How Libya’s Martyrs Are Witnessing to Egypt | Christianity Today

How Libya’s Martyrs Are Witnessing to Egypt | Christianity Today.

This “CT” story of how Egypt’s Christians are responding to the intense persecution they are suffering at the hands of Muslim terrorists (ISIS) is as heart-warming as the recent slaughter of 21 Libyan Christians is heart-chilling.

As you read the report of this response, may we be led to pray for the body of Christ in that part of the world, and for many others suffering for the name of Christ throughout the Middle East and, indeed, throughout the world.

Here is the first part of the story; read the rest at the “CT” link above.

Undaunted by the slaughter of 21 Christians in Libya, the director of the Bible Society of Egypt saw a golden gospel opportunity.

“We must have a Scripture tract ready to distribute to the nation as soon as possible,” Ramez Atallah told his staff the evening an ISIS-linked group released its gruesome propaganda video. Less than 36 hours later, Two Rows by the Sea was sent to the printer.

One week later, 1.65 million copies have been distributed in the Bible Society’s largest campaign ever. It eclipses even the 1 million tracts distributed after the 2012 death of Shenouda, the Coptic “Pope of the Bible.” [A full English translation is posted at bottom.]

Image: Bible Society of Egypt

Arabic tract (outside)

The tract contains biblical quotations about the promise of blessing amid suffering, alongside a poignant poem in colloquial Arabic:

Who fears the other?
The row in orange, watching paradise open?
Or the row in black, with minds evil and broken?

“The design is meant so that it can be given to any Egyptian without causing offense,” said Atallah. “To comfort the mourning and challenge people to commit to Christ.”

NASA | Solar Dynamics Observatory: Year 5

▶ NASA | SDO: Year 5 – YouTube.

This is an amazing video of images (200 million!) capturing the constant activity of our sun, taken from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched five years ago. Below is part of NASA’s introduction and then the video itself.

“…In them hath he [God] set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” (Psalm 19:4b-6)

February 11, 2015 marks five years in space for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which provides incredibly detailed images of the whole sun 24 hours a day. Capturing an image more than once per second, SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010. The imagery is also captivating, allowing one to watch the constant ballet of solar material through the sun’s atmosphere, the corona.

In honor of SDO’s fifth anniversary, NASA has released a video showcasing highlights from the last five years of sun watching. Watch the movie to see giant clouds of solar material hurled out into space, the dance of giant loops hovering in the corona, and huge sunspots growing and shrinking on the sun’s surface.

Rev.H.Hoeksema’s 30th Birthday Noted in “The Banner”

Today I stumbled on a great archive item while browsing through a bound volume of 1916 “Banners” (The Banner was then and still is today the official publication of the Christian Reformed Church) found in Prof. (emeritus) D.Engelsma’s library, which I have started to process.

Knowing that Rev.Herman Hoeksema (one of the founders of the PRC in 1925) was a newly-ordained CRC minister in 1916 (he was ordained on Sept.16, 1915 in the 14th St. CRC in Holland, MI), I looked at some early issues of this collection of 1916 Banners.

It wasn’t long before I discovered two references in the “Church News” section of the March 23, 1916 issue (The Banner was a weekly magazine at the time, published every Thursday!) to his Holland congregation celebrating his thirtieth (30th) birthday.

 

I scanned the front cover of this issue, so that you can see what The Banner looked like in those days (not the best scan due to the size but still readable). And then I also scanned the page of “Church News” (under “Holland Notes”) where the two references to the 14 St. CRC marking Hoeksema’s birthday may be found (click on the images to enlarge).

I think you will rather enjoy these little historical notices. I also type them out there for ease of reading.

Middle column notice:

Surprises will play an important part among the news items this week.

The first one was by the Ladies’ Aid Society of the 14th St. church on their pastor, Rev.H.Hoeksema. It being the thirtieth anniversary of his birth last week Monday, the ladies came en masse and brought, as a token of esteem, thirty silver dollars. The presentation speech was made by Mrs.M. Van Putten and a very enjoyable time spent.

Third column notice:

March 13, was Rev.H.Hoeksema’s birthday, the 30th. In the evening the Ladies’ Aid surprised him and presented him with as many dollars as he had seen summers. Tuesday evening, March 14th, a catechism class brought a fine rocker to the parsonage and spent the evening with the domine’ and his wife. Such an expression of appreciation will do the heart of the pastor good and urge him on to greater effort in the work of the Lord.

Early CRC Life in Orange City, IA – John J. Timmerman

In his “semi-autobiographical story” titled Through a Glass Lightly (Eerdmans, 1987), John J.Timmerman, long-time professor in the English Department at Calvin College (my alma mater), reflects on his early years in Orange City, IA, where he grew up as an adopted son of a CRC minister (Jan Timmerman).

I found his thoughts on his family and church life in NW Iowa in the early twentieth century to be a fascinating look at the nature of Reformed church life in our “mother church”, so on this archive/history day this is part of our history lesson.

Orange City, Iowa, in 1909 was a little town almost lost in the endless prairies. Most of the members of my father’s church were survivers, sturdy people of great faith and superior intelligence who had refused to be conquered by successive waves of crop-devouring grasshoppers.

…The city, as it called itself, was to a large extent a Dutch town. Dutch was spoken in the stores, on the porches, in sermons and catechism classes; even the horses understood some of it. The city paper, ‘Volksvriend’, was a Dutch paper. It was a very civilized city: I don’t remember if it even had a jail; and I never saw a drunk. The congregation was, as my father often said, well above average in intelligence and reading habits, and some of them read Kuyper and Bavinck instead of merely displaying their works. Religion was at the core.

As a little boy, I has no awareness that our church was a citadel of conservative and exclusivistic religion. From the perspective of a boy, we were, as a church and individuals, in the infallible hands of the Lord, God’s eye was upon us, especially during the three Sunday services, devotions at every meal, and evening prayers – but everywhere else also. I remember my mother saying, when some children were missing in a storm, ‘De Heere Jesus zal de kinderen wel bewaren’ (‘the Lord Jesus will surely care for the children’). Life in those days was often harsh: childhood diseases were less curable; pitiful accidents occurred on the farms; great storms ravaged the land; hail wiped out crops. Tornadoes were eerie and devastating. However, nothing – nothing at all – was outside the pattern of the Lord. Religion was a comfort in life and death, and the grave a resting place before glory (7-8).

The Thanatologist – J.Eppinga

For our “Word Wednesday” selection this week we turn to a chapter (originally an article The Banner) in the second collection of Rev.Jacob Eppinga’s writings for the Banner rubric “Of Cabbages and Kings”, found in the book More Cabbages and Kings.

At the end of the day I have been reading through these clever and interesting little glimpses of church and ministry life, and came on chapter 20 titled “The Thanatologist” last night. That word comes from two Greek words meaning “death” (thanatos) and “study of” (logos), so you can guess what a “thanatologist” does. That’s right, he studies death and dying.

In this piece Eppinga, a former CRC minister, reflects on his years of ministering to the dying and conducting funerals. As always, he has some fine thoughts, including these closing ones:

Another impression that has come home to me repeatedly is the completely unmasked backruptcy of unbelief in the presence of a lifeless human form. In the last few years, a rash of articles have appeared in various publications and journals dealing with the phenomenon of death. An ancient king decreed that the subject was never to be mentioned in his presence.

Today sees an opposite impulse. Modern intelligence is minded to concentrate its full light on the valley of the shadow. Studies entitled ‘on Death and Dying,’ ‘The Power to Die,’ and others, set forth by experts who call themselves thanatologists do have some insights.

In sum, however, their words and thoughts are as empty as tombs and cemeteries on resurrection day. Arnold Toynbee, a giant in the field of history, having authored the renowned twelve-volume Study of History, and whole library shelf of other books, is pure drivel on the subject of man’s last breath. It makes me weep.

My thanatologist is Saint Paul! I can practically quote his I Corinthians 15 from memory. If he is wrong, then, as he says, ‘we are of all men most miserable.’

But he is right. Praise the Lord (p.112)!

Errors of Adding to God’s Word – Rev.J.Laning

The latest issue of The Standard Bearer is out (February 15, 2015), and in this issue one of the articles to be read for good instruction is the second installment of “Foundational Principles” written by Rev.James Laning (Hull, IA PRC) under the rubric “God’s Wonderful Works.”

In this article titled “Forbidden to Add to God’s Word”,  Rev.Laning addresses seven errors involving adding to God’s Word in Scripture. As he shows, some of these errors are old and some are new, but they all have this in common that they claim to be equal words from God that have authority for the believer. In fact, however, they undermine and contradict the sole authority of holy Scripture.

Here are two popular ones that Rev.Laning lists:

3. Claiming to receive new revelations from God today

Many in our own day claim that God has spoken to them just as He did to the prophets in the days in which the Scriptures were written. Such individuals are false prophets, since the Bible was completed in the days in which the apostles lived. All that we need to know about the great salvation we have in Christ is found in the Scriptures as we have them today:

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3)

The great salvation was proclaimed by Christ and then confirmed unto us by them that heard him. The Old Testament had been completed before Christ came, and the New Testament had been completed when Christ and “them that heard him” were no longer on earth. It is also worthy of note that the warning in the book of Revelation about adding to or subtracting from the Scriptures is found at the very end of the Bible.

4. Claiming that there have been infallible statements since the Scriptures were finished

The Roman Catholic Church has claimed for many years that there are times in which the pope is guided by God to speak infallibly. According to the Romish church, the pope speaks infallibly:

When, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.2

They claim that an example of such an infallible utterance took place in 1950, when Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary as an article of faith. Any infallibly inspired utterance would have the same authority as Scripture itself. To claim that infallibly inspired statements have been made after the time that Scripture was finished is to be guilty of adding to God’s word.

But Laning ends on this positive note for the believer with his Bible:

One of the passages that warn against adding to God’s word says that the word of God is pure, and that those who receive God’s word as it is will experience God to be their shield.

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6)

Here we have not only another warning about adding to God’s word, but also a comforting statement about the protection experienced by all who receive what God says. Every addition to God’s word will be found to be false. But every word that God has spoken is pure. The true believer comes to know this quite well. He has experienced in his own life that our Lord always does what He says He will do. Every one of His promises are certainly fulfilled. A shield He is for those who walk in His ways, fully protected from every foe. It is those who trust in the Lord, believing all that He says without additions or subtractions, that walk without fear, perfectly shielded by their God and Father.

For more information on subscribing to this Reformed magazine, visit the “SB” website.

Efficiency Vs. Effectiveness – “What’s Best Next” – M.Perman

Since we are on a work-related theme today, we will continue our look at Matt Perman’s new book on “gospel-driven productivity” in the workplace, What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done (Zondervan, 2014).

I am two chapters into Perman’s first section (“First Things First”), and after describing the unique challenges that face us in the modern workplace – a “knowledge economy” (where defining the work is as big a challenge as getting it done) vs. an “industrial economy” (still around but not as dominant), – he returns to the idea that learning to do things better (more productively) does not equal doing our work more efficiently, i.e., faster, with less time or at less cost. In fact, efficiency in the workplace often costs more in the long haul, Perman argues, along with other business experts.

For today, I leave you with a few of his thoughts on this argument that effectiveness, not efficiency, is the key to proper productivity in our daily callings.

While efficiency is important, it works only when we make it secondary, not primary. It doesn’t matter how efficient you are if you are doing the wrong things in the first place. More important that efficiency is effectiveness – getting the right things done. In other words, productivity is not first about getting more things things done faster. It’s about getting the right things done.

…The far greater priority than becoming more efficient is learning how to identify what’s most important – that is, what’s best – and then translate that into action. The mistake of superficial efficiency is that it sacrifices people on the altar of tasks. That’s backward. As we will see later, efficiency exists so that you can serve others better, not sacrifice them to efficiency.

One of the best places for efficiency is being efficient with things so that you can be effective with people. If you become more efficient with things (for example, by setting up your computer, desk, workflow system, and files to operate in the most efficient way possible), you will have more time to give to being effective with people without feeling like you are always behind on your tasks (43, 48-49).

 

Important Questions Relating to Our Daily Work – Edward Welch

The Rhythm of Life by Edward Welch | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

It’s Monday morning. The start of another work-week. Six (or at least five) days of busy labor. Are you ready for it? Are you eager to start your work, whatever it is? Do you find satisfaction in your earthly labors? Do you experience God’s blessing in your day-to-day efforts?

Or are you dreading the work-week because you hate your job? Has the work-place become a place of seeming futility and wasted effort? Is there constant drudgery and misery in heading off to labor? Do you find your co-workers hard to get along with and yourself often irritable and a poor Christian witness at work?

Let’s face it, reality is, this latter set of questions is often more our experience than the first set of questions. And that needs addressing, spiritually and biblically.

Whatever your experience at present is, the article by Christian counselor Dr. Ed Welch linked above is a must read for you. Today! In this last of the feature articles in this month’s Tabletalk, Welch speaks to the tough issues that face us because of sin (including our own!) in the workplace.

Raising five (5) pointed questions himself – dealing with prayer, complaining, spiritual growth, depression, and relationships, – Welch guides us Christian workers into a proper, biblical mindset when it comes to our attitude toward and effort in our daily work.

Even though I love my work and am thankful to God for it everyday, there are aspects to it that I sometimes do not enjoy, and times when I too experience drudgery and futility. I found Welch’s questions and answers highly valuable in setting my own heart and mind straight. I hope it will yours too.

Here’s his first section dealing with prayer (“Do I talk about this to the Lord?”) – a great place to start this Monday morning. To read the rest, visit this link.

Do I Talk About This To The Lord?

This is a simple yet loaded question. It is so simple that we could be tempted to check it off: “Yes, I prayed about this.” It’s best to slow down, however.

How have I prayed? What have I prayed?

Our natural tendency should haunt us. “They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds” (Hos. 7:14). Prayer is not natural to us, even in the midst of misery. Crying and complaining are natural; prayer is not. And if we pray, we can be brief and perfunctory: “Please give me a job.” “Please give me a better job.” Almost any request is better than silence, but we aim to speak openly from our hearts to the Lord.

The King has called us friends, and friends share their hearts with each other. We could start like this: “Lord, sometimes I hate to go to work. Sometimes I feel like it makes me crazy.” Or, “Father, you know I want to have a job, but every lead seems to fall flat.” As we follow the pattern of prayer in the Psalms, this openness then considers the ways God has been faithful, and we end with declarations of faith and thanks.

Prayerlessness intensifies our isolation and adds to our burdens; prayer shares and lightens our burdens.

The Prayers of J.Calvin (12)

We continue on this Sunday night our posts on the prayers of John Calvin (see my previous Sunday posts in Nov./Dec., 2014 and now in Jan./Feb.2015), which follow his lectures on the OT prophecy of Jeremiah. Tonight we post a brief section from his eleventh lecture and the prayer that concludes it.

This lecture covers Jeremiah 3:4-11, which includes this commentary on God’s tender word to His adulterous bride in v.4, “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?”:

…God mitigates the severity of the reproof which we have observed [see last Sunday’s post], and shews that he would be ready to be reconciled to them, if they repented: nay, he waits not for their repentance, but of his own accord meets and allures these perfidious apostates: ‘What’, says God, ‘shall there be no more any union between us?’ For God expresses here the feeling of one grieving and lamenting, when he saw the people perishing; and he seems anxious, if possible, to restore them.

It is with this design that he asks, ‘Will they not again call on me as their Father and the guide of their youth?’ And by this periphrastic way of speaking, he intimates that he was the husband of that people; for most tender is that love which a youth has for a young virgin in the flower of her age. God, then, makes use now of this comparison, and says, that he still remembered the love which he had manifested towards his people. In short, he shews here that pardon was ready, if the people sought reconciliation (160-61).

And this follows this prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou hast deigned to adopt us as thy people, and to unite us to thyself in thine only-begotten Son, – O grant, that we may continue pure and chaste in our obedience to thy Gospel, and never turn aside to those corruptions which disunite that sacred bond of union, which has been confirmed between us by the blood of thy Son, but that we may so persevere in serving thee, that our whole life and all our actions may be evidences of that holy calling, by which is laid up for us the hope of eternal salvation, until we shall at length come into the possession of that kingdom which has been obtained for us by so great a price, and there enjoy the fruit of our faith, sincerity, and perseverance, through Christ our Lord.. – Amen (171-72)

Reading God’s Providence Backwards – S.Ferguson

In the thirty-sixth chapter of his book In Christ Alone, Sinclair Ferguson has a wonderful piece on the providence of God.

His starting point is the sight of and conversation with an old Christian friend, for whom God’s providence had led in ways of affliction and pain after an auto accident, and his own struggle (that is, Ferguson’s) to understand God’s ways with this godly man who had had such an influence on him in his youth.

It is at this point that Ferguson introduces what he calls “Flavel’s Law”, named after the Puritan who wrote a significant book on the providence of God. He pulls a quote from Flavel that goes like this: “The providence of God is like Hebrew words – it can only be read backwards.”

I plan to pull a few quotations from this chapter so that we may all benefit from Ferguson’s thoughts on this “law” concerning God’s providence. I believe that Ferguson’s thoughts will resonate with all of us as believers.

This is from the opening part of the chapter:

Of this [his friend’s sufferings] and other experiences in life, I have sometimes thought, ‘It just does not seem to make sense.’

At such times, Flavel’s words have often comforted me and helped me to readjust my myopic spiritual perspective. They have reminded me to fix my mind and heart on God’s wise, gracious, and sovereign rule, and on the assurance that He works everything together for His children’s good, so that I do not inquire too proudly into why I cannot understand His sovereign purposes.

Of course, one occasionally meets Christians for whom the Lord’s purposes are ‘all sewn up.’ They convey an attitude of knowing exactly what He is doing and why He is doing it. Such comprehensive wisdom is difficult to dislodge, but it is often the precocious wisdom of the immature Christian who has not yet learned that while ‘those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children,’ there are also hidden and secret things that ‘belong to the LORD our God’ (Deut.29:29).

God’s ways and thoughts are not ours. We never have them ‘taped.’ As William Cowper knew well, God ‘plants his footsteps in the sea.’ We can no more read in detail God’s secret purposes for our individual lives than we can see footsteps in water or understand Hebrew if we try to read it from left to right. To imagine we can is to suffer from a form of spiritual dyslexia (Kindle ed.).

Related to this (and providentially, I might say!), the “Grace Gems” devotional for today came into my email box as I was preparing this, and it contains an edifying series of “choice quotes” on God’s providence and our afflictions. I add that to this post for your edification too:

“Affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble spring from the ground!” Job 5:6

“Affliction does not rise out of the dust or come to men by chance; but it is the Lord who sends it, and we should own and reverence His hand in it!” (Thomas Boston)

“Those who dive into the sea of affliction, bring up rare pearls!” (Charles Spurgeon)

“The furnace of affliction is a good place for you, Christian; it benefits you; it helps you to become more like Christ, and it is fitting you for Heaven!” (Charles Spurgeon)

“Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“There is no attribute of God more comforting to His children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles–they believe that Sovereignty hasordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“Afflictions tend to wean us from the world–and to fix our affections on things above.” (John Angell James)

“Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride!” (Richard Sibbes)

“The winter prepares the earth for the spring; so do sanctified afflictions prepare the soul for glory.” (Richard Sibbes)

“When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.” (Samuel Rutherford)

“Whoever brings an affliction, it is God who sends it. It is one heart-quieting consideration in all the afflictions that befall us–that God has a special hand in them: “The Almighty has afflicted me!” Ruth 1:21. Instruments can no more stir until God gives them a commission–than the axe can cut of itself without a hand. Job eyed God in his affliction; therefore, as Augustine observes, Job does not say, “The Lord gave, and the devil took away,” but “the Lord has taken away.” (Thomas Watson)

“Afflictions add to the saints glory. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints cross is, the heavier will be their crown.” (Thomas Watson)