In God We Trust – RFPA Blog

Here is another biblical and comforting perspective for us to take as we await the results of today’s election.

Rev. Joshua Engelsma, pastor of the Doon (IA) PRC penned this post, which appeared today on the blog of the Reformed Free Publishing Association.

We quote from the middle of the post; find the rest at the RFPA link above or below.

What are we as Christians to think as we stand in line to vote, as we sit around the computer monitor awaiting the results, as we go about our callings in the next days and weeks?

Remember, Christ is King! In Psalm 2:6, after describing the raging of the heathen, God says, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” That King is the risen and exalted Lord Jesus who rules over all things, both great and small, upon the earth. And he does so for his Zion, his church.

Our confidence is that King Jesus rules today over the election. What determines the outcome of the election is not the candidates and their campaign staff, not the Democratic or Republican parties, not even the American people. The King of kings governs this country and this election, and he will be the one to determine sovereignly who will occupy the oval office for the next four years.

King Jesus will rule over this election guided by the eternal counsel of God. His determining of the next President will serve the grand purpose of God in leading all things to the goal of his glory in his second coming, the judgment of the ungodly, and the salvation of the church.

Source: Reformed Free Publishing Association — In God We Trust

2015 in review – The 3Rs Blog

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 26,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Blogging Break – Stay Calm

Due to a little getaway for my wife and me as we celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary (last year), I am going to take a brief blogging break until at least next Wednesday. Keep calm and carry on. In time, “I shall return”.

Feel free to catch up on past posts if you wish. Otherwise, take a break yourself! 🙂

New Reformed Education Blog

As a fitting follow-up to yesterday’s post about the book on Christian school Board leadership, I want to make you aware of a new blogging venture on Reformed education. Rick Mingerink, administrator at Adams Christian School, has started a blog on this subject with the sub-title “Thinking about the Calvinist day-school”. This is how Rick introduces his blog in his first post:

In 2009, I started a running commentary on various matters and issues that pertain to Reformed education.  For two and a half years, I filled the back of Adams’ Monday Note with my thoughts, concerns and ideas in regards to education in the Calvinist day-school.

I’m looking forward to using a new format for my thoughts.  The blog is ideal for an activity such as this.  Among other conveniences, it also allows others to respond.  For me, that is important.  Whether you challenge my thoughts or you encourage them, I would be appreciative if you contributed your own thinking.

One of the biggest threats to Reformed education is not thinking about it.

His most recent posts concern the educational views of Rev.Herman Hoeksema in a sermon he preached in 1916 on Deut.6:7, when he was still a minister in the Christian Reformed Church (later published in The Standard Bearer, 1927). I encourage you to check out Rick’s blog, support and encourage him by subscribing to it, and begin following these interesting and informative posts on Reformed education.

We must think about it! And talk about! Thanks, Rick, for continuing the conversation in this powerful way!

P.S. Thanks to those who responded to my post on Christian school Boards yesterday too. If you haven’t checked out  the comments yet, do so. Three people – all involved in Christian education at different levels and ways – left helpful notes that are of benefit to all of us.

2013 in Review – CJTs3Rs Blog

In the interests of full disclosure (This is the most transparent blog ever!), I present to you this boring, trivial and narcissistic WordPress summary of my blog for 2013, something they produce at the end of every year. Actually, it is rather interesting, as it gives me an idea of what you, my readers, have found of interest and importance to you.

And I wish I could say it is all the fantastic books I call attention to, but it seems to be the personal interest items that draw the most views. Which is fine by me. For 2013. But shall we not pledge ourselves, dear readers, to pay just a little more attention to the books? And maybe even get them and read them? Please? Arghhh, I despise begging! So, I will try to motivate you even more in 2014 to read more and read better! Deal? That will make me happy. 🙂

In all seriousness, thank you for all your support and encouragement in 2013. I am delighted that you find even the slightest interest in the things I write and reference.I hope a little of my love and enthusiasm for all things bookish and libraryish (I know, that last one is not a word; but this is my blog, and if I want to use that word, I have the permission of the administrator!) rubs off on you and you become a bit of a book nerd too. Not just the collecting kind, but the reading kind. 🙂

And as for WordPress.com, I cannot say enough good about the product and service they provide. They are THE best! And no, they are not paying me to say that. I truly mean this.

OK, now on to the 2013 report – here’s WP’s little intro line and then the graphic-laden summary. Enjoy!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 37,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Final Hope Heralds Concert 2013

In case you were wondering what happened to the blog this weekend, my wife and I were in the Chicago area for the final major concert of the Hope Heralds, the men’s group in which I sing. After spending Saturday afternoon at the PRCS Golf Outing (a perfect day for golf!) and enjoying Aurelio’s pizza with friends in the evening (my taste buds were dancing!), we spent Sunday worshiping at Cornerstone PRC (a.m.) and Crete PRC (p.m.).

After last evening’s service we gave our full program of music in Crete PRC.  It was another wonderful evening of praise after a good day of fellowship around the Word with our fellow saints.

In case you have not heard some of our songs from this past season, you are encouraged to listen to the YouTube videos posted by Nick Kleyn. These were recorded at our concert in First Christian Reformed Church of Jenison, MI a week ago Sunday night (Sept.8). I post one of my personal favorites below. On his channel you may also find many videos of past concerts as well. And if you wish, you may “like” the “HHs” on our Facebook page 🙂 There you will also find information about our CDs.

Time for Vacation! Blogging Break!

The week of our family vacation has finally arrived! Which means I will be away from my blogging post (pun intended) for a week. Which means you will get a break from reading my blog for a week! Just don’t take a break from reading 🙂 Of course I have plenty of books and magazines along!

Have a great week. I know we will. Family and friends, fellowship, food, fun, and fishing beckon!

“Honoring Christ Online”: An Interview with Tim Challies

Honoring Christ Online: An Interview with Tim Challies by Tim Challies | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

This month’s Tabletalk includes an interview with Christian blogger and pastor Tim Challies (challies.com – “Informing the Reforming”). This was one of the first blogs I found and started following. And still do, because it is one of the best Christian blogs on the internet. And Challies covers a lot of books, which is one of the things that initially drew me in 🙂

This interview contains many interesting items, but of special interest to our readers will be Challies’ description of the value of blogging and other forms of social media by today’s Christian:

TT: How do blogs benefit the church?

TC:The church rightly has a love-hate relationship with blogs and the blogosphere. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, blogs have been both a great benefit and a great liability to the church. When blogs are at their best, they are a source of biblical exposition, a means of spiritual encouragement, and a source of valuable news and information. On a personal level, bloggers are able to model Christian living and display thoughtful engagement with ideas and competing worldviews. The blogs I appreciate most are those that remain steady, focused, and biblical over the long run.

TT: In an age of rapid social media growth, how should Christians be encouraged or discouraged to use social media?

TC:Social media is a fact of life in the twenty-first century. Many Christians (and non-Christians, for that matter) would make it all go away if they could. However, since that is not going to happen, Christians are being forced to adapt to this new world, and they are being forced to learn to use social media in a way that honors God. Social media itself is not for everyone, and certainly every form of social media is not for everyone.

Christian leaders are finding that if they are to have a voice to the current generation, they need to have a voice that includes at least some forms of social media. As Albert Mohler states in his book The Conviction to Lead, a refusal to take advantage of at least some forms of social media is essentially a refusal to engage an entire generation.

Of course, one of the questions that caught my eye was the one relating to the books that have influenced Challies most:

TT: Excluding the bible, what have been the five most influential books in your life and why?

TC: Though I was raised in the Reformed tradition, I drifted into the Evangelical mainstream shortly after I got married and left my parents’ home. There were several books that were instrumental in showing me that sound doctrine really does matter and that served to rekindle my love for Reformed theology. John MacArthur’s Ashamed of the Gospelexposed the church I was attending as being driven by pragmatism rather than Scripture; James Montgomery Boice’s Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace? showed me the beauty of sound doctrine while R.C.Sproul’s The Holiness of Godopened my eyes to the sheer wonder and majesty of God. Those three books played a pivotal role in my life; they were just the books I needed within a very particular circumstance, and I regard it as the Lord’s kindness that He exposed me to all three of them.

Since then, John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptationis one I have returned to often as I’ve done battle with sin, while Jerry Bridges’ The Discipline of Gracehas taught me the value of preaching the gospel to myself and ensuring that the gospel is instrumental, not supplemental, to all of faith and practice.

You will find the rest of the interview at the Ligonier link above. And if you haven’t visited challies.com, it’s time you did.

Tim Challies is author of the blog Challies.com and lives near Toronto, Canada. He is also author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and The Next Story. You can follow him on Twitter @challies.

The “3R’s Blog” in Review (2012)

Each year on Dec.31 WordPress gives you a summary of your blog/website for the year past. Yesterday I received mine, and once again it is a humbling experience. From this point of view, that in terms of sheer numbers my blog is a peanut in the blogging world, a real lightweight. I cannot and do not share the popularity that many other bloggers have. Nor do I want to or seek to. But it’s humbling all the same, and that’s a good place to be.

But my “report” is humbling in this regard too, that I was blessed to be able to add 732 new posts this year and have 39,000 people from 147 different countries view this blog! That latter number is more than double the year before. It humbles me to think that there would be that much interest in reading what I post. So to all of you readers – whether casual or regular – thank you! And I hope you come along for 2013 as we press on with more fresh material to strengthen us in the “3 R’s” – being righteous in Christ, being Reformed according to the Word of God, and being readers of good books. If you wish to become a “follower” of this blog, there is a place on the right side bar to sign up (subscribe free!), so that you will automatically receive any post via email. And if you are interested in trying to find something on this blog, there is a powerful search box for doing so.

If “stats” are your kind of thing,  I have made this WordPress annual report public for you. Enjoy the visual presentation!

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 39,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals.

Click here to see the complete report.

Summer Vacation Arrives!

Our family summer vacation begins today – a bit late this year – but we are ready and excited to enjoy our cottage time together. Trying a different place this year with our children and grandchildren – north of Grand Rapids instead of south. It looks to be a wonderful place and setting, and the weather – which can get cool this time of year – looks to be great. That means I will probably take a break from blogging for a week too. But then, if I’m in the mood and have some award-winning photos or outstanding book quotes to share, I may post something. Of course I have plenty along to read (heavy and light)! But I hope to do a lot of fishing too. Have a great week.