Topic Archives: Encouragement

It used to be a feature of a Sunday afternoon that a letter would be written to missionaries, absent friends, or children away in college. This was the practice of Dr. Cornelius Van Til of Westminster Theological Seminary, especially writing to the mother of Bob Den Dulk whose godliness and wisdom he greatly admired. Then […]

It’s January 24th 1975, and pianist Keith Jarrett is scheduled to play a concert in the city of Köln. It will go down in history for two reasons: the fact that it is a hopeless failure, and that it will be a roaring success. Let me explain. Everything that could have gone wrong with regard to […]

‘Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7 How thankful we should be that the Bible addresses the Lord’s people, […]

The church today is crippled with a comparative absence of strong and full assurance and, perhaps worst of all, most of us are scarcely aware of it. We live in a day of minimal, not maximal, assurance. How do we know this? Assurance is known by its fruits: a close life of fellowship with God; a tender, filial […]

‘And He gave some as evangelists.’ , Ephesians 4:11  There is a plethora of good Bible teachers and preachers in the Reformed denominations of our day, and for this we ought to be thankful. We tend to attract men who love the Bible and theology and who, consequently, are gifted in communicating both. However it […]

For the last four Septembers I have been scheduled to travel to a Reformed Conference in St Petersburg with a number of other men.  The initiative for this event came from Dewey Roberts, the long-standing pastor of the PCA congregation in Destin, Florida. The Russian people have been on his heart since 1999 and it […]

There are not wanting here and there the signs that good Christians are suffering from a kind of spiritual metal-fatigue. In our fellowships iron rarely sharpens iron any longer. Much preaching that is orthodox lacks that ring of conviction which is needed to thrust it home into sinners’ consciences. A guilty tameness smothers our zeal. […]

Malta is a Mediterranean island situated 60 miles south of Sicily. Its population is 420,000, almost half of whom live in the capital, Valletta, and the numbers have been swollen in recent years by a stream of refugees from North Africa. Its official language is Maltese but many of the people speak English. It became independent […]

Richard Sibbes was born at Tostock, Suffolk, in 1577 and went to school in Bury St Edmunds. His father, ‘a good sound-hearted Christian’, at first intended that Richard should follow his own trade as a wheelwright, but the boy’s ‘strong inclination to his books, and well-profiting therein’ led to his going up to St John’s […]

A Trip to Prague I had never been to Prague and had the scantiest knowledge of the Czech Republic, but one day I was reading a newspaper and in the Travel section saw a cheap three day excursion offered to Prague. I thought about it and booked a flight and an hotel there. The Czech […]

‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’ , Revelation 14:13 I wrote on this very important and comforting issue a few weeks ago. I wish now, however, to take it one step further. […]

On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. , Song of Solomon 3:1 David Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut in April, 1718 and regularly attended the local Congregational Church, as almost everyone did in Eighteenth century New England. However when he was […]

Am I a real Christian? There is not a true Christian who has not asked himself or herself that question, in fact every Christian should be examining his life to see if redemption is his or her privilege and eternal blessedness. As we come to the Lord’s Supper we do so renewing our awareness of […]

There was a memorial service of the 25th anniversary of the death of Thomas Benjamin Tuitt held in his former church, the London Evangelical Reformed Church in Lauriston Road, Hackney, on Saturday 23rd April 2016 at 4 p.m.. About 250 to 300 people filled the lovely building, the downstairs was full and also the gallery […]

‘Honour everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor’ (1 Peter 2:17). Most reading this will have some idea what it means to honour everyone, to love the brotherhood and to honour the emperor. But how many know what it means to ‘Fear God’? This is not an abstract or arcane question. We need […]

This is a new translation by Robert-White of four sermons by John Calvin (JC). First published in 1552, the original title (in English) was ‘Four sermons of Master John Calvin, entreating of matters very profitable for our time, with a brief Exposition of Psalm 87.’ Included here are three letters by JC, one of the […]

Clear and concise, encouraging and exhilarating, reliable and readable are six words that quickly come to mind. They help explain why the writings of J C Ryle have such an enduring value. But they are not the main reason why I, and so many others, find his books so beneficial. Ryle tackles controversial issues in some of articles and tracts. He […]

2015 marked the two-hundredth anniversary of a change of pastorate for the Rev. Thomas Chalmers. On Sunday 9th July 1815, after a ministry of twelve years, Chalmers preached a farewell sermon to his congregation in Kilmany (Kilmany is a village in the Fife region of Scotland). Later that month he was inducted to the pastorate […]

‘I am His’. Every believer in Jesus may say it. And with full assurance. ‘I am the Lord’s’. Humblingly and astonishingly we may also say that he is ours. To the Christian, God is not just the Lord but my Lord. But it is of the bond by which we have become his of which […]

A man had two sons (Luke 15:11). Some of our leading preachers today regularly equate the ‘middle America church’ with Pharisees and the elder brother in Luke 15. They say that we in conservative, traditional churches are self-righteous, legalistic, and consequently unwelcoming to the younger brother types -atheists, agnostics, homosexuals, the ‘broken people’ in our […]

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands (2 Timothy 1:6). Paul begins his second letter to Timothy by reminding Timothy of the blessings that are his in Christ. Timothy is reading a personal letter to him from […]

God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not proper (Romans 1:28). Atheist Julian Huxley once wrote, Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness in the arms of a divinized father figure whom he himself created, nor escape from the responsibility of making decisions by sheltering […]

The Bible is full of remarkable statements. One of the most remarkable is 1 Peter 2:17. Peter is instructing Christians how to live in an essentially Godless, anti-Christian society. He writes, ‘Honour everyone. Love the brothers. Fear God. Honour the emperor’. This is surely remarkable. Love the brothers and fear God we can readily understand; […]

Percy John Henry Topping: Born 26 March 2015; died 4 April 2015. Aged 9 days An address given at Bethel Chapel, Luton by Mr. Ben A. Ramsbottom, on Wednesday, 22 April 2015 at the funeral service. Readings: Mark 10:14; Job 19:25-27; Job 1:21; Psalm 23; Jeremiah 31:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 5l-57. Hymns: ‘Sovereign Ruler of […]

Rosaria’s Message to the Church Dr. Rosaria Butterfield said it was difficult to describe her unlikely conversion to Christianity, but settled on defining it as a mix of an alien abduction and a train wreck. ‘I lost everything but the dog,’ she said. Butterfield was speaking September 3, 2015 at Central Avenue CRC in Holland, […]