Grandma was over 90 years old, and she still lived in her own house. She had a hearty body, a sound mind and a kind heart. She often went to “visit the old people,” as she put it. (I guess she figured those old folks in their seventies and eighties needed a visit from a […]
I hope I am wrong, and I hate to say it, but twenty years of the pro-life movement, representing millions of dollars and millions of hours of work, have had only limited success. It is true that we have some pro-life Supreme Court justices, and we have some fine pro-life organizations and crisis pregnancy centers, […]
It took the big media about a week to find a fanatic who would attempt to justify the murder of two women at a Massachusetts abortion clinic and the firing on a second clinic in Norfolk, VA. But their efforts did not go unrewarded. Donna Bray, the 34-year-old spouse of a convicted clinic bomber and […]
God’s Word defines a number of ways in which we are united as believers. The foundational unity of the people of God is the fact that we are united to Christ. John chapter 15 gives us a beautiful illustration of this unity as it describes the believer as the branches and Jesus Christ as the […]
Dr. De Moor writes, I believe Synod 1995’s decision on women in office fits with our church polity and with our principles. It does so because it’s…a way of finding a middle ground between two Church Order principles that have long been in conflict (“Synod’s Decision Is Soundly Reformed,” The Banner, September 11, p. 12). […]
When I became a minister five years ago I was asked if I would be willing to promote and defend the confessions of faith that we as Christian Reformed Church adopted. I expressed my desire to do so by signing the Form of Subscription in the church to which I was called. Since that time […]
Psalm 150: “Praise the Lord, Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him for the sounding of the trumpet. Praise him with the harp and lyre. Praise him with tambourine and dancing. Praise him with the strings […]
Over the years I’ve written this column, I have tried to sound several constant themes. One is that the Biblical work assigned to an elder is pastoral in nature rather than administrative, as many churches seem to envision. Another is that the deacon is assigned responsibility over a wide diversity of the gifts of God’s […]
The book of Haggai is one that we rarely study and may even have some trouble finding in our Bibles. Yet when we do study it we invariably develop an appreciation for the prophet’s messages and also discover its timeliness. Over the next few months we will look at some of the messages God brought […]
In my introduction to the biblical teaching about the “signs of the times” I suggested, following the lead of Anthony Hoekema, that these signs can be divided into three groups. The first group of signs bespeaks the present working and triumph of God’s grace in Christ. Here we considered the signs of the preaching of […]