In an earlier article on the topic of Christ’s kingship in all of life, I offered a summary of what today is known as “the two-kingdom/natural law” (2KNL) perspective. Proponents of this perspective are leery of the idea that Christ’s work of redemption has direct implications for the way believers fulfill their calling or vocation […]
I was pleased to be asked to give an overview and report of some aspects of the Reformed movement in Latin America. My wife, Aletha, and I, together with our four children, have lived for more than thirty years in Costa Rica. During this time we have been privileged by God’s grace to help plant […]
There are many things we pray about as your parents. The most important and the most urgent is that you would rest in the finished work of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. We pray this daily and won’t stop until God answers. But we also pray for your future as a man, and […]
On January 3, 2010, newscaster Brit Hume made a public appeal to golfer Tiger Woods to “turn to the Christian faith.” In response, columnist Tom Shales spitefully compared Hume with “Mary Poppins on the joys of a tidy room, or Ron Popeil on the glories of some amazing potato peeler.”1 For many people, the idea […]
What does it mean to be a Christian? If you asked this question of an average group of people you would get a number of different answers. “It means going to church. It means believing in God. It means belonging to a religious tradition.” Jesus gives a radically different answer. A Christian is a disciple: […]
Because the Heidelberg Catechism describes the connection of the Holy Spirit with Jesus Christ as being “his [Christ’s] Holy Spirit” (Q&A 1), we would expect there to be an intimate relationship between these two persons of the Godhead in their works in the Catechism. Of course we see this in Jesus’ own words when He […]
Turning, finally, to the book of Zechariah we find the angel of the Lord mentioned in several instances. In Zechariah 1, the prophet had a vision in which an angel explained the meaning of what he had seen. An interesting detail is added, however, for the text says, “and they [riders on the horses] reported […]
In Canada, as well as in the United States, we like to bunch our holidays together. We like to get them as close to Sunday as we can so that we can have a long weekend every month. North of the border we may not even remember what the occasion is for the holiday; we […]
Spring is a great season. It cries out, “Get up and get out!” The tulips lead by example with their undaunted determination to press through the cold earth to embrace the warm sun. Soon enough, we will bravely follow suit by packing up our wintroverted1 ways and dusting off all that takes us outdoors. But […]
“The worship wars.” The very term sends shivers down many a church member’s spine. Although the phrase was probably coined with tongue in cheek, “war” is too often an apt description for the grim struggle many congregations have been facing in the past few decades. At the heart of the confrontation lies a debate over […]