VOLUME 64 NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2017 EDITION THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA THE MESSENGER FEBRUARY 2017 • VOLUME 64 NUMBER 2 EDITOR: Dr. Gerald M. Bilkes 2692 Bridge Place NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525 USA • T: 616.977.0599 ext.121 E: [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR: Rev. David H. Kranendonk E: [email protected] • T: 226-980-9607 The Editors report to the Synodical Publications Committee. COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Hans VanDoodewaard, Secretary P. O. Box 534, St. George, ON N0E 1N0 T: 519.414.0090 • E: [email protected] • Dr. Lawrence W. Bilkes • Dr. Gerald M. Bilkes • Rev. Joel Overduin • Rev. Jerrold Lewis • Rev. Robert VanDoodewaard • Mr. Herman DenHollander “It is of the LORD’S • Mr. John DenDekker, Treasurer • Rev. John Procee mercies that we are not SUBSCRIPTION RATE consumed, because his Canada & U.S.A. - $31.50 annually per subscription. The Messenger is published 11 times per year (July & compassions fail not. August issues are combined). They are new every SUBSCRIPTIONS/REMITTANCES Subscription requests, invoices, and payments should morning: great is thy be addressed to: Janey Slingerland (Publications Administrator) faithfulness” 18 Chapala Cres. S.E., Calgary, AB T2X 3M4 CANADA T: 403-254-6591 • E: [email protected] (Lamentations 3:22-23) SUBMISSIONS/ANNOUNCEMENTS/NOTICES All articles, notices for family announcements, MEDITATION obituaries, anniversaries, and non-commercial advertisements for the March 2017 issue should reach the editor no later than Thursday, February 2, 2017 and should be sent to: Mrs. Rhonda Kroesbergen aving entered the new year, do you feel hopeful? No? Did you say that you (Messenger Administrator). e: [email protected] feel hopeless? Studies show that in the months of January and February many THE YOUTH MESSENGER This semi-annual publication for youth is under the struggle with a feeling of sadness, while some even slip into depression. In direction of the Free Reformed Youth & Education H the general population, this may be partly due to the circumstances that come in these Committee. Editors: Rev. Timothy Bergsma: T: 519.354.3100; E: tim. months. New Year’s resolutions have already been broken. Credit card bills have come to [email protected] Rev. Joel Overduin: T: 905-327-3844; E: joel. alarm them about their excessive holiday spending. Young adults are immersed in their [email protected] college assignments. So many days are just dark and dreary. With its clouds, snow, slush OPEN WINDOWS This bi-monthly publication for children is under and slippery roads winter has lost its attraction. General discontentment is setting in. the direction of the Free Reformed Publications For some of us, there may be other physical or spiritual factors. Your sadness this year Committee: Rev. Jerrold Lewis, General Editor may have an added spiritual dimension to it. You approached Thanksgiving, Christmas, 160 West Parkway, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 E: [email protected] and New Year holidays with a certain expectation that they would be means of spiritual FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR MISSIONS AND enrichment. A spark of hope was kindled when special worship services or concerts OUTREACH CAUSES SHOULD BE DIRECTED AS FOLLOWS: began to lift your spirits – at least, for a while. How painful those times are to remember FOREIGN MISSIONS now! There was a true desire and even serious longing in your heart that the season’s joy, Peter Luth, Financial Administrator R.R.7, Dresden, ON N0P 1M0 CANADA fellowship, music, and good news of the Saviour’s birth would be used by the Lord as a T: 519.397.4988 • E: [email protected] means of personal spiritual revival. But now … the spark is gone and you have been left Keep in contact with your missionaries online: www. frcmissions.org with an empty, hopeless feeling. RADIO EVANGELISM What is the solution for a heavy heart? Where can we go for encouragement? How Banner of Truth Radio Broadcast Mr. John denDekker, Treasurer can we wake up hopeful in the morning? The answer is in the Lord and His faithful 16726 – 80th Avenue, Surrey, BC V4N 0G8 CANADA mercy. Mercy can be defined as favour or compassion toward a needy person and more T: 604.576.8935 • E: [email protected] HOME MISSIONS specifically as undeserved favour. If we consider the essence of mercy as God’s attitude Mr. Bert Marskamp, Treasurer 78 Windsor Dr., P.O. Box 126, St. George, ON N0E of favour, then the acts of kindness and benefits which flow from His favour toward 1N0 sinners are His “mercies.” Since God is holy and just, these mercies can come to us only T: 519.448.1763 • E: [email protected] REFUGEE FUND as a result of the cross of Christ. James Van der Zwan, Treasurer 26829 – 33B Ave., Aldergrove, BC V4W 3G8 Jeremiah teaches us in Lamentations 3 that looking back at past mercies encourages T: 604.818.3423 • E: [email protected] us to look forward in hope. Thankful for mercies past, we learn how to trust the Lord for CHRISTIAN MINISTRY TO ISRAEL Mr. John Wilbrink, Treasurer mercies in the future. This helps to give hope to the hopeless. 8 Weneil Drive, Freelton, ON L8B 0Z6 T: 905.659.7413; E: [email protected] Read The Messenger on the Free Reformed website: Preserving Past Mercies www.frcna.org On New Year’s Eve were you not reminded that you have many reasons to be thankful? In 2 FEBRUAFEBRUARYRY 2017 CONTENTS 02 Meditation: Encouraged by the Lord’s Faithful Mercies 05 CHURCH NEWS ENCOURAGED BY THE 06 EDITORIAL: Lord’s Faithful Mercies The Favourite Psalm of the Huguenots By Rev. P. VanderMeyden 10 A GOODLY HERITAGE (31): Dutch Secession Theology the past year we were favoured (above so many millions in this world) with food, drink, clothing, After 1892 (2) shelter, conveniences, luxuries, and so many days of gospel opportunities and covenant privileges. Why? Not because we are any better than others. They are all undeserved kindnesses – mercies. As we think of the gift of time, let us not forget our God-given days are opportunities to obey 13 BOOK REVIEW: the gospel. We are called to redeem the time (Eph. 5:14). We were given those 366 days in 2016, The Reformed not because we deserved them. Each day was a new mercy. Believer, each day of last year was Baptism Form an opportunity to “show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Pet. 2:9). But how has that gone? What were your thoughts as the last hours of 2016 slipped away? Were you not humbled with conviction and regret? 16 BIBLE STUDY (21): How we have failed! We received so much from the Lord, but how have we responded to His It Is the Lord kindness? Instead of praising Him we have wasted so many opportunities on sinful pleasures or meaningless vanities. Even as we tried to do our duty, it was often stained with self-centered motives. We lived for the praises of men, and robbed the Lord of His glory. 19 INTERVIEW: With Yet, we have entered a new year. The new year represents new mercy from the Lord. Student Young Jae Lee Friend, if you are still not at peace with God – if you have no sorrow for sin, no trust in Christ, no longing for holiness – have you thought about the seriousness of your state? All last year the Lord was calling: “Today … harden not your heart” (Heb. 3:15). The call to repent and believe 21 in the Saviour has come to you in so many ways, for so many days. Have you thought about CANONS OF DORT CONFERENCE this? What if the Lord, on any one of those days, had dealt with you according to what your sins In South Korea deserve? We may all be thankful that the Lord “hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” (Ps. 103:10). What would have happened if He had dealt according 23 to what his justice demands? We would have been consumed by His holy wrath. Yet, that has not REPORT ON THE napaRC 2016 ANNUAL MEETING happened. Why? The answer is: “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed.” Now, what about the question we mentioned earlier: how do we face the future? Especially those who feel hopeless are wondering: how do I go on with my life each day? That brings us to 24 the way this text gives hope for the future. ANNOUNCEMENTS Faithful Mercies The book is called “Lamentations” because, as Jeremiah says, he is “a man that has seen FEBRUARY 2017 3 MEDITATION affliction” (Jer. 3:11). He describes his severe affliction as Secondly, know this: that the Lord is your only hope. You “wormwood and gall” (v.19). The memory still humbles him cannot find it in anything or anyone else. Our faith and hope (v.20). Yet, while he remembers it, he says, “therefore I have cannot rest in our circumstances, feelings, or anything else. hope.” Amazing! While Jeremiah predicts the destruction of Faith does not depend on what we perceive with our physical Jerusalem and captivity of Judah, he rejoices that he and the senses (Heb. 11:1). It rests in something even more reliable. Lord’s covenant people are not utterly consumed by God’s Jeremiah says in the next verse: “The Lord is my portion, wrath. That gives him hope. saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him” (v. 24). Is that Why could Jeremiah still have hope? Because the Lord’s not also the confession of your soul? To whom else can you dealings show that His mercy toward His people is faithful.