If you ever feel downhearted read Luke 10:1–24. Jesus sends out the seventy missionaries during His ministry and empowers them with a mandate. Frequently we call John the Baptist the usher for the Lord Jesus Christ, but these men were ushers too. We read that our Lord “sent them ahead of Him to every town […]
“After preaching the Word of God for many years,” says Rev. Fred Van Houten, pastor of the Christian Reformed Church in Sully, Iowa, in this article, “it is now more than ever my chief delight. Studying the Scriptures in the deepest way I can is an exciting exercise. There would not be that excitement and […]
Within recent memory the ecclesiastical drums were being beaten for “youth services.” If you wanted to be “right on,” “in the spirit of our times,” that was the “in” thing to do! Now not near so loudly but quite perceptively another trend is developing among us, namely, the introduction of “Children’s Church Services.” Oh yes, we […]
Is this what ministers do? There could be varied answers to that question. In recent years preaching has been criticized rather severely. In recent years? Was this not always the case? Were not our fathers and grandfathers critical of sermons in their day? So what is new about that? When the prior generation spoke negatively […]
Does the minister have temptations? Surely not! He ought to rise above such things! Although sent from God, he is still a man. INDOLENCE There is first of all the matter of indolence. Impossible, you say. Of all professions, the ministry cannot have any lazy ones in it. There is always so much to do. […]
To preach, or not to preach? – today there are those who would have us believe that this is for us to choose. Be sure to read this ringing article by Rev. Fred Van Houten, pastor of the Ninth Street Christian Reformed Church of Holland, Mich., in which he seeks to set the matter straight. […]
One of the current synodical study committees of the Christian Reformed Church has a mandate “to provide the church’s membership with guidelines for making ethical decisions about war. The committee shall, inter alia, (a) take account of previous synodical decisions, especially the Report on the Problem of War (Acts of Synod 1964, pp, 312–316) and […]
The Consistory of the Christian Reformed Church of Ann Arbor, Michigan is overturing Synod 1973 to “urge the President of the United States and Congress to grant, at the earliest opportunity, amnesty for those who by reason of their Christian conscientious objection to the Second Indochina War are in exile, at large, incarcerated, or deprived […]
IS WRATH REMOVED? FRED W. VAN HOUTEN “D0 you ever think about going to hell?” “No, I can’t say that I ever do.” That was a question asked at family visitation one year, and invariably that was the answer. If one really knows Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord he does not have to worry […]