliverance. BIBLICAL BASIS But fasting is not merely […]
In this article I wish to introduce a new series of doctrinal studies devoted to the theme, “The Bible and the Future.” Though I am unable to predict how many articles this series will require, the following article is intended to serve as a kind of broad introduction to the subject of the future, approached from […]
Last month I wrote describing my recent (Feb. 93) trip to Beius, Romania. There I worked with a medical mission team for two weeks caring for bodies and preaching to hearts of people who had been denied the gospel during the 45 years of the Ceausescu regime. I observed with delight the wisdom of God […]
This past summer I had my first opportunity to visit Scotland. It was a marvelous trip. Scotland is a country of great beauty and great contrasts—the lochs (lakes), the bens (mountains), the moors, the glens (narrow valleys), the towns and cities. The greatest fascination for me was to be able to see many of the […]
• John E. Kim leads 15 churches, CRC’s Second-Largest Church to secession • First General Synod of Korean Reformed Presbyterian Church in America to meet in October; expected to have at least 9 classes, 55 congregations GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (August 9,1993) – Long-simmering Korean dissent against trends in the Christian Reformed denomination finally boiled over at […]