Read Genesis 29:1–30 Introduction Jacob has traveled the great distance from his parents’ lodging in southern Canaan to the region of Paddan-Aram. The LORD came looking for Jacob, and He revealed His covenant promises to Jacob by means of a dream at the place that is renamed Bethel (“house of God”). Jacob hears for himself […]
Read Genesis 28:10–22 Introduction Jacob must flee from his own home because his brother Esau is plotting to kill him. He leaves with only his staff in hand. But he also leaves with something very significant, namely, his father’s blessing and his directives to find a wife among his relatives in Paddan-Aram (Gen. 28:2ff). This […]
In a previous article we traced the staunch historic commitment of Dutch Reformed people to provide authentically Reformed Christian schooling to covenant children and youth. We saw how in North America, God richly blessed both Reformed church and Reformed school through this commitment up to the mid-twentieth century. Let us now survey what has happened […]
“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways” (Psalm 128:1) Back in high-school, I worked part-time at a restaurant. One of my jobs at the end of the night was to take inventory. I was responsible to determine what was left in the freezer. I would check off a stock list […]
Under the banner of religious pluralism, many seem to downplay all real differences among religions. They claim disputes among the different “ways” of salvation are pointless. Christ may be called the one way to the Father, but He is not the only one. Many believe Christians and Muslims worship the same deity. A traditional Japanese […]
Worship is the response of man to the initiative of God in grace. We see this in the life of Abraham. The Lord sovereignly bestowed a word of grace, a promise of the heavenly country through the shadow and type of the land of Palestine (Hebrews 11:16). “To your descendants I will give this land,” […]
In his monumental book, Netherlanders in America, Henry S. Lucas states that almost every Netherlander who came to America during the 1840s and 1850s carried with him some work by one of the following “old writers:” Smytegelt, Brakel, Hellenbroek, or Comrie. During a recent trip to the Netherlands, I noticed that there is still considerable […]
In our introduction to the New Testament evidence that might have a bearing upon the question whether children of believing parents should be admitted to the Lord’s Table, we observed that this question is not directly addressed in any passage. Whatever conclusions we draw from the New Testament regarding paedocommunion, they will have to be […]
Hope for the Southern World: Impacting Societal Problems in the Non-Western World by Timothy M. Monsma, PhD. Published by CCW Books, Loveland CO. Reviewed by Thomas C. Vanden Heuvel. Dr. Timothy Monsma makes a very helpful contribution to the vexing problems in the Southern World of Africa,Asia, and LatinAmerica. The five common threads that are […]
Bangalore, the city where I spent most of my time on a summer mission project, is in the south-central part of India. It resides on a plateau, which makes the weather perfect — it is in the 70s-80s the whole summer! Ban-galore is one of the five largest cities in India, with a population pushing […]