May 2013
2 posts
7 tags
The Five Points of Calvinism (3): Limited...
The first two articles in this series on the Canons of Dort (CoD, popularly known as the Five Points of Calvinism) focused on the historical context, and the first head of doctrine (unconditional election), respectively.
The theological conflict in the Netherlands in the early 17th century produced a statement of faith relating to five disputed doctrines which remains extremely useful to this...
Praying for Media
I’ve been asked to offer a prayer this evening for media. I’ve also attached (below) two prayers from previous “National Day of Prayer” services.
Prayer for Media
Creator God, we thank you that you are a communicator. You have chosen to reveal your will to us in nature as your invisible attributes are clearly seen in what you have made. You have revealed yourself more...
April 2013
4 posts
The Five Points of Calvinism (2): Unconditional...
The first article in this series on the Canons of Dort (popularly known as The Five Points of Calvinism) was a historical introduction focusing on the religious and civil upheaval in the Netherlands around the turn of the 17th century due to sharp theological disagreement.
Since the mid 1500s the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands had pledged their commitment to Scripture as summarized in The...
FREE STUDY GUIDE ON "JONAH" →
My kindle book on Jonah is FREE until TOMORROW EVENING. Joel Beeke kindly wrote, this “…little book on Jonah is everything that an introductory Bible Study guide should be: exegetically faithful, doctrinally sound, practically helpful, experientially warm, and colorfully written.”
March 2013
3 posts
February 2013
1 post
5 tags
Biblical Personal Finance: Earning and Spending...
Imagine what the people of God could do if their financial houses were in order. That paraphrase of a question often asked by a popular financial advisor is meant to be an exercise in hopeful anticipation of what actually could happen.
If the question doesn’t sound very “spiritual” we might have an unbiblical notion of spirituality. More than 2,000 Scripture verses deal with money and...
December 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Is God Far Off?
I’ve never done this before, and may never do it again. But here is a draft of the sermon I hope to preach tomorrow (12,16,12). I hope, with God’s help, that the sermon changes for the better when I preach it. (If nothing else, I won’t be preaching the typos and grammatical mistakes!) But wounds heal best when addressed...
3 tags
Assessing Advent (3): Two (more) Reasons Christ...
As the Psalmist says, all of creation declares the glory of God (Psa. 19:1). But nothing glorifies God like the incarnation of his Son. As Charles Spurgeon said, “Sing, sing, O universe, till thou hast exhausted thyself, yet thou canst not chant an anthem so sweet as the song of the incarnation!” If God is glorified by the “song of the incarnation” then we should sing it with gusto. One of the...
November 2012
1 post
4 tags
October 2012
5 posts
5 tags
The First Thanksgiving: An Historical Introduction
For many Americans, everything we know about the First Thanksgiving we learned in elementary school. Maybe that’s why we have no problem picturing the Pilgrim Fathers wearing black construction-paper steeple hats surrounded by large families in warm homes eating restaurant-grade food (including cylindrical, jellied cranberry sauce). A more informed view of the First Thanksgiving might deepen our...
5 tags
7 tags
4 tags
S’ÉPANOUIR SOUS LA DISCIPLINE DE DIEU (Thriving...
This article first appeared in The Outlook and was translated by a friend in the Église Réformée du Québec (ERQ).
S’ÉPANOUIR SOUS LA DISCIPLINE DE DIEU:
Échanger la souffrance temporaire contre la joie éternelle
Nous savons tous que nos vies sont parfois pénibles. Nous luttons contre des sentiments d’infériorité ou contre nos faiblesses. Nous vivons des frustrations dues à la douleur physique ou...
6 tags
September 2012
1 post
9 tags
The Canons of Dort: An Historical Introduction
In recent years Calvinism has acquired a new level of energy and interest. In 2009 Time magazine called Calvinism one of the top ten ideas changing the world.[i] But what is Calvinism?
Broadly speaking Calvinism (named after the 16th century Genevan reformer John Calvin) is a biblical world-and-life view that speaks to the head, heart, and hands with implications for church, family, vocation,...
August 2012
2 posts
5 tags
The Church’s Missionary Task: Obeying God’s Call...
Have you ever sung the following words? “Lord of harvest, send forth reapers; hear us, Lord, to Thee we cry; send them now the sheaves to gather, ere the harvest time pass by.” It’s a good song of prayer based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:38. Still, the song is a bit awkward because it’s about us; we are the reapers for whom we are praying.
When Jesus exhorts his disciples to “pray the Lord of the...
4 tags
July 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Join or Die?: Addressing the Question of Church...
In 1754 Benjamin Franklin published a cartoon called “Join or Die.” It pictured a snake cut into eights representing the British colonies in the New World. Franklin argued that unless the colonies formed one body they would never be able to resist the powerful threat of the French and their Indian allies.Considering the fierce enemies assaulting believers in every age (1 Pet. 5:8; John 15:19; Gal....
June 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Making a Marriage: God’s Blueprint for Marital...
To say that Christian marriage is under attack today is a great understatement. The statistics are telling. Fewer people are pursuing marriage and those who do are waiting longer to get married. In 1960 fifty-nine percent of eighteen to twenty-nine year-olds were married compared to just twenty percent in 2010. In 1960, the median age for entering marriage was in the early twenties; today it’s...
5 tags
Guido de Bres on Religious Liberty
Under the cover of darkness, almost exactly 450 years ago a young minister named Guido de Bres quietly crept up to the castle gate of Doornik, Belgium. Over this gate he threw a letter pleading for religious toleration along with a summary of the Christian faith. Within that castle slept King Philip II, leader of the Holy Roman Empire who for 40 years had been leading a brutal and bloody...
May 2012
5 posts
4 tags
The Office of Christian Man: Applying Christ's...
If modern television sitcoms were the litmus test for masculinity, our expectations of men would be minimal. It’s no secret that for most of the last half century television has depicted fathers as incompetent buffoons often only featured to keep the laugh-track greased. Besides bringing home a paycheck (sometimes), TV dads mainly try to stay out of the way of their much better half. The negative...
1 tag
3 tags
Answering the Challenges of Home Missions
This article is adapted from an address delivered at Classis Michigan’s 2012 Missions Rally. Rev. Boekestein was asked to speak to the challenges the URCNA faces in the area of home missions.
After the United States declared independence they agreed to submit to the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union to help them in their mission to develop into a strong nation and eventually spread...
3 tags
Behold Your Mother!: The Legacy of Jesus’ Love for...
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a perfect child? Can you imagine a child who never threw selfish tantrums or scowled at the meal you set before him? Can you conceive of a kid who never left his room trashed after he was told to pick it up or who never spent his allowance irresponsibly and then whined for more money?
Here’s a reality check: If you did have a perfect child, life...
4 tags
A Prayer for Area Churches
The Carbondale (PA) Area Ministerium has asked me to pray for the churches in our area tonight. Here is what I hope to pray:
Great God in Heaven and Lord of the church, we thank you so much for your promise to build a church against which the gates of hell can not prevail. We thank you that in the church we can experience the restoration of community which we lost in the fall of Adam. It is with...
April 2012
2 posts
4 tags
4 tags
"The Gospel Under the Northern Lights" (Review)
Imagine that you’ve been called to minister to a largely isolated community composed of an unfamiliar people group totaling less than 100 souls. The natural beauty of the place will be stunning. The opportunities for adventure will be nearly limitless. The locals will be hospitable. But you’ll have no regular phone service or reliable electricity. Snow will never be more than a few months away....
March 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Christ Our High P-R-I-E-S-T: Remembering Christ’s...
In 1941 Winston Churchill stood before an eager audience at an all-boys school in war-torn England and spoke these famous words, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in.”[i] Churchill’s words echo the thrust of the message of the writer to the Hebrews. But where Churchill rested his comments on the “honor and good sense”...
4 tags
The Congregational Meeting
As our congregation is evaluating the nature of congregational meetings (with relation to women voting) we have found Martin Monsma’s “The Congregational Meeting” to be a helpful resource. Since it is no longer in print and hard to find, here is a PDF version.
February 2012
3 posts
3 tags
Christian Community: Contentment without...
Christian reflection on community is often an exercise in romanticism. By viewing the early Christian community of Acts 2 through rose-colored glasses we imagine a homogenous cloister of haloed saints meeting all of each other’s expectations, living as one big happy family. By projecting this abstract ideal on our own church context we are almost guaranteed to foster a spirit of disappointment...
5 tags
5 tags
January 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Choice Words: A Matter of Life and Death
Having been out of grade school for a few years I’m not sure if the old saying is still ordinary playground parlance: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” If it is it’s still a lie.
The Bible is more honest. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of that Proverb reads, “Words kill, words give life; they’re...
1 tag
Free Stuff Fridays Feature
Thanks to Tim Challies for featuring my children’s books on two of the Three Forms of Unity on Challies.com (click link to be directed to the entry form)
Free Stuff Fridays
Tim Challies
01/20/12
0
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is a little bit different, and I like it that way. It is sponsored by Reformation Heritage Books and William Boekestein who has authored Faithfulness Under...
December 2011
4 posts
3 tags
Scoping Out Apollos: Nine Marks of a Healthy...
Most great pirate stories have one thing in common. At some point someone slides out their spyglass and focuses in on an unsuspecting person. His every movement can be seen in the black-bordered circular frame.
Figuratively speaking, the scriptures are a spyglass for the Christian. Paul even says, “Bro-thers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you...
The Fullness of Time: Understanding the Context of...
For my family, living in a community with a coal-mining heritage has been a new experience. Since we didn’t grow up hearing the stories about the days when “coal was king” we have found that taking coal mine tours and reading books on the industry has helped us appreciate the impact coal has had on our community.
Since is impossible to extract any particular point in time from its broader...
Evan Hughes Art: Web of Grace →
evanhughesart:
Last week I did a piece for World Magazine. It was for an article on how the internet is contributing to the rapidly growing underground church in China. The Art Director, Rob Patete said he wanted something resembling the old propaganda posters with the happy Chinese holding Mao’s Little Red Book…
4 tags
Assessing Advent (2): Four (More) Reasons Why...
We’ve all seen the bumper stickers: “Keep Christ in Christmas.” Most of us would instinctively agree with that idea. Still, the slogan is a bit vague. If we didn’t mind using the whole bumper we might better to say it this way: “How can we celebrate Christ’s first advent in a way that honors him better?” One sure way to answer this question is to gain a better understanding of why he came.
It is...
November 2011
4 posts
Download a free audio version of: “The Quest for...
Quest for Comfort Process
evanhughesart:
Several weeks ago I posted about my new children’s book The Quest for Comfort. Here are a few sample images showing the process of creating this book.
These are the initial rough drawings that were approved.
Here are the pencils of those same pages before I started inking.
Here are the inks after I scanned them into the computer.
From there I...
3 tags
One of My Favorite William Bradford Quotes
In weighing the dangers of leaving Holland for the New World William Bradford (1590-1657) says the following. If we could all face dangers with this kind of resolve!
It was answered, that all great and honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate; the...
3 tags
Financial Difficulty (Tract)
Those of you who use tracts for outreach purposes are welcome to use this tract which we occasionally give away at our biannual “Open Closet” clothing drive.
The gist of it is that God’s goodness, how ever much or little of it we receive (or at least perceive) is a means towards our repentance (Rom. 2:4).
Here is a PDF of the tract which can be printed on a standard sheet of...
October 2011
9 posts
6 tags
Blessing the Lord on a Full Stomach
Sometimes ordinary words can be transformed and infused with new meaning by epochal events in history. Take, for example, two words which have become ubiquitous on bumper stickers, shirts, hats and other memorabilia over the last ten years.
“Never Forget.”
These words immed-iately evoke memories of the September 11 terror attacks. They serve as a rallying cry to keep fresh not only the memory of...
Announcing the 2nd Annual CRTS Conference
Rejoicing in Growth: Church Planting & Evangelism The Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary is hosting its 2nd annual conference on January 13 & 14, 2012. On Friday, four speeches will introduce Reformed approaches to and discussions concerning church planting and evangelism in our 21st century urban landscape. Saturday morning will feature four seminars highlighting some practical...
3 tags
Cure for the Boring Sermon
I’m not ashamed to admit that I am voluntarily (that is, without the urging of my elders) attending a conference entitled, “Cure for the Boring Sermon” (although they were quite eager to allow me to attend! I’m going to try to avoid reading too much into this.) Kevin DeYoung has offered thoughts on six points that are meant to help preachers like myself avoid the egregious incongruity of...
