“I am already being poured out like a drink offering. The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will award me on that […]
There is something special about the sixth day of creation. In it God made livestock and wild animals. But He also did more. On this day, God created an image of Himself mankind. Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation. From here on in, throughout the Bible we read about this particular creation. We do […]
The one who hung the earth in space, is himself hanged; The one who fixed the heavens in place, is himself impaled; The one who firmly fixed all things, is himself firmly Fixed to the tree. —Melito, Paschal Homily (96) It was first discovered in the 1930’s (Michigan-Beatty […]
In the introduction to his best-seller The Book of Virtue: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories William Bennett writes that “children must have at their disposal a stock of examples illustrating what we see to be right and wrong, good and bad.”1 By means of such stories, along with explicit exhortation and precept, we will […]
Press Release of the meeting of the combined committees of the Canadian Reformed and United Reformed Churches to propose a common church order held February 13–14, 2003 at the Trinity United Reformed Church of Caledonia, Michigan. Present were: Dr. Nelson Kloosterman, Rev. William Pols, Rev. Ronald Scheuers, Rev. Raymond Sikkema and Mr. Harry Van Gurp, […]
I wrote earlier about the bad, unreformed practice of having “children’s church.” It is a practice that began quite some years ago in the Christian Reformed Church and seems to be growing in popularity. One wonders how such an unreformed practice can make such inroads into the church. After all, it flies in the face […]
It is appropriate that we begin our evaluation of the new perspective by raising several questions regarding its historical reassessment of Second Temple Judaism. All of the primary writers who advocate a new approach to our understanding of the apostle Paul’s gospel, do so from the conviction that E. P. Sanders’ study of Judaism requires […]
The purpose for Mutual Censure, according to Church Order Article 63 of the URCNA is that the office bearers “exhort one another in an edifying manner regarding the discharge of their offices.” Mutual Censure, then, should be used by Council members to affirm one another in their respective offices. In a positive way, it can […]
The church bells ring: O Worship the Lord! Come join the celebration For the Sabbath has come; Christ has won. The day of resurrection. The church bells ring, “O, worship the Lord” They ring with cheerful chime They sing their invitation It’s time for church! It’s time!” The church bells ring “O worship […]
January 1972 “…one day, probably bursting with self-confidence, I [told] my mother: “I want to be a minister.” And would you believe it, she came right back and said: “I wouldn’t dare be a minister.” “Why not?” I wanted to know. “Because,” she told me with far greater sense than I gave her credit for […]